Climb every Mountain

4/9/2017

UTMB Startline

It was a much quieter week than last from a racing point of view. Nevertheless, we did have runners in some interesting events, particularly in the mountains.

We start, however, last Tuesday with John Fitzsimons, who, on the day after his 80th birthday, recorded an excellent 17:39 in his new age category in the 13th and final round of Raheny Shamrocks’ Lord Mayor Series 2 mile races. In a field of nearly 80 runners, John placed 71st. Later in the week Leo Lundy completed his 100th marathon in 100 weeks (the Mogwai Ultra in Surrey). Leo ran 29.5 miles in 6:13:34. He is now hanging his racing shoes up for a short while!

Then on Saturday, we had 3 Crusaders in the Dingle Half marathon. Conditions for the race were good for the first few miles but then the wind and rain came in and miles 6 through 10 were extremely exposed to the elements. Thankfully, however, the wind was at the runners’ backs for the last few miles. Barry O’Neill, who is training for the Dublin marathon, was first home for the club, finishing in a time of 1:38:02 and 94th out of a field of more than 1,700 runners. Barry was followed by Gerald Hoare (212th in 1:45:16) whose twin brother Martin won the event. The small contingent was completed by Carina Davidson with a PB time of 1:49:09 (302nd overall, 62nd female finisher).

Also, over the weekend a few of our clubmates took part in the Mondello Half marathon, involving 6 full laps of the race track in Kildare. In dry conditions and in a field of nearly 170 runners, Diarmuid Byrne took 3rd place in 1:30:00, followed by Paul O'Meara (16th in 1:40:49) fresh from the previous week's marathon in Longford, Aoife Clarke (32nd overall, 8th female finisher, in 1:46:43), Russell Murphy (34th in 1:47:39) and Darina Scully (36th overall, 9th female, in 1:47:56).

Four plucky Crusaders headed abroad to the mountains this weekend. Federico Corradini, our Italian exile, and Pat Quill took on the 167.5km Ultra trail Mont Blanc (UTMB), with Federico completing the gruelling event in Chamonix in 38:18:00 and Pat not too far behind in 44:23:29, extremely good results considering that a third of the field of approx. 2,540 dropped out as a consequence of the stormy conditions. The race involved a climb of over 9,400m and covered three countries: France, Italy and Switzerland. Then Jason Kehoe and Brian McGuckin joined a large contingent of Irish runners competing in the 17th World Masters Mountain Running Championships in Slovakia on a challenging course of just under 10k. Several members of the Irish team came home with individual medals, one of which was gold, with the men’s M35 team also taking the gold medal ahead of Slovakia and team GB and NI with a total score of only 13 points. Jason Kehoe distinguished himself with 16th place in the M35 category in which Ireland clearly had a strong presence. Brian competed in the M45 category and took 51st place behind gold medal winner Des Kennedy, the Irish team in that category narrowly missing out on a podium place.

We had 10 runners in the Cabinteely parkrun on Saturday morning, marking the 100th run for Mairin and Lisa Shine. The first finisher was also a Crusader, for the second week in a row. In warm conditions Dave Carter marginally improved on his time last week by finishing ahead of 163 other runners in 19:30. He was followed by Donnacha McCarthy and his guide Dave Tilly (3rd and 4th in 20:24)Tom Dunne (9th in 21:11) and then by Orlaith de Burca (99th overall, 30th woman, in 30:23), Fiona Shine (100th overall, 31st woman, in 30:26), Paul Kelly (125th in 33:03), Lisa Shine (131st overall, 49th woman, in 33:43), Mairin Shine (132nd overall, 50th woman, in 33:49) , Olwyn Dunne (133rd overall, 51st woman, in the same time) and by Don Anderton, in his first parkrun, in 149th in a time 37:18. We had runners in the second running of the Poolbeg parkrun on Saturday. The event attracted nearly 90 participants, with Russell Murphy placing 19th in 22:19 and Gillian Errity, 34th overall (7th woman) in 24:35. We had first finishers in a further two parkruns. In Fairview, Peter O’Toole finished ahead of a field of nearly 70 runners in a time of 19:06, whilst Paul Flynn took first finisher spot in Shanganagh in a time of 18:19 ahead of a field of nearly 140 runners. Nearly all the other parkruns equally had only one Crusader participating, apart from St Anne’s where we had two. Colm Kernan took 24th place in a field of nearly 390, and a time of 20:28. Colm was followed by Aoife Quinn (102nd overall, 13th woman, in 23:59). Thereafter, Neil Brown came home in 3rd place in 22:16 in the 44-strong field in Tullow. Tomas Mahony placed 11th in a field exceeding 300 in Malahide. Tom’s time was 18:52. Brian Carroll ran 19:39 to place 9th out of 195 in Griffeen, whilst Thomas O’Rourke, took 24th spot in a field of 131 in Naas, with a time of 23:59. Finally, Mairead Cashman ran in Ballincollig, taking 227th place overall, 80th woman finisher, in a time of 34:41. The field measured 263.

Dingle half marathon
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Martin Hoare 1 01:12:35
19 Aine Kernan O’Reilly 1 01:26:28
Crusaders AC runners
94 Barry O’Neill 01:38:02
212 Gerald Hoare 01:45:16
302 Carina Davidson 01:49:49 (PB) (62)
Full results here: http://www.titansports.ie/race-results/
Mondello half marathon
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Brian Leahy 1 01:15:09
5 Louise Long 1 01:33:21
Crusaders AC runners
3 Diarmuid Byrne 01:30:00
16 Paul O'Meara 01:40:49
32 Aoife Clarke 01:46:43 (8)
34 Russell Murphy 01:47:39
36 Darina Scully 01:47:56 (9)
Full results here: https://www.popupraces.ie/race-results/
Malahide Parkrun #252
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Eoin Callaghan 1 00:16:18
5 Annette Kealy 1 00:17:47
Crusaders AC runner
11 Tomas Mahony 00:18:52
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/malahide/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=252
Griffeen Parkrun #220
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Karl Fitzgerald 1 00:17:29
15 Bronagh Adams 1 00:20:32
Crusaders AC runner
9 Brian Carroll 00:19:39
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/griffeen/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=220
Naas Parkrun #179
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Liam Grogan 1 00:18:29
4 Ciara Shortall 1 00:19:46
Crusaders AC runner
24 Thomas O’Rourke 00:23:59
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/naas/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=179
St Anne’s Parkrun #197
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Graham O’Dwyer 1 0:16:46
10 Zoe Quinn 1 00:18:12
Crusaders AC runners
24 Colm Kernan 00:20:28
102 Aoife Quinn 00:23:59 (13)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/stannes/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=197
Cabinteely Parkrun #127
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 David Carter 1 00:19:30
8 Emilia Dan 1 00:20:56
Crusaders AC runners
1 David Carter 00:19:30
4 Donnacha McCarthy 20:24
9 Tomas Dunne 00:21:11
99 Orlaith de Burca 00:30:23 (30)
100 Fiona Shine 00:30:26 (31)
125 Paul Kelly 00:33:03
131 Lisa Shine 00:33:43 (49)
132 Mairin Shine 00:33:49 (50)
133 Olwyn Dunne 00:33:49 (51)
149 Don Anderton 00:37:18 (89)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/cabinteely/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=127
Shanganagh Parkrun #128
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Paul Flynn 1 00:18:19
11 Rachel Wisdom 1 00:20:04
Crusaders AC runner
1 Paul Flynn 00:18:19
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/shanganagh/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=128
Ballincollig Parkrun #64
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Colin Kilty 1 00:18:01
25 Mary Sweeney 1 00:21:56
Crusaders AC runner
227 Mairead Cashman 00:34:41 (80)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/ballincollig/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=64
Tullow Parkrun #23
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Larry Murphy 1 00:19:12
8 Caroline Shanahan 1 00:24:29
Crusaders AC runner
3 Neil Brown 00:22:16
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/tullow/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=23
Fairview Parkrun #8
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Peter O’Toole 1 00:19:06
14 Emer Buckley 1 00:24:38
Crusaders AC runner
1 Peter O’Toole 00:19:06
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/fairview/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=8
Poolbeg Parkrun #2
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Kieran Little 1 00:17:47
3 Aedin Corr 1 00:19:35
Crusaders AC runners
19 Russell Murphy 00:22:19
34 Gillian Errity 00:24:35 (7)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/poolbeg/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=2