Pat McCourt

Pat started running at the age of 11, 1962, although not up to much, it was something he always wanted to do. One thing he always remembers is that his teacher said he was a very willing trainer. For the next 3 years he ran for his school,St. Josephs Sec. During one of those years he was a member of the team that won the N.I Schools C/C.

His first club was Oak Leaf A.C., joined in 1965, at the time they were the best athletics club in Northern Ireland. During his time there he was on a mumber of teams that won N.I. C/ships. Included in those were under 14 C/C, under 18 C/C and road, 67, 68, 69, same team for 3 years. 1970 senior C/C and road N.I. c/ships, the youngest team ever to win these titles.

In 1973 he joined Crusaders A.C. in Dublin and was with them for just over 10 years. During his time there he had a third in Dublin Novice C/C and a 7th in inter. Represented Leinster in both road and C/C, winning a novice C/C team medal. One great memory from his time at Crusaders is representing them at the European Club C/ships, at 10k on the track, in Lisbon, Portugal. While stilll with Crusaders, his 2nd claim club was Sparta AC in Derry, where he won 2 senior C/C titles.

In 1983 he left Crusaders and with Sean Clifford and 4 others they formed Bray Runners. Since then he has won Wicklow novice, 1, and inter,1, and senior,3, C/C titles.He has also won C/C and road titles in his age catagory from 40 thru to 60.

At his peak,1970s and 80s, he would average 80 miles per week, very little speed work, mostly long fast runs @ 6 mins per mile pace. Some of Pats pbs,

   10k,  30.20........10mile,  50.15.......H.M. 1hr 15m...... Mar, 2hr 36.

Now he trains 3/4 times per week and still gets a great buzz from it.

He also did a bit of coaching, coached 6 very good athletes, including Gerry Mc Grath to win Belfast Marathon in 2h 16.

Finally, he lists the highlight of his athletic career as being the part he played in the formation of Bray Runners.