European top 30 finish in Munich for Ann-Marie

ANN-MARIE McGlynn produced an impressive performance during the women’s marathon in Munich on day one of the European Championships.

The Strabane woman went into the race ranked 46th but finished a superb 28th overall and she was the second Irish finisher behind Fionnuala McCormach, who finished seventh in 2:29.25 hours.

And while McGlynn’s finishing time of 2:38.26 was some way off her own personal best, given the heat and the pressure of competing at a major championship, she was delighted with her performance and result, which along with Aoife Cooke’s 33rd placed finish, ensured Ireland claimed fifth place in the team standings.

That left the Irish trio ahead of the likes of the British and Dutch women, who were higher ranked ahead of the race.

“We have to be happy with that,” beamed Ann-Marie, who is hoping to compete in Dublin at the end of October after a well-earned rest.

Ahead of last Monday’s race, McGlynn took a professional approach to the 26.2 miles ahead of her. Knowing the stifling heat was going to cause issues, she decided to run within herself so she had plenty left in the tank for the latter stages.

And that plan of attack paid off.

“I stuck to a plan and it pretty much went the way I hoped it would. It was always going to be about running a smart race – the smarter person would finish stronger,” she explained.

“There were a lot of blow ups and all sorts but that’s the danger in an event like that, but if you know that the top 10 girls are running 10 minutes slower than they would usually run, I’m not going to run up beside them, thinking ‘I can do that, that’s my pace’ because they are doing that for a reason!

“Everyone had to adjust their time to the conditions because it was quite deceiving.

“It was weird, it was very cloudy but there was a heavy heat. It was a dead heat, something we’re not very used to running in. It was one of those ones that you knew you weren’t going to feel any more comfortable as the race went on so you had to be careful early on.

“It was going to get harder and that was mindset, to keep a tap on it and then everyone started coming back to me and my coach, who was on one of the drinks stations, said not to panic!

“But I never felt I wasn’t going to finish, it was tough but it was manageable.”