Arctic Chill doesn’t deter in National Championships

12/2/2017

Back row: Rob Cross, Geraldine Clements, Grainne Regan, Eddie Nugent Front row: Mairin Shine, Kate Murray, Triona Quill

Conditions were Baltic for Crusaders everywhere we competed over the weekend (except Hamilton Island!). Hats off to all who braved the Nor’easter and its incredible windchill to take part in the National 50K championships in Donadea Forest on Saturday and then the National Masters XC held on a challenging course on the side of a hill in Waterford IT on Sunday.

We start with the Donadea 50K. It had 162 finishers, but one gets the impression there were a fair number of casualties, judging from the camera roll, which showed several high profile athletes who appear not to have finished on the 5 x10K looped course. The cold made for an extremely challenging experience for our intrepid runners. The championship went to a Clonliffe Harrier, Brian McMahon, in a time that was slightly slower than those established by Gary O’Hanlon in previous years, but a worthy winner nonetheless and his margin of victory over St. Finbarr’s Alan O’Shea was just under 4 minutes. The women’s title went to Louise Smith of North Belfast, another clear winner. Denis Murphy was the first Crusader home in 58th spot and an excellent time of 4:18:30, placing 2nd in his age category, just two minutes behind the age category winner in 55th place. Olwyn Dunne, pacing the 4:30 finishers, came in next in 4:30:03, her job done, and Olwyn was followed by Diarmuid Byrne who found the going tough despite treating it as a training run but still was able to put together a 4:33:11 time. Diarmuid is working towards the Vienna marathon coming up on 23 April and this race will have helped in his preparations. Maria Pertl helped for a while in pacing Diarmuid whilst Joe Dunne, like Olwyn, provided general pacing support.

There were no medals but plenty of guts and determination in evidence in the National Masters XC. The women’s 4K race on Sunday had nearly 200 runners competing in it and a truly excellent field on a soft going course that involved one short 1k loop followed by 2 long 1.5k ones on the side of a hill. This time Donore’s Barbara Cleary (15:04) didn’t get the win, but she did place 3rd behind overall and O/40 winner Dooneen Limerick's Rosemary Ryan (14:51) who represented Ireland in the 5,000m in the Sydney Olympics. 2nd was Corran's Sarah Doohan who won the O/35 category. Our 6-woman team was led home by Grainne Regan who placed 90th in 18:07, followed by Kate Murray (103rd in 18:23), with Geraldine Clements close behind (105th in 18:31) and Kris Ryan and Triona Quill finishing more or less side by side (139th and 140th respectively with the same time of 19:23). Mairin Shine completed the group, coming home in 187th place (23:46).

The men’s 7k race involved 1 short loop, followed by 4 long. Crusaders men’s team placed 12th overall in a large field of 200 runners, with Rob Cross taking individual 52nd place in 26:10, followed by Jason Kehoe in 67th (26:43) and Ger Forde taking 72nd spot (26:49). The 4-man team was completed by Eddie Nugent who came home in 101st place (28:04). The overall race was won by Michael Harty of East Cork in a time of 23:24.

We had participants in several parkruns on Saturday morning, but the most exotic has to be the one held on Hamilton Island in Australia in which Ian Kinsella took part and came home as first finisher. The island is actually only 5k square and it was hilly, windy and according to Ian, quite creative in its route (using boardwalks and footpaths around a marina)! Lack of local knowledge led to the comparatively slow time of 19:42 by Ian’s standards, but he was able to see off the rest of the field which measured fewer than 20 runners. Back home, Yvonne Macauley took on a hilly course in Castlehaven in West Cork in the wind and placed first finisher in the women’s event, 2nd overall in a field of more than 40 runners, with a time of 21:28, which shows how challenging the event was. Lisa Shine was also a first finisher, taking 7th place overall in the Castle Demense (sic) parkrun in Macroom Co. Cork in a time of 24:21 (full results have yet to be published and the report will be updated once they are available). Marius McNicholas continues to feel his way back to form, placing 5th out of nearly 200 in a time of 20:39 in Waterstown, whilst Dave Cuddy also took 5th place out of nearly 50 competitors in Athlone in a time of 20:05. A relative newcomer to parkruns, Gary Park had an easy run around Shanganagh, placing 113th out of 167 participants in a time of 30:49, whilst Sharon Woods appears to have had a similar approach in Tymon, placing 160th overall (58th female) in a time of 39:42. There were nearly 190 runners taking part. In Marlay David Long continues to show significant improvement, placing 25th in a field of nearly 540 participants, in a time of 19:57, whilst Killian Barry came home in 43rd place (20:45) and Mary Noelle Rohan, 432nd overall (148th female finisher in 31:29). Kris Ryan and Kate Murray prepared themselves for the Masters race the following day by running in the Castletown parkrun in Celbridge. In a field of nearly 280 participants, Kate placed 121st overall (29th female) in 29:01 and Kris came home just behind in 122nd overall (30th female) in 29:03.

Congrats to all who braved the elements!

Donadea National 50K Championships
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Brian McMahon 1 03:11:26
20 Louise Smith 1 03:51:09
Crusaders AC runners
58 Denis Murphy 04:18:30
82 Olwyn Dunne 04:30:03 (pacer)
100 Diarmuid Byrne 04:33:11
Full results here: http://www.redtagtiming.com/results/Donadea50km2017.pdf
National Masters XC men
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Michael Harty 1 00:23:24
Crusaders AC runners
52 Rob Cross 00:26:10
67 Jason Kehoe 00:26:43
72 Ger Forde 00:26:49
101 Eddie Nugent 00:28:04
Full results here: http://www.athleticsireland.ie/downloads/other/Master_Men_35_-_64.pdf
National Masters XC women
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Rosemary Ryan 1 00:14:51
Crusaders AC runners
90 Grainne Regan 00:18:07
103 Kate Murray 00:18:23
105 Geraldine Clements 00:18:31
139 Kris Ryan 00:19:23
140 Triona Quill 00:19:23
187 Mairin Shine 00:23:46
Full results here: http://www.athleticsireland.ie/downloads/other/Master_Women__Master_Men_O65.pdf
Tymon Parkrun #138
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Paul Martin 1 00:16:52
13 Sinead Tighe 1 00:20:32
Crusaders AC runner
160 Sharon Woods 00:39:42 (58)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/tymon/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=138
Waterstown Parkrun #137
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Sean O’Connor 1 00:18:22
11 Aoife Brady 1 00:22:19
Crusaders AC runner
5 Marius McNicholas 00:20:39
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/waterstown/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=137
Castlehaven Parkrun #58
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Unknown 1 00:21:19
2 Yvonne Macauley 1 00:21:28
Crusaders AC runner
2 Yvonne Macauley 00:21:28 (1)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/castlehaven/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=58
Marlay Parkrun #196
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Toby Ruffer 1 00:17:29
14 Sarah Baryga 1 00:19:03
Crusaders AC runners
25 David Long 00:19:57
43 Killian Barry 00:20:45
432 Mary Noelle Rohan 00:31:29 (148)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/marlay/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=196
Castletown Parkrun #63
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Brian Conroy 1 00:17:56
51 Bandy Ring 1 00:24:04
Crusaders AC runners
121 Kate Murray 00:29:01 (29)
122 Kris Ryan 00:29:03 (30)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/cabinteely/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=63
St Anne’s Parkrun #170
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Colin Griffin 1 00:16:52
13 Zoe Quinn 1 00:19:29
Crusaders AC runners
21 Matt Cranley 00:20:01
66 Colm Kernan 00:22:36
84 Fiona Bane 00:23:09 (7)
291 Lorraine Fitzsimons 00:30:25 (87)
333 Ciara McElligott 00:32:42 (117)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/stannes/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=170
Athlone Parkrun #77
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Paul Heavey 1 00:18:27
8 Olivia Ni Shuilleabhain 1 00:21:28
Crusaders AC runner
5 David Cuddy 00:20:05
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/athlone/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=77
Shanganagh Parkrun #99
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Angus Tyner 1 00:17:59
22 Ellie Murphy 1 00:22:50
Crusaders AC runner
113 Gary Park 00:30:49
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/shanganagh/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=99