Offaly woman retains national marathon title

AN OFFALY woman had another sensational run to retain her national title at the Dublin Marathon on Sunday.

Ann Marie McGlynn was the first Irish woman home in a very good time of 2.34.05. She was sixth woman overall and was almost two minutes clear of the second Irish woman home, Aoife Kilgallon of Sligo AC who was 8^th overall in 2.35.56.

Nee Larkin, McGlynn is a native of Mucklagh. She lives in Strabane in Tyrone and races with nearby Letterkenny AC.

She has had some fantastic achievements in long distance running in recent years. Her time was nine seconds better than last year when she won the title while she was second Irish woman in 2022.

Running an average pace of 5.53 minutes a mile, McGlynn went through half way in 1.16.07. She maintained a very consistent race from there to the finish, only dipping a small bit between 30 and 40km but safe in the knowledge that she had a sufficient gap over the second Irish woman to get home.

She has represented Ireland in cross country championships and other events. She was agonisingly close to qualifying for the marathon in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, just missing out by five seconds but has continued to run at a very high standard since then.

Now in her mid 40s, she has won several national titles and her personal best for the marathon is 2.29.34. She was a brilliant juvenile runner with Tullamore Harriers back in the early 1990s and drifted away from athletics before making a stunning comeback several years ago.