Eight hundred take to the road for theWest Clare Mini Marathon

APPROXIMATELY 800 walkers and runners made the eight-mile journey, from Kilrush to Kilkee, last Sunday. The 12th annual West Clare Mini Marathon, which has raised more than €1 million towards cancer care since 1998, also attracted sizeable crowds on the route and a huge crowd at Kilkee, where the event culminated.
The walkers left Regina House on the Cooraclare Road in Kilrush at 1pm, while the runners departed at 2pm. While the weather was excellent, the biting easterly breeze kept all participants fairly cool as they made their way west.
All of the money raised will be put towards cancer care in the county, with significant funding again due to be made available to the palliative care units in Regina House and Ennistymon Community Hospital. Counselling, a taxi service for treatment to anywhere in the country and an office in Kilkee will also be funded from the proceeds. Some of the services will be available from the office, which is located just off O’Curry Street.
For the first time, all participants wore a number last Sunday, while the route was lined with volunteer stewards and gardaí.
“All our stewards and the guards were just unreal the way the whole thing fell into place. It’s the hardest one to man because it’s a busy road,” committee chairman Willie McGrath explained.
“The other routes wouldn’t have half the traffic on them,” he added.
Willie attributed the benign weather to factors beyond his remit.  
“There’s no doubt about it – there’s somebody somewhere making sure that nobody gets wet anyway,” he said, referring to the fact that the weather is generally good for the annual event.
The day before the mini marathon, Kilkee fire brigade personnel raised €1,800 from a marathon car wash in the town square. The money was handed over last Sunday evening.
Meanwhile, Willie McGrath has appealed to all runners and walkers to deposit their money to the bank account on their card, before the end of February.