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FORTY will be the magic number over the next two years at the Greencastle 5 Mile Road Race, which, as tradition dictates, will take place tomorrow (St Stephen’s Day).
The Boxing Day classic will mark it’s 40th running this year on December 26th and in 2026 it will celebrate its 40th anniversary.
Over the years of the event, which has become one of the most popular road races in Ireland, the driving force behind its success was the late Oliver McCullagh, but that baton has now passed to his children and the large, hard-working organising committee who are keen for it to continue to provide athletes with the ideal opportunity to burn off any excess Christmas calories!
“It’s the 40th annual race and next year we’ll still be celebrating 40 when it will be 40 years since the first one in 1986,” beamed Oliver’s son, Connor.
“It’s a big occasion, having the 40th consecutive run because no other run in the country has achieved that with the big [snow] storm in 2010 and Covid – I think every run in the country lost one, if not two races.
“I don’t know how we managed it, we were just lucky and a lot of it goes down to Dad. I remember in 2020, the full lockdown came in to place on the 26th of December so we had to pull the race forward five days to make it happen.
“There was no way it was going to be stopped, not a chance and hopefully there’s no more of that craic!”
In order to mark this year’s Greencastle 5 out from the rest, the organisers have ordered a special memento for participants.
“For the first time ever, we’re doing a specially commissioned medal and a T-shirt for all finishers and a goodie bag full of stuff,” Connor added.
Looking ahead to Friday’s race, Connor was delighted to note that entries appear to be up on 2024 with Conall McClean, who won last year’s race in a course record equalling 24.07 minutes, confirming he will return in an attempt to go one better on this occasion, while it is hopes the female winner of the recent Rudolph Run in Eskra, Nakita Burke, will compete too.
“Conall is in good shape [to break the record], he set a new PB at the Seely Cup in Belfast in 29.15 minutes for the 10K,” McCullagh observed.
l For more information on the race, visit the Greencastle 5 Facebook page or www.greencastle5.com
