Tuesday, 2 April 2019 marked the 15th annual Plassey 5 km run in memory of Jacinta O’Brien. This event is organized by the University of Limerick 2nd year Sport and Exercise Sciences Students each year. This year’s theme was an evening glow run on UL’s campus, and this year the race was another massive success! As always, this event is a charity event, all proceeds are split between two very worthy charities. This year, the two charities chosen by our class were Limerick City Special Olympics and Limerick Suicide Watch. It is with great pleasure we can report that over €5000 was raised from this event, about €2500 going to each charity.
On race day, we had over 500 participants for this fun-run and it was a great community event! It was chilly, and a bit rainy, but we were thrilled with the community support for this wonderful event!
As a class, the 50 of us worked for the 11 weeks of Semester 2 in different committees to organize the event. Divided into Race Management, Health and Safety, Advertising, Communications, Budget, and Registration. Three students acted as Race Leaders to oversee all committees. Our class worked tirelessly for these last 11 weeks and could not have put on such a successful event without each other’s hard work, as well as the work of the module leaders and other incredible people.
Without the efforts of Ian Sherwin, Niall O’Mahony, and Cathal Og O’Sullivan from PESS department we would not have had the productive classroom environment for this event.
Additionally, this whole race would not have been possible without the efforts of Neasa O’Donnell (UL Sport) and her work with us, providing the necessary equipment, advice, and other supplies. The UL Sports Arena supported us by letting us set up a registration table in the main reception for multiple weeks.
Without the help of Ber Angley and Richie Clifford (University of Limerick / UL Sport) our event wouldn’t have been as fun and memorable – they provided a wonderful warm up and music for a vibrant atmosphere.
Additional sponsors were Avonmore, providing participants with protein milk at the finish line and St. John’s ambulance, providing their services on the night and ensuring safety throughout the event. In addition, Bank of Ireland’s generous contributions of a signed Munster Jersey and Munster tickets, as well as the UL Sports Bar and the UL GAA office’s raffle and spot prize donations were major contributors to the success of this event! It was through these raffle prizes, that most of our funds for the charities were raised. We are especially grateful for the wonderful sponsors!
On behalf of all the second year sports and exercise science students, we would like to thank everyone for their participation and support of this wonderful event. We were thrilled with the turnout of the event and cannot wait to see how the event will continue to grow in the years to come!
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