From New York to West Cork... thanks to Sandy

New York came to sunny West Cork as Clonakilty got its bite of the Big Apple’s Hurricane Sandy mop-up and 2,500 athletes worked up a pre-Christmas appetite at the town’s third Waterfront Marathon series of races.

“It was like a 26-mile mountain climb, definitely the toughest run I ever did,” said delighted finisher Louise Fitzgerald, who picked up a New York City marathon medal as well as a Clonakilty one, after substituting the West Cork race for New York’s.

She and her husband Pat had been among the 47,000 runners ready for road in Central Park five weeks ago before the marathon was scuppered by Superstorm Sandy. On a sun-kissed Saturday in Clon, the Cork couple made amends: Louise added New York and Clonakilty medals to her previous haul of Dublin (2), Cork, London and Paris marathon, and ‘beginner’ Pat, who did the full London race this year, finished the Waterfront’s half marathon in his first run out after hospitalisation three weeks ago.