from later in the race, here they are dodging a few trucks... pic.twitter.com/SRw5iFZLXa— KillianM2 TV Archive (@KillianM2) June 19, 2018
John Walshe of Ballycotton sent on this short report of the event...
The BLE (Irish) marathon championship of 1986 took place on the Saturday afternoon of April 13 from Portlaoise. It followed a triangular course made up of Portlaoise, Mountrath and Abbeyleix. The line-up of around 90 runners was the smallest field to contest the national championship in 10 years.
The leaders up to halfway were Roy Dooney, Kingston Mills and defending champion John O’Toole from nearby Tullamore. O’Toole dropped out before 20 miles, leaving Dooney and Mills to battle it out for the title. Dooney had run the Hiroshima Marathon in Japan the previous year in 2:14:38 and was therefore the favourite. However, on the road home from Abbeyleix, Mills made his move and Dooney couldn’t respond.