This coming Saturday, October 7th, will see the 54th annual running of the club 10 mile championship. The race was first run on the 12th of April 1964 with Beatlemania at its height and ‘Can’t buy me love’ was racing up the charts. That first running was a point to point 10 mile from Murtagh’s pub on the Belfast Road down to the, as it then was, Clonliffe Harriers stadium in Santry.
Whatever about racing up the charts Saturday will see the Grand Prix athletes racing four tours of Malahide Castle grounds with a 12 noon start. The prize is the Ahern Cup which was first presented back in April of 1978 by Maurice Ahern to that year’s winner Gerry Finnegan.
The defending club 10 mile champion is Declan Power who won last year in a nippy 55.30, a winning margin of a little over six minutes from Ernie Ramsey. The winner of the women’s championship last year was Jean Carr.
With things so tight at the top of the Grand Prix leader board as Declan Grant leads on 288 points from Mick Bermingham on 276 and Emma Dunne on 266, and with points to be dropped, every single point now counts as the Grand Prix enters its finale. Saturday’s race is round 14 of 16 and is the final race before the athletes hit the mud for the final two cross country rounds.
The race will start from the usual 10 mile start position, athletes are reminded that this is not a ‘closed road’ race so please be aware of other users of the grounds. The presentation of the Ahern Cup and Grand Prix prizes will take place on the Grand Prix presentation night in the clubhouse on December 7th.