’Bridge Milers limbering up for road race

The people of Sixmilebridge have a little more pep in their step this weather. That’s because they are limbering up for a major road race and family fun run in the village next month.
This week members of The Bridge Milers, a weekly 50-strong running group, sprung from the starting blocks with plans to stage a 10k road race and 5k fun run on Friday evening, May 18.
And to promote the event, they enlisted the help of Neil Cusack, a high profile figure in athletics. Cusack, who competed at the 1972 Olympics in Munich and four years later in Montréal, is the only Irish athlete to have won the Boston marathon. That was back in 1974.
Founding member of The Bridge Milers, a group of people interested in running, some competitively others leisurely, Tom Enright has appealed to the entire community to involve themselves in the event.
“We don’t want people to see this as an exclusive event for people interested in running. We want to shed that notion because this is a community event. We want the people of the parish to come in behind it,” explained Tom.
Proceeds from this year’s road race and fun run will be shared between St. Finnachta’s National School in Sixmilebridge and the Children’s Ward at the Mid Western Regional Hospital in Limerick.
Tom concedes that some of the athletes will be competitive, others will set themselves time targets as personal challenges while more will just be happy to complete the course.
“Pacers are normally associated with record attempts and all that and they’ve become very common in marathons. What we’re doing with our road race is including pacers so that if somebody wants to break a particular time, they’ll have a pacer running under that time. The athlete will know then that if they are fit enough to stick with the pacer they’ll get home under the mark.  It’s just an added benefit.
“But for the elite athletes, they won’t worry about pacers. They’ll just go hell for leather from the off,” he outlined.
Tom says that with half of the proceeds going to Sixmilebridge National School, they are encouraging children to actively get involved.
“We want to target kids at the school and get them to participate. We want to see as many kids as possible getting out and taking part and also their parents. The 5k fun run is tailored for them. It is fun but there is a very serious message behind it. We want to see more kids involved in running in area.
“We are looking at the Pakie Ryan event in Newmarket as a template. We see this as a community event with everyone involved. We are living in an era where the ordinary person on the street has lost a lot of power in their own lives with the IMF and Troika. We are looking at another level now. If a community comes together, they can make a massive contribution to their own locality. People need little persuasion when they see something positive and beneficial happening in their community. The spirit is always there but it might just take something like this event to activate it.
“When people see a good idea being put together, so much effort from an organisational perspective and their own community benefiting from that, they are willing to partake. That’s what we are driving towards. We want to generate that sort of enthusiasm and participation levels,” he said.
Tom feels the event may also have other fringe benefits in that it will stimulate awareness of how important, from a health perspective, regular exercise is and how cheap running is.
“Without doubt running brings health benefits. Like any exercise running contributes to general wellbeing. I think that has become very obvious in the numbers we see out running the roads. It is also cheap. All you need are a good pair of runners, you have nature at your doorstep and that’s your running venue.
“Also, I think programmes like Operation Transformation have brought home to people the need to look after their health particularly when they hit a certain age. If a person is overweight or isn’t fit, that doesn’t mean they can’t turn that around in a matter of months.
“People are more conscious of the positive benefits of exercise. The mindset is changing and parents are very conscious of leading by example; they are very mindful of the need to set a good example for their kids,” he argued.
Local athletic club, Olympic Harriers has been in existence for several years, but Tom feels the time is right for the two running clubs to come together under the one umbrella.
“We are trying to build a culture of running in the area. Both clubs are in talks and I believe that a coming together under the one flag will happen very soon. That is a significant development, a good development and will help keep a tradition of running on a strong footing,” he added.
Registration for the ‘Bridge races is online at www.runireland.ie or will be accepted on Thursday, May 17 in the GAA hall between 6pm and 9pm.
“This is a great event. It is on people’s doorstep and we want them to come out, get involved and be proud that Sixmilebridge can host an event of this magnitude,” he emphasised.