Guest Post: ANOTHER FINE RUN FROM FEARGHAL CURTIN ...By John Walshe

ANOTHER FINE RUN FROM FEARGHAL CURTIN ...By John Walshe

Competing in one of the most iconic of Fourth of July road races, Fearghal Curtin today (Friday) finished a highly credible 14th at the Peachtree 10km held on the streets of Atlanta, Georgia.

Winner over the same distance at the Cork City 10km on June 1st, Fearghal – again in his Youghal colours - was almost a minute faster on this occasion as his time of 28:54 wasn’t too far off his PB of 28:24 which he recorded in more favourable conditions in Spain two years ago.

With the temperature already in the high 20s when the race began at 6.50am, the Peachtree course is a point-to-point one which includes a number of challenging hills. This did not deter winner Patrick Kiprop from setting a hectic pace, averaging 4:16 per mile for the first half of the race. Despite fading fast as the finish approached, Kiprop held on for a four second victory over his fellow Kenyan Vincent Langat in a time of 27:35.

The women’s race was even closer with Helen Obiri, also Kenya, piping Senayet Getachew from Ethiopia by one second, 31:29 to 31:30.  

The first six men were all from Kenya with just one American in the top ten. Fearghal’s impressive performance can be gauged from the fact that he was just four places behind Pat Tiernan from Australia who has a marathon best of 2:07:45. The official results show that Fearghal placed 14th out of a total of 43,003 finishers!

First held in 1970 when just 110 finished, this year an estimated 52,000 entered. That inaugural race was won by Jeff Galloway who would go on to compete at the Munich Olympics two years later and would now be well-known to many runners for his training programmes and published books.

Just two Irishmen have won the race, Eddie Leddy (29:52) in 1979 and John Doherty (27:56) in 1986. John Treacy was fifth in the 1992 event in a time of 28:39.

Fearghal Curtin earlier this year when he won the John Treacy 10-mile in Dungarvan

Fearghal Curtin’s invitation to Peachtree came as a result of his performances this year which has seen him record times of 2:11:35 for the marathon and 61:12 for the half. He now heads to Flagstaff, Arizona, for a spell of altitude training. From there he hopes to fulfil a second invitation, this time to another famous race, the Beacon to Beacon 10km in Maine on August 2nd.

This was founded back in 1998 by Joan Benoit-Samuelson, winner of the first women’s Olympic Marathon in 1984. The idea was to give back to her own community by staging a world-class road race in Maine and including a charitable component to help support local children. The race draws top athletes from around the globe and features 6,500 runners, 800+ volunteers and thousands of spectators.

According to its website, the picturesque 6.2-mile course in Cape Elizabeth begins near the entrance to Crescent Beach State Park, winds along tree-lined streets and ocean vistas, ending 6.2 miles later in Fort Williams at the historic Portland Head Light, the most photographed lighthouse in the world.

Hopefully that green and white Youghal vest with its own distinctive logo depicting the town’s lighthouse will again feature amongst the elites on the American road racing circuit in a month’s time.