Ann-Marie’s a history maker

ANN-MARIE McGlynn enjoyed a weekend she’s never likely to forget as both an athlete and a coach.

Not only did she create history by becoming the first athlete ever to win the National Marathon and Cross-Country Championship titles in the same year, but she also watched her protégé, Claire McGuigan finish second overall and help Ireland win team gold at the British and Irish Masters International event in Belfast the day before.

McGlynn, who won the under-14 Irish title 29 years ago, travelled to Irvinestown just three weeks after she retained her Irish Marathon title in Dublin hoping for a podium but more determined to do a job for her club, Letterkenny AC, who she was determined to help qualify for the European Club Championships in Portugal in February.

So, to say she was shocked when she crossed the line at Necarne Castle in first place is something of an understatement.

“It’s mad, just mad!,” she exclaimed. “I didn’t even go into the race thinking anything more than Letterkenny getting to the European Club Championships – that literally was my goal.

“To be fair, I did sit down [on Sunday morning] and in my book that I have, I wrote a little word to myself and a sentence I wrote was ‘get on that podium, you can do it’.

“I wasn’t going there to get on the podium, I was going there to run the best I could and the rest would take care of itself. I didn’t really go there looking for it but when I got a sniff at the front I thought ‘right, I’m here now, I’m not letting up. They’re going to have to chase me down.’

“And that’s what I did but I was just shocked [when crossing the finish line] because I’m 45 in February, these girls are half my age and I’m just a few weeks out from the marathon.

“[My reaction] was more disbelief because it’s not normal!”

As well as winning the event outright, which has now qualified her for the European Cross Country Championships in Turkey in a couple of weeks time, Ann-Marie also achieved her ultimate goal of helping the Letterkenny women’s team, which included Nakita Burke, Noleen Scanlon, Shauna McGeehan and Claire McGuigan, book their place in Portugal.

“It’s great for the team and it’s great for the girls,” she beamed. “It was about us all.”

And she was also thrilled with her fellow Strabane woman, McGuigan’s efforts over the weekend when she not only raced to success in Belfast for Ireland on the Saturday, but then toed the line 24 hours later in Fermanagh to help Letterkenny qualify for the Euros.

“I coach Claire and I said to her, go to the Masters, which was her priority and I wanted her to nail that,” she added. “She ran out of her skin, nearly won it, and then she recovered, she did everything she could to recover, and she went in and did that for the team.

“I love to see her getting out of it what she puts in, it’s nice for her to get rewarded because she ran out of her skin. She ran the race of her life on Saturday and then backed it up on Sunday.

“It was just lovely, a great weekend for coach McGlynn, athlete McGlynn, Claire and everyone. It meant the world to me.”