Inishowen Half Marathon in Buncrana on Sunday

The well established Ballyshannon 5K kickstarts the action tomorrow night with a 7.30pm start at the South Donegal venue.

The usual mix of quality and quantity is expected as the Donegal Athletics Board’s Grand Prix series moves on from last weekend’s North West 10K in Letterkenny.

On Sunday it’s the relatively new Inishowen Half Marathon in Buncrana with a 2pm start with around 200 plus runners expected.

Half Marathon has become the latest popular race distance and there is a real glut of them cropping up in an already crowded field of 13.1 milers and full Marathons.

Let’s hope all of them draw enough participants, the Strabane-Lifford race follows on Sunday, May 15th and it is reported to have attracted a decent field already.

The Belfast International Track & Field meet tomorrow boasts a pretty extensive programme catering for sprinters, throwers, jumpers and distance athletes, a sprinkling of quality internationals among the club runners expected to show up and some locals should feature across the various disciplines and age groups on offer.

WILKIES RUN AND BUNCRANA 5K DETAILS

Looking ahead somewhat to the middle of the month and beyond, the annual Foyle Valley Wilkies Run is set for Thursday, May 19th at 7.30pm out of the Long Tower Youth & Community Centre. The popular 5 Miler should pull in the numbers as indeed will the City of Derry Spartans classic Buncrana 5K on Wednesday, May 25th, another 7.30pm start with Race HQ, as ever, in the Scoill Mhuire premises right beside the familiar downhill start. The fast Buncrana course is the big attraction for runners of all abilities!

Entries will be taken on the night in Buncrana but keep an eye out for the online pre entry process, it will save a lot of hassle on what usually is a busy night.