This week's racing started on Tuesday evening with the Bob Heffernan 5k, of which more below. On Wednesday, whilst John McAuley and Laura Flannelly were battling it out with 210 other runners in the balmy warmth on Scarr mountain in Co. Wicklow in an IMRA league event, placing respectively 11th (42:30) and 53rd overall (3rd female finisher in 50:21) behind race winner Diarmaid Collins (39:22), many Crusaders headed down to Irishtown track to watch the 3rd Dublin Athletics graded meet. They were well rewarded with some excellent racing.
Frank Halligan was first to go. He competed in the Dublin 10,000m championships, finishing in 10th place in a PB time of 35:16.9. The runners were refreshed periodically with bottles of water because of the unusual heat. Lesley-Ann Doughan, a recent recruit to the club, decided to take on both the 400m and 800m and excelled in both with 3rd place in the women’s 400m C race in a time of 66:46 and shortly afterwards winning race 2 of the women’s C 800m in 2:32:38 with a storming last 100m. In the men’s 400m, we had 2 runners in race 2 of the C grade, masters runners John O’Loughlin and Paul Francis, competing against much younger athletes. John held on well to take 3rd place in 57.5, whilst Paul also had a good run with 6th place in 61.8. Simon Everard took on the 400m B grade, placing 5th in 54.09. The majority of our runners on the evening participated in the 800m events. Lisa Shine was our sole runner in race 1 of the 800m C event, taking 7th position with a good strong run in 2:38.68, whilst, as mentioned, Lesley-Ann won the 2nd race, having run with Grainne Regan (4th in 2:33.69) who just edged out Niamh Aspell, the latter having taken the lead early on in her first ever 800m (5th in 2:34.28). Orla Kennedy demonstrated her experience in the 800m B race, hanging back for the first 250m of the race with Fiona Shine tucked in behind and Catherine Thornton, another total newcomer to the 800m, slightly further up the field. Orla then ran extremely strongly to come through the field and finish in a well-deserved 3rd place in 2:26.18, with Fiona just behind in 2:27.05. It was certainly a PB for Fiona and quite possibly one also for Orla. Catherine had the misfortune of a severely tightening leg in the last 250m and placed 10th in 2:34.31. In the women’s 800m A race, Mary Horgan was untouchable, from gun to tape, coming home in 1st place in a time of 2:14.45. Four of our clubmates competed in the men’s 800m. In the 800m D race John Fahy and Niall McGeorge placed respectively a close 3rd and 4th in 2:15.93 and 2:16.60, whilst Alan Sheehy also had an excellent race in the men’s 800m C event, placing 4th in 2:13.91. Finally, Michael Kiely participated in the men’s 800m A race, taking 6th spot in 2:03.67. So, back to Tuesday. We had 4 clubmates participate in the Na Fianna Bob Heffernan 5K road race in Johnstownbridge Co. Meath. The race, with nearly 500 competitors, was unsurprisingly won by Peter Somba (15:08) and Laura Shaughnessy (16:31), each having significant margins of victory in otherwise quality fields. For the club, our small contingent was led home by Vinnie McGuinness in 58th place overall (17:11), followed by Colm Kernan (154th in 18:59), Amy Wright (232nd overall, 25th female finisher, in 20:12) and Denis Murphy (249th in 20:35). Several Crusaders ran in the Staff Relays in the Phoenix Park on Thursday evening. On a winding 5k course that took runners down the Khyber Pass from a tented village on the Fifteen Acres, via the Snake on Military Road then up by the hospital back on to the area where the tents were laid out facing onto several bends of the course towards the finish and on an extremely warm evening, there were nearly four thousand participants running a total distance of 25k in teams of 5. It was an extremely chaotic (but well-organised) event and almost impossible to determine who was leading at times (chiptiming essential!). Notable Cru participants included Karl Fahy (2nd after the first leg) and Ciaran Diviney, Adrienne Jordan (who took over from Sean Hehir (of the primary schoolteachers team) for the first handover and was still leading the race when she finished), Vinnie McGuinness, Michael Moriarty, Emer Kenny, Ilona McElroy, Luke Haran, Joe McDermott (who ran an extremely strong second leg) and Tony Owens, to name but a few. No idea if any Cru were in the top 3 teams, but the primary school teachers eventually finished 4th. On Saturday in wet conditions in Tullamore, the IMC held its second track meet of the season. Michael Kiely decided to run in the 1500m men’s A race this time, placing 11th in 4:08.39. Kevin Woods recorded a PB in the men’s 800m A event with a time of 1:51.79 and first place, whilst in the C event, Michael O’Conor placed 6th, also in a PB time of 2:04.72. Mary Horgan once again took on the 800m and in the A event ran an excellent 2:12.48 and 6th place, pretty close to or bettering her PB for the distance. Rob Cross ran in the 3,000m, taking 5th spot in a time of 9:07.00 and then we had two runners in the sprint events. Ciara Barry placed 6th in the women’s 200m in 26.74, whilst Nick Ennis ran 49.83 to place 2nd in the men’s 400m. Then on Sunday, we had several competitors in the AAI Open games. Valentinos Goularas ran in 2 races and winning them both in 14:77 and 4:72. Niamh Boland was joined by Orla Kennedy in the 1500m with Niamh placing 3rd in 4:42.33 and Orla, 6th in 4:58.41. Nick Ennis placed 2nd in the 400m in a time of 48.85. Recent exile, Ian Kinsella, reported that he won his first race on Canadian soil this weekend. The event was the Sulphur Springs 25K trail run. In spite of IT band issues Leo Lundy strapped himself up this weekend as he needed time on his feet for some big events coming up. He chose a Saturday night marathon on the banks of the Thames that finished using head torches at close to midnight in extremely warm and humid conditions. Following that he travelled off to Kent for a 7:30am start in the Jeskyns Park marathon near Gravesend. In humid conditions and a temperature of 29 degrees Celsius on a hilly course he considered it was a monster. Not a fast series of races, but plenty of miles in the bank for Leo going forward. Finally, we had some pretty notable performances in the parkruns on Saturday, with a plethora of podium finishes. In Marlay, Alban Coghlan and Lesley-Ann Doughan jointly finished first finishers ahead of nearly 400 runners. Alban’s time was 16:47, whilst Lesley–Ann continued her winning ways, placing 26th overall in a time 20:40. Kate Murray also ran, taking 63rd spot overall (6th woman) in 22:22. Gillian Errity was our sole runner in Griffeen among 170 other participants. Gillian placed 42nd overall, 3rd woman, in 22:51. Meanwhile, in St. Anne’s with its field of 364, Peter O’Toole also placed 3rd in 17:55, followed by Niamh Quinn (90th overall, 12th woman, in 22:34, Colm Kernan (111th in 23:30), Ciara McElligott (250th overall, 65th woman, in 29:24), and Aoife Quinn (285th overall, 84th woman, in 30:14). Another top finish went to Katie McElroy in Poppintree among a field of 134 runners. Katie placed 5th overall, 1st woman finisher, in 20:33 and was followed by Maria Pertl (68th overall, 29th woman, in 30:54). Neil Brown came home in 47th place out of 133 in Shanganagh. His time was 25:00. Lisa Shine was also a sole runner for the club in Cabinteely. In a field of 108 runners, Lisa placed 35th overall, 4th woman, in 25:40. Lastly, Sarah Lyons and Dominick Branigan took on Bushy Dublin. Sarah placed 25th overall, 3rd woman, in 23:56, whilst Dominick placed 5th out of nearly 100 runners, in a time of 18:38 Bob Heffernan 5K Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Peter Somba 1 00:15:08 33 Laura Shaughnessy 1 00:16:31 Crusaders AC runners 58 Vinnie McGuinness 00:17:11 154 Colm Kernan 00:18:59 232 Amy Wright 00:20:12 (25) 249 Denis Murphy 00:20:35 Full results here: http://www.sportsplits.com/Home/Results Griffeen Parkrun #206 Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Paul Martin 1 00:16:51 18 Karen Clarke 1 00:20:59 Crusaders AC runner Gillian Errity 00:22:51(3) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/griffeen/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=206 Shanganagh Parkrun #114 Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 unknown 1 00:18:21 21 Ciara Carter 1 00:22:27 Crusaders AC runner 47 Neil Brown 00:25:00 Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/shanganagh/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=114 Poppintree Parkrun #134 Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Tom McKenna 1 00:19:00 5 Katie McElroy 1 00:20:33 Crusaders AC runners 5 Katie McElroy 00:20:33 (1) 68 Maria Pertl 00:30:54 (29) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/poppintree/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=134 Marlay Parkrun #211 Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Alban Coghlan 1 00:16:47 26 Lesley- Ann Doughan 1 00:20:40 Crusaders AC runners 1 Alban Coghlan 00:16:47 26 Lesley-Ann Doughan (1) 63 Kate Murray 00:22:22 (6) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/marlay/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=211 Cabinteely Parkrun #113 Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Paul McDonnell 1 00:19:48 25 Dee O’Mahony 1 00:24:25 Crusaders AC runner 35 Lisa Shine 00:25:40 (4) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/cabinteely/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=113 Bushy Dublin Parkrun #14 Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Des Kennedy 1 00:17:18 6 Hannah Wylie 1 00:20:13 Crusaders AC runner 25 Sarah Lyons 00:23:56 (3) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/bushydublin/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=14 St Anne’s Parkrun #184 Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Colin Griffin 1 00:16:47 28 Maria O’Sullivan 1 00:19:37 Crusaders AC runners 3 Peter O’Toole 00:17:55 90 Niamh Quinn 00:22:54 (12) 111Colm Kernan 00:23;30 250 Ciara McElligott 00:29:24 (65) 285 Aoife Quinn 00:30:14 (84) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/stannes/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=184 Last Tuesday evening, in warm and dry conditions, the BHA held its annual running of the ESB 5k beach race. The event attracted nearly 190 runners, among them at least 11 Crusaders. Niamh Corby and Yvonne Macauley enjoyed a decent battle during the first half of the race, with Niamh finally prevailing and coming home with the win in 19:34 and 24th place overall. Yvonne’s second place was earned with a clear margin over the third placed runner, Malika Hammani (20:05), with her time of 19:52 and 28th overall. Olwyn Dunne placed 10th woman home and first in her age category in a time of 24:35 (108th overall) and Olwyn was followed by Mairead Cashman (156th overall, 27th woman, in 28:49), 3rd in her age category, and Iseult Ni Chuinneagain (163rd overall, 30th woman, in 29:56) who was 4th in her age category.
Our first man home was Karl Walsh in 6th place in a time of 18:03, followed closely behind by Tom O’Dowd (7th in 18:15). Tomas Mahony brought his brother, Padraig, into the race, with Tom taking 21st spot in 19:24 and Padraig recording a time of 19:44 to take 26th spot. Tony Owens was next, in 35th place and a time of 20:35, followed by Philip Matthews (48th in 21:18) and Robbie Moore (62nd in 21:58). On Wednesday evening our IMRA members were down in Glasnamullen in Co. Wicklow running around Djouce in a league race in a field of nearly 200 participants. The challenging mountainous course measured just over 10k and we had at least 5 Crusaders participating. First home for the club was Warren Swords who took 8th spot in 49:40, behind race winner Michael McCarthy (47:04). Warren was followed by John McAuley (14th in 51:54), Brian Leonard (22nd in 54:40), Brian McGuckin (25th in 55:02) and Berndt Heim (165th in 1:22:10). Then, on Thursday Brendan Glynn and Paul Kelly headed up to Drogheda to take part in the 2nd graded meet organised by Drogheda AC. In the 1 mile B race, Brendan placed 14th in 5:57:76, followed up by a 23rd placing in the 5000m A race in 21:22:17. Paul, meanwhile, also took part in the mile, this time the D race, placing 12th in 7:54:55. He then went on to run the 200m D race, coming home in 2nd place in a time of 33:34. Two big road racing events took place over the weekend. The first was the Calcutta Run on Saturday morning, comprising both a 5k and 10k race. The second was the new Streets of Dublin 5k that took place on Sunday morning. Both attracted reasonable fields. We start with the Calcutta Run and we had members competing in each of the two races. Criteria for entry appear to include a connection to the law and so it was generally our lawyers who competed on Saturday, with some success. On the back of little preparation and recent injury Caroline Crowley announced her return to competitive running with a clear win in the women’s 10K. Her time of 39:33, modest by Caroline’s standards, also possibly reflected that many believe the course to have been about 300m long, not the first time this has happened for this particular event. Emma O’Mahony also ran in the same race, placing 131st overall in a total field of nearly 440 runners (19th female finisher) in a time of 49:10. On a course that started and finished in Blackhall Place and wound its way along Arbour Hill into the Phoenix Park, covering pretty much the full lengths of North Road and Chesterfield Roads in the park, Shane Collins placed a decent 4th in a time of 36:11 in the 10K, followed by Peter O’Toole, running well in 5th place in a time of 37:50. Kevin Regan ran well to place 24th in 42:24 and, finally, Brendan Glynn probably would have had a PB if the race had measured 10k. He finished in 45:55. The 5k attracted a field nearly double in size to that of the 10K at just over 800. Luke Haran placed 11th in 20:26, whilst Louise Dobbyn, in her first race since her recent return to Ireland from London, took 31st spot overall, 6th woman, in 22:38. Kate Murray also ran, coming home in 53rd place overall, 10th woman, in 23:30. On Sunday morning more than 1,200 took to the streets around the Docklands area in the Streets of Dublin 5K, a race that was established on the back of the successful 1916 anniversary race last year. The rather twisty and complicated course wound its way from the Custom House and along Sheriff Street, back down onto the North Wall Quay, crossing the Sam Beckett Bridge and, after taking in a few turns near the Grand Canal Plaza and Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, finished up on the City Quay. Runners were joined by Leo Varadkar who underlined his running credentials with a 26:44 finish and the race was won by Karl Fahy, coming home some 10 minutes earlier in a time of 16:06. Brian O’Kelly reinforced Cru dominance with a strong 2nd place finish in a time of 16:28, some 15 seconds ahead of 3rd place. Our only other competitor that can be discerned was Paul Daniels who has not run in an age, coming off a series of injuries, and who placed 30th in a time of 19:09. On the same day Jason Harvey reported that he ran a 51:63 400mH to place 4th in a guest race at the Loughborough International Athletics meeting, going on with Ben Maze to place 4th also for Northern Ireland in the same meet in the men's 4x400m relay in a time of 3:11:70. Our exiles in Australia, Jerome Dupuy and Aisling Ruane, ran in the Sydney half marathon on Sunday, with Jerome placing 40th in a time of 1:18:10 and Aisling coming home in a time of 1:40:52 in tough conditions. Also on Sunday, Fiona Bane took the opportunity of a visit to Halifax, Nova Scotia to take part in the half marathon there, coming home in a PB time of 1:46:11. Fiona reported that it was sunny but not warm at 8 degrees Celsius, with a refreshing strong breeze. The course included several challenging hills in the second half. A significant participation of Crusaders in parkruns on Saturday morning yielded considerable success. In a field of nearly 40 runners Denis Murphy was first finisher in Sligo in a time of 20:53, whilst Diarmuid Byrne equally finished ahead of the field in Dungloe in a modest field of under 20 runners. Diarmuid ran 19:55 and Maria Pertl placed 9th overall, 2nd woman, in 25:37. In Marlay Park, Dominick Branigan placed 5th out of more than 500 participants in a time of 17:58. Alex Romano also ran, placing 229th in 26:24, followed by Mairead Cashman (302nd overall, 95th woman, in 28:43). Ciaran Smyth took on Shrewsbury, placing 14th out of a 526-strong field, in 19:46, whilst, in Waterstown, Marius McNicholas placed 14th in a field of 85, and a time of 20:37. We had 5 runners participating alongside nearly 400 other runners in St. Anne’s. Michael Wycherley was first home for us, in 10th place (18:43), followed by Colm Kernan (20th in 19:18), Berndt Heim (131st in 25:00), Ciara McElligott (279th overall, 97th female, in 29:47) and Lorraine Fitzsimons (328th overall, 123rd female, in 31:49). Neil Brown joined 80 or so other runners in Hartstown to place 22nd in 22:59, whilst Orlaith de Burca and Lisa Shine participated in Longford in a field exceeding 180 runners. Orlaith came home in 63rd place overall, 25th female finisher, in a time of 27:52, whilst Lisa ran 28:51 to place 77th overall, 32nd female finisher. Lastly, in Cabinteely, Tomas Dunne took 14th place in 21:36 and Leo Lundy swept the field as the “lantern rouge” in 41:05. The field measured 124 participants. BHAA ESB 5K Beach race Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Kevin Donagher 1 00:17:14 24 Niamh Corby 1 00:19:34 Crusaders AC runners 6 Karl Walsh 00:18:03 7 Tom O’Dowd 00:18:15 21 Tomas Mahony 00:19:24 24 Niamh Corby 00:19:34 (1) 28 Yvonne Macauley 00:19:52 (2) 35 Anthony Owens 00:20:35 48 Philip Matthews 00:21:18 62 Robbie Moore 00:21:58 108 Olwyn Dunne 00:24:35 (10) 156 Mairead Cashman 00:28:49 (27) 163 Iseult Ni Chuinneagain 00:29:56 (30) Full results here: https://bhaa.ie/events/esb-2017/ Calcutta Run 5K Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Fintan Kerins 1 00:17:19 3 Annette Kealy 1 00:18:51 Crusaders AC runners 11 Luke Haran 00:20:26 31 Louise Dobbyn 00:22:38 (6) 53 Kate Murray 00:23:30 (10) Full results here: http://www.titansports.ie/race-results/ Calcutta Run 10K Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Louis McCarthy 1 00:32:48 12 Caroline Crowley 1 00:39:33 Crusaders AC runners 4 Shane Collins 00:36:11 5 Peter O’Toole 00:37:50 12 Caroline Crowley 00:39:33 (1) 24 Kevin Regan 00:42:24 63 Brendan Glynn 00:45:55 131 Emma O’Mahony 00:49:10 (19) Full results here: http://www.titansports.ie/race-results/ Streets of Dublin 5K Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Karl Fahy 1 00:16:06 28 Tara Kennedy 1 00:18:56 Crusaders AC runners 1 Karl Fahy 00:16:06 2 Brian O’Kelly 00:16:28 30 Paul Daniels 00:19:09 Full results here: http://www.titansports.ie/race-results/ Hartstown Parkrun #131 Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Niall Sherlock 1 00:18:01 14 Breda Harris 1 00:21:38 Crusaders AC runner 22 Neil Brown 00:22:59 Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/hartstown/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=131 Marlay Parkrun #210 Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 James Kelly 1 00:17:01 10 Paula Grant 1 00:18:52 Crusaders AC runners 5 Dominick Branigan 00:17:58 229 Alex Romano 00:26:24 302 Mairead Cashman 00:28:43 (95) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/marlay/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=210 Cabinteely Parkrun #112 Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Barry Thornton 1 00:18:29 7 Malika Hammani 1 00:20:23 Crusaders AC runners 14 Tomas Dunne 00:21:36 124 Leo Lundy 00:41:05 Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/cabinteely/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=112 St Anne’s Parkrun #183 Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 unknown 1 00:16:40 29 Juliette Dowd 1 00:20:06 Crusaders AC runners 20 Colm Kernan 00:19:18 131 Berndt Heim 00:25:00 279 Ciara McElligott 00:29:47 (97) 328 Lorraine Fitzsimons 00:31:49 (123) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/stannes/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=183 Waterstown Parkrun #151 Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Eoin Brennan 1 00:18:29 10 Aisling Smith 1 00:21:11 Crusaders AC runner 7 Marius McNicholas 00:20:37 Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/waterstown/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=151 Dungloe Parkrun #64 Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Diarmuid Byrne 1 00:19:55 8 Helen Coll 1 00:25:35 Crusaders AC runners 1 Diarmuid Byrne 00:19:55 9 Maria Pertl 00:25:37 (2) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/dungloe/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=64 Longford Parkrun #54 Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Fiona Gettings 1 00:19:38 2 Tom Birmingham 1 00:20:34 Crusaders AC runners 63 Orlaith de Burca 00:27:52 (25) 77 Lisa Shine 00:28:51 (32) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/longford/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=54 Sligo Parkrun #119 Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Denis Murphy 1 00:20:53 10 Kasia Gniado 1 00:24:44 Crusaders AC runner 1 Denis Murphy 00:24:44 Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/sligo/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=119
The activities to be reported this week started on Wednesday with two events: the third and last race of the Women’s Meet and Train Summer league in which 12 Crusaders competed, and, on the same night, Tallaght stadium hosted the 2nd graded track meet of the season. The WM&T race was organised by Donore and held around the Furze and Ordnance Survey Roads in the Phoenix Park but ran into some difficulties before the start owing to the official visit of Prince Charles and Camilla who were residing at Farmleigh on the same evening. Because of the Garda roadblocks in the park, the race had to be shortened from 4 miles to approx. 3.5 and, in addition to there being lots of parked cars, there was traffic on the course during the race, so the 65 or so runners were presented with more challenges than usual. Our first Crusader home was Amy Brogan, 6th in a time of 24:38. Amy was followed by Rachel Yorke, 17th in 25:36 and Emily Ferghan right behind her in 25:39. Kate Murray was 20th (25:44), Niamh Quinn 24th (26:13) and Kris Ryan 30th (26:50). Hot on Kris’ heals was Carina Davidson, the only Cru runner to complete all 3 races in the Summer series, 31st in a time of 26:53. 33rd place went to Keira Gleeson who came in with 27:14. Louise Yorke took 54th spot in 30:10 and Maria Estevan, one place behind in 30:28. Sarah Lyons was next in 56th (31:30) and Ciara McElligott flew in for 64th spot in 34:03. In Tallaght on Wednesday we had several athletes take part in the 2nd graded meet of the Summer. In the men’s 200m B race Sam Bolger placed 5th in 24:49, with Peter Murphy 6th in 24:51. Graham Flynn placed 5ht in 25:34 in the 200m C event, race 2, whilst in race 4 of the C standard John O’Loughlin took 5th spot in 26:28. The Shine sisters represented the women’s section of the club on the night, with both Fiona and Lisa continuing to show great form. Fiona ran 5;05:30 to place 4th in the women’s 1500m B race, whilst Lisa placed 10th in a big field of 19 runners in the 1500m C in 5:33:76. The men’s 1500m A&B combined race saw Michael O’Conor take 10th spot in 4:23:69, whilst John McAuley ran in the 1500m C race 1, taking 8th place in a time of 4:49:95. Alan Sheehy ran strongly in race 2 of the 1500m C standard, placing 6th in 4:34:45 and Frank Halligan turned out for the D race, placing 3rd in 4:43:80, only then to go on to run the 5000m and take 4th spot in 17:14:34. Sticking with track, on Saturday Waterford AC hosted the Ton Le Gaoithe Games on their relatively new Mondo track. We had some excellent performances in the rather confusing format, with some of our runners competing in two races of the same distance in an event which unusually was promoting wind assistance (if it was there!). In both race 1 and 2 of the men’s 110mH Valentinos Goularas won the youth/junior events in 14:86 and 15:26, whilst in the senior men’s 110mH Matthew Behan ran respectively 14:25 and 14:41 to win both races. Nick Ennis actually ran in 3 events: firstly he ran both 100m races placing 6th in one (11:21) and 3rd in the other (11:26), whilst also placing 4th in the 200m in 22:92. Ben Maze placed 4th in the 100m in 10:91, and, in another heat of the same distance, Brian Murphy placed 4th in 11:46 and then followed it with a 3rd place in another heat in 13:26. Andrew Mellon also ran one of the 100m races, placing 6th in 11:01. Ben Maze went on to run in the 200m, placing 2nd in 22:25, whilst Alix Hughes took 3rd spot in one of the 200m races in 28:44. Alix also ran in the 100mH, but no time appears to have been attributed to her. On the same day Kieron Sexton took part in a BMC meet in Solihull near Birmingham, placing 3rd in the men’s 800m in a time of 1:54:92. One of the major highlights of the year is the Cru participation in the IMRA-organised Wicklow Way relay, which covers the entirety of the distance of approx. 125km between Kilmashogue Park in South Dublin and Shillelagh, deep in County Wicklow. It always throws up some excitement with its thrills and spills and anything can happen, with runners getting lost or injured on the uneven surfaces of the hills and mountains. It is also an event which attracts those that rarely participate in IMRA events competing alongside experienced mountain runners, generally in teams of 8, with the requirement of at least two of the runners having to be female and (in addition) there needs to be at least 2 runners over 40 of age in each team. The race is currently extremely well-organised by Crusader Jason Kehoe and ex-Crusader Rene Borg. This year’s event proved to be as unpredictable and as exciting as ever. A couple of teams dropped out during the week and so we were left with 34 that started the event on Saturday morning in rainy and windy conditions. Several of the teams at least (including us) were forced to make last-minute changes to their line ups at the last minute too and this was to prove costly for one or two of the teams that would have been expecting a podium position or even the overall win. Before that, it needs to be pointed out that several of our clubmates, who are also IMRA members, took part in a shortish race (by IMRA standards) on Wednesday over Scalp, which helped to warm them up for Saturday’s ordeal. There were 222 runners in the race, among them Warren Swords, who placed 9th (25:41) behind winner Ian Conroy (23:40). Brian Leonard was next in 25th (27:57), followed by European Masters F40 silver medallist Becky Quinn (1st female, 32nd overall, in 28:35) and Brian McGuckin (34th in 28:39). Roisin Harkin, who did not run in the WWR, was next (44th overall, 2nd female, in 29:35), followed by Laura Flannelly (nee Shwirz) (76th overall, 4th female, in 31:55). The race on Wednesday proved to be costly for Rathfarnham as Barry Minnock limped off the course at the end and was not able to compete for the team on Saturday. The enforced change, with a runner unfamiliar with leg 2, created a challenging scenario for the west Dublin club on Saturday morning. So we come to the big day. Crusaders fielded 3 teams, one official (Crusaders) and two unofficial (the “Hateful Eight” and the only all-women’s team in the race, the “Agony of Defeet”). At the end of the 1st leg the A team found itself in 2nd place with Michael Kiely having run a stormer to finish just 2 minutes behind Terry McConnon’s elite runners’ team (TT Racers) and 30 seconds ahead of Rathfarnham. Brian Leonard also ran well to come home in 11th place for the B team. In the second leg, Paul Fleming of Rathfarnham unfortunately got lost because of his unfamiliarity with the leg and the club fell back to 10th place, whilst Warren Swords (with a 6th place individual time) was able to capitalise on Rathfarnham’s misfortune and move the A team into 2nd place. TT racers were by now, however, starting to build an unassailable lead. Captain of the B team, Brian McGuckin, put in a leader’s performance to bring the B team up to 8th place (with a 9th place individual result). The 3rd leg had its share of excitement too. Niamh Devlin consolidated the TT Racers leading position (winning the leg individually), but Sonya McConnon, running for the team that eventually placed 4th (and who placed 2nd individually only 1 second behind Niamh), fell on a rail sleeper whilst overtaking Amy Wright of the A team but managed to pick herself up to finish in 2nd after the stage. Amy had gamely stepped into run the 3rd leg the day before, recced it on Friday night, and despite having raced in the le Cheile 5k on Wednesday, put in a sterling effort to place 9th individually and kept the team in the hunt in 3rd place, under 3 minutes behind the 2nd placed team. For the B team Jane Wallace put in a cracking performance with a 5th place individual result and enabled the team to hold onto 8th place. Rathfarnham, meanwhile were beginning their fight back, with Vanessa Sallier taking one place to put them in 9th position, about 3 minutes behind our B team. The A team was represented on leg 4 by debutante Catherine Thornton who continued to maintain the 3rd place for the team, but also ran impressively to finish overall in 7th place for the leg and first female of the 16 women who ran the leg. James Cottle, for the B team, on the other hand, tried to catch Crusader Becky Quinn who was running for the team in 7th place (ultimately to place 4th by the end), but Becky’s considerable experience meant she came in 2nd female and 9th overall for the leg, whilst James ran 13th individually and was overtaken by Ronan Kearns of Rathfarnham who were continuing their drive to get back to close to the top positions. In fact, Ronan ran the second fastest time for the leg. James also had the narrowest of escapes on the run, coming within inches of being taken out as he crossed a fire road on the leg by a barrelling cyclist who was equally in competition in a cycle race that was being staged around Glendalough, we learned later. Neither expected the other and if James had been just 1 second faster there could have been a major accident. Leg 5 started in Glendalough, finishing in Glenmalure. John Mulvihill, making his first start in a race of the kind, found that he is equally at home in the mountains as on the roads or track. He placed 3rd individually, but, more importantly, put the team only seconds behind the then 2nd placed team. So the A team going into leg 6 with captain John McAuley had an opportunity to improve even further from their 3rd place at the finish of leg 5. Pat Quill took over for the B team for leg 5 and ran well, but lost one more place, so that at the end of the stage the B team were lying in 10th place. John ran a super leg for the A team. At around the halfway stage, in misty conditions of low cloud and rain, he had overtaken the runner in 2nd, but there were 5 other runners (including the overtaken runner) within 90 seconds behind him. He put in an excellent second half effort to drop the pursuers and by the time he had handed over to Ciaran Diviney (with a 4th place individual finish) there was only one runner within 1 minute of him (Rathfarnham). Unfortunately for the B team, Eamonn McWalter, a recent ex-Crusader guest-running from Rathfarnham, managed to turn an ankle on the technical course, with its steep descents, and limped home with the team now in 12th place. The 7th leg, the longest of the day at half marathon distance, enabled Ciaran to consolidate further the 2nd place for the A team, with a fine individual effort, also coming home in 2nd place individually, despite a tumble at one point, behind another Crusader, Brendan Murphy, running for the TT racers, who by now were far ahead. Ciaran was also able to build a decent cushion for Eddie Nugent taking over the 8th and final leg. Michael Maughan, placing 14th individually for the leg, was able to keep the B team in 12th place to hand over to another mountain debutante, Niamh Aspell, on the 8th leg. So, on a leg which contained Laura Shaughnessy (for TT Racers) and Olympian Linda Byrne (running for the 4th placed team), Eddie ran well (under the watchful eye of John McAuley following in his car past the Dying Cow pub to ensure Eddie did not get lost at the last minute!), taking 5th place overall for the leg and bringing the team in for a podium finish in second place. Niamh also ran exceptionally well in her baptism of fire, taking 11th place overall and bringing the B team home in 12th position. For the record, Rathfarnham were able to grab third place overall, an admirable recovery. It was the first time doing the Wicklow Way Relay for all of the women in the Agony of Defeet. They were left one runner short when Geraldine Clements had to drop out a few weeks ago due to injury, so they got their team home by Kris Ryan, Emma Cathcart and Mairead Cashman all running leg 8 together as a second leg for each of them that day, Kris having just completed the very long leg 7 (half marathon)! They had a close battle all day with the bottom six teams, and were part of the 6-team mass start from Glenmalure Lodge at 1pm. To show just how competitive the race is right down to the last few teams, there was great excitement for the team when Kris was part of a group of four runners that all came to the end of leg 7 within a few seconds of each other, pushing each other up the hill! Hats off to the team of Kate Murray, Emma Cathcart, Mairin Shine, Mairead Cashman, Lisa Shine, Claudine Hughes and Kris Ryan who came home in 32nd place overall. Other Crusaders to compete in the thoroughly enjoyable and well-organised event, also included Laura Flannelly (leg 3) and Andrea Talpo (leg 6). As mentioned, Brendan Murphy was a key member of the winning team, whilst Becky Quinn helped her team to 4th place overall. A big thankyou must go to the captains of each of the teams. Writing as someone who has had to organise multiple Cru teams several times in the past, it is a major undertaking, organising the recces beforehand and managing the travel logistics and the team morale on the day, not to mention finding the inevitable last minute replacements! The next big event of the weekend for the club was the Terenure 5 miler on Sunday morning, held in gloriously sunny but challenging conditions, with a bit of a warm breeze. Inter alia, we were defending M35 team champions, having won it in each of the previous two years. At least 32 members of the club took part in a two lap race that saw a record field of more than 1,350 participants and for which entries had closed earlier in the week. The outcome of the race was similar to the recent 6 miler in Limerick and a carbon copy of last year's result. Peter Somba won, but this time the victim he hung in behind for the majority of the race was Mick Clohisey, whom he beat in the same race last year. Siobhan O’Doherty also duly won the women’s race as she had last year and again Orla Drumm was second, but she narrowed the gap considerably from Limerick so that by the end they came in only 3 seconds apart, well clear of the rest of the women’s field. Rob Cross was our first man home, an age category winner, in 7th place in 25:58. He was followed by the strong running of Bram D’hoedt (15th in 27:52) and Ger Forde (18th in 28:04). Together with Frank Hague (42nd in 29:24), Rob and Ger were able to defend successfully the M35 team trophy from Rathfarnham (65 versus 72 points) and have our masters take the prize for the 3rd year in succession. Maybe, Sportsworld will have to give it to us! Top 100 places went to Frank Halligan (25th in 28:35), Joe McDermott (50th in 29:43), Joe Walsh (76th in 30:47), Colm Kernan (88th in 31:21) and Gearoid Grogan (98th in 32:02). Top 150 runners included Michael Fitzsimons (102nd in 32:16), David Killion (111th in 32:29), Dave Tuohy (121st in 32:40) and, just outside, Tom Dunne (151st in 33:26). Of note, Gian Piero Allerta placed 178th in 34:07, a week after having paced a marathon in Northern Italy. The men’s senior team came in 4th (behind Raheny, Sportsworld and Donore). Of interest to members will be to hear that Sean Murphy, who trains with us, came home in 32nd place in 28:55. In the women’s race, behind Orla came Adrienne Jordan, 5th overall and strong winner of her age category, in a time of 30:47 and together with Carina Davidson (403rd overall, 72nd woman, in 38:49) and Fiona Bane (454th overall, 91st woman, in 39:14) the women’s senior team placed 5th overall. Olwyn Dunne ran with a visiting friend and came home in 399th place overall, 69th woman, in 38:08 (7th in her age category), whilst other top 150 positions went to Sharon Woods (606th overall, 140th woman, in 41:17) and Aisling Dilworth (623rd overall, 147th female finisher, in 41:40). In terms of more road racing, last Wednesday saw the Le Cheile 5K. The race of nearly 260 runners was won not unexpectedly by Peter Somba. Crusaders participating included Alex Romano who came home in 46th place in 19:11. Amy Wright was next, 83rd overall, 11th woman finisher, in 20:26 followed by Gill Earley, 95th overall, 17th woman and 4th in her age category, in a time of 20:57. On Sunday, Leo Lundy managed a baby Ultra of 30 miles at the oddly-named Pyjamathon in Nonsuch park on the Epsom Downs in >20 degrees heat on a beautiful course. His run was good enough for 9th overall out of 104 finishers. There was some serious fancy dress and medals, including a "52 marathons in 52 weeks" award for Leo! Also over the weekend, Luke Haran competed down in Limerick in the Mungret 10K, placing 27th in a field exceeding 330 runners in a time of 42;52, whilst in Cambridgeshire, Diarmuid Byrne took advantage of a trip to the UK to take part in a Fenland 10K on fairly flat terrain. Recovering from recent injury, Dairmuid ran the Eye 10k in 42:06, placing 51st in a field of more than 500 runners. Of interest to members will be the report from Dave Tilly that he and his visually-impaired partner in sport, Donnacha McCarthy, completed their first triathlon together in Carlow over the weekend. As usual, the last part of the weekly report is dedicated to the parkruns on Saturday morning. Crusaders took part in 7 of them this weekend, with two of the events in the UK. In Brockwell Park in South London, Darina Scully placed 83rd overall (10th woman) in a field exceeding 360, in a time of 22:52, whilst Maria Pertl and Diarmuid Byrne took on Cambridge and graduated with respective times of 25:16 and 25:17, 227th and 228th overall, and Maria 34th female finisher. At home, Killian Barry placed 14th in 19:29 in Marlay. In a field of 430 runners, he was followed by Sophie Smith (152nd overall, 22nd woman, in 25:10) and an easy-running Alex Romano (162nd in 25:30). Peter O’Toole and Niamh Quinn ran in St. Anne’s with Peter placing 4th in 18:43 and Niamh, 81st overall, 9th woman home, in 23:41. They ran with 331 others. Shanganagh saw Orlaith de Burca come home in 3rd place in the women’s event (37th overall) in a time of 24:46 and among a field of 132. Padraig Walsh joined 82 other runners to take on Mullingar, finishing in 38th place in a time of 27:17. Lastly, Dave Carter placed 5th in 20:37, Colm Foley, 28th in 24:14 and Olwyn Dunne, 77th overall, 19th woman, in 29:52, in the 111-strong 111th running of the Cabinteely parkrun. Poetic! Well done all. The club had a great showing last week and there was super support all over the place as usual! Terenure 5 Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Peter Somba 1 00:24:08 29 Siobhan O’Doherty 1 00:28:46 Crusaders AC runners 7 Rob Cross 00:25:58 15 Bram D‘hoedt 00:27:52 18 Ger Forde 00:28:04 25 Frank Halligan 00:28:35 30 Orla Drumm 00:28:49 (2) 42 Frank Hague 00:29:24 50 Joe McDermott 00:29:43 76 Joe Walsh 00:30:47 77 Adrienne Jordan 00:30:47 (5) 88 Colm Kernan 00:31:21 98 Gearoid Grogan 00:32:02 102 Michael Fitzsimons 00:32:16 111 David Killion 00:32:29 121 Dave Tuohy 00:32:40 151 Tom Dunne 00:33:26 178 Gian Piero Allerta 00:34:07 204 John Gleeson 00:34:25 206 Denis Murphy 00:34:32 271 Stephen Mulligan 00:36:07 290 Russell Murphy 00:36:19 399 Olwyn Dunne 00:38:08 (69) 403 Carina Davidson 00:38:09 (72) 454 Fiona Bane 00:39:14 (91) 467 Neil Brown 00:39:46 606 Sharon Woods 00:41:17 (140) 623 Aisling Dilworth 00:41:40 (147) 697 Sarah Lyons 00:43:13 (181) 897 John Fitzsimons (M65) 00:46:25 932 Paul Kelly 00:46:14 1094 Mary Fitzsimons 00:49:45 (432) 1095 John Fitzsimons (M75) 00:49:45 Full results here: http://www.myrunresults.com/events/terenure_5_mile/2281/results Le Cheile 5k Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Peter Somba 1 00:15:28 21 Jane Bandila 1 00:17:52 Crusaders AC runners 46 Alex Romano 00:19:11 83 Amy Wright 00:20:26 (11) 95 Gillian Earley 00:20:57 (17) Full results here: https://www.popupraces.ie/race-results/le-cheile-ac-5k/ Mungret 10k Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Colm Turner 1 00:33:49 4 Grace Lynch 1 00:36:19 Crusaders AC runner 27 Luke Haran 00:42:52 Full results here: http://racetecresults.com/results.aspx?CId=19671&RId=30 Shanganagh Parkrun #112 Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 William McCann 1 00:18:52 27 Sharon Bailey 1 00:23:44 Crusaders AC runner 37 Orlaith de Burca 00:24:46 (3) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/shanganagh/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=112 Mullingar Parkrun #55 Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Mel Carthy 1 00:19:12 12 Jane Creevy 00:22:03 Crusaders AC runner 38 Padraig Walsh 00:27:17 Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/mullingar/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=55 Marlay Parkrun #209 Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Brian Furey 1 00:17:05 17 Bryony Treston 1 00:19:55 Crusaders AC runners 14 Killian Barry 00:19:29 152 Sophie Smith 00:25:10 (22) 162 Alex Romano 00:25:30 Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/marlay/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=209 Cabinteely Parkrun #111 Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Peter Daniel 1 00:18:49 10 Joanne Ryan 1 00:22:07 Crusaders AC runners 5 David Carter 00:20:37 28 Colm Foley 00:24:14 77 Olwyn Dunne 00:29:52 (19) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/cabinteely/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=111 St Anne’s Parkrun #182 Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Simon Ryan 1 00:17:10 25 Aine Crimin 1 00:20:30 Crusaders AC runners 4 Peter O’Toole 00:18:43 81 Niamh Quinn 00:23:41 (9) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/stannes/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=182 The emphasis for the club over the past few days has been on the track, although an iconic road race celebrating its 40th, and possibly last, anniversary took place on Saturday in the grounds of RTE in Donnybrook. This was the BHAA RTE 5 miler and involved at least 16 of our members. We start with the IMC meet on Saturday afternoon in Greystones, the first of the season, the meet organized by Mike McGovern and Susan Walsh. The races produced several PBs which is gratifying considering how early we are into the season. Rob Cross recorded a PB in the 5000m, placing 23rd in a big field and a time of 15:19:52. There were also PBs later for Kevin Woods and Michael Kiely. Kevin took 2nd place in the Men’s 800m A race with a time of 1:52:30, whilst Michael placed 5th in the Men’s B 1500m event and a time of 4:04:74. Orla Kennedy was our lone female entrant at the meet, but she acquitted herself well with a time of 4:56:54 in the women’s 1500m race and 20th place in what was also a large field. Finally, in the sprints it was good to see Brian Murphy take on both the 100m and 400m. In the 100m A event he placed 4th in 11:57 behind 3rd-placed Nick Ennis who recorded a time of 11:45. Brian then went on to win the 400m A race in a time of 49:26. Nick, meanwhile, went on to run in the 200m A race, placing 4th in 23:02. Last Thursday evening 3 Crusaders travelled up to Drogheda to take part in the first race in the Drogheda and District graded series for 2017. In the 800m B race Brendan Glynn placed 7th in a PB time of 2:27:7, whilst Lisa Shine came in just behind Brendan in 8th place in a time of 2:38:7, another PB. Paul Kelly ran in the 800m D race, coming home in 8th place in 3:27:5, whilst also later running in the 100m D race, placing 4th in 16:20. Brendan also tackled the 3000m (B race) later that evening, taking home another PB with a time of 12:19:1 and 7th place. On Saturday 216 runners ran through and around the grounds of RTE. The women had a particularly good day, with Ilona McElroy coming off injury and placing 3rd female (behind a strong Laura Shaughnessy and also Niamh Devlin), 37th overall, in a time of 31:00. Niamh Corby ran 31:46 placing 51st overall, 6th female and 4th in her age category. Niamh was followed by Helena Walsh and Nina Holmes running closely together, with Helena placing 85th overall, 14th female, in 34:29 and Nina taking 86th spot overall, 15th female, in 34:31. Dee Ni Chearbhaill was next in 34:44 (90th overall, 16th female and 3rd in her age category). The field was completed by Kris Ryan (143rd overall, 32nd female, 4th in her age category, in 38:26), Mairin Shine (198th overall, 54th female and 4th in her age category, in 46:03), Iseult Ni Chuinneagain (199th overall, 55th female, in 46:06) and Ciara McElligott (211th overall, 62nd female, in 50:08). On the men's side, our contingent was led home by Frank Hague, who placed 17th in 29:27 (quite possibly a PB), followed by Karl Walsh (21st in 29:44) and Joe Walsh (30th in 30:22). Next came Brian McGuckin (38th) who was given the same time as Ilona (31:00). Ronan Gill put in a rare appearance and placed 88th in 34:37, followed by Tony Hackett (94th in 34:53) and Paul Kelly (206th in 48:16). On Sunday, recent exile Ian Kinsella took part in the Toronto City marathon, placing 6th overall out of nearly 1,200 runners and 2nd in his age category in a time of 2:44:31. It was a super outcome achieved in strong headwinds. Also on Sunday, Denis Murphy recorded a PB time of 5:54 in the Irish Runner Paced Mile in the Phoenix Park in glorious sunshine. Just a few parkruns to report. Our largest showing was in St Anne’s where Mick Clohisey set a new record for a parkrun in Ireland with a time of 14:46. Ger Forde came home in 4th place in the event in 16:59 and Peter O’Toole ran 18:31 to take 9th spot. In a field of more than 370 runners, Colm Kernan took 15th in 18:43, followed by John Fitzsimons (236th in 28:16) and Lorraine Fitzsimons (298th overall, 102nd woman, in 31:14). Kate Murray placed 77th overall (8th woman) in Marlay park. Nearly 500 runners turned out and Kate’s time was 22:26. In Griffeen Gillian Errity placed 38th out of 162 (4th woman) in a time of 22:56, whilst Fiona Bane came home in 13th place overall (2nd woman) in 23:45 in the over 80-strong field in Waterstown. Dominick Branigan took 2nd spot in Cabinteely in 18:52, followed by Colm Foley in 29th and 24:05. There were over 130 runners in the event. Finally, Orlaith de Burca placed 125th overall in Shanganagh, 53rd woman finisher, in 31:56. The field measured nearly 140 runners. BHAA RTE 5 mile race Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Cillian O'Leary 1 00:26:03 3 Laura Shaughnessy 1 00:27:11 Crusaders AC runners 17 Frank Hague 00:29:27 21 Karl Walsh 00:29:44 30 Joe Walsh 00:30:22 37 Ilona McElroy 00:31:00 (3) 38 Brian McGuckin 00:31:00 51 Niamh Corby 00:31:46 (6) 85 Helena Walsh 00:34:29 (14) 86 Nina Holmes 00:34:31 (15) 88 Ronan Gill 00:34:37 90 Dee Ni Chearbhaill 00:34:44 (16) 94 Tony Hackett 00:34:53 143 Kris Ryan 00:38:26 (32) 198 Mairin Shine 00:46:03 (54) 199 Iseult Ni Chuinneagain 00:46:06 (55) 206 Paul Kelly 00:48:16 211 Ciara McElligott 00:50:08 (62) Full results here: https://bhaa.ie/events/rte-5-2017/ Waterstown Parkrun #149 Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Deiric O’Nuallain 1 00:18:47 12 Claire Millar 1 00:23:25 Crusaders AC runner 13 Fiona Bane 00:23:45 (2) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/waterstown/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=149 Marlay Parkrun #208 Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Charlie McGovern 1 00:17:39 19 Amy Moran 1 00:19:46 Crusaders AC runner 77 Kate Murray 00:22:26 (8) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/marlay/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=208 Cabinteely Parkrun #110 Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Angus Tyner 1 00:18:45 15 Deirdre Nally1 00:22:50 Crusaders AC runners 2 Dominick Branigan 00:18:52 29 Colm Foley 00:24:05 Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/cabinteely/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=110 St Anne’s Parkrun #181 Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Mick Clohisey 1 00:14:46 14 Zoe Quinn 1 00:18:41 Crusaders AC runners 4 Ger Forde 00:16:59 9 Peter O’Toole 00:18:31 15 Colm Kernan 00:18:43 236 John Fitzsimons 00:28:16 298 Lorraine Fitzsimons 00:31:14 (102) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/stannes/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=181 Shanganagh Parkrun #111 Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Mark Molloy 1 00:15:49 6 Suzanne Foot 1 00:19:43 Crusaders AC runner 125 Orlaith de Burca 00:31:56 (53) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/shanganagh/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=111 Griffeen Parkrun #203 Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Michael Comer 1 00:18:43 19 Katie Maher 1 00:20:42 Crusaders AC runner 38 Gillian Errity 00:22:56 (4) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/griffeen/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=203 Ardgillan Parkrun #169 Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Keith Daly 1 00:18:49 9 Fallon Carrick 1 00:21:27 Crusaders AC runners 20 Darina Scully 00:23:50 (4) 34 Maria Pertl 00:25:55 (7) 35 Diarmuid Byrne 00:25:56 Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/ardgillan/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=169 To celebrate 75 years of Crusaders Athletic Club we are hosting a Gala Dinner on Saturday June 10th. Tickets are now available for sale. Details hereunder:
Venue: The Hilton Hotel, Charlemont Place, Dublin 2 Date : Saturday June 10th Times : from 7pm Dinner served at 8pm sharp Cost : €40 Neat dress is essential Entry is by pre bought ticket only so don’t miss out and buy yours now. Tickets can be purchased on Tuesday nights at training from Susan or on line at http://www.crusadersac.org/75.html Make a Crusaders day of it by attending our annual GV Ryan Track and Field meet at Irishtown stadium from 2pm that afternoon. A host of National, International and club runners will compete against the best Crusader athletes, it’s promising to be a very exciting afternoon of athletics. Crusaders took advantage of the bank holiday weekend to take a road trip down to Limerick to participate in the 4 events on offer: a marathon, a half marathon, a marathon relay and a 6 mile run. There were perhaps as many as 20 who took to the streets down there. But we should start by warmly congratulating Jason Kehoe who took part in the European Masters Mountain Running Championships over the weekend in Montcada near Barcelona in Spain and in wet conditions took bronze medal individually behind two Spaniards and team silver for Ireland. In Limerick the marathon and relay went first. Tony Owens took part in the relay as part of a works team from the Irish Times and they managed to come in 6th out of 70 teams in 3:03:40. In the meantime, Paul Dempsey, Kris Ryan and Leo Lundy were all competing as individuals in the 727-strong marathon. Paul was on for a sub-3 time until the last 5k when the wind on the second half of the course together with the accumulated hills took their toll a little. Still, he managed a super PB time of 3:03:26 (37th) (a 3 minute improvement), enough just about to equal the 5th place relay team! Kris and Leo were actually going to follow the race in Limerick with an outing in the Belfast marathon on the bank holiday Monday (something that Leo at least has done before). They both recorded creditable times in Limerick, with Kris taking 275th place overall, 26th woman, in 3:48:45 and Leo placing 430th in 4:08:12. News has just come in that, in warm conditions in Belfast, Kris ran 4:05 and Leo, 4:57. A tough day by all accounts. We had 4 runners in the half. Yvonne Macauley was our star, with 4th place in the women’s race (65th overall in a field of 1,741) and a time of 1:27:12. Overcoming a recent bout of flu which had seriously dented his preparations, Eugene McDonough produced an excellent result in coming home in 1:28:04 (73) and Eugene was followed by Luke Haran (160th in 1:35:08) and Edwina Quinlan (300th overall, 39th woman, in 1:38:44), another runner to have suffered from a loss of time in training. The 6 mile race attracted nearly 4,200 runners, among them at least 11 Crusaders. In a race won by Peter Somba, just back from Kenya, winning for the second year in a row, and once again hanging behind Sergiu Ciobanu until the final few hundred metres to win by 2 seconds, (and also with the women's race being won by Siobhan O’Doherty, who seems to be winning everything at the moment), we had some tremendous results. Indeed, we had 8 runners to finish inside the top 100, with 6 among the top 25. First home for us was Limerick man, Rob Cross, in 6th place and a time of 33:33, followed by James Murphy in 12th (36:03), the two runners finishing respectively 2nd and 4th in the M35 age category. Just behind James came Orla Drumm, another runner to hail from Limerick, recovering from a recent injury, who placed 2nd in the women’s race and 13th overall (36:05) and thereafter by Hugh Larkin who accompanied Orla for most of the race. Hugh placed 14th in 36:11 and 5th in the M35 category. Frank Hague was next, most likely with a PB in this event of such an unusual distance. Frank placed 18th in 37:08 and he was followed by Catherine Thornton who also enjoyed an extremely strong run to place 4th in the women’s race, 21st overall, in a likely PB time of 38:01. Will Owens was next in 39th (40:05), followed by Ailbhe O’Driscoll-Collins (again with a likely PB time) making a welcome return to racing (61st overall, 13th woman, in 41:22). The contingent was completed by excellent runs from Edel Haverty (179th overall, 28th woman, in 42:45) and by another Limerick native, Sarah Cush (228th overall, 39th woman, in 44:04), and also by Thomas O’Rourke who completed the distance in 50:27 (747th). No doubt, there was much partying to follow in true Cru tradition! Also on the Sunday the Tallaght 5K took place. The field measured 230 runners and the race was run by resurgent Tom Fitzpatrick of Tallaght in 15:37, another runner overcoming recent injury. We had two runners in the race. Ilona McElroy, working her way back from recent injury, took 3rd place in the women’s race, 52nd overall, in a time of 18:53, whilst Neil Brown ran a PB to come home in 112th place, 6t in his age category, in a time of 21:52. On Bank Holiday Monday, Dee Ni Chearbhaill took part in the Leinster Masters Road Championships in Kilkenny, taking 19th place (8th in her age category) in a field of nearly 50 runners. Dee's time for the 3K distance was an excellent 12:13. Husband Sean took a team silver for United Striders in the novices race. Last Thursday saw the 126th running of the Clonliffe 2 mile race. The 145-strong event was won by John Coghlan of MSB in 9:15. We had 5 members in the race. First home was Fiona Shine in 46th place overall, 7th woman, in a super time of 12:00. Fiona was followed by Philip Matthews (51st in 12:14) and by Lisa Shine (76th overall, 16t female, in 13:08), Brendan Glynn (78th in 13:11) and Paul Kelly (135th in 16:48). No doubt there would have been some PBs among the results as the distance is rarely run. The day before, the first of this season’s graded events took place on the track in the Morton Stadium. The outcome was as follows: Alix Hughes placed 2nd in 13:30 in the 100m C race; Grainne Regan and Geraldine Clements placed respectively 3rd in 2:34:37 and 10th in 2:51:12 in the women’s 800m C race; In the men’s 800m A race Kevin Woods was 1st in 1:55:00, Michael Kiely 10th in 2:02:79 and Rob Cross 11th in 2:05:97; Neil Monahan took on the Men’s 800m C race and placed 10th in 2:22:84, whilst Brian O’Kelly placed 16th in 9:09:23 in the Men’s 3,000m A event; lastly, on the track, John McAuley placed 24th in the combined Men’s B+C 3,000m race with a time of 9:57:75. All-rounder Alix Hughes also took on the high jump placing 6th with a leap of 1.25m. Finally, there were as usual some good results in the parkruns. Kate Murray joined nearly 600 other runners in Marlay, placing 92nd overall, 10th female, in 22:56. In a field of 400 in St. Anne’s, Matt Cranley placed 13th in 19:51, followed by Denis Murphy (144th in 24:56), Berndt Heim (189th in 26:21), John Fitzsimons (289th in 29:43) and Lorraine Fitzsimons (334th overall, 113th woman, in 31:57). Aidan Hudner once again took on Victoria Park in Glasgow. In a field of 361 runners he placed 61st in 21:41. Ciara McElligott joined 120 runners in Naas to come home in 31:14 and 84th place overall (28th woman). Sharon Woods had an easy run around Tymon, placing 122nd overall (64th woman) in 40:54.The field was 123. Maria Pertl and Diarmuid Byrne (just returning from injury) ran in Poppintree with 143 others, with Maria taking 78th place overall, 27th female, and Diarmuid taking 79th in 28:36 and 28:37, respectively. 3 Crusaders took on Cabinteely: Tom Dunne was 7th out of 137 in 22:15; he was followed by Mairin Shine (103rd overall, 45th woman, in 31:33) and Lisa Shine (104th overall, 46th woman, in the same time). Lastly, Fiona Bane ran an excellent 22:52 in Father Collins,placing 3rd woman, 16th overall, in a field of 103 runners. Great Limerick 6 mile race Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Peter Somba 1 00:29:36 10 Siobhan O’Doherty 1 00:35:03 Crusaders AC runners 6 Rob Cross 00:33:33 12 James Murphy 00:36:03 13 Orla Drumm 00:36:05 (2) 14 Hugh Larkin 00:36:11 18 Frank Hague 00:37:08 (PB) 21 Catherine Thornton 00:38:01 (PB) (4) 39 Will Owens 00:40:05 61 Ailbhe O’Driscoll-Collins 00:41:22 (PB) (13) 179 Edel Haverty 00:42:45 (PB) (28) 228 Sarah Cush 00:44:04 (39) 747 Thomas O’Rourke 00:50:27 Full results here: http://tdleventservices.co.uk/race-results.php Great Limerick Half marathon Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Kevin Maunsell 1 01:07:47 17 Jill Hodgins 1 01:18:15 Crusaders AC runners 65 Yvonne Macauley 01:27:12 (4) 73 Eugene McDonough 01:28:04 160 Luke Haran 01:35:08 300 Edwina Quinlan 01:38:44 (39) Full results here: http://tdleventservices.co.uk/race-results.php Great Limerick marathon Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Freddie Sittuk 1 02:28:31 13 Pauline Curley 1 02:52:11 Crusaders AC runners 37 Paul Dempsey 03:03:26 (PB) 275 Kris Ryan 03:48:45 (26) 430 Leo Lundy 04:08:12 Full results here: http://tdleventservices.co.uk/race-results.php Tallaght AC 5K Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Tomas Fitzpatrick 1 00:15:37 40 Laura McDonald 1 00:18:15 Crusaders AC runners 52 Ilona McElroy 00:18:53 (3) 112 Neil Brown 00:21:52 (PB) Full results here: https://www.popupraces.ie/events/tallaght-ac-5k-road-race/ Clonliffe 2 mile race Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 John Coghlan 1 00:09:15 19 Sorcha Ni Dhomhnaill 1 00:10:58 Crusaders AC runners 46 Fiona Shine 00:12:00 (7) 51 Philip Matthews 00:12:14 76 Lisa Shine 00:13:08 (16) 78 Brendan Glynn 00:13:11 135 Paul Kelly 00:16:48 Full results here: http://clonliffeharriersac.com/category/clonliffe-2-mile-road-race/ Naas Parkrun #161 Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Michael Lawlor 1 00:17:56 17 Jane Holmes 1 00:22:40 Crusaders AC runner 84 Ciara McElligott 00:31:14 (28) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/naas/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=161 Tymon Parkrun #149 Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Sean Mac Fhearraigh 1 00:19:56 6 Anne Hughes 1 00:22:28 Crusaders AC runner 122 Sharon Woods 00:40:54 (64) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/tymon/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=149 Poppintree Parkrun #130 Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Bobby Bedford 1 00:17:24 24 Aisling Killilea 1 00:23:01 Crusaders AC runners 78 Maria Pertl 00:28:36 (27) 79 Diarmuid Byrne 00:28:37 Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/poppintree/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=130 Father Collins Parkrun #84 Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Alan Foley 1 00:18:23 3 Cecile Ollagnier 1 00:20:00 Crusaders AC runner 16 Fiona Bane 00:22:52 (3) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/fathercollins/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=84 Marlay Parkrun #207 Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Toby Ruffer 1 00:16:50 11 Lynne Hennessy 1 00:18:46 Crusaders AC runner 92 Kate Murray 00:22:56 (10) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/marlay/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=207 Cabinteely Parkrun #109 Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Mark Leacy 1 00:19:08 15 Joanne Ryan 1 00:22:15 Crusaders AC runners 7 Tomas Dunne 00:21:17 103 Mairin Shine 00:31:33 (45) 104 Lisa Shine 00:31:33 (46) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/cabinteely/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=109 St Anne’s Parkrun #180 Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Joseph O’Donoghue 1 00:17:51 12 Sarah Kelly 1 00:19:50 Crusaders AC runners 13 Matt Cranley 00:19:51 144 Denis Murphy 00:24:56 189 Berndt Heim 00:26:21 289 John Fitzsimons 00:29:43 334 Lorraine Fitzsimons 00:31:57 (113) Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/stannes/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=180 |