Dreadful Wind and Rain

15/4/2018

Kieran Little

The title of the Grateful Dead's song is probably an appropriate way to describe the atrocious conditions of Monday's Boston marathon. We had at least 4 intrepid runners in the event which witnessed two of the slowest winning times in the event's history. On a day where runners ran the point-to-point course from Hopkinton in the west to the centre of Boston itself against a severe headwind with driving rain and bone-chilling temperatures, the winner of the men's race (the slowest since 1976), a Japanese runner (Yuki Kawauchi, a prolific marathoner), came home in 2:15:58, whilst the American winner of the women's race, the first in 33 years, Desiree Linden (in a rain jacket), ran 2:39:54. It is remarkable that all our runners came home, considering that apparently 14 of the 25 male elite field dropped out during the race. First home for the club was Kieran Little in a super time of 2:51:58. In the first half, which is principally downhill, Kieran was on for a 2:44 finish, but the hills of the second half took their toll as they did for each of Paul O'Meara who ran 3:06:01 and Barry McGuire, already nursing a pulled hamstring before the race, who came home in 3:20:17. Brian Rainey also ran an excellent race in the circumstances, with a 3.5 minutes positive split and a 3:11:33 finish. It seems that recently our runners have faced extreme conditions in their Spring marathons, either baking hot as in Paris and Rotterdam or quite the reverse as we saw in Boston. London this coming weekend promises to be potentially challenging as well with higher temperatures than of late. As noted in a previous report, these are the perils of spring marathoning!

This week's stories began on Wednesday of last week on an evening which witnessed the first running of this year’s IMRA trail league. There were two races, one long course of 7.48km with 161 runners and another shorter race of 5.2k, intended primarily for younger runners, and had a modest field of 7.

The races took place on woodland trails around Djouce in Co. Wicklow in damp and misty conditions. The events were nowhere near as technical as some of those tackled by IMRA runners, but were challenging all the same.

On the short course the winner was actually a young Crusader, Alex Ainsworth, who finished in 32:10. Then in the longer race, the women’s event was won by Crusaders’ Becky Quinn who may indeed be unbeaten for the year so far. Becky placed 18th overall in 33:17. Not too far behind in 4th place (39th overall) came Laura Flannelly in a time of 35:38. Our first man home was Ollie McGrath who placed 15th in 32:58 and he was followed by Gavan Doherty, a man in training for the Hamburg marathon in two weeks’ time, in 26th place and a time of 34:18. Gavan was followed by Gary Park, making a rare foray into the mountains (30th in 34:40).

We then jump ahead to the National 10K road championships held on Sunday in the Phoenix Park in conjunction with the Great Ireland Run. The event, involving nearly 4,000 runners, took place in extremely damp, windy and quite cool conditions (principally because of the wind chill). Runners had to face a severe headwind coming through kilometres 2 to 3 and then again in the last kilometre or so, on a course that has its hills mostly in the second half. The club championship women went off about 20 minutes before the rest of the field (which is why the overall and gender places for one or two of the women indicated below are in square brackets).

Olwyn Dunne was our sole representative in the women's national championships, finishing in a time of 48:40 behind race winner Shona Heaslip who came in ahead of Kerry O’Flaherty, Britain’s Gemma Steele and Laura Shaughnessy. The men’s club race saw an exceptional tussle, with Brian Maher (who placed an amazing 2nd), Mick Clohisey (3rd) and Sergui Ciobanu battling it out with a couple of British runners to the line. In the main field we had 16 runners, some of whom were running in the national championships. With 6 of our runners breaking 40 minutes, Peter O’Toole led our contingent home in 80th place (35:52), followed by Frank Halligan in 84th (35:55). Next came James Moran in 108th (36:36) and he was followed by Joe McDermott running steadily into 110th place (36:39). Peter Barry followed, in 153rd place (37:40), with Mick Smyth not too far behind (180th in a PB time of 38:09). Eddie Nugent placed 270th in 40:30, followed by Sean Smith (317th in 41:06), and Padraig Needham, another runner in training for Hamburg (323rd in 41:16). Next over the line came David Timoney (347th in 41:41) and he was followed by Gearoid Grogan (393rd in 42:31) with Anthony O’Reilly in his 2nd event of the weekend not too far behind (406th in 42:46). The contingent was completed by Gerald Hoare making a welcome return to racing (637th in 45:24), Carina Davidson (1,385th overall, 328th female, in 51:38), Sorcha Ni Chuinneagain (1,965th overall, 601st female, in 55:52) and Paul Kelly (2,797th in 61:58).

In fact, the 10k had been preceded by a 5K event involving a field of nearly 800 runners. They ran on an entirely different course and experienced the headwind quite differently as well, as they approached the North Road from the opposite direction. For them it was the slight descent on Chesterfield in the last 2k that would have had an impact. We had two runners in that race. Simon Kenny came home in 14th spot in a time of 19:48, whilst Amy Brogan finished 170th overall, 63rd woman, in 27:20.

There was quite a decent turnout in the parkruns this weekend, and we saw, as usual, some podium finishes. In St Anne’s, Adrienne Jordan led home our 4 other participants as first finisher (16th overall) in a decent time of 18:42. Fiona Bane was next home in 151st place overall, 18th female, in 24:49, followed by Aoife Quinn (250th overall, 59th female, in 27:33), Denis Murphy (293rd in 28:43) and Lorraine Fitzsimons (338th overall, 109th female, in 30:08). Another first finisher was Catherine Thornton in Knocknacarra. On a recently changed, hillier, course, Catherine took 3rd place overall in a time of 19:35. On the podium, we also saw Brian Scanlan take 2nd place in River Valley in a time of 20:16, whilst Olwyn Dunne, in the first of two events for the weekend, took 2nd place (25th overall) in Porterstown in a time of 22:55. Olwyn was followed by Kevin Flynn who took 158th place in 34:39. To complete the podium finishes, Susanne English came home in 3rd (34th overall) in Oldbridge in a time of 24:53. In the other events, Neil Brown and Orlaith de Burca participated in Shanganagh, placing 32nd and 55th respectively, with respective times of 22:55 and 25:02. Orlaith was 9th woman home too. We had a good showing in Marlay Park, with Anthony O’Reilly placing 21st in 19:58, followed by Kate Murray (96th overall, 12th woman, in 23:09), Sarah Cush in her first competition in a while (98th overall, 14th woman, in 23:13) and Mairead Cashman (303rd overall, 91st woman, in 28:23). Harp Bhambra was our only participant in the challenging Cabinteely. In her first event in some time, Harp placed 161st overall, 59th woman, in 40:18. Finally, we had 6 members in the local parkrun in Poolbeg. Kieran Finucane took 9th spot in 20:04 and he was followed by Maria Kennedy (53rd overall, 10th woman, in 24:08), Mary Dolan (77th overall, 18th woman, in 26:36), Donna Barry (101st overall, 32nd woman, in 29:07), Ciara McElligott (132nd overall, 46th woman, in 34;04) and Don Anderton mopping up the back markers (149th in 41:17).

Great Ireland Run (National 10k Championships) (3816)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Oliver Lockley 1 00:30:18
[56] Shona Heaslip 1 00:34:52
Crusaders AC runners
80 Peter O’Toole 00:35:52
84 Frank Halligan 00:35:55
108 James Moran 00:36:36
110 Joe McDermott 00:36:39
153 Peter Barry 00:37:40
180 Mick Smyth 00:38:09 (PB)
270 Eddie Nugent 00:40:13
317 Sean Smith 00:41:06
323 Patrick Needham 00:41:16
347David Timoney 00:41:41
393 Gearoid Grogan 00:42:31
411 Anthony O’Reilly 00:42:46
642 Gerald Hoare 00:45:24
[1010] Olwyn Dunne 00:48:40 [206]
1385 Carina Davidson 00:51:38 (328)
1965 Sorcha Ni Chuinneagain 00:55:52 (601)
2797 Paul Kelly 01:01:58
Full results here: http://www.greatrun.org/myresults/advanced-search
Great Ireland 5K Run (786)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Killian McNamee 1 00:17:03
5 Maisy O’Sullivan 1 00:17:26
Crusaders AC runners
14 Simon Kenny 00:19:48
170 Amy Brogan 00:27:20 (63)
Full results here: http://www.greatrun.org/myresults/advanced-search
IMRA Djouce Trail race (161)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Luke Maher 1 00:30:05
18 Becky Quinn 1 00:33:17
Crusaders AC runners
15 Ollie McGrath 00:32:58
18 Becky Quinn 00:33:17 (1)
26 Gavan Doherty 00:34:18
30 Gary Park 00:34:40
39 Laura Flannelly 00:35:38 (4)
Full results here: https://www.imra.ie/events/view/id/1579
Marlay Parkrun #253 (533)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 unknown 1 00:16:38
12 Sarah Baryga 1 00:18:56
Crusaders AC runners
21 Anthony O’Reilly 00:19:58
96 Kate Murray 00:23:09 (12)
98 Sarah Cush 00:23:13 (14)
303 Mairead Cashman 00:28:23 (91)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/marlay/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=253
St Anne’s Parkrun #228 (498)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Colin Griffin 1 00:16:36
16 Adrienne Jordan 1 00:18:42
Crusaders AC runners
16 Adrienne Jordan 00:18:42 (1)
151 Fiona Bane 00:24:49 (18)
250 Aoife Quinn 00:27:33 (59)
293 Denis Murphy 00:28:43
338 Lorraine Fitzsimons 00:30:08 (109)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/stannes/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=228
Poolbeg Parkrun #33 (149)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Peter Kern 1 00:17:29
18 Clare Nash 1 00:21:18
Crusaders AC runners
9 Kieran Finucane 00:20:04
53 Maria Kennedy 00:24:08 (10)
77 Mary Dolan 00:26:36 (18)
101 Donna Barry 00:29:07 (32)
132 Ciara McElligott 00:34:04 (46)
149 Don Anderton 00:41:17
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/poolbeg/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=33
Knocknacarra Parkrun #198 (113)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Niall Murphy 1 00:19:07
3 Catherine Thornton 1 00:19:35
Crusaders AC runner
3 Catherine Thornton 00:19:35 (1)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/knocknacarra/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=198
River Valley Parkrun #89 (78)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Niall Harte 1 00:19:31
3 Cecile Ollagnier 1 00:21:02
Crusaders AC runner
2 Brian Scanlan 00:20:16
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/rivervalley/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=89
Oldbridge Parkrun #197 (100)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 unknown 1 00:18:07
13 Mairead Murphy 1 00:22:08
Crusaders AC runner
34 Susanne English 00:24:53 (3)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/fairview/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=38
Cabinteely Parkrun #158 (176)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Ted Burke 1 00:19:10
4 Orna Dilworth 1 00:20:50
Crusaders AC runner
161 Harp Bhambra 00:40:18 (59)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/cabinteely/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=158
Shanganagh Parkrun #158 (158)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Darragh Flynn 1 00:18:20
8 Maeve O’Grady 1 00:20:33
Crusaders AC runners
32 Neil Brown 00:22:55
55 Orlaith de Burca 00:25:02 (9)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/shanganagh/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=158
Porterstown Parkrun #130 (183)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Pearse Coyle 1 00:18:34
6 Deirdre Brophy 1 00:19:29
Crusaders AC runners
25 Olwyn Dunne 00:22:55 (2)
158 Kevin Flynn 00:34:39
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/porterstown/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=130