 Donatas Jocius Road races remain few and relatively far between, whilst IMRA has been able to maintain a steady stream of mountain events. What is clear now is that there are fewer virtual challenges on offer than before, a sign perhaps that, little by little, real races are returning, albeit with restricted fields. On the roads, we saw a race midweek between Lusk and Balbriggan, the so-called 7k Man O’War Round. It took place on a hilly course, parts of which will be familiar to those of us who took part in the rather infamous Dublin Race Series Half marathon a while back when it was misguidedly transferred away from the Phoenix Park for the year of the Pope’s visit. It will be remembered as quite hilly around the Man O’War pub that marked the midway point of the half marathon at the time. So, the Round was hilly too, with a loop involving a downhill first half and an inevitable climb to the finish. We had just the one runner in the race, the intrepid John Gallagher, a relative newcomer to the club, who placed 59th in a field of 103 in a time of 39:46. Then, on Saturday, Donatas Jocius, better known nowadays as an IMRA runner, decided to try his hand in the Donadea 50k, confusingly held on the relatively flat motor racing track nearby in Mondello Park. The race involved 28 laps of the circuit on a pretty hard surface, nothing like the trail conditions of the Donadea Forest. In a race with 88 competitors, in addition to the inimitable Olwyn and Joe Dunne pacing for 5-hour runners, Donatas acquitted himself really well, on a really soggy day, taking PBs for both the marathon distance within the race (3:06) and for the 50k itself, where he placed 6th in a super time of 3:45:45. This year’s national 50k champion is MSB’s Sean Hehir who also won outright against international competition. Sean had originally intended to use the event for training purposes leading up to the National Marathon Championships in early October, which this year will be held as part of the Belfast marathon. Much of the race the field was led by a London athlete, but Sean remained in touch and his competitive juices got the better of him. In the end he won the race by a margin of only 22 seconds in a great time of 2:54:07. The two runners were half an hour ahead of the rest of the field. On Sunday, we again had a singleton runner in a road racing event. This time it was the new Termonfeckin 10 miler in Co. Louth, organised by Drogheda & District AC. It was a welcome return for Carrick Aces athlete Yared Derese who won in a great time of 49:19, ahead of Mick Clohisey who ran 50:16. On her birthday DSD’s Niamh Devlin won the women’s race in 61:50, a nice way to celebrate. Adam Flanagan from the club, preparing for the fast Antrim half marathon next week (in which we as a club hope to have a formidable turnout, so watch this space!), placed a well-earned 14th in 60:35. It augurs well for the Monaghan native. The one lap course was interesting enough, starting just outside Drogheda and with Termonfeckin at its furthest point, involving an early climb for the first 5k, with a descent to 10k, followed by a flat 4k to a climb for the last 2k to the finish. Moving onto the IMRA events. There were two on which to report, with the second event, that of a race to the top of Lugnaquilla and back, having two competitors from the club, Warren Swords and Gavan Doherty. There was a bit of rain during the race, but from all accounts it was nothing like the deluge we experienced in Dublin. This Leinster Championship race was otherwise conducted on moderate terrain over 10.5k with a climb of 718m. Warren placed 11th overall and 2nd M40 in 63:10, followed by Gavan in 55th place (his second result in that position last week) in 86:59. There were 68 participants in the race. The other event took place last Wednesday evening and we also had two athletes compete in that, which was the Mountain Rescue Benefit race, run over a distance of 8k around Paddock Hill near Laragh in Co. Wicklow. By IMRA standards it was relatively flat with a climb of 250m. Donatas used the event as a warm up for Donadea and he was joined by Gavan. As previously mentioned, Donatas is running really well these days and he placed 4th overall and 1st M35 in the race in a time of 37:06, whilst Gavan placed 55th in the 109-strong field in a time of 49:04. The winning time was 36:22. Finally, Lisa and Fiona Shine have continued their sojourn in the North and took part in another parkrun, this time in Ballymena, the Ecos parkrun. In a field of 117 runners, Fiona placed 20th and 2nd female finisher in 23:35, with Lisa not so far behind in 29th place overall (4th female finisher) in 24:20. Kris Ryan, our Australian exile, found a new parkrun on Queensland’s Gold Coast. In the Broadbeach Waters parkrun with its field of 44, Kris placed 7th overall and 3rd placed female finisher in 23:07. Mountain Rescue Benefit race (IMRA race) (109) Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime 1 Patrick Ward 1 00:36:22 17 Grace O’Rourke 1 00:41:09 Crusaders AC runners 4 Donatas Jocius 00:37:06 55 Gavan Doherty 00:49:04 Full results here: https://www.imra.ie/events/results/id/2067 Man O’War 7k Round (103) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Anthony Sharkey 1 00:24:39 6 Aoife Parrella 1 00:28:40 Crusaders AC runner 59 John Gallagher 00:39:46 Full results here: https://www.myrunresults.com/events/man_o_war_round/4171/results Log Na Coille 10.5k (IMRA race) (68) Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime 1 James Kevan 1 00:51:10 9 Isobel Oakes 1 01:02:03 Crusaders AC runners 11 Warren Swords 01:03:10 55 Gavan Doherty 01:26:59 Full results here: https://www.imra.ie/events/results/id/2077/ Donadea 50k (90) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Sean Hehir 1 02:54:07 8 Deirdre Lynn 1 03:56:33 Crusaders AC runner 6 Donatas Jocius 03:45:45 Full results here: https://www.popupraces.ie/race/donadea50k-and-donadea100k/ Drogheda and District AC Termonfeckin 10 mile (203) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Yared Derese 1 00:49:19 21 Niamh Devlin 1 01:01:50 Crusaders AC runner 14 Adam Flanagan 01:00:35 Full results here: https://www.myrunresults.com/events/drogheda__district_ac_termonfeckin_10_mile/4162/results  Joe and Olwyn Dunne  Adam Flanagan  Adam Flanagan  Gavan Doherty  Donatas Jocius Comments are closed.
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