Crusaders shine everywhere this weekend, even in the freezing fog

23/1/2017

Rob Cross and Shane Collins

As with recent championships, because of the congested nature of the calendar, we were able to field only a small but strong team of men for the National Intermediates XC held in the Palace grounds in Tuam on Sunday. By all accounts it was an undulating course with little that was flat and was also quite muddy. The 8K race (which measured slightly longer than that at nearly 8.4k) involved one short loop of about 1k, followed by 5 laps just under 1.5k for the quality field of nearly 90 runners to negotiate. Because it was being held in Galway, there was a significant showing from clubs in the locality.

Men’s captain Michael Kiely led our contingent to the finish line, taking 19th place in a time of 30:02 and he was followed some distance behind by a resurgent Michael O’Conor (25th in 31:14), who in turn was just ahead of Shane Collins, making a welcome return to competitive running after a long lay-off following a foot operation. Shane placed 30th in 31:30 and he was followed closely by Rob Cross, whose 32nd place in 31:36 was strong enough to confirm 4th scorer in the Dublin county gold medal-winning team. In his first competitive cross country championship, John Thuillier (58th in 33:07) was the 5th member of the team that came home in 4th place with 106 points just behind North Sligo (81) and the teams in gold and silver positions, Clonliffe (62) and North Belfast (66). East Cork were 5th out the 12 teams represented with 118 points.

37 runners in total turned out for the women’s BHAA 2 mile XC race on Saturday morning in Cherryfield. It’s a super race and the usual swampy and muddy conditions were improved by the crispy cold that morning, making the course (which is largely flat around playing fields but has a couple of hills) much firmer than has usually been experienced and no wind to worry about. Niamh Corby distinguished herself on the two lap course, placing 2nd in 12:18 and taking some decent scalps in the process. Dee Ni Chearbhaill placed 11th in 13:25 and winner of her age category, whilst our third runner, Susan Walsh, took 22nd spot in 15:05 (4th in her age category).

The mixed 5 mile race with 160 runners was dominated by Lithuania's national marathon champion, Valdas Dopolskas, who also represented his country in the Rio Olympics. Valdas has recently arrived in this country and will likely be turning out for Balbriggan AC in days and weeks to come. He won in a super time of 25:01, more than 90 seconds ahead of Raheny’s Simon Ryan in 2nd place. Once again, Karl Fahy had to be content with 4th place (27:15) and some distance behind Karl came John McAuley in 31st (30:38). John was followed by Irene Gorman who ran brilliantly. Irene had hoped to run in the first race, the 2 miler, but arrived too late for the event. She wasn’t fazed by the experience, however, coming home in 41st place and a time of 31:22. Niall McGeorge was next in 51st place (32:10), followed by Tom Dunne (70th in 33:58), Mike McGovern (81st in 34:43) and Robbie Moore (84th in 35:03).

In cold, but otherwise perfect, conditions in Lucan, Crusaders fielded a record 17 runners and 3 full teams in the 3rd race of the Women's Meet and Train Winter cross-country 4 race series. The course itself is a 2 mile, 2 loop course and is relatively flat with one hill, but has some tight spots given the high turnout of 144 runners on Sunday. In a competitive field, with lots of elbows flying, Fiona Shine had another fantastic race to lead the Crusaders A team home with individual 2nd place (12:54), overtaking the 3rd placed runner with about 600m to go. Fiona was followed home by Grainne Regan closely behind (9th in 12:59), Lisa Shine (19th in 13:35), Emily Ferghan (24th in13:48), Kate Murray (29th in 14:03), Darina Scully (32nd in 14:07), Geraldine Clements (38th in 14:24), Emer Kenny (39th in 14:26), Olwyn Dunne (59th in 14.55) and following a marathon the day before (!), Arwen Cusack (62nd in 15:02), Ailis Fagan (83rd in 15:37), Orlaith de Burca (87th in 15:53 in a fine elbow battle at the finish which she won, Rhona McGrath (101st in 16:35), Fiona Craven (111th in 17:03), Mairin Shine (119th in 17:27), Lorraine Fitzsimons (135th in 20:20) and Carina Davidson (136th in 20:30). At time of writing, team standings are awaited; Cru A and B were 4th and 5th after the last race in December. All the teams are looking forward to the 4th and final race in Swords on 5th February.

Kris Ryan and Leo Lundy's aspirations of an Ultra back-to-back over the weekend went up in smoke before it started, literally, when engine failure caused the pilot of their flight to the UK on Friday night to reject the take-off, mid-manoeuvre. A frustrating night was then spent at Dublin airport while alternative arrangements were made. In fact, when the first race had started at 8am on Saturday morning the pair were still in Dublin. Eventually, a flight to Southampton was organised which left them 130 miles from the race start. A mad dash across the south of England them ensued with them arriving at the start line some 5 hours after the rest of the field had started. Undeterred, Kris and Leo started on the really hilly, extremely muddy, 4.4 miles loop trail around the Ranscombe Farm reserve just outside Rochester in North Kent in sub-zero temperatures. Leo managed 3 loops for 13.1 miles and Kris managed 4 loops for 17.5 miles before fading light closed the course.

Day 2 was at the Hugin Ultra Challenge in Cliffsend, close to Ramsgate, right on the south coast of England. The race started at minus 7 degrees Celsius which was not forecast and which took the frankly under-prepared and under-dressed field by surprise. Keeping extremities and particularly the core warm and functional became a day long obsession for the runners. To make things worse, after an hour of running freezing fog rolled in and brought visibility down to 10m. As if there wasn’t enough to contend with ice began to form on hair and eye lashes and icicles began to drip off beards and eyebrows, which made the image of the race a cross between the Revenant and Frozen. Both ran well, however, with Leo managing 10 laps of the 3.25 mile trail loop for 32.5 miles and 6th overall out of 140 finishers, whilst Kris managed 11 loops for 36.1 miles for 2nd overall and 1st woman home. It wasn’t quite what was planned but it was an adventure all the same!

On Saturday, as part of her training for the upcoming Donadea 50K, Olwyn Dunne participated in the East of Ireland series Staplestown marathon, taking 33rd place overall, 4th female, in 3:48:59. The temperature at the start was minus 5 but no wind, so conditions were actually good for marathon running. The field measured nearly 70 runners in total.

Further afield, Rebecca Fleming was helping her new Maltese club-mates take first place in the Marsascala 5K road relay over the weekend.

In preparation for his outing on Sunday with the men's team for the National Intermediates, Shane Collins joined Bob Cahill and James Cottle in a 5k charity run that took place at 7am on Thursday. The HQ for the race was Irishtown stadium and the race, which went out and back along the Strand Road from the entrance to Clanna Gael, was organised by A&L Goodbody in aid of Orbis, the eye charity. About 60 runners, mostly from the aviation finance community, took part in the race, with Shane coming home side by side with Rathfarnham’s Robert Murphy in about 17:30. Olympian Caitriona Jennings was third, with Bob placing 5th and further back in 6th around 20 minutes came James, about 30 seconds ahead of Sportsworld’s Ruth Kelly. It was great fun if a little nippy.

The New Year’s commitment to park-running sees no sign of abating. Marlay for example had nearly 800 runners turn out on Saturday. St. Anne’s had in excess of 530 and Malahide, nearly 400. At least 21 of our club-mates participated in these events at the weekend, with some excellent results. We had first finishers in Navan, Ballincollig and Poppintree. In Navan, Dave Carter joined more than 200 other runners to place first in a time of 19:11, which was bolted onto a training run. Brian Carroll was also our only runner in Ballincollig and he was first to finish in a field of nearly 450 in a time of 18:40. In finishing first out of more than 170 runners in Poppintree, Diarmuid Byrne also recorded a super PB time of 18:11. One other Crusader, Ciaran Smyth, took part in the event and he finished in 4th spot in a time of 19:50. Natasha Murray placed 167th overall, 57th woman, in 38:20 in the 211-strong field in Tymon on Saturday morning, whilst Neil Brown and Orlaith Burke (who ran in the WM&T the following day) ran in Shanganagh. In a field of nearly 240 runners, Neil placed 60th in 25:10, whilst Orlaith placed 68th overall (14th woman) in 25:49. Lisa Shine and Kate Murray also prepared themselves for the WM&T with a parkrun. Kate placed 193rd overall (24th woman) in a time of 24:10 in Marlay, whilst Lisa placed 108th overall (37th woman) in 30:02 in Cabinteely. Mairin Shine also appears to have walked the same 217-strong event in Cabinteely in preparation for the WM&T, whilst, alongside Kate in Marlay, Killian Barry placed 13th in 19:22, followed by Edwina Quinlan (81st overall, 7th woman, in 22:10). Aidan Hudner placed 54th in the 326-strong field in Glasgow. Aidan was timed at 21:27, whilst in Albert park in Melbourne, Ian Kinsella took time off his holiday to place 11th in 18:10 in a field measuring nearly 430 runners. Interestingly the first finisher there came home in an impressive 15:56. Paul O’Meara was 6th in Malahide in a time of 18:45, with Suzanne Collins placing 228th overall (63rd woman) in 29:17 in the same event, and we had 4 runners in St. Anne’s. Recent new father Matt Cranley celebrated by running 20:04 and taking 26th place. He was followed by Colm Kernan and Denis Murphy, both of whom tacked long training runs onto their parkrun. Colm ran 23:36 and took 106th place, with Denis a second behind in 107th. Lorraine Fitzsimons, who also ran in the WM&T on Sunday, finished in 361st place overall (124th woman) in 30:24.

Men’s National Intermediate XC Championship
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Niall Sheehan 1 00:27:53
Crusaders AC runners
19 Michael Kiely 00:30:02
25 Michael O’Conor 00:31:14
30 Shane Collins 00:31:30
32 Rob Cross 00:31:36
58 John Thuillier 00:33:07
Full results here: http://www.athleticsireland.ie/downloads/other/Mens_Results_intermediate.pdf
BHAA Eir Women’s 2 miles XC
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Laura McDonnell 1 00:12:04
Crusaders AC runners
2 Niamh Corby 00:12:18
11 Dee Ni Chearbhaill 00:13:25
22 Susan Walsh 00:15:05
Full results here: https://bhaa.ie/events/eir-cc-2017/
BHAA Eir Mixed 5 miles XC
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Valdas Dopolskas 1 00:25:01
Crusaders AC runners
4 Karl Fahy 00:27:15
32 John McAuley 00:30:38
41 Irene Gorman 00:31:22
51 Niall McGeorge 00:32:10
70 Tom Dunne 00:33:58
81 Mike McGovern 00:34:43
84 Robbie Moore 00:35:03
Full results here: https://bhaa.ie/events/eir-cc-2017/
Naas Parkrun #147
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Gavin Kelly 1 00:16:59
30 Glynis Hanrahan 1 00:23:06
Crusaders AC runner
131 Ciara McElligott 00:31:40
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/naas/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=147
Poppintree Parkrun #116
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Diarmuid Byrne 1 00:18:11
17 Ciara McGrath 1 00:21:24
1 Crusaders AC runners
1 Diarmuid Byrne 00:18:11 (PB)
4 Ciaran Smyth 00:19:50
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/poppintree/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=116
Navan Parkrun #66
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 David Carter 1 00:19:11
22 Lorraine Mangan 1 00:23:50
Crusaders AC runner
1 David Carter 00:19:11
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/navan/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=66
Tymon Parkrun #135
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Unknown 1 00:18:43
32 Maura Ginty 1 00:23:02
Crusaders AC runner
167 Natasha Murray 00:38:20
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/tymon/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=135
Marlay Parkrun #193
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Jack Byrne 1 00:17:42
6 Sarah Baryga 1 00:18:35
Crusaders AC runners
13 Killian Barry 00:19:22
81 Edwina Quinlan 00:22:10
193 Kate Murray 00:24:10
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/marlay/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=193
Shanganagh Parkrun #96
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Liam Blackburn 1 00:17:59
8 Ashling Smith 1 00:19:42
Crusaders AC runners
60 Neil Brown 00:25:10
68 Orlaith Burke 00:25:49
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/shanganagh/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=96
Malahide Parkrun #220
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Eoin Callaghan 1 00:16:31
29 Amanda Maher Owen 1 00:21:00
Crusaders AC runners
6 Paul O’Meara 00:18:45
228 Suzanne Collins 00:29:17
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/malahide/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=220
Ballincollig Parkrun #32
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Brian Carroll 1 00:18:40
26 Mary Sweeney 1 00:21:18
Crusaders AC runner
1 Brian Carroll 00:18:40
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/ballincollig/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=32
St Anne’s Parkrun #167
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Aidan Jones 1 00:16:55
23 Fiona Victory 1 00:19:58
Crusaders AC runners
26 Matt Cranley 00:20:04
106 Colm Kernan 00:23:36
107 Denis Murphy 00:23:37
361 Lorraine Fitzsimons 00:30:24
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/stannes/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=167
Cabinteely Parkrun #95
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Caoimhin Kelly 1 00:18:06
12 Joanne Ryan 00:22:17
Crusaders AC runners
108 Lisa Shine 00:30:02
217 Mairin Shine 01:00:37
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/cabinteely/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=95

Back row: Don Anderton, Rhona McGrath, Fiona Craven, Darina Scully, Lorraine Fitzsimons, Mairin Shine, Emily Ferghan, Arwen Cusack, Diarmuid Byrne, Carina Davidson, Olwyn Dunne, John Fitzsimons. Front row: Paul Kelly, Orlaith de Burca, AIlis Fagan, Kate Murray, Fiona Shine, Lisa Shine, Maria Pertl