Champion Sports Cork City Marathon & Team Relay 2008

Building on the success of the inaugural marathon and team relay in 2007, June 2^nd 2008 saw a large increase in participants on the streets of Cork for marathon day. The Cork public again turned out in their thousands to welcome the pre-race favourite and hugely popular local man Roy Fahy home to take the 2008 Champion Sports Cork City Marathon. Roy, who was 3^rd the previous year, crossed the line in 2:33:55, ahead of Eoin O’Connell (2:35:57) and Cathal O’Connell (2:36:17).

Lucy Brennan delighted the crowd as she crossed the line in 2:54:47. Lucy is now well established as one of Ireland’s top distance runners, retaining her Longford Marathon crown in August and, most recently, winning the Cork to Cobh 15-mile event. Our inaugural female winner, Tracy Guilfoyle, demonstrated her consistency coming home in 3:01:23, a time identical with her winning run for the previous year.  Another local favourite, Jerry Forde, won the wheelchair category in a time of 3:47:14.

There were many extraordinary performances on the day, but none more so than the incomparable Catherine O’Regan of Slaney Olympic AC. Running her 86^th marathon, at the age of 72, Catherine crossed the line in 4:26:55.

Team Relay

The enthusiastic response to the Team Relay in 2007 was further evidenced in 2008 by the large increase in team entries. The event proved its rising status by the calibre of the winning team, the Bantry Road Runners, who came home in an impressive 2:23:38. The Bantry Road Runners were led by our inaugural marathon winner, Alan O’Shea, with Suzanne Kennedy, Cian Murphy, Martin Doody and Ger Guinea. Thurles Croke, led by David Kenneally, were second in 2:27:21 and Athenry AC, captained by Brian M Bruton, came home third in 2:37:26.

Sonia joins Glanmire team for relay

Another notable celebrity runner on the day was Cobh-born athlete Sonia O’Sullivan, arguably Ireland’s finest athlete of all time. Sonia joined a relay team from Ryan’s SuperValu Glanmire, who were the lucky winners of a competition organised by the Evening Echo. Sonia ran the final leg of the course, crossing the finish line to give her team a time of 3:29:22.

World Record set at Cork City Marathon

To add to the excitement of the day, Colin Carroll and John Meade set a World Record time of 3:25:22 for the three-legged marathon. The Cork pair’s extraordinary achievement was documented by film-producer Niall Owens, whose feature A Tale of Three Legs shows at the Triskel Arts Centre, Cork, on Sunday 19^th October as part of the Cork Film Festival (booking advised).