Back on track in many ways

2/5/2022

Aaron Cashman

We seem to be getting back to decent numbers in events of all types now and it’s great to see. Some kind of normality is returning with reasonably large numbers in races over the bank holiday weekend.

We start earlier in the week. There were 2 races on Wednesday evening, one, the first Dublin graded meet of the season, on the track in Tallaght, and the other in the Dublin mountains on Scalp.

In Tallaght, we had 11 Crusaders take part in the multitude of events on offer that evening in fine conditions. Safiatou Acquaviva ran in the women’s A1 100m, placing 2nd in a time of 12.52, whilst we had two men in the A1 and B1 races of the same distance. Valantinos Goularas took 4th place in 11.22 in the A1 race, whilst Hugo Magee won the 5-strong B1 event in 11.10. We had 5 men running different grades of the 800m. Enda Clarke won the 7-strong C1 event in a time of 2:09.55, with Henry Griffin placing 3rd in 2:11.48, whilst Paul E. Kelly took on the D1 race, where he crossed the line in 3:15.90. Finally, in the D2 grade race, Brendan Glynn took 7th place in 2:41:00, followed by Alan Kavanagh, just behind in 8th place, in a time of 2:41.40. The last events in which the club featured were the men’s AB1 and C1 standard 3000m races with 4 of our clubmates participating. Michael Wycherley would have preferred to have run in the latter event, but, because of the size of the fields, was obliged to take on the high standard AB1 event, where, nevertheless, he ran a decent time of 9:50.80, despite being in no man’s land a bit, placing 14th. He might have had a better contest in the C1 race where Crusaders were led home by Paul Cowhie in 7th place in a 17-strong field in 9:58.73. Paul was followed by Enda Clarke in his second race of the evening in 8th spot in a time of 10:01.40 and then by Gian Piero Allerta (16th in a PB time of 12:13.09). Congrats to all those running. The next graded event will take place in 2 weeks’ time.

Sticking with the track, on Saturday afternoon we were treated to a fine spectacle of racing at the Morton Stadium in the context of the 1st Irish Milers Club meet of its 21st year, organised by Mike McGovern and Susan Walsh and assisted by a plethora of Crusader volunteers with a few Dublin Front Runners in addition. On offer were several 400, 800, 1500 and 5000 metres races along with a finale provided by multiple teams from UCD, DCU and NUI Galway competing in a mixed medley relay race. The afternoon was all tremendous fun with some really exciting races and several of the highlights were provided by Crusader athletes, taking to the track in the early part of the outdoor season. Additionally, conditions, although moist and a little chilly, were somewhat benign until the wind picked up towards the end of the meet.

In the men’s 400A race, Hugo Magee hung on in the outside lane for a win in a PB time of 49.87, his first time breaking 50 seconds. Robert Ivers ran in the B race of the same distance, placing 5th in 56.34. We had 4 runners in the various standard men’s and women’s 800m events. In the women’s 800 B standard, Léa Braud placed 6th in 2:23.25, whilst Fearghal O’Hare was involved in a highly exciting 800m A race, where a Raheny athlete ended up being sandwiched between 2 from Ferrybank for a photo finish. Fearghal ended up placing 7th in 1:54.50. Finn Boyle took 2nd spot in the men’s C edition in a time of 1:58.87, whilst Aaron Cashman, who featured in last month's club newsletter, fought a strong battle to win the E race in 2:09.23. Peter O’Toole ran a decent 16:42.41 to place 26th in the high standard 5,000m and then we had 2 runners in the women’s 1500m A and B races.

Sarah McGettigan crossed the line in 6th spot in the 1500m B race, possibly her first attempt at the distance, with a time of 5:05.32, whilst Mary Horgan moved up a distance to test herself early in the season to take on the women’s 1500m high quality A standard. Mary ran a steady race until the last lap and with 300m to go she upped her pace, coming from 9th at one point to finish in 5th place in a super time of 4:33.97. Mary’s confidence will be sky high coming into the summer.

On Scalp in the Dublin mountains on Wednesday evening we had just one runner, Paul Flynn, who placed 20th in a field of 145 and in a time of 32:11 for the 6.35k course. The race, part of the Leinster League, took in two different loops of Barnaslingan and Carrickgollogan Woods with a climb of 217m on a marked course.

We move on now to road racing, where there was much activity down in Limerick for the Bank Holiday Festival. Although there were heavy showers on Sunday towards the end of the half and full marathons, the rain did not do too much to dampen the enjoyment of running these events again. Nearly 6,000 runners and walkers took part in the 3 events on offer: the half and full marathons as well as the unusual (but now traditional) 6-mile race, which had by far the largest number of participants at over 3,200. The races are structured so that the half marathoners start their race close to the halfway point of the marathon course, and so the two fields merge. The shortest race also ran on the same course but started 90 minutes after the half marathon, by which time many of the marathoners and half marathoners had finished, so the course did not appear ever to get too congested.

We had 2 runners in the marathon. Veteran marathoner Rob Browne acquitted himself well, on a reasonably tough course with more hills than might be expected (and quite a few twists and turns) and finding the second half tough, still managed a super 2:52:07 for 22nd place in a field of 914. Newcomer to the club and, indeed, running itself, Geoffrey Keating, was undeterred in taking on a marathon as his first challenge and ran an excellent 3:57:55 for 467th place. On a course where runners throughout frequently passed others coming in the opposite direction, allowing everyone to cheer each other on, the race was won by Sergiu Ciobanu in 2:21 from Sean Hehir (2:26) and the women’s race was won by Olympian Caitriona Jennings who currently resides in Hong Kong and, because of continuing Covid restrictions, still has to train there in a mask. Caitriona ran a highly respectable 2:41 for the win.

As with the marathon, we had two runners in the half marathon. At the last minute, James Cottle decided to run the race and was delighted to break 1:30, finishing in 1:29:57, less than a month after running the Paris marathon. James placed 101st in a field of 1,822 and won his O/65 age category by a comfortable margin, having unexpectedly been able to join the 3-hour marathon pacers for about 7k from six through thirteen kilometres, which allowed for a certain amount of drafting as the runners headed into windy conditions towards the end of the race. In a race that started from an incredibly narrow start line and took an immediate tight turn to the right, Noel Reilly made a welcome return to competitive running, preparing for the DCM later this year, by recording a time of 1:46:19 for 422nd place. Members will be interested to hear that Sean Murphy, who trains with the club from time to time and coming off an unhelpful period of Covid which severely interrupted his preparations for the Limerick marathon, decided to take on the half and placed 99th in 1:29:27, having effectively pulled James through the race. Also, recent Crusaders who have now joined clubs in their native counties in the west (Galway and Clare), Catherine Thornton and Mark O’Connor, ran really well to get PBs in the half. Moreover, Catherine’s time of 1:21:47 was enough to place her 34th overall and 3rd female across the line, just over 60s behind the winner and only 40s behind second placed Siobhan O’Doherty. Mark’s time of 1:20:47 for 26th place was also a super PB.

Finally, we had just one runner in the 3,214-strong 6-mile race. In his native city Luke Haran ran 43:57 for 66th place.

For its 40th running, the Belfast marathon returned to its traditional May Day slot and enjoyed a field in excess of 3,000 finishers. We had two runners in this race. Newcomers Mona Samir and Kevin Kenny represented the club. Hungarian athlete, Mona had only ever run a virtual marathon before (during lockdown) and so this, effectively, was her second attempt. The course, used in October last year, is quite challenging with lots of hills, but runners were spared the windy conditions of last year and the rain held off for much of the race. Mona, ran really well, in spite of having trained erratically, finishing in a satisfying PB time 3:41:52 despite finding the hills extremely tough. Kevin was taking on his third marathon in about a month and he ran well to finish in 4:19:52.

In the afternoon on Sunday, 3 Crusaders headed up to County Louth to run in the Drogheda and District-organised 10k, which took in a loop with half of it taking place along the banks of the Boyne. The first half of the race was undulating and a net uphill into the wind, with the second half slightly flatter, a net downhill, with a climb to the finish. Michael Wycherley was our leading runner home, taking 12th place (5th O/40) in a time of 35:20. In a field in excess of 1,000 runners, Joe McDermott also ran well to place 18th in 36:15, and he was followed by David McEvoy (60th in 40:33).

Further afield, we had at least 5 exiles racing over the weekend. The indefatigable and weekly racer (it seems), Italo Giancaterina ran in a 10k that started and finished in Tagliacozzo, northwest of Rome, winning the hilly race in under 34 minutes. In Australia, Niamh Allen and Katie Rogers joined over 1,300 runners to take part in the Sydney 10, where Katie broke 40 minutes for the first time, finishing in 39:04 for 300th overall and 35th female finisher, whilst Niamh came home in 92nd place and 5th female finisher in a majestic time of 34:03. Ian Kinsella ran in the Pick Your Poison 25k trail race north of Toronto in Canada which he won in a time of 1:56:57. Finally, Thom Martini ran in the Vitality 10k road race in the centre of London on bank holiday Monday where he placed 878th in a time of 40:35 in a huge field of over 7000 runners.

Numbers were somewhat lower across the board in the parkruns on Saturday. This may have been because of the wet weather, but also people may have been away for the bank holiday weekend. Nevertheless, we had quite a few runners pounding the park trails.

Two of our athletes headed to the UK, where Georgina Hawkins ran in the hilly park run in Shrewsbury in a field of 408, placing 158th overall and 18th female finisher in 25:28, and where Toby Benham placed 3rd in 17:34 in the 303-strong field in Longrun Meadow in Taunton, Somerset.

First finisher places were earned once again by Kate Murray, Cristian Vilchez Ceballos and Esther Requena Ferri. Kate ran with Mairead Cashman in Bushy Park where, in a field of 117, she placed 22nd overall in 23:31, whilst Mairead placed 58th and 16th in 27:30. Meanwhile, Esther and Cristian joined Paul Campbell and Dee Ni Chearbhaill along with 83 other participants in Fairview. Cristian’s leading time was 18:14, with Esther placing 3rd overall in a time of 20:11. They were followed by Paul who ran 21:00 for 6th place and Dee, just before heading off to Limerick to support husband Sean and sister Maura the following day, who placed 15th and 2nd in 22:57. Other podium finishers included Lisa Shine who placed 9th and 2nd in a time of 24:24 in the 29-strong field in Athlone, along with Louise Dobbyn who placed 15th and 2nd in Cabinteely in a time of 23:42. Louise was joined in the 109-strong field by Stephen Mulligan who ran 32:16 for 75th place. We had two other 2nd place finishers in Stephen Hurley and Sharon Woods in Poolbeg. Stephen ran 18:07 and he was joined by 9 other clubmates in the event. The field measured 97 and Stephen was followed by Gerard Moore (5th in 18:58), Zlatko Kulic (13th in 21:18), Sharon (18th and 2nd in 21:44), Josie Ward (33rd and 5th in 23:25), Tanja Narancic (35th and 6th in 24:08), Olwyn Dunne (40th and 7th in 24:36), Cliodhna O’Reilly (42nd and 9th in 24:48), Maureen McGinley (67th and 20th in 28:54) and Mari Hansen (83rd and 32nd in 33:54).

Darina Scully effectively tailwalked in Avondale Forest, whilst Mairin Shine ran in Poppintree. In a field of 94, Mairin placed 47th and 10th in 28:26. Deirdre Kennedy ran in Malahide, placing 131st and 36th in 27:51 in a field of 215, whilst Maria Kennedy ran in her native Kilkenny where, in a field of 82, she placed 43rd and 10th in 28:34. We had a reasonable turnout in St. Anne’s with Michael Maughan leading the contingent home in 53rd place in a time of 22:46. In the 351-strong field, Michael was followed by Cian Coughlan (68th in 23:29), Aine Crotty (70th and 8th in 23:30), Paul F. Kelly (104th in 24:45) and Aoife Kelly (222nd and 74th in 28:35). Finally, we had 4 runners in Shanganagh. Dee Lawlor was our first clubmate home in 18:48 for 6th place and he was followed in the 134-strong field by Carina Davidson (60th and 13th in 26:21), Orlaith de Burca (73rd and 19th in 27:22) and Jill Nason (78th and 22nd in 28:08).

IMRA Scalp (145)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Karol Cronin 1 00:27:54
31 Aoife Conway 1 00:33:49
Crusaders AC runner
20 Paul Flynn 00:32:11
Full results here: https://www.imra.ie/events/results/id/2210/
Limerick marathon (914)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Sergiu Ciobanu 1 02:21:20
10 Caitriona Jennings 1 02:41:07
Crusaders AC runners
22 Rob Browne 02:52:07
467 Geoffrey Keating 03:57:55
Full results here: Event results -2022 Regeneron Great Limerick Run Marathon - TDL Event Services
Limerick Half marathon (1822)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Peter Somba 1 01:04:37
27 Courtney McGuire 1 01:20:45
Crusaders AC runners
101 James Cottle 01:29:27
422 Noel Reilly 01:46:19
Full results here: Event results -2022 Regeneron Great Limerick Run Half Marathon - TDL Event Services
Limerick 6-mile run (3214)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Jose Ignacio Gimenez Perez 1 00:29:32
8 Jessica Coyne 1 00:35:19
Crusaders AC runner
66 Luke Haran 00:43:57
Full results here: Event results -2022 Regeneron Great Limerick Run 6 Miles - TDL Event Services
Drogheda 10k (1006)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Mick Clohisey 1 00:30:41
16 Laura McDonnell 1 00:36:01
Crusaders AC runners
12 Michael Wycherley 00:35:20
18 Joe McDermott 00:36:15
60 David McEvoy 00:40:33
Full results here: https://www.myrunresults.com/events/scotch_hall_drogheda_10k_2022/4322/results
Belfast Marathon (3000+)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Paul Pollock 1 02:16:15
22 Gladys Ganiel 1 02:43:47
Crusaders AC runners
788 Mona Samir 03:41:52 (PB)
1868 Kevin Kenny 04:19:52
Full results here: Belfast City Marathon 2022 results: Official times from 40th anniversary race - Belfast Live
Poppintree Parkrun (94)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Bobby Bedford 1 00:18:10
23 Siobhan Mulhern-Haughey 1 00:24:26
Crusaders AC runner
47 Mairin Shine 00:28:26 (10)
Kilkenny Parkrun (82)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Matthew Kavanagh 1 00:18:37
17 Sheila O’Callaghan 1 00:23:16
Crusaders AC runner
43 Maria Kennedy 00:28:34 (10)
Athlone Parkrun (29)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Joe Reilly 1 00:20:03
5 Aiveen Digby 1 00:22:40
Crusaders AC runner
9 Lisa Shine 00:24:24 (2)
Avondale Forest Parkrun (31)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 P.J. Mahon 1 00:20:34
14 Emer Kilfeather 1 00:31:01
Crusaders AC runner
27 Darina Scully 00:55:29 (9)
Bushy Parkrun (117)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Peter Fenyvesi 1 00:19:08
22 Kate Murray 1 00:23:31
Crusaders AC runners
22 Kate Murray 00:23:31 (1)
58 Mairead Cashman 00:27:30 (16)
Fairview Parkrun (87)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Cristian Vilchez Ceballos 1 00:18:14
3 Esther Requena Ferri 1 00:20:11
Crusaders AC runners
1 Cristian Vilchez Ceballos 00:18:14
3 Esther Requena Ferri 00:20:11 (1)
6 Paul Campbell 00:21:00
15 Dee Ni Chearbhaill 00:22:57 (2)
Malahide Parkrun (215)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Matthew Glitz 1 00:16:48
7 Annette Kealy 1 00:18:07
Crusaders AC runner
131 Deirdre Kennedy 00:27:51 (36)
Poolbeg Parkrun (97)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Eric Cullinane 1 00:18:01
15 Sarah-Jane Barrable 1 00:21:18
Crusaders AC runners
2 Stephen Hurley 00:18:07
5 Gerard Moore 00:18:58
13 Zlatko Kulic 00:21:18
18 Sharon Woods 00:21:44 (2)
33 Josie Ward 00:23:25 (5)
35 Tanja Narancic 00:24:08 (6)
40 Olwyn Dunne 00:24:36 (7)
42 Cliodhna O’Reilly 00:24:48 (9)
67 Maureen McGinley 00:28:54 (20)
83 Mari Hansen 00:33:54 (32)
Shanganagh Parkrun (134)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Alan Dalton 1 00:17:20
18 Aoibhe McCarthy 1 00:21:10
Crusaders AC runners
6 Dee Lawlor 00:18:48
60 Carina Davidson 00:26:21 (13)
73 Orlaith de Burca 00:27:22 (19)
78 Jill Nason 00:28:08 (22)
Cabinteely Parkrun (109)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 David Walsh 1 00:18:54
9 Cristin Scollard 1 00:22:00
Crusaders AC runners
15 Louise Dobbyn 00:23:42 (2)
75 Stephen Mulligan 00:32:16
St. Anne’s Parkrun (351)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Seán Ó Fathaigh 1 00:18:05
11 Claire Tonry 1 00:19:53
Crusaders AC runners
53 Michael Maughan 00:22:46
68 Cian Coughlan 00:23:29
70 Aine Crotty 00:23:30 (8)
104 Paul F. Kelly 00:24:45
222 Aoife Kelly 00:28:35 (74)