Election Day 2011 saw members of AGS and some of their regular training partners fly off to the pearl of the Mediterranean Sea, the quaint island of Malta. Anthony Malone, Dave Sweeney, Mick Ferry and Lorraine Manning were accompanied by some of their Sunday morning training partners in the guise of Mick Bolger, Kevin Bolger, Brendan Hogan, and Donna Mahon of Rathfarnham AC and Aisling Coppinger and Rob Cummins of Wheelworx, and Asher Senyk of Runways.ie. Paul Moran was sadly unable to travel at the last hour due to unforeseen circumstances.
Sunday was D-Day and on Saturday night while Enda and the other boys in blue were celebrating ascending to power, Colnel Gaddiffi was in serious danger of losing his seat 180 miles to the south of Malta. Saturday night brought a storm which battered the Island and we woke up on Sunday morning to flooded roads, strong winds, and planes rescuing the stranded from Libya. Still, there was a couple of races to be run. In the full marathon Anthony Malone finished in a time of 2:56:09. Delighted to break the 3 hour mark again, his delight was soured by a regretful final 2 miles where the dreaded wall didn't so much appear before him as collapse on top of him. The final 2 miles took 9:15 and 9:17 respectively. Anthony's training partner Asher Senyk sauntered home in 3:07:45. Ash was taking it easy as he then ran Barcelona a week later in 3:25:10. Aisling Coppinger ran a great race to finish 3rd in the ladies event in a time of 3:14:50, and ensure the crew had to attend the awards ceremony later that evening.
In the Half Marathon Kevin Bolger finished 11th in 76:31, followed by Donna Mahon in 80:21 for 4th in the ladies race, and 32nd on overall GC. Mick Bolger ran 82:01, Brendan Hogan 82:10 and Dave Sweeney of Garda AC 82:12, for 41st, 43rd and 44th position respectively. Mick Ferry was terribly unlucky not to finish on the podium in the V60, finishing 5th in 96:32.
However the real plaudits are again reserved for the indominatble Lorraine Manning. The darling of Garda Athletics crushed all before her as she swept to victory in the Ladies race. Lorriane attacked the course with the determination and simply proved she is a class act. Manning's victory was never in doubt as she eased away from her competitors to win the race in 75:33, the ninth fastest time of the day. A great night was then had by all after Lorraine, Brendan and Aisling collected their silverware. The party went on till the wee hours as they say in West Donegal.
Finally, not content with earning the silver in the V50 category in the Half, Brendan "Superman" Hogan had to outshine and indeed nearly embarrass his Garda training partners. While the rest of us were taking a well earned break from crime fighting on Monday morning Brendan decided to give chase to a handbag snatcher. Needless to say, the poor unfortunate was chased down by Superman Hogan, who after changing quickly in a phonebox, performed the old gooseneck manoeuvre before sitting on the gouger until the Maltese Police arrived.
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