700 set to take part in West Clare Mini Marathon

UP to 700 walkers and runners are expected to participate in the 12th West Clare Mini Marathon on Sunday. The walkers will depart from outside Regina House on the Cooraclare Road in Kilrush at 1pm, while the runners are due to leave at 2pm on the 10km run to Kilkee.
However, committee chairman Willie McGrath has warned prospective walkers and runners that they must have registered and collected money to take part.
“We’re making it clear that all participants have to have a sponsorship card. With your sponsorship card, you’re getting your number. You have to wear that number for insurance reasons. That means if you don’t have a number, you don’t have a sponsorship card,” he explained.
To finish the run or walk, people will have to go through a cordoned-off area in the Square, Kilkee. If they don’t have their number on them, they won’t be allowed through.
“For the first time, 200m from the finish line, we’re introducing what we call a chute finish. It’s going to be taped off 200m from the finish line. Unless you have your number to show it at the finish line, you’re not going through the chute,” Mr McGrath added.
Before going to Kilrush by bus from Kilkee, all participants are asked to gather in Kilkee Community Centre. At 11am Bishop Willie Walsh will celebrate mass in Kilkee church.
Last November, the West Clare Mini Marathon Cancer Centre in Kilkee was opened.
Bernie Gibson, late of Corry Lane, Kilkee and Craughwell, Galway, left her two-bedroom house to the Mini Marathon committee following her death.
The house is used as an office for the Mini Marathon fundraising committee, while professional counselling services, including bereavement counselling, medical and alternative therapy care will also be provided there.
Several events linked to the Mini Marathon will be held in Kilkee this weekend. These include a sponsored car wash in the Square, which will be provided by Kilkee Fire Service from 12 noon to 4pm on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the recently launched CD from Derrick Lynch and Noel McLoughlin has raised €5,500 for the cancer fund. The proceeds were presented to Willie McGrath and the committee in Murty Browne’s, Tullycrine, last Sunday week.
The fund also benefited from a contribution of €5,700 following a second annual charity dance organised by Melanie Greene of Cahill Kitchens in Miltown, last November.
“When I was a teenager my mother got breast cancer and I’ve had my own troubles in the last six years. I have to attend the breast clinic on an ongoing basis. I’m one of the lucky ones. The reason I did it was if it could help one person not to be afraid to go the doctor, it would be worth it,” Ms Greene told The Clare Champion.
“It has broadened my horizons and speaking to the West Clare cancer committee, the work that they do is immeasurable. When people are in times of need they need help. It’s not like living in Dublin, where everything is all around us and I know families of people this charity has helped. They praise them to the highest,” she added.
The full figure raised from the 2009 West Clare Mini Marathon totalled €181,760. This figure included money raised by the Mini Marathon, Christmas Day swims in Gortlass Lake and the White Strand, Miltown, an over-40s match in Miltown and a collection by the Mullagh Drama Group.