NEWCASTLE AC’s Zak Hanna has spoken to the Mourne Observer about his emotional performance at the Snowdon International Race on Saturday past.
The talented mountain runner, representing Ireland, finished 14th (1.12.51) in the ten-mile endurance race, just two weeks after his dad, Derek ‘Deek’ Hanna, passed away following a long illness.
Having targeted the Snowdon race at the start of the season, as one where he may be able to get some success, Hanna faced a difficult decision as to whether to take part at all.
However, he decided he would travel to Wales, saying it’s what his father would have wanted.
“One of my early season goals was this race. Whenever dad passed, everything was thrown up into the air about when I was going to race next.
“You don’t know how you’re going to react to these sort of things and, to be honest, I missed a lot of key training sessions I would have liked to have done.
“When it came to the crunch and I had to make a decision on whether or not I would race, I just said I was going to do it because dad would have been telling me to do it, he would never want me to miss a race because of him or anyone,” Hanna said.
