Alan O'Shea of Bantry AC runs 2:21 in Rotterdam Marathon

Alan O'Shea of Bantry AC ran the Rotterdam Marathon last Sunday (10th Apr 2011) in a time of 2:21:37. Alan, who is a former winner of the Cork City Marathon finished in 26th position out of a field of over 7,000 runners. The average pace was 5:24 per mile.

As you can see from the chart above, the 5k split times of 16:19, 16:56, 17:11 and 17:25 are faster than most runners achieve in local 5k road races.

From what I can gather, the qualify time for the Irish team for the 2012 Olympics in London is expected to be around the 2:16 to 2:17 mark so Alan's time is just 5 minutes or so off the mark. The actual qualifying time is expected to be announced soon.

In the same race, Sean Connolly of Tallaght AC finished in 15th position in a time of 2:17:23.