See below for a great report written by Ken Higgs on how our 4 athletes – Ken Higgs, Vivian Foley, Hugh McSweeney and Richard Piotrowski fared at the Munster Masters Track and Field Championships in Templemore on Saturday 31st July.

Many thanks to Ken for writing this report up for us. As you will read below, it was a hugely successful day for the guys with no less than 7 gold medals secured between them all!

GOLDEN DAY FOR EAGLE AC AT TEMPLEMORE

Vivian Foley, Ken Higgs, Hugh McSweeney and Richard Piotrowski represented the club at the Munster Masters Track and Field Championship at Templemore on Saturday 31st July. Despite the very warm and humid conditions it turned out to be a highly successful day as they won all their age category events and claimed seven gold medals!

Name: Donal Dowling

Member of Eagle AC since: 2015

How long have you been running and what made you take it up:

I actually did a lot of running between the ages of 9-14yrs. Back in South Kilkenny where I grew up, my uncle was heavily involved in a local running club called St Joseph’s AC. Club still very active. It was pretty much a case of my parents throwing us into a car twice a week and dumping us in a field nearby to support the cause. My memory was it being all cross country running in bare feet across many fields in Kilkenny and Leinster. During my time at the club I never ever ran with runners on. Funny how times change. I gave it up because the local underage GAA team, I was part of, was successful so running took the hit. Only took running back up really as a past time when I was in Australia during the 2000s and then later in 2013 back in Ireland when my ankles and legs gave in playing other sports.

Favourite thing about running:

I can pretty much zone out when running and relax the mind. Have a tendency to slot into a pace and just stay at that.

Can you remember the first Eagle AC member(s) you ran with:

Yes I spoke to David O Donovan at the track on the first night when I arrived. I had competed in 3 marathons by that time between 2013 late 2014 and happened to mention to David that I wanted to run faster marathons. He pretty much said the club would get me there so I was all enthusiastic until I did the speed session with him. It nearly killed me. Speed training was a new concept for me then.