The month of August is warmly welcomed by seasoned club runners as it gives them the chance to indulge themselves and have a little fun with their running.

With the pressure off, now that the National Championships are over, many athletes will use this downtime to test themselves over a new distance, or perhaps pace their training buddies to a new PB time.

Last weekend saw several Drogheda and District AC athletes in action at the Kells 5K. First across the line for D&D was Derek Hackett who is turning out to be a bit of a find for the club.

Hackett's time of 20:17 was decent running over this tough enough course and he's still finding his racing legs over a range of distances before committing to more specific training.

Next in was young Corey Reay who ran well to place 8th in the Junior Men's race in 21:39.

Conor Cooney, one of the smartest tacticians in Irish road racing, used all his experience to take the top spot in his M70 category crossing the line in 25:24, with training partner Brian Guilfoyle close behind in 25:27.

Fist lady home in the F60 category was prolific racer Nuala Reilly who took the runner up spot in in a lively 24:19, and her appetite for racing shows no sign of abating any time soon.

Also running were Anna Marie Bolton, Sarah Monaghan and Karl Cooney.

Closer to home at last Friday evening's Rathkenny 5K, Colm Reilly showed most of the field a clean pair of heels when finishing third overall in a useful 17:38.

Reilly is making a steady return to his previous good form after a spell out with injury, the bane of every athletes’ life! Next in was Liam Farrell in 23:32, followed by Karl Cooney in 24:04. Also running well were Arian Gogarty (26:27) and Gerard Maher (29:30).

Nuala Reilly did a double of sorts when taking her second category of the week, thanks to her winning run of 24:34.

Also running well in the same category was Mary Toner who placed 8th in 29:38 and she looks to be coming into good form on this showing.

Others who ran were Edel Smith, Olivia Reilly and Barry Sullivan.