You don't have to be a woman to run in the mini marathon, but it helps

THEY came in all shapes and sizes, the 29,000 competitors in yesterday's women's mini marathon, but you had to be a little bit suspicious about the gender qualifications of some.

It wasn't just the hairy legs that gave rise to doubts. Balloons stuffed under T shirts were a giveaway, too; and where hairy legs, balloons and a nun's habit coincided on the same competitor, you could be pretty sure it was an impostor.

The race winner, Catherina McKiernan, had no cause for worry, however. The drag queens may have failed the sex test but, in most cases, they failed the athlete test, too. Leaving twisted personal fantasies aside, most were there for the innocent purposes of raising money for charity or supporting bonafide competitors.

"I was running alongside my wife," explained one man from Brittas Bay, Co Wicklow, who had fooled nobody with his headscarf and apron. At least he was trying to help. Most men showed their support by the traditional method of watching the DublinMeath match in pubs along the route.

Midway through the second hall, a curious Dublin fan emerged from a bar in Leeson Street for a brief look at the torrent of female humanity passing by. He went back inside to report. "I think they're on the second lap at this stage."

The competitors' Tshirts provided a Who's Who of the health care sector. St Luke's cancer research was a clear winner of the sponsorship race, but there was a plethora of other good causes: from the wellknown like the Chernobyl Children's Fund to the more obscure, like the 27 women from Cappatagle in Co Galway who were raising money for research into Prader Willi Syndrome.

Some people thought Anne Harrison of Glasnevin was running for charity, competing as she was in a Dublin football outfit. In fact she had raised £100 for St Luke's and although carrying an injury, she did eventually cross the line, more than could be said of Dublin's last minute penalty.

Many competitors ran the race in two parts: walking the first 9.8 k and then gloriously sprinting the last 200 metres from the corner of St Stephen's Green. But the title of last person to finish was much soughtafter, too. Ellen Fitzgerald and Irene Skelly from Ballymun thought they had claimed the distinction when they clocked in at a competitive two hours and 35 minutes.

"We had a pint in the Towers - one or two," said a proud Irene of their pre-race preparation, but even as she spoke, the prize was cruelly snatched away, as even more slow moving competitors limped home.