Achill marathon leads to wedding bells for Kildare couple

Ollie Carbury, Kildare, (Donadea AC) and Charlotte Banks, Carbury, Kildare, (Donadea AC) who met at last year’s Achill Half Marathon and are planning on getting married this year, relax before this year’s event. Charlotte was placed second female in this year’s race.

Marathon leads to wedding bells for Kildare couple


TWO years ago they came to Achill separately to take part in the island’s popular half-marathon. Last Saturday Charlotte Banks and Ollie Kearney returned on a bicycle made for two – to celebrate the anniversary of their first meeting and enjoy their final race together as singletons.
The sporting couple – who live in Ollie’s native Carbury in Co. Kildare, though Charlotte is originally from Worcester – first met while registering for the Achill Half-Marathon in July 2009. Though both are members of the Donadea athletics club, they had never spoken to each other until their paths crossed in the midst of the 1,800 participants that day.
The race completed, they realised they were staying in the same accommodation and ended up beside each other at dinner that evening. When Charlotte was the only one to take Ollie up on his challenge of a dawn run the following morning, the seeds of romance were sown as they jogged towards beautiful Keem Bay.
Two years on, Charlotte (34) and Ollie (38) are now preparing for their wedding this September, after Ollie proposed in another iconic Mayo beauty spot – the top of Croagh Patrick – last November.
“Mayo is very special to us and Achill in particular,” explained Charlotte, as she got ready for her third Achill Half-Marathon last Saturday. “So when he went down on one knee and proposed on top of Croagh Patrick, with a stunning view of Achill and all of Clew Bay in the background, how could I say no!”
In tribute to the source of their union, the couple plan to have memorabilia from the Achill running event at their wedding in Johnstown House in Enfield this September.
Meanwhile, on Saturday last, as well as marking her final race as a single woman, Charlotte also celebrated her birthday – and was the second woman home in the race that this year had a field of over 1,500.