Fionnuala McCormack (nee Britton) was in action today in the Chicago Marathon and finished in 13th place in a time of 2h 33m 15s. This was about 90 seconds slower than the 2h 31m 46s which she ran in her first marathon in the European Athletics Championships in Zurich in 2014.
Fionnuala McCormack’s splitsSplit Time Of Day Time Diff min/mile miles/h
5K 07:47:29AM 00:17:27 17:27 05:37 10.69
10K 08:05:09AM 00:35:08 17:41 05:42 10.55
15K 08:23:04AM 00:53:02 17:54 05:46 10.41
20K 08:41:07AM 01:11:05 18:03 05:49 10.33
HALF 08:45:10AM 01:15:09 04:04 05:58 10.08
25K 08:59:14AM 01:29:12 14:03 05:48 10.36
30K 09:17:27AM 01:47:25 18:13 05:52 10.23
35K 09:35:59AM 02:05:58 18:33 05:58 10.06
40K 09:54:48AM 02:24:46 18:48 06:04 9.92
Finish 10:03:16AM 02:33:15 08:29 06:13 9.66
Perhaps more crucially, it is well within the 2h 42m required to qualify for the 2016 Olympics in Rio. Fionnuala is now the second fastest qualifier behind Lizzie Lee from Cork who ran a personal best of 2:32:51 in the Berlin marathon last month. With just three athletes being able to be selected, it's hard to imagine Lizzie or Fionnuala not going at this stage.
The third person to qualify so far is Breege Connolly of North Belfast Harriers who ran 2h 37m 29s in the London marathon last April. That time may well be bettered by another Irish athlete yet with Maria McCambridge (DSD) running in the Frankfurt marathon on the 25th of October.
Even though she has made the Olympic time slot John I think she may be disappointed with her end time , a sub 2:30 runner we all hope, the last 10K separates the real elite classes in the marathon , she's finding that out now, all the best to her though as she is one of my favourites and a humble athlete. More to come hopefully from Fionnula.
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