Westport winner of Sea2Summit adventure

Murray’s excellent adventure race ends in ultimate glory


David Jennings

“IT’S ONLY just starting to sink in now,” revealed Anthony Murray last night when asked by The Mayo News what it feels like to be crowned Westport’s latest Sea2Summit adventure race champion.
The 23-year-old from Carrowholly powered his way to victory last Saturday, completing the gruelling 56.5km course in just a shade over three hours.
Not only that, but the former Kilmeena Gaelic footballer did it the hard way too, leading from the outset in the race which mixed road running, mountain cycling and an uphill run along the terrain of Croagh Patrick, before finishing in The Mall in Westport.
“I had a game plan,” he explained. “I knew the course inside out and I wanted to lead from the start. I was strong at the running and cycling parts so I wanted to build up an advantage going into the sea as I had done no training for that and didn’t know what way it would go.
“I needed to be ahead coming to the Reek and that’s what I managed to do. But the Reek went a lot better than I expected and I flew up and down it. I felt very strong until the last couple of kilometres and when I got to that stage I knew that I just had to stick at it and keep going. I had done too much work to let it go to waste.
“I had times written down beforehand for each stage of the race and I had them in my head the whole way through,” added Murray. “I knew where I should have been and at what time I should be there so knowing the course was a major bonus.”
The well-known local winner had form going into the S2S Supreme event. He emerged victorious from the shorter ‘Spirit’ competition last year and held a lofty reputation when lining up at the start on Saturday morning.
That soared even further three hours and three minutes later as he established himself as the king of the road and the sea against competitors from all over Ireland and beyond.
So what does he put the success down to? “I stuck rigidly to my plan,” he said matter-of-factly.
“I sat down ten weeks ago with my brother Finbar and we made out a ten-week plan. We left nothing to chance and what I would be doing each day in those ten weeks was decided in the plan.
“I tried to do three or four hours of training each day and I definitely got in 20 hours of training each week. I’m unemployed at the moment, unfortunately, but I suppose it may have been a blessing in disguise as it helped my training for the event.”
Beating over 1,000 opponents to claim the top prize was some achievement but doing so, despite only plying his trade in this game for the last two years, made the success even sweeter.
“My background is in GAA but I decided to give that up to pursue this and thankfully it has paid off. I’ve put a lot of effort into it but I really enjoy the challenge and winning on Sunday certainly makes it all worth while.
“When I told people that I was entering the event, I just said I was entering it for the experience but I told my close friends that I really want to win it. To be honest I had nothing else in my head only to go out and win and that desire to succeed drove me on.”
Murray can also boast that he beating some celebrities in this year’s race  as All-Ireland winning Tyrone footballers Stephen O’ Neill and Enda McGinley trailed in behind the local athlete.
O’Neill completed the race in a time of 03:38:54 while McGinley crossed the finishing line in a time of 03:42:52. But neither could get close to Murray who kept up his relentless gallop from start to finish much to the delight of the huge home crowd who cheered him over the line.
The local crowd were also delighted to see Kathleen Barry from Ballinrobe win the ‘Supreme’ women’s race while Tom Gill from Westport was the first man to finish the ‘Spirit’ category.

THE TOP FIVE FINISHERS
Supreme Men’s
1, Anthony Murray 3.00.39; 2, Aidan McMoreland (Sligo) 3.01.35; 3, Keith Ruddy 3.04.33; 4, Gerard Corcoran 3.06.40; 5, Shaun Stewart (Donegal) 3.09.14
Women’s Supreme
1, Kathleen Barry (Ballinrobe) 3.45.03; 2, Esme O’Flynn (Cork) 4.07.58; 3, Sophie Bagnall (Kildare) 4.08.16; 4, Sharon Cronin (Cork) 4.13.48; 5, Nessa Sweeney (Canada) 4.14.08

Men’s Spirit
1, Tom Gill  ( Westport)1.49.04; 2, Mark Kenny (Longford) 1.53.24; 3, Patrick Dirrane ( Galway) 1.55.21; 4, Eoghan McCarthy ( Dublin)1.56.04; 5, Ciaran Smith (Meath) 1.56.18
Women’s Spirit
1, Marie Boyle ( Galway) 2.00.11; 2, Eleanor Griffiths (Leitrim) 2.05.14; 3, Deirdre O’Mahony (Ballaghadereen) 2.09.35; 4, Helen Gibbs (Castlebar) 2.11.05; 5, Noreen O Toole (Westport) 2.15.18