Baltic Conditions thwart some but happily not all...

18/3/2018

John Fahy

What might have been! Several races would have had to have been cancelled over the Paddy’s day weekend on account of the weather, the largest of them being the MSB-organised St. Patrick’s Festival 5k set in the heart of Dublin, one of the highlights of the road racing calendar. We had well over 30 Crusaders intending to run, but the blizzard conditions of part 2 of the Beast from the East got the better of us. No one had been expecting how severe the conditions would be around Dublin, but we did have some inkling perhaps of what was to come in experiencing the fierce winds that accompanied the snow in all the races that went ahead on Saturday.

Despite the weather, there were some impressive performances and hats off to everyone who ventured out to race over the weekend.

We had 4 runners in what is usually a fast race on a relatively flat course, the event being the Mullingar Half marathon. It was fast again, but without the breezy conditions it could apparently have been even faster. Cork native John Fahy excelled himself with a PB run of 1:20:29 to come home in 23rd place in a field of nearly 1,200 participants. John was followed by Jane Wallace who treated the race as a training run, placing 206th overall (22nd woman home) in 1:37:26. Jane, like John, is preparing for the Hamburg marathon at the end of April and, like John, will have derived some confidence from the experience. Next came Aoife Clarke (291st overall, 42nd woman) in 1:41:44 and Aoife was followed by Carina Davidson (386th overall, 64th woman) in a time of 1:45:16. Newcomer Seamus Moore was our sole competitor in the Balbriggan Half. In a more modest field of 126, Seamus ran a great time of 1:28:18 to place 13th, a highly creditable performance considering he recently participated in the Seville marathon. Even in New York runners were not immune from the windy conditions. Paul Dempsey, another Hamburg-bound marathoner, travelled over there to run the New York Half marathon with its huge field. In windy conditions, on a course that ends on the hills of Central Park, Paul ran a PB time of 1:19:19, a 2 minute improvement over his previous best, finishing in 186th place out of nearly 22,000 finishers. The race was won by Ben True in 1:02:39.

Back to Ireland and on Saturday we saw the first race of the Kia Race Series, the Streets of Portlaoise 5k. Just two of our club-mates ventured over to Co. Laoise to take part in what was a race of some quality among both men and women. In a field of nearly 700 runners, Michael O’Conor placed 23rd in a time of 16:40, whilst Helena Walsh finished in 119th place overall, 21st female competitor home, in a time of 21:05.

Two of our extreme distance runners were out again at the weekend. Pat Quill has shrugged off his recent leg injury and this weekend took part in the 55 mile Hardmoors Ultra. The trail race involved over 2,000m of ascent over rocky hills and had a cut-off limit of 16 hours. In an event that Pat felt was not too challenging technically, but which was made harder by the wintry conditions, there were nearly 180 retirees from the race. Pat came home in 117th place out of the 141 finishers in a time of 13:36:11. Having started the race at 09:10 in the morning in sub-zero temperatures, he finished just before 11 in the evening and at one point was almost persuaded to drop out by an official because he appeared to be getting hypothermia. Not to be outdone, Leo Lundy set out on his last couple of long runs in preparation for the Belfast to Dublin ultra on Good Friday. His first was the Shane's Castle ultra trail race on the North shore of Lough Neagh in Co. Antrim involving 40.1 miles in atrocious conditions. This was followed by the St Patrick's ultra, Whiteabbey, also in Antrim. This event involved not only 29.5 miles in freezing temperatures and 50 mph winds but also meant getting a soaking from the waves breaking over the sea wall several times each mile. Leo ran well, placing 6th out of 140 finishers. Quite wisely, he has decided to put his feet up now for a couple of weeks.

As usual, we had some decent performances in the weekend’s parkruns, runners not having been put off too much by the conditions. First finisher places went to Lisa Shine in New Ross in a time of 22:23 (11th overall), Darina Scully in Father Collins in a time of 23:00 (10th place overall) and Catherine Thornton (2nd overall), who added some miles both before and after the event and finished in a time of 20:14. We also had podium results from Niamh Corby who, likewise, used the parkrun in Cabinteely as a training run, placing 5th overall, 2nd woman finisher, in 20:40. 2nd place went also to Sarah Lyons in Fairview (12th overall in 25:52), which additionally saw Phelim Murray run and finish in 7th place (24:09).There were other good runs from Brian Carroll in Griffeen with his 5th place finish in 19:50 and from James Murphy in Poolbeg. James placed 4th in 18:52 and he was followed by Tim O’Donnell (10th in 20:55) and Colm Foley (28th in 23:16). We had 4 runners in St. Anne’s. Peter O’Toole continues to show strong form with a 5th place finish in 18:26, followed by Eugene O’Neill (13th in 19:18) making a welcome return to competitive running, Matt Cranley, as usual with his buggy (29th in 20:13) and Aoife Quinn (154th overall, 22nd female finisher in 26:50). Sharon Woods placed 29th overall, 6th woman home, in 25:29 in Tymon whilst Kate Murray (109th overall, 9th female, in 24:02) and Mairead Cashman (228th overall, 53rd female, in 27:39) took on Marlay Park. Finally, before retiring to a pub in the Midlands to watch the Grand Slam after supporting son Jack in the Ireland U-20 match against England the night before, Olwyn Dunne ran in the Coventry parkrun, placing 75th overall (7th woman home) in a field exceeding 420 runners. Olwyn’s time was 23:57.

Finally, a result that was missed from last week's report needs to be mentioned. Donnacha McCarthy and Dave Tilly from the club became national duathlon champions. The long trip to Letterkenny was worth it as Donnacha and Dave topped the field in the standard distance: 10k run, 40k bike and 5k run.

Congratulations to all!

Streets of Portlaoise 5k (694)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Hiko Tonosa 1 00:14:40
10 Kerry O’Flaherty 1 00:16:10
Crusaders AC runners
23 Michael O’Conor 00:16:40
119 Helena Walsh 00:21:05 (21)
Full results here: https://www.popupraces.ie/race-results/
Mullingar Half marathon (1176)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Johnny Daly 1 01:12:21
16 Maria McCambridge 1 01:18:59
Crusaders AC runners
23 John Fahy 01:20:29 (PB)
206 Jane Wallace 01:37:26 (22)
291 Aoife Clarke 01:41:44 (42)
386 Carina Davidson 01:45:16 (64)
Full results here: https://www.myrunresults.com/events/aon_mullingar_half_marathon_2018/2523/results
Balbriggan Half Marathon (126)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Eoin Callaghan 1 01:12:26
18 Rachel Eustace 1 01:32:32
Crusaders AC runner
13 Seamus Moore 01:28:18
Full results here: https://www.myrunresults.com/events/balbriggan_cancer_support_half_marathon__10k/2477/results
Marlay Parkrun #249 (417)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 unknown 1 00:17:32
9 Lynne Hennessy 1 00:19:20
Crusaders AC runners
109 Kate Murray 00:24:02 (9)
228 Mairead Cashman 00:27:39 (53)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/marlay/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=249
Griffeen Parkrun #248 (150)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Dylan Wright 1 00:19:06
8 Katie Maher 1 00:20:15
Crusaders AC runner
5 Brian Carroll 00:19:50
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/griffeen/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=248
Poolbeg Parkrun #29 (86)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Peter Kern 1 00:17:45
26 Deirdre Nally 1 00:23:15
Crusaders AC runners
4 James Murphy 00:18:52
10 Tim O’Donnell 00:20:55
28 Colm Foley 00:23:16
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/poolbeg/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=29
St. Anne’s Parkrun #225 (313)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Peter Fitzsimons 1 00:17:13
27 Orla Manley 1 00:20:11
Crusaders AC runners
5 Peter O’Toole 00:18:26
13 Eugene O’Neill 00:19:18
29 Matt Cranley 00:20:13
154 Aoife Quinn 00:26:50
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/stannes/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=225
Knocknacarra Parkrun #194 (70)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Hans de Raeymaeker 1 00:20:03
2 Catherine Thornton 1 00:20:14
Crusaders AC runner
2 Catherine Thornton 00:20:14 (1)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/knocknacarra/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=194
Tymon Parkrun #195 (78)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Dave Nalty 1 00:19:27
13 Sandra Ussher 1 00:23:16
Crusaders AC runner
29 Sharon Woods 00:25:29 (6)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/tymon/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=195
Cabinteely Parkrun #154 (110)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 George Callery 1 00:19:28
4 Sarah Baryga 1 00:20:17
Crusaders AC runner
5 Niamh Corby 00:20:40 (2)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/cabinteely/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=154
New Ross Parkrun #142 (81)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 George Delaney 1 00:17:19
11 Lisa Shine 1 00:22:23
Crusaders AC runner
11 Lisa Shine 00:22:23 (1)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/newross/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=142
Father Collins Parkrun #130 (60)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Mel Roddy 1 00:20:05
10 Darina Scully 1 00:23:00
Crusaders AC runner
10 Darina Scully 00:23:00 (1)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/fathercollins/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=130
Fairview Parkrun #35 (67)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Richie Dooley 1 00:19:52
11 Niamh Cantillon 1 00:25:43
Crusaders AC runners
7 Phelim Murray 00:24:09
12 Sarah Lyons 00:25:52 (2)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/fairview/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=35