Desie Shorten lined up in the 2007 Buffalo
Stampede 10 mile road race in Sacramento in the United States the
weekend. Desie has been on an extended holiday in America for the last
month and is due home in a few weeks. He has been staying in Nevada
which is approximately 6000ft above sea level and has been training hard
here with the aim of when he comes back to Ireland he will reap the
rewards of the altitude training. He descended from the mountains to run
in the exotically named Buffalo Stampede 10 miler in Sacramento which is
at sea level and duely produced a fine performance when he finished 1st
in his category and a brilliant 7th overall out of 428 runners when he
came home in 58mins 54secs on a challenging course. Well done Desie.
Incidentally Desie's better half Sandra completed the course in 87mins
and well done to you too Sandra.
Considerably closer to home, Three of our athletes went next door to
Rathcoole to run in the City Swift 10 mile Road Race on Saturday
morning. Frank Ferguson did very well to cross the line in 64min 10sec
and claim second prize in the over 50 category. Frank is in the middle
of his high mileage training for the Dublin marathon and didn't taper
down for this event so it makes the time even better on a really
challenging course that included two lengthy climbs up the hill at the
back of the Poitin Still. Good man Frank. His wife Collette came home in
83mins 53secs, very well done to you. The results weren't to hand to see
if Collette claimed a prize in her category but with that time I'm sure
she will claim one. James Crowley crossed the line in 6th place overall
in 59mins 34secs which was good enough to claim an individual prize.