Yet again, we experienced relatively warm conditions in a Spring marathon. This time it was in Hamburg over the weekend, on a sunny and cloudless day with a gentle breeze and temperatures that climbed to about 19 degrees Celsius during the morning. Not excessively hot one might say, and nothing compared to London the week before or Paris or Rotterdam in early April. However, anything above about 14-15 degrees makes marathon running a challenge for those of us unused to such temperatures at this time of year. We fielded a major team of 19 runners among the 10,000 finishers and, with the exception of one casualty, John McAuley, who was forced to drop out after 25k, we surprisingly and gratifyingly all finished inside 4 hours and at least 7 of our number recorded PBs. The scenic city course, looping around the harbour and inner suburbs of the city, is relatively flat, although there are some noticeable drags along the way, with one in particular towards the end of the race that was not expected or welcomed! With the temperatures rising there was a constant quest for shade, although we did have the benefit at times of the breeze that kept us a bit cooler than we might have otherwise expected. Water stations every 2km were a welcome aspect of the well-organised event and we took full use of them. Indeed, quite a bit of time would have been lost by runners making use of the stations as several of us would take at least 3 cups, not just for drinking, but at least two would end up being poured over our heads and down our backs. The atmosphere was great and we had some super support around the course, not least from those who accompanied us over to the race. Paul Dempsey distinguished himself with an improvement of over 5 minutes on his previous marathon, finishing in 2:52 for a place inside the top 150, whilst John Fahy, whose wife, Ruth McEntee, also ran and marked it with a 30 minutes improvement to 3:57, recorded a PB time of 2:57. Our other sub-3 hour finisher was relative newcomer Seamus Moore who just got in under the wire with a 2:59. Brian McGuckin and Brian Leonard cajoled each other round with the former (3:02) just managing to pull away from the latter (3:03) towards the end. Pat Quill had a steady run for his 3:06, whilst Philip Hamilton came shooting past James Cottle like a runaway train in the last 3k to record a PB time of 3:09, with James finishing in less strong form in 3:13 in the heat, but still able to hang on to 2nd place in his 300-strong age category. Patrick Needham (3:16) and Rob Browne (3:29) had been running well in the first half of the race regularly changing places between the two of them and with James but were unable to sustain the pace in the second half, whilst Eugene McDonough (3:19) put in a sterling effort, having suffered from a knee injury that had severely curtailed his training in the last month, and gamely held on to finish the race. Jane Wallace and Triona Quill ran brilliantly, with Jane recording 3:27 and was only three places outside of a top 100 finish, whilst Triona equalled her PB from Dublin in October with 3:31 and was inside the top 150 female runners (and a 7th place in her age category). Gavan Doherty kept up with the 3:30 pacers for most of the race and held on for a 3:32 finish, whilst Micheal Killeen (3:37), who came over from Denmark, where he has been working for the past few months, to run, and Darran Lovely (3:37) found the going particularly tough, as did Victor Fairbrother (3:41). Indeed Darran needed some medical attention for severe dehydration at the end of the race, but has now fully recovered. Last Wednesday marked the return of the Dublin Athletics graded meets. The first of the year was held at Santry’s Morton Stadium and we had 8 athletes compete in the various disciplines on offer. John O’Loughlin took 2nd place in the men’s 100m C race in a time of 13.29, whilst Grainne Regan placed 6th in race 2 of the women’s 800m C grade in 2:45.11. In race 1 of the men’s D 800m after a slow start Brendan Glynn took 2nd spot in a time of 2:31.47, followed by Denis Murphy who placed 4th in 2:33.29. In race 2 of the same grade, Frank Halligan placed 3rd in 2:21.52, followed by Paul Kelly in 8th with a time of 3:18.81. Finally, in the men’s combined C&D 3000m, Michael Wycherley too 4th place in 9:47.84, followed by Frank in 9th in 10:04.87 and Joe McDermott in 10th in 10:11.28. There was a bit of racing in the mountains last week among the IMRA crowd. On Wednesday night 165 turned out for the 7.15k Glen of the Downs run, involving a 200m climb on relatively easy terrain. Once again, the unbeaten Becky Quinn took top honours among the women in the field, placing 27th overall (34:07) behind race winner Des Kennedy (28:28). Becky was followed by Anthony O’Reilly (40th in 35:56), Laura Flannelly (46th overall, 5th woman home, in 36:40), Gavan Doherty, in a gentle outing before Hamburg (124th in 44:59) and Berndt Heim, making a return to the competitive environment (162nd in 55:29). Leo Lundy reported that he ran yet another ultra on Saturday. This was the 12 hour Bad Cow Frolic set in Dorset, southern England. Leo decided to run for 50K which he completed in 6:49:30, rather than go for the full 12 hours. Still, a noteworthy feat on a hilly course. Significant numbers marked the park runs at the weekend, not the least because of the presence of Sonia O’Sullivan in Cabinteely for her 100th parkrun. Podium places in the parkruns went to Joe O’Donoghue who was first finisher in St Anne’s in a great time of 15:48, whilst Kieran Little was also first finisher in Poolbeg in 18:00 and Frank Hague also headed the field in Porterstown with a time of 17:55. Matt Cranley took 3rd place in Father Collins in 20:33, whilst Miriam Logan took 4th (16th overall) in Templemore in a time of 23:00. Back to Cabinteely, where we saw a major Cru turnout in a huge field exceeding 400 for the first time, with 12 of our number participating. First home was Dave Carter (12th in 19:29), followed by Niamh Corby (33rd overall, 6th woman, in 21:02), Helena Walsh (53rd overall, 9th woman, in 22:19), Fiona Shine (68th overall, 12th woman, in 23:06), Niamh Quinn (135th overall, 30th woman, in 25;04), Orlaith de Burca (165th overall, 45th woman, in 26:25), Lisa Shine (173rd overall, 50th woman, in 26:37), Mairead Cashman (244th overall, 90th woman, in 29:33), Joe Dunne pacing (249th in 29:40), Paul Kelly (281st in 31:44), Don Anderton (326th in 34:29) and Harp Bhambra (368th overall, 159th woman, in 39:06). In St. Anne’s, Joe was followed by Sharon Woods (113th overall, 17th woman, in 23:28), Denis Murphy (133rd in 24:01), Colm Kernan (166th in 24:58) and Aoife Quinn (271st overall, 77th woman, in 28:09).Brian Scanlan placed 21st in a time of 19:58 in Malahide, whilst Brendan Kieran came home in 36th spot in 24:59 in Hartstown. Kris Ryan selected a different Australian parkrun this week, placing 43rd overall, 8th woman, in 23:28 in Main Beach. In Porterstown, Frank was followed by Diarmuid Byrne (13th in 22:14), Maria Pertl who ran with Darina Scully, both getting the same time of 26:41 and finishing respectively 11th and 12th women and 40th and 41st overall and by Kevin Flynn (67th in 29:39). Finally, in Poolbeg, Kieran was followed by Tony Owens (8th in 19:52), Kieran Finucane (10th in 24:10), Fiona Bane (56th overall, 4th woman, in 24:10), Aisling O’Connor (56th overall, 8th woman, in 25:31) and by Donna Barry (74th overall, 15th woman, in 27:03). Hamburg Marathon Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Solomon Deksisa 1 02:06:34 11 Shitaye Eshete 1 02:24:51 Crusaders AC runners Paul Dempsey 02:52:02 (PB) John Fahy 02:57:29 (PB) Seamus Moore 02:59:27 (PB) Brian McGuckin 03:02:50 Brian Leonard 03:03:46 Pat Quill 03:06:50 Philip Hamilton 3:09:59 (PB) James Cottle 03:13:03 Patrick Needham 03:16:16 Eugene McDonough 03:19:44 Jane Wallace 03:27:09 Rob Browne 03:29:31 Triona Quill 03:31:28 (=PB) Gavan Doherty 03:32:09 (PB) Micheal Killeen 03:37:02 Darran Lovely 03:37:27 Victor Fairbrother 03:41:44 Ruth McEntee 03:57:06 (PB) Full results here: http://hamburg.r.mikatiming.de/2018/?pid=search IMRA Glen of the Downs race (165) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Des Kennedy 1 00:28:28 27 Becky Quinn 1 00:34:07 Crusaders AC runners 27 Becky Quinn 00:34:07 (1) 40 Anthony O’Reilly 00:35:56 46 Laura Flannelly 00:36:40 (5) 124 Gavan Doherty 00:44:59 162 Berndt Heim 00:55:29 Full results here: https://www.imra.ie/events/view/id/1581 Marlay Parkrun #255 (538) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 unknown 1 00:16:55 17 Sharon Grant 1 00:19:05 Crusaders AC runner 81 Kate Murray 00:23:12 (9) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/marlay/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=255 St Anne’s Parkrun #230 (452) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Joe O’Donoghue 1 00:15:48 5 Fiona Stack 1 00:18:18 Crusaders AC runners 1 Joe O’Donoghue 00:15:48 113 Sharon Woods 00:23:28 (17) 133 Denis Murphy 00:24:01 166 Col Kernan 00:24:58 271 Aoife Quinn 00:28:09 (77) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/stannes/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=230 Poolbeg Parkrun #35 (138) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Kieran Little 1 00:18:00 22 Grace Cullen 1 00:22:04 Crusaders AC runners 1 Kieran Little 00:18:00 8 Anthony Owens 00:19:52 10 Kieran Finucane 00:20:12 43 Fiona Bane 00:24:10 (4) 56 Aisling O’Connor 00:25:31 (8) 64 Donna Barry 00:27:03 (15) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/poolbeg/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=35 Malahide Parkrun #285 (334) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Robert Frewen 1 00:17:10 12 Rose McGahan 1 00:19:34 Crusaders AC runner 21 Brian Scanlan 00:19:58 Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/malahide/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=285 Hartstown Parkrun #180 (101) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Rebecca Burns 1 00:17:43 2 Paul Kelly 1 00:17:51 Crusaders AC runner 36 Brendan Kieran 00:24:59 Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/hartstown/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=180 Father Collins Parkrun #136 (68) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Ger Redmond 1 00:16:45 5 Grainne Quinn 1 00:21:39 Crusaders AC runner 3 Matt Cranley 00:20:33 Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/fathercollins/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=136 Cabinteely Parkrun #160 (402) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 unknown 1 00:18:06 10 Sarah Baryga 1 00:19:19 Crusaders AC runner 12 David Carter 00:19:29 33 Niamh Corby 00:21:02 (6) 53 Helena Walsh 00:22:19 (9) 68 Fiona Shine 00:23:06 (12) 135 Niamh Quinn 00:25:04 (30) 165 Orlaith de Burca 00:26:25 (45) 173 Lisa Shine 00:26:37 (50) 244 Mairead Cashman 00:29:33 (90) 249 Joe Dunne 00:29:40 281 Paul Kelly 00:31:44 326 Don Anderton 00:34:29 368 Harp Bhambra 00:39:06 (159) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/cabinteely/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=160 Templemore Parkrun #66 (72) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 John Fitzgibbon 1 00:16:39 7 Sharon Kiely 1 00:20:46 Crusaders AC runner 16 Miriam Logan 00:23;00 (4) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/templemore/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=66 Porterstown Parkrun #131 (140) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Frank Hague 1 00:17:55 15 Marian Finnerty 1 00:22:38 Crusaders AC runners 1 Frank Hague 00:17:55 13 Diarmuid Byrne 00:22:14 40 Maria Pertl 00:26:41 (11) 41 Darina Scully 00:26:41 (12) 67 Kevin Flynn 00:29:39 Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/porterstown/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=131 Some stirring displays of gutsiness were on display over the weekend, in the sweltering conditions that were experienced by our 3 runners in the London marathon on Sunday morning, followed by the national road relays in Raheny in the afternoon involving 25 of us, in cooler, but by no means less intense, conditions. Then on Sunday evening another 17 turned out for the Dublin 10K night run in which we saw some sterling performances. The road relays, one of the highlights of the year, were as usual great fun and we witnessed really exciting races involving some of Ireland’s top athletes all participating in a team format. It’s a shame there aren’t more of these types of occasions perhaps because there is a huge thrill in being part of a team competing against other clubs. The standard is incredibly high in every category and medals cannot be taken as won before the event happens. Although what seem like perennial winners Raheny eventually took top honours in the senior men’s event, the team must have got a huge fright from the sight of DSD’s Ethiopian runner Hiko Haso Tonosa catching and overtaking Mick Clohisey on one of the legs. We took home our only medal of the day, bronze, in the first event. The strong O/35 team of Ilona McElroy, Adrienne Jordan and Niamh Corby (who could hardly walk two days earlier, following a bike accident, but who recovered in time) ran a spirited race with Niamh holding on with what was recorded as a 9 seconds cushion over Raheny, but which seemed a lot closer than that. On the 1 mile loop course where the back straight involved a slight climb on a concrete road into a gusting headwind, our second women’s O/35 masters team of Grainne Regan, Dee Ni Chearbhaill and last minute recruit, Gill Earley, also ran well, coming home in 10th place. The next race involved the masters’ men and we had three teams in that event: two O/35s and an O/50 team (this last for only the second time). All told there were 31 teams in the race, 23 of them representing the O/35 category. Peter O’Toole, Rob Cross and Peter Barry took 7th spot, with newcomer Graham Crowley, Michael Wycherley and Eddie Nugent coming home in 18th place. The format of a 1 mile leg, followed by a 2 mile one and finishing off with a 1 mile leg followed the same pattern as with the masters’ women’s race. The men’s O/50 team seems to get better with age and we were able to improve on our first year’s effort last year, where we were well down the field. This year, with an average age of 56, the team, which, with the same members who had also medalled in the national marathon championships, managed to place 5th in the category, beating a couple of over 35 teams as well. We were at no stage overtaken after the gun and were able to reel in a few runners. Next we come to the senior women’s race in which we fielded 3 teams. Injury impacted how the teams were eventually composed, but, regardless, they were all extremely competitive in a race that had significant quality. The first team comprised of Caroline Crowley, not quite back to full fitness as yet, Irene Gorman, running the two mile leg, and Orla Drumm on the anchor leg and they were unlucky not to have got onto the podium, finishing just over 20 seconds outside of a podium place in 5th, Orla having reeled in at least 3 runners on the final leg with one of the faster times of the day. The second team of Niamh Aspell, Kiera Roche (in her first relay) and Catherine Thornton also ran well and for most of the race were able to keep the first team in sight, eventually finishing in a creditable 12th place, under a minute behind. Such is the depth of women’s running at the club right now that it is with some satisfaction that we were able to field a third team and Edel Haverty, Serena Moloney and Emer Kenny put in a splendid effort in a high quality field, eventually placing 19th. The senior men’s race involved 4 legs: starting with a two mile one (2 loops of the circuit), followed by a one mile leg, with three and then two mile legs to finish. Albin Ingmarsson, who was also scheduled to run in the Dublin Night Run later in the same day, started the proceedings off, finishing mid pack, which was to be the pattern for the rest of the race. Albin was followed by Garret Dunne who was almost taken out by a resident pulling a car out of her drive as he headed from the handover point. Michael Kiely also had a steady race on the third leg followed by Joe McDermott as our last racer of the day who set off as though his life depended on it, but soon settled himself down! The team eventually placed 17th. As usual, the Cru support on the day was superb and there were supporters all over the course. Results have been posted to Athletics Ireland's website: http://www.athleticsireland.ie/competition/results/. Earlier in the day many of us were glued to both TV and tracker app following the exploits of those running in the London marathon, with its unprecedentedly high temperatures (17 degrees Celsius at the start of the race, working up to 22 degrees by midday with no cloud cover and little shade generally). We had three runners in the race, none of whom had had the opportunity to acclimatise to the conditions beforehand. All thoughts of PBs went out the window for most of the runners in the race, and it was particularly true for our club-mates. At one stage all 3 were on for a sub-3 hour finish, but both Kieran Martin and Warren Swords slightly dropped off the pace in the second half to come home in, respectively, 3:04:45 and 3:08:19. Both were highly respectable times in the circumstances (Kieran’s split being only about 5 minutes positive) and especially so for Kieran who was running on a deferred entry having suffered multiple consecutive injuries over the past 12 to 15 months. Ciaran Diviney only decided to take up his entry into the race within the last two months but has had consistent training throughout the year. He will be pleased with his 2:38:13, again, like Kieran’s, a time which showed only a 5 minutes positive split. Newcomer Joe O’Donoghue had a superb run in the Dublin Night Run on Sunday evening, placing 2nd behind race winner Peter Somba, in a time of 32:56. On a twisty-turny course which took runners away from the Docklands and around Irishtown and back over the Eastlink bridge, it was surprising to see so many fast times. At least 83 runners broke 40 minutes, among the 4,000 competitors. It was good to see Alban Coghlan making a return to racing, placing 9th in 35:11, followed by the surprising Albin Ingmarsson (11th in 35:19). Albin was followed by James Cahill (40th in 38:28), TJ Bourke (62nd in 39:30), Sean Smith (68th in 39:40) and, just behind Sean, Ollie McGrath (70th in 39:41), so that 7 of our 17 runners broke 40 minutes. Behind Ollie came Luke Haran (147th in 41:57), Diarmuid Fahey (170th in 42:28), Marek Kodes (410th in 45:45), David Timoney (444th in 46:01), Mary Fitzsimons (700th overall in 48:09), Celine Bonce (831st overall in 49:04), Russell Murphy (1,022nd in 50:22), Jacqueline McBrien (3,008th overall in 61:41), Paul Kelly (3,456th in 65;43) and Ciara McElligott (3,464th overall in 65:49). Leo Lundy joined Olwyn Dunne in Connemara on Sunday for the wet and windy Connemarathon Ultra (his 75th ultra). Leo ran 63.6km in a time of 8:10:27 to place 174th, whilst Olwyn ran in the half marathon, placing 237th overall, 39th female finisher, and 2nd in her age category, in a time of 1:51:11. There were two IMRA races during this period, one on Wednesday evening in the Devil’s Glen in which we saw Becky Quinn win the women’s race yet again. The overall winner of the 8.5k race held on relatively easy terrain with a 300m climb, was Ruairi Long with a time of 34:11. Becky was first Crusader home in 15th place overall in a time of 38:45 and was followed by Laura Flannelly, 32nd overall, 3rd female finisher, in 42:01. The remaining Cru participants in the147-strong field were Gavan Doherty, in training for the Hamburg marathon this coming weekend, in 52nd place and a time of 43:54, followed by Gerald Hoare (72nd in 46:23). There was another race on Saturday around Tonelagee in Wicklow in which we had one runner, Becky Quinn duly won her race placing 8th overall out of a field of 31 in 1:10:26. Once again, we had a good showing in the parkruns on Saturday. There were podium places for several of our club mates. Kris Ryan finished 2nd woman and 24th place overall in Coomera, Australia in a time of 23:05, whilst Susanne English was first woman finisher (35th overall) in Oldbridge, in a time of 23:43. Meanwhile, James Murphy was first finisher in Poolbeg in a time of 18:00, whilst Alma Hanevy, likewise was first woman finisher (11th overall) in Brickfields in a time of 21:40. In the same event there was also a second place finish for John Fahy, who will have gained a lot of confidence from his time of 18:13, as, with his wife Ruth McEntee, he also prepares for Hamburg this weekend. Joe Walsh was third in 19:26. Other podium finishers were Brian Carroll in Griffeen Park and Nina Holmes in Fairview. Brian finished 2nd in a time of 18:33, whilst Nina also placed 2nd (8th overall) in a time of 23:06. Generally, there was quite a large turnout of Crusaders in the parkruns this weekend. Behind James Murphy in Poolbeg came Tony Owens (6th in 20:01), followed by Kieran Finucane (8th in 20:20), Milo Furlong (38th in 25:33), Donna Barry (64th overall, 20th woman, in 27:39), Pauline McParland (81st overall, 30th woman, in 30:02) and Jennifer Armstrong (87th overall, 35th woman, in 30:15). Lisa Shine was our sole representative in Tolka Valley, taking 17th place overall, 5th female finisher, in 28:58. Diarmuid Byrne and Maria Pertl turned out in Poppintree coming home respectively in 27th and 58th place overall. Maria was also 16th female finisher. Their times were, respectively, 23:44 and 27:14. Janet McManus placed 50th overall, 7th woman, in a time of 25:11 in Shanganagh. Janet was followed closely by Orlaith de Burca in 51st place overall (8th woman) in 25:12. Olwyn Dunne acted as a 30 minute pacer in Cabinteely, taking 92nd place overall, 29th woman home, in 29:43, whilst Kevin Flynn placed 88th in 31:19 in Porterstown. We had 3 runners in St. Anne’s. Leo Lundy placed 154th in 25:20, followed by Aoife Quinn (260th overall, 66th woman, in 28:34) and Lorraine Fitzsimons (301st overall, 85th woman, in 30:08). Finally, we had 3 runners in Marlay Park. Brian Leonard, another Hamburg-bound marathoner in training, placed 24th in 20:06, followed by Sarah Cush who was late to the starting line and had to plough through all the back markers. Sarah was given a time of 22:21 (71st overall, 5th woman), but several seconds can be shaved off that. Mairead Cashman followed Sarah in 292nd place overall, 83rd woman, in a time of 28:31. KBC Dublin Night Run 10K (4023) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Peter Somba 1 00:31:14 26 Sinead Tangney 1 00:37:36 Crusaders AC runners 2 Joe O’Donoghue 00:32:56 9 Alban Coghlan 00:35:11 11 Albin Ingmarsson 0:35:19 40 James Cahill 00:38:28 54 Michael O’Conor 00:39:13 62 TJ Bourke 00:39:30 68 Sean Smith 00:39:40 70 Ollie McGrath 00:39:41 147 Luke Haran 00:41:57 170 Diarmuid Fahey 00:42:28 410 Marek Kodes 00:45:45 444 David Timoney 00:46:01 700 Mary Fitzsimons 00:48:09 831 Celine Bonce 00:49:04 1022 Russell Murphy 00:50:22 3008 Jacqueline McBrien 01:01:41 3456 Paul Kelly 01:05:43 3464 Ciara McElligott 01:05:49 Full results here: http://nightrun.ie/results/ IMRA Devil’s Glen race (147) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Ruairi Long 1 00:34:11 15 Becky Quinn 1 00:38:45 Crusaders AC runners 15 Becky Quinn 00:38:45 (1) 32 Laura Flannelly 00:42:01 (3) 52 Gavan Doherty 00:43:54 72 Gerald Hoare 00:46:23 Full results here: https://www.imra.ie/events/view/id/1580 Marlay Parkrun #254 (572) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Eoin Reville 1 00:16:58 20 Bryony Treston 1 00:19:50 Crusaders AC runners 24 Brian Leonard 00:20:06 71 Sarah Cush 00:22:21 (5) 292 Mairead Cashman 00:28:31 (83) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/marlay/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=254 St Anne’s Parkrun #229 (443) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Ronan Kenny 1 00:17:53 8 Fiona Stack 1 00:18:51 Crusaders AC runners 154 Leo Lundy 00:25:20 260 Aoife Quinn 00:28:34 (66) 301 Lorraine Fitzsimons 00:30:08 (85) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/stannes/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=229 Poolbeg Parkrun #34 (111) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 James Murphy 1 00:18:00 19 Ann O’Keeffe 1 00:23:13 Crusaders AC runners 1 James Murphy 00:18:00 6 Anthony Owens 00:20:01 8 Kieran Finucane 00:20:20 38 Milo Furlong 00:25:33 64 Donna Barry 00:27:39 (20) 81 Pauline McParland 00:30:02 (30) 87 Jennifer Armstrong 00:30:15 (35) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/poolbeg/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=34 Griffeen Parkrun #253 (176) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Michael Comer 1 00:18:24 18 Ana Barbu 1 00:22:00 Crusaders AC runner 2 Brian Carroll 00:18:33 Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/griffeen/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=253 Tolka Valley Parkrun #9 (43) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Brian Shaughnessy 1 00:20:59 13 Mary Gavin 1 00:26:54 Crusaders AC runner 17 Lisa Shine 00:28:58 (5) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/tolkavalley/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=9 Oldbridge Parkrun #198 (100) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Brian Martin 1 00:16:59 35 Susanne English 1 00:23:43 Crusaders AC runner 35 Susanne English 00:23:43 (1) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/oldbridge/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=198 Cabinteely Parkrun #159 (140) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Ted Burke 1 00:19:10 24 Rachel Fry 1 00:23:55 Crusaders AC runner 92 Olwyn Dunne 00:29:43 (29) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/cabinteely/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=159 Shanganagh Parkrun #159 (144) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Brian Collins 1 00:18:28 24 Suzanne Foot 1 00:21:53 Crusaders AC runners 50 Janet McManus 00:25:11 (7) 51 Orlaith de Burca 00:25:12 (8) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/shanganagh/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=159 Porterstown Parkrun #131 (140) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Sean MacSeoin 1 00:17:40 5 Laura Cullen 1 00:20:31 Crusaders AC runner 88 Kevin Flynn 00:31:19 Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/porterstown/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=131 Fairview Parkrun #40 (93) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 unknown athlete 1 00:18:45 6 Lizzy Murray 1 00:22:38 Crusaders AC runner 8 Nina Holmes 00:23:06 (2) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/fairview/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=400 Poppintree Parkrun #180 (147) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Aidan McGrath 1 00:18:48 13 Laura Mulhair 1 00:22:02 Crusaders AC runners 27 Diarmuid Byrne 00:23:44 58 Maria Pertl 00:27:14 (16) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/poppintree/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=180 Brickfields Parkrun #15 (82) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Ian O’Reilly 1 00:17:35 11 Alma Hanevy 1 00:21:40 Crusaders AC runners 2 John Fahy 00:18:13 3 Joe Walsh 00:19:26 11 Alma Hanevy 00:21:40 (1) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/brickfields/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=15 The title of the Grateful Dead's song is probably an appropriate way to describe the atrocious conditions of Monday's Boston marathon. We had at least 4 intrepid runners in the event which witnessed two of the slowest winning times in the event's history. On a day where runners ran the point-to-point course from Hopkinton in the west to the centre of Boston itself against a severe headwind with driving rain and bone-chilling temperatures, the winner of the men's race (the slowest since 1976), a Japanese runner (Yuki Kawauchi, a prolific marathoner), came home in 2:15:58, whilst the American winner of the women's race, the first in 33 years, Desiree Linden (in a rain jacket), ran 2:39:54. It is remarkable that all our runners came home, considering that apparently 14 of the 25 male elite field dropped out during the race. First home for the club was Kieran Little in a super time of 2:51:58. In the first half, which is principally downhill, Kieran was on for a 2:44 finish, but the hills of the second half took their toll as they did for each of Paul O'Meara who ran 3:06:01 and Barry McGuire, already nursing a pulled hamstring before the race, who came home in 3:20:17. Brian Rainey also ran an excellent race in the circumstances, with a 3.5 minutes positive split and a 3:11:33 finish. It seems that recently our runners have faced extreme conditions in their Spring marathons, either baking hot as in Paris and Rotterdam or quite the reverse as we saw in Boston. London this coming weekend promises to be potentially challenging as well with higher temperatures than of late. As noted in a previous report, these are the perils of spring marathoning! This week's stories began on Wednesday of last week on an evening which witnessed the first running of this year’s IMRA trail league. There were two races, one long course of 7.48km with 161 runners and another shorter race of 5.2k, intended primarily for younger runners, and had a modest field of 7. The races took place on woodland trails around Djouce in Co. Wicklow in damp and misty conditions. The events were nowhere near as technical as some of those tackled by IMRA runners, but were challenging all the same. On the short course the winner was actually a young Crusader, Alex Ainsworth, who finished in 32:10. Then in the longer race, the women’s event was won by Crusaders’ Becky Quinn who may indeed be unbeaten for the year so far. Becky placed 18th overall in 33:17. Not too far behind in 4th place (39th overall) came Laura Flannelly in a time of 35:38. Our first man home was Ollie McGrath who placed 15th in 32:58 and he was followed by Gavan Doherty, a man in training for the Hamburg marathon in two weeks’ time, in 26th place and a time of 34:18. Gavan was followed by Gary Park, making a rare foray into the mountains (30th in 34:40). We then jump ahead to the National 10K road championships held on Sunday in the Phoenix Park in conjunction with the Great Ireland Run. The event, involving nearly 4,000 runners, took place in extremely damp, windy and quite cool conditions (principally because of the wind chill). Runners had to face a severe headwind coming through kilometres 2 to 3 and then again in the last kilometre or so, on a course that has its hills mostly in the second half. The club championship women went off about 20 minutes before the rest of the field (which is why the overall and gender places for one or two of the women indicated below are in square brackets). Olwyn Dunne was our sole representative in the women's national championships, finishing in a time of 48:40 behind race winner Shona Heaslip who came in ahead of Kerry O’Flaherty, Britain’s Gemma Steele and Laura Shaughnessy. The men’s club race saw an exceptional tussle, with Brian Maher (who placed an amazing 2nd), Mick Clohisey (3rd) and Sergui Ciobanu battling it out with a couple of British runners to the line. In the main field we had 16 runners, some of whom were running in the national championships. With 6 of our runners breaking 40 minutes, Peter O’Toole led our contingent home in 80th place (35:52), followed by Frank Halligan in 84th (35:55). Next came James Moran in 108th (36:36) and he was followed by Joe McDermott running steadily into 110th place (36:39). Peter Barry followed, in 153rd place (37:40), with Mick Smyth not too far behind (180th in a PB time of 38:09). Eddie Nugent placed 270th in 40:30, followed by Sean Smith (317th in 41:06), and Padraig Needham, another runner in training for Hamburg (323rd in 41:16). Next over the line came David Timoney (347th in 41:41) and he was followed by Gearoid Grogan (393rd in 42:31) with Anthony O’Reilly in his 2nd event of the weekend not too far behind (406th in 42:46). The contingent was completed by Gerald Hoare making a welcome return to racing (637th in 45:24), Carina Davidson (1,385th overall, 328th female, in 51:38), Sorcha Ni Chuinneagain (1,965th overall, 601st female, in 55:52) and Paul Kelly (2,797th in 61:58). In fact, the 10k had been preceded by a 5K event involving a field of nearly 800 runners. They ran on an entirely different course and experienced the headwind quite differently as well, as they approached the North Road from the opposite direction. For them it was the slight descent on Chesterfield in the last 2k that would have had an impact. We had two runners in that race. Simon Kenny came home in 14th spot in a time of 19:48, whilst Amy Brogan finished 170th overall, 63rd woman, in 27:20. There was quite a decent turnout in the parkruns this weekend, and we saw, as usual, some podium finishes. In St Anne’s, Adrienne Jordan led home our 4 other participants as first finisher (16th overall) in a decent time of 18:42. Fiona Bane was next home in 151st place overall, 18th female, in 24:49, followed by Aoife Quinn (250th overall, 59th female, in 27:33), Denis Murphy (293rd in 28:43) and Lorraine Fitzsimons (338th overall, 109th female, in 30:08). Another first finisher was Catherine Thornton in Knocknacarra. On a recently changed, hillier, course, Catherine took 3rd place overall in a time of 19:35. On the podium, we also saw Brian Scanlan take 2nd place in River Valley in a time of 20:16, whilst Olwyn Dunne, in the first of two events for the weekend, took 2nd place (25th overall) in Porterstown in a time of 22:55. Olwyn was followed by Kevin Flynn who took 158th place in 34:39. To complete the podium finishes, Susanne English came home in 3rd (34th overall) in Oldbridge in a time of 24:53. In the other events, Neil Brown and Orlaith de Burca participated in Shanganagh, placing 32nd and 55th respectively, with respective times of 22:55 and 25:02. Orlaith was 9th woman home too. We had a good showing in Marlay Park, with Anthony O’Reilly placing 21st in 19:58, followed by Kate Murray (96th overall, 12th woman, in 23:09), Sarah Cush in her first competition in a while (98th overall, 14th woman, in 23:13) and Mairead Cashman (303rd overall, 91st woman, in 28:23). Harp Bhambra was our only participant in the challenging Cabinteely. In her first event in some time, Harp placed 161st overall, 59th woman, in 40:18. Finally, we had 6 members in the local parkrun in Poolbeg. Kieran Finucane took 9th spot in 20:04 and he was followed by Maria Kennedy (53rd overall, 10th woman, in 24:08), Mary Dolan (77th overall, 18th woman, in 26:36), Donna Barry (101st overall, 32nd woman, in 29:07), Ciara McElligott (132nd overall, 46th woman, in 34;04) and Don Anderton mopping up the back markers (149th in 41:17). Great Ireland Run (National 10k Championships) (3816) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Oliver Lockley 1 00:30:18 [56] Shona Heaslip 1 00:34:52 Crusaders AC runners 80 Peter O’Toole 00:35:52 84 Frank Halligan 00:35:55 108 James Moran 00:36:36 110 Joe McDermott 00:36:39 153 Peter Barry 00:37:40 180 Mick Smyth 00:38:09 (PB) 270 Eddie Nugent 00:40:13 317 Sean Smith 00:41:06 323 Patrick Needham 00:41:16 347David Timoney 00:41:41 393 Gearoid Grogan 00:42:31 411 Anthony O’Reilly 00:42:46 642 Gerald Hoare 00:45:24 [1010] Olwyn Dunne 00:48:40 [206] 1385 Carina Davidson 00:51:38 (328) 1965 Sorcha Ni Chuinneagain 00:55:52 (601) 2797 Paul Kelly 01:01:58 Full results here: http://www.greatrun.org/myresults/advanced-search Great Ireland 5K Run (786) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Killian McNamee 1 00:17:03 5 Maisy O’Sullivan 1 00:17:26 Crusaders AC runners 14 Simon Kenny 00:19:48 170 Amy Brogan 00:27:20 (63) Full results here: http://www.greatrun.org/myresults/advanced-search IMRA Djouce Trail race (161) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Luke Maher 1 00:30:05 18 Becky Quinn 1 00:33:17 Crusaders AC runners 15 Ollie McGrath 00:32:58 18 Becky Quinn 00:33:17 (1) 26 Gavan Doherty 00:34:18 30 Gary Park 00:34:40 39 Laura Flannelly 00:35:38 (4) Full results here: https://www.imra.ie/events/view/id/1579 Marlay Parkrun #253 (533) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 unknown 1 00:16:38 12 Sarah Baryga 1 00:18:56 Crusaders AC runners 21 Anthony O’Reilly 00:19:58 96 Kate Murray 00:23:09 (12) 98 Sarah Cush 00:23:13 (14) 303 Mairead Cashman 00:28:23 (91) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/marlay/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=253 St Anne’s Parkrun #228 (498) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Colin Griffin 1 00:16:36 16 Adrienne Jordan 1 00:18:42 Crusaders AC runners 16 Adrienne Jordan 00:18:42 (1) 151 Fiona Bane 00:24:49 (18) 250 Aoife Quinn 00:27:33 (59) 293 Denis Murphy 00:28:43 338 Lorraine Fitzsimons 00:30:08 (109) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/stannes/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=228 Poolbeg Parkrun #33 (149) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Peter Kern 1 00:17:29 18 Clare Nash 1 00:21:18 Crusaders AC runners 9 Kieran Finucane 00:20:04 53 Maria Kennedy 00:24:08 (10) 77 Mary Dolan 00:26:36 (18) 101 Donna Barry 00:29:07 (32) 132 Ciara McElligott 00:34:04 (46) 149 Don Anderton 00:41:17 Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/poolbeg/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=33 Knocknacarra Parkrun #198 (113) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Niall Murphy 1 00:19:07 3 Catherine Thornton 1 00:19:35 Crusaders AC runner 3 Catherine Thornton 00:19:35 (1) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/knocknacarra/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=198 River Valley Parkrun #89 (78) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Niall Harte 1 00:19:31 3 Cecile Ollagnier 1 00:21:02 Crusaders AC runner 2 Brian Scanlan 00:20:16 Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/rivervalley/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=89 Oldbridge Parkrun #197 (100) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 unknown 1 00:18:07 13 Mairead Murphy 1 00:22:08 Crusaders AC runner 34 Susanne English 00:24:53 (3) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/fairview/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=38 Cabinteely Parkrun #158 (176) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Ted Burke 1 00:19:10 4 Orna Dilworth 1 00:20:50 Crusaders AC runner 161 Harp Bhambra 00:40:18 (59) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/cabinteely/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=158 Shanganagh Parkrun #158 (158) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Darragh Flynn 1 00:18:20 8 Maeve O’Grady 1 00:20:33 Crusaders AC runners 32 Neil Brown 00:22:55 55 Orlaith de Burca 00:25:02 (9) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/shanganagh/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=158 Porterstown Parkrun #130 (183) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Pearse Coyle 1 00:18:34 6 Deirdre Brophy 1 00:19:29 Crusaders AC runners 25 Olwyn Dunne 00:22:55 (2) 158 Kevin Flynn 00:34:39 Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/porterstown/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=130 There is a lot to report on this weekend, both at home and abroad. Outside of Ireland we had some marathoners take on Paris and Rotterdam in extremely warm and humid conditions, whilst we also had a couple of runners participate in UK races. Then, at home there were a couple of 10Ks on offer as well as a half and ultra in the mountains. Crusaders took full advantage of several of these opportunities. One of the hazards of running a Spring marathon is that we often train in wintry weather, meaning temperatures often close to or around zero, but then when we come to race, particularly outside Ireland, we can often face quite challenging warmer conditions which would be welcome in the Autumn after a hot Summer but tricky if we're not otherwise acclimatised. Such was the case on Sunday in both Paris and Rotterdam. We had 7 runners in Paris and they ran really well in the circumstances, at least two of them recording PBs. In a huge field of more than 36,500 finishers, Joe Walsh ran a super PB time of 2:58:30 (a 45s improvement), followed by his wife, Alma Hanevy, who also recorded a PB with a time of 3:09:50, finishing as 58th woman across the line and 8th in her age category. Both reported that with the mounting heat the last few miles were extremely tough. Leslie Lluyd Hughes was next home, in 3:37:23, followed by Matt Clarke (3:46:58), Katie McElroy (3:47:13) and Ruth Dwyer (3:52:54). Miriam Logan finished in 4:28:22, whilst Lucy Collender completed the group, coming home in 5:04:01. A challenging day for all. Bob Manson reported similar tough conditions in Rotterdam, running alongside nearly 14,000 other runners and recording a time of 3:09:25. Members will also be interested to hear that Johannes Frederking ran 1:23:40 in the Hannover Half Marathon in Germany in warm conditions, whilst Katie Eisenhauer also ran a half, this time in Geelong, Australia, finishing in a time of 1:30:11 (most likely even warmer!). In the UK, on Saturday, Leo Lundy ran what he described as a recovery run following his Belfast to Dublin ordeal of the week before. This was just a gentle 30 mile race along the banks of the Thames. There appears always to be some kind of theme to these events and this one was no different, with a medal based on the movie Leon the Professional, for reasons that remain unclear! On Sunday, Michael Kiely joined his older brother Tom in running in the Round the Houses 10k in Edinburgh. In a quality field of nearly 700 runners, Michael placed 13th in a time of 33:10. For the record, Tom placed 142nd in 40:17. Lastly, Jon Lawrence ran in the Manchester marathon, coming home in 3:20:23. Back in Ireland, the first race of the weekend was on Friday evening. Eanna Farrell reported that he took part in the Ballinroad 5k in Waterford, placing 51st out of 235 runners, in a time of 20:49. Then, on Saturday morning, there was a substantial turnout in excellent, pretty windless conditions for the first running of the BHAA DCC 10K in St. Anne’s Raheny. Because of the size of the field of nearly 430 the organisers were obliged to change the loops previously used for two and four mile races of previous years to avoid interference from backmarkers (the field swelled with a fair number of walkers from the Lord Mayor’s 5-alive campaign), and, with only two extended loops in the park along with some proficient stewarding, the race went extremely well. It’s a fast race, clearly reflected in the results. It was won by Joe O'Donoghue, who is in the process of transferring to the club, in a time of 33:10. Many congrats to him. In total, we had 12 runners in the event, including only one woman, Sarah Lyons who improved on the previous week’s K Club time by 20 seconds, coming home in 76th place overall, 14th female across the line, in 46:23. There were other improvements too. Behind a super run from Swede Albin Ingmarsson who placed 4th in 34:19, came Michael Wycherley with yet another PB (his 2nd 10k PB in a week), placing 6th in 34:57, his first time breaking 35 minutes. Michael was also 2nd M40 in the race. Just behind, in 10th place, came John Fahy, who is training for the Hamburg marathon, with a massive PB improvement to record 36:46, his first time under 38 minutes. The result will have given him some confidence for the marathon. Let’s hope weather conditions are otherwise favourable! Ger Forde came next, running at tempo pace for him as he gets back into it after a long trip abroad. Ger placed 16th in 38:49 and he was followed by Eddie Nugent (24th in 39:57), Tony Owens (31st in 41:14), TJ Bourke (55th in 44:09), Tony Hackett (80th in 46:35) and Robbie Moore (84th in 46:44). There were a few mountain trail races on Saturday too. Michael Maughan travelled up to Carlingford to take part in an extremely challenging half marathon around Cooley Mountain. In a field of 109 finishers, Michael tested a recently injured ankle and came out well, placing 29th in a time of 1:52:22. Meanwhile, in Wicklow we had contestants in both ultra and half marathon events on the Wicklow Way. Conditions were cool and damp under foot but again not windy.We had one runner in the Ultra, Ali Onur Uyar, our Turkish club-mate, who placed 29th in a field of 174. Ali’s time was 5:24:45 for the 51k distance. On the other hand, 5 of our club-mates took part in the half (actually 25.5k). Four of them are in training for a spring marathon and will have gained some confidence from the outcome. In a field of 168, John McAuley placed 8th in a time of 2:03:45, and John was followed by Warren Swords in 9th place in a time of 2:05:30. Brian McGuckin came next in 16th spot (2:11:40), followed by Brian Leonard (25th in 2:18:16) and Anthony O’Reilly (45th in 2:28:30). Warren is currently training for London in two weeks’ time, whilst the two Brians and John are looking forward to a trip to Hamburg in three weeks. On Sunday morning Joe McDermott and Mary Fitzsimons took advantage of excellent spring conditions, cool but sunny, to run in the Grocers Fun Run 10K in the northern end of the Phoenix Park. The race which took in a climb out of the Furry Glen onto the Upper Glen Road twice, saw Joe taking a highly creditable 2nd place, running a super time of 37:31. Mary also ran well to record a time of 48:19, placing 47th overall and 10th woman across the line. There are 10 parkruns on which to report. In Coomera, Australia, Kris Ryan kept up her parkrunning, placing 29th overall, 5th female in a time of 24:05 and a field of nearly 180 runners. Closer to home, Kate Murray took first women’s finisher place, 21st overall, in Lough Key in a time of 23:50. Aoife Quinn was 2nd woman finisher in Fairview, in a time of 25:41, ahead of Mairead Cashman (90th overall, 29th woman, in 31:45). Meanwhile, in Cabinteely, Niamh Quinn took 3rd woman’s finisher spot in 24:31 (30th overall) ahead of Laura Gilbride (81st overall, 27th woman, in 29:11). Maria Kennedy celebrated her recent professional promotion with 4th place (32nd overall) in Kilkenny. Maria’s time was 24:01. We also had solo runners in Killarney (Colm Foley who placed 10th in 22:17) and Shanganagh (Janet McManus who placed 57th overall, 7th woman, in 25:02) and also in River Valley (Lorraine Fitzsimons placed 51st overall, 20th woman, in 31:58). Finally, there was a good club turnout in Poolbeg. Kieran Finucane led our club-mates home in 8th place (20:21) and he was followed closely by David Timoney (9th in 20:30) and then by Diarmuid Byrne (20th in 21:31), Russell Murphy (28th in 22:15) and by Maria Pertl (115th overall, 33rd woman finisher, in 29:25). Cooley Legends Half Marathon (109) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Shane Toner 1 01:24:40 3 Jenny King 1 01:26:37 Crusaders AC runner 29 Michael Maughan 01:52:22 Full results here: http://chipit.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Legends-Half-Results.csv BHAA DCC 10K (427) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Joseph O’Donoghue 1 00:33:10 17 Mary Leech 1 00:39:02 Crusaders AC runners 1 Joe O'Donoghue 00:33:10 4 Albin Ingmarsson 00:34:19 6 Michael Wycherley 00:34:57 (PB) 10 John Fahy 00:36:46 (PB) 16 Ger Forde 00:38:49 24 Eddie Nugent 00:39:57 31 Anthony Owens 00:41:14 45 Phelim Murray 00:43:08 55 TJ Bourke 00:44:09 76 Sarah Lyons 00:46:23 (14) 80 Anthony Hackett 00:46:35 84 Robbie Moore 00:46:44 Full results here: http://bhaa.ie/race/dcc-10km-2018/ Maurice Mullins Half (Wicklow Way Half) (168) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Eoin Lennon 1 01:45:00 19 Martsje Hell 1 02:12:50 Crusaders AC runners 8 John McAuley 02:03:45 9 Warren Swords 02:05:30 16 Brian McGuckin 02:11:40 25 Brian Leonard 02:18:16 45 Anthony O’Reilly 02:28:30 Full results here: https://www.imra.ie/events/results/id/1577/ Maurice Mullins Ultra (Wicklow Way Ultra) (174) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Tom Hogan 1 04:13:55 26 Man Troend 1 05:20:50 Crusaders AC runner 29 Ali Onur Uyar 05:24:45 Full results here: https://www.imra.ie/events/results/id/1576/ Ballinroad 5K (235) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Noel Murphy 1 00:16:15 12 Sally Forristal 1 00:18:03 Crusaders AC runner 51 Eanna Farrell 00:20:49 Full results here: http://www.westwaterfordathletics.org/images/pdfs/2018/Ballinroad_5k_18.pdf The Grocers 10K fun run (249) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Adrian Campbell 1 00:37:13 14 Aine O’Donnell 1 00:41:29 Crusaders AC runners 2 Joe McDermott 00:37:31 47 Mary Fitzsimons 00:48:19 (10) Full results here: https://www.popupraces.ie/the-grocers-fun-run-2018/#1_7D3CAC Round the Houses 10K (686) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Will Mackay 1 00:31:16 19 Stephanie Pennycook 1 00:34:14 Crusaders AC runner 13 Michael Kiely 00:33:10 Full results here: https://www.stuweb.co.uk/live/race.shtml#3173-7201 Kilkenny Parkrun #178 (190) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Gary Clerkin 1 00:18:21 3 Siobhan O’Doherty 1 00:18:45 Crusaders AC runner 32 Maria Kennedy 00:24:01 (4) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/kilkenny/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=178 Killarney Parkrun #144 (54) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Padraig Courtney 1 00:18:34 7 Caroline Murphy 1 00:21:36 Crusaders AC runner 10 Colm Foley 00:22:17 Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/killarney/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=144 Poolbeg Parkrun #32 (202) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Ashley Hayes 1 00:18:43 15 Stephanie Bergin 1 00:20:49 Crusaders AC runners 8 Kieran Finucane 00:20:21 9 David Timoney 00:20:30 20 Diarmuid Byrne 00:21:31 28 Russell Murphy 00:22:15 115 Maria Pertl 00:29:25 (33) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/poolbeg/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=32 Lough Key Parkrun #97 (202) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Daniel Dill 1 00:19:31 21 Kate Murray 1 00:23:50 Crusaders AC runner 21 Kate Murray 00:23:50 (1) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/loughkey/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=97 River Valley Parkrun #88 (94) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Bryan Lynch 1 00:20:07 4 Cecile Ollagnier 1 00:20:43 Crusaders AC runner 51 Lorraine Fitzsimons 00:31:58 (20) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/rivervalley/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=88 Fairview Parkrun #38 (123) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Paul West 1 00:18:59 30 Mary Lynch 1 00:24:37 Crusaders AC runners 36 Aoife Quinn 00:25:41 (2) 90 Mairead Cashman 00:31:45 (29) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/fairview/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=38 Cabinteely Parkrun #157 (160) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 George Callery 1 00:19:11 5 Orna Dilworth 1 00:20:44 Crusaders AC runners 30 Niamh Quinn 00:24:31 (3) 81 Laura Gilbride 00:29:11 (27) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/cabinteely/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=157 Shanganagh Parkrun #157 () Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Ben Paviour 1 00:16:39 28 Ciara Carter 1 00:22:20 Crusaders AC runner 57 Janet McManus 00:25:02 (7) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/shanganagh/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=157 Another great weekend for club participation. Two major events dominate. The first was the BHAA K club 10K, always a good opportunity potentially for getting a PB, and the second was Easter Monday’s running of the Battle of Clontarf in St. Anne’s Raheny, which incorporated the Leinster 10 mile championships. We start with the latter race, which was held on a twisty course on the paths of the park in cold and unfortunately wet conditions. We had at least 7 intrepid participants among the 381 finishers, with the women’s team coming home in 5th place and Olwyn Dunne winning a bronze medal in her age category. Unsurprisingly, the race was won by Peter Somba getting into his racing groove. The first Crusader across the line was Kieran Little in 14th place (58:03) who will have derived significant confidence from what was really a training run (and his training has suffered recently) as he tapers for the Boston marathon, in which he is planning to compete during his upcoming honeymoon(!). John Keogh was next in 112th place (70:53), followed by Dee Ni Chearbhaill (119th overall, 11th woman home and 6th in her age category, in 71:43) and Kate Murray (196th overall, 39th woman, in 78:58). Olwyn followed not too far behind (208th overall, 45th woman) and these were the three scorers for the women’s team. Carina Davidson placed 221st overall, 52nd female finisher, in 81:22 and our final competitor was Robbie Moore (285th in 89:16) having run in the BHAA 10k two days earlier. We had a super turnout in the BHAA race, which as usual likely produced a reasonable number of PBs, although for some reason may have measured slightly long this year as a result of a few tweaks to the route. It was a mixed race in dry and not too windy conditions and on the women’s side our top performer was Adrienne Jordan who took 4th spot in the women’s race, behind winner Linda Byrne. Adrienne ran it in 38:57 (66th overall) and likely podiumed in her age category. Niamh Corby was next (106th overall, 10th woman) in 41:24 and just behind theoretically race-rusty husband Grattan O’Brien, but who clearly has been doing some decent training on the sly (104th in 41:07). Our next female competitor home was Emer Kenny (183rd overall, 20th woman, in 45:07) and Emer was followed by Sarah Lyons (208th overall, 29th woman, in 46:43). We had at least 14 men in the race in a total field of nearly 370. Michael Wycherley continues to improve with age and recorded a PB time of 35:17 (16th place), 33 seconds faster than his previous 10k result. In addition, Michael took 3rd spot in his age category. He and two others, Frank Halligan (19th in 35:24) and Peter O’Toole (22nd in 35:47), ran together for much of the race, with Michael finally pulling away towards the end. There were good results too from Andrea Talpo (56th in a likely PB of 38:21), Joe Walsh, who has the Paris marathon next weekend (73rd in 39:28) and Brian Scanlan (93rd in 40:36). Just behind Brendan Glynn (115th in 42:00) came Denis Murphy in a PB time of 43:19 (14th) and Denis was followed by Phelim Murray (148th in 43:49), Tom Dunne (152nd in 44:04), just recovering from a stomach bug the day before, Tony Hackett (188th in 45:18), Robbie Moore (236th in 48:01) and Paul Kelly (359th in 62:47). The usual feast at the K Club followed the race. Other notable events of the weekend included Leo Lundy’s mammoth run from Belfast to Dublin starting at noon on Good Friday. There were various cut-off times along what turned out to be quite a treacherous busy open road and Leo negotiated them all, finally coming home well inside the 36 hour limit in a time of 28:18. Of the 71 starters and only 37 finishers in this inaugural event, Leo’s 107 mile effort (the furthest he’s ever run) rewarded him with 21st place overall. Kiera Roche also had a rewarding weekend, taking 1st place (16th overall in a field of nearly 350 runners) in the Ballyliffin 10 mile Coastal Challenge in Co. Donegal. Kiera ran the distance in an excellent 1:04:35. We also had another race winner over the Easter break. Becky Quinn won the women’s race in an IMRA event. The overall winner among the 49 competitors (Tom Hogan) recorded a time of 48:07 and Becky took 10th spot overall in a time of 57:22. The course was challenging involving a distance of 10km and a climb in excess of 500m on difficult terrain. There was also quite a turnout in the parkruns on Easter Saturday. We also had some podium finishes. One of the largest Cru participations took place in Poolbeg where men’s club captain Michael Kiely came home as first finisher in a time of 16:20. He was followed by John Mulvihill in 2nd (17:04) and Michael O’Conor (4th in 17:32) who fell just as he was about to make his move for a podium place, so he reliably informs. David Timoney was next (7th in 20:13), Zalan Kovacs (13th in 21:40) and Colm Foley (16th in 22:52). There were also first finishers elsewhere. Irene Gorman shares an identical course PB of 19:32 with Catherine Thornton in Knocknacarra, another Crusader woman to beat the entire field, whilst Olwyn Dunne, a couple of days before her Leinster 10 mile exploit, took 2nd place in Cabinteely (28th overall, in 24:09). Kieran Little did likewise, and placed 2nd in Shanganagh in 17:16 and another podium place went also to Susanne English in Oldbridge (3rd female, 41st overall, in 26:38). We had a significant turnout in St. Anne’s. Darina Scully was first home for the club in 67th place overall, 6th woman, in 22:50. Darina was followed by Colm Kernan, who paced (146th in 25:03), Amy Brogan (187th overall, 32nd woman, in 26:35), Aoife Quinn, another pacer (243rd overall, 61st woman, in 28:24), Maria Pertl (250th overall, 67th woman, in 28:43), Diarmuid Byrne (251st in 28:44) and Kevin Flynn (330th in 32:14). Brian Carroll ran in Griffeen, placing 7th in 19:06, whilst Ronan Moynihan took part in Malahide (23rd in 21:44). Once again, Aidan Hudner ran in Victoria Park, Glasgow, placing 60th out of a field of nearly 280 in 22:54, whilst Sharon Woods ran in Tymon, taking 36th spot overall, 9th woman, in 24:30. Ballyliffin 10 mile Coastal Challenge (349) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Greg Roberts 1 00:54:26 16 Kiera Roche 1 01:04:35 Crusaders AC runner 16 Kiera Roche 01:04:35 (1) Full results here: http://www.donegaldaily.com/2018/03/31/ballyliffin-coastal-challenge-results-where-did-you-come/ BHAA K Club 10K (369) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Rossa Hurley 1 00:32:30 27 Linda Byrne 1 00:35:56 Crusaders AC runners 16 Michael Wycherley 00:35:17 (PB) 19 Frank Halligan 00:35:24 22 Peter O’Toole 00:35:47 56 Andrea Talpo 00:38:21 (PB) 66 Adrienne Jordan 00:38:57 (4) 73 Joe Walsh 00:39:28 93 Brian Scanlan 00:40:36 104 Grattan O’Brien 00:41:07 106 Niamh Corby 00:41:24 (10) 115 Brendan Glynn 00:42:00 140 Denis Murphy 00:43:19 (PB) 148 Phelim Murray 00:43:49 152 Tomas Dunne 00:44:04 183 Emer Kenny 00:45:07 (20) 188 Anthony Hackett 00:45:18 208 Sarah Lyons 00:46:43 (29) 236 Robbie Moore 00:48:01 359 Paul Kelly 01:02:47 Full results here: https://bhaa.ie/april-1st-2018-provisional-kclub-results/ Battle of Clontarf (Leinster 10 mile Championships) (381) Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime 1 Peter Somba 1 00:52:31 41 Sally Forristal 1 01:02:25 Crusaders AC runners 14 Kieran Little 00:58:03 112 John Keogh 01:10:53 119 Dee Ni Chearbhaill 01:11:43 (11) 196 Kate Murray 01:18:58 (390 208 Olwyn Dunne 01:19:33 (45) 221 Carina Davidson 01:21:22 (10) 285 Robbie Moore 01:29:16 Full results here: https://www.myrunresults.com/events/battle_of_clontarf_10_mile_(leinster_championship)/2582/results Malahide Parkrun #281 (272) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Paul Gleeson 1 00:18:15 10 Rachel Eustace 1 00:19:56 Crusaders AC runner 23 Ronan Moynihan 00:21:44 Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/malahide/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=281 Griffeen Parkrun #250 (176) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Mark Ryan 1 00:15:30 9 Niamh Fitzgerald 1 00:19:49 Crusaders AC runner 7 Brian Carroll 00:19:06 Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/griffeen/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=250 Poolbeg Parkrun #30 (53) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Michael Kiely 1 00:16:20 22 Hannah Coleman 1 00:23:46 Crusaders AC runners 2 John Mulvihill 00:17:04 4 Michael O’Conor 00:17:32 7 David Timoney 00:20:13 13 Zalan Kovacs 00:21:40 16 Colm Foley 00:22:52 Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/poolbeg/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=31 St. Anne’s Parkrun #227 (393) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Peter Fitzsimons 1 00:17:07 28 Adrienne Atkins 1 00:21:04 Crusaders AC runners 67 Darina Scully 00:22:50 (6) 146 Colm Kernan 00:25:03 187 Amy Brogan 00:26:35 (32) 243 Aoife Quinn 00:28:24 (61) 250 Maria Pertl 00:28:43 (67) 251 Diarmuid Byrne 00:28:44 330 Kevin Flynn 00:32:14 Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/stannes/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=227 Knocknacarra Parkrun #196 (92) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Irene Gorman 1 00:19:32 2 Kieran Tierney 1 00:19:44 Crusaders AC runner 1 Irene Gorman 00:19:32 (1) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/knocknacarra/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=196 Tymon Parkrun #197 (166) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Anthony O’Rourke 1 00:18:34 5 Sinead Tighe 1 00:20:42 Crusaders AC runner 36 Sharon Woods 00:24:30 (9) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/tymon/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=197 Cabinteely Parkrun #156 (176) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Barry Thornton 1 00:19:02 24 Erica Calder 1 00:23:57 Crusaders AC runner 28 Olwyn Dunne 00:24:09 (2) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/cabinteely/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=156 Shanganagh Parkrun #156 (176) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Peter Mathews 1 00:16:49 10 Richael Browne 1 00:20:28 Crusaders AC runner 2 Kieran Little 00:17:16 Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/shanganagh/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=156 Oldbridge Parkrun #195 (86) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Mark Leacy 1 00:19:00 31 Hazel Murphy 1 00:25:19 Crusaders AC runner 41 Susanne English 00:26:38 (3) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/oldbridge/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=195 |