Congratulations to Maria O'Reilly on her 50th birthday today. Maria has long been anticipating this entry into a new age group. For the last five years while in the W45 age group she has been a consistent improver on the track and in her longer runs. First of all in shorter track distances, 400, 800 and 1500, and more recently in the longer ones. Maria ran her best short track races in March of 2003, when she completed a 400 in 70.9 seconds, and in the ACT Vets Championships ran a PB of 5:18 for the 1500 on the Saturday, then another PB 2:38 for the 800 on the Sunday.
In 2004 in her only attempt (I think) at a track 5000 she returned the good time of 20:48, then more recently, in the Pennington 3000 last November, she ran 12:10, her best time by a few seconds after consistent improvement over that distance in the last couple of years because of her increased training.
I think Maria's best event as a W50 will be the 800, but I know she likes the longer distances (don't we all?) However the W50s here in Canberra are quite competitive; and thanks to Maureen Rossiter chopping a huge slice of the 800m record last season, records will be hard to come by. But given Maria's record to date, she has an excellent chance of getting a record in one distance or another. And if all else fails, the W50 relay records will be broken for sure, with Maria joining the teams.
All the very best in your new age group Maria.
In 2004 in her only attempt (I think) at a track 5000 she returned the good time of 20:48, then more recently, in the Pennington 3000 last November, she ran 12:10, her best time by a few seconds after consistent improvement over that distance in the last couple of years because of her increased training.
I think Maria's best event as a W50 will be the 800, but I know she likes the longer distances (don't we all?) However the W50s here in Canberra are quite competitive; and thanks to Maureen Rossiter chopping a huge slice of the 800m record last season, records will be hard to come by. But given Maria's record to date, she has an excellent chance of getting a record in one distance or another. And if all else fails, the W50 relay records will be broken for sure, with Maria joining the teams.
All the very best in your new age group Maria.
