Lizzie Lee of Leevale AC wins Raheny 5 mile in 26:34

The Raheny 5 mile race in Dublin was held last Sunday the 25th of January and had a huge field of over 2500 runners.

One exceptional performance on the day was that of Lizzie Lee from Cork who won the women's race in a time of 26:34. This works out to be an impressive 5:19 min/mile pace and was I believe about a minute ahead of her previous best.

If you look at the results of various 5 mile road races, you tend to see a pattern with the times of the top women.
29:xx would be considered a handy time. Fast enough to win a lot of the smaller races.
28:xx is pretty good. Fast enough to win nearly all but the largest races.
27:xx is getting exceptional. Likely to win nearly all races and at a level where wearing an Irish singlet at some level like cross country might be possible.
26:xx is exceptional. There just aren't that many women in the country running 26:xx times for 5 miles.

Just to put Lizzie's time in perspective, here is some info that John Walshe of Ballycotton sent on to me about the records in the Ballycotton Summer Series courses. While they're not as fast as Raheny, it really shows just how fast 26:34 is...

Ballyandreen '5' - 27:51, Christine McNamara 1997 (USA - best marathon of 2:33)

Shanagarry '5' - 27:33, Sonia O'Sullivan 2001

Churchtown South '5' - 27:45, Louise Cavanagh 2000

Ballycotton '5' - 27:33, Lizzie Lee 2013

It's probably fair to say that since Lizzie has returned to competitive racing after having a baby in 2014, she has definitely moved up a gear.

1    MARTIN    FAGAN    0:23:36
2    MICK    CLOHISEY    0:23:44
3    CONOR    DOONEY    0:24:11
4    SCOTT    RANKIN    0:24:16
5    SEAN    HEHIR    0:24:30
27    LIZZIE    LEE    0:26:34
44    ANN-MARIE    MCGLYNN    0:27:12
48    ORLA    DRUMM    0:27:23
52    CATHERINA    MCKIERNAN    0:27:41
57    MICHELLE    FINN    0:27:57

Full results HERE

Photos...
1) Eoin Fegan has over a 1000 photos HERE

Photo credit : Gearóid Ó Laoi