Johnny Burke was our first man past the post at the rescheduled Waterford Half Marathon on Sunday January 16th.  A sizeable contingent of 700 lined out in the Crystal City for one of the highlights on the local running calendar.  Attacking the course from the gun Johnny put the head down early on and kept the foot on the gas.  He struggled a little around mile 10 but rallied and his fastest mile was among his final two.  A solid performance from one of our up and coming new boys, clocking 1:35:20 for 144th place.  Brian O'Connor posted 1:36:32 for a great debut in the half. Dermot Haugh also travelled down the south coast to race.  He placed 197th with a time of 1:38:45.  Dermot continues to improve and will surely be dipping well under the 90 minute with regularity soon.  Owen Keane finished the race in 379th.  He found the going tough but had 10 minutes to spare on the 2 hour mark, and is looking forward to the coming summer season.  Meanwhile John Burke took it easy as he gently waded his way into the new year. Well done all.

Report by John Burke posted below:

The race in Waterford was run in atrocious conditions and probably the worst I’ve ever raced in (that’s since the 80s) Strong wind and driving rain throughout, the only consolation was the wind in our backs on the last 6 miles as we headed back into Waterford city for the finish on the running track at the R.S.C..  The rain never stopped. Still, you’ll never really know what bad weather is  like unless you get out in it! Given the conditions on the day and the few real training opportunities during December, we were all happy with our performances. Junior Burke put in a good performance but was around 7 mins down on his previous best in Cologne in October. Lack of quality training in recent weeks being blamed.  Of particular note was the performance of newcomer, Kanturk native and now Blackrock based Brian O’Connor. Brian is from a cycling background and discovered running last autumn when he accompanied Dermot Haugh on a few training runs, he’s now hooked and this was his first ever road race, 1.36.32 not a bad return, with over two minutes to spare on his training partner, Dermot! Though it must be noted that Dermot improved 4 minutes on his time from the same race in December 2009.  This was also Owen Keane’s first ever half. The two of us started out together and ran side by side for the first 6, youth then took over and I drifted back a little on the first decent hill. Owen went from strength to strength and finished well doing 1.49. I had a comfortable run-in clocking 1.56 (running as Tony Keane, Owen’s brother!). It was a family day out for the Keane’s. Owen’s mother, Carol, finished in a very respectable 2.13. No wonder he picked it up in the second half.  A huge thanks to former B District and NBCI man, big Joe Cawley and his organising committee at Waterford AC. lLike on previous occasions, they put on a superb race, great organization, pacers, stewarding and great food afterwards at the RSC. Well done lads, we’ii be back!