Making the Grade

28/5/2017

Mary Horgan

This week's racing started on Tuesday evening with the Bob Heffernan 5k, of which more below. On Wednesday, whilst John McAuley and Laura Flannelly were battling it out with 210 other runners in the balmy warmth on Scarr mountain in Co. Wicklow in an IMRA league event, placing respectively 11th (42:30) and 53rd overall (3rd female finisher in 50:21) behind race winner Diarmaid Collins (39:22), many Crusaders headed down to Irishtown track to watch the 3rd Dublin Athletics graded meet. They were well rewarded with some excellent racing.

Frank Halligan was first to go. He competed in the Dublin 10,000m championships, finishing in 10th place in a PB time of 35:16.9. The runners were refreshed periodically with bottles of water because of the unusual heat. Lesley-Ann Doughan, a recent recruit to the club, decided to take on both the 400m and 800m and excelled in both with 3rd place in the women’s 400m C race in a time of 66:46 and shortly afterwards winning race 2 of the women’s C 800m in 2:32:38 with a storming last 100m. In the men’s 400m, we had 2 runners in race 2 of the C grade, masters runners John O’Loughlin and Paul Francis, competing against much younger athletes. John held on well to take 3rd place in 57.5, whilst Paul also had a good run with 6th place in 61.8. Simon Everard took on the 400m B grade, placing 5th in 54.09.

The majority of our runners on the evening participated in the 800m events. Lisa Shine was our sole runner in race 1 of the 800m C event, taking 7th position with a good strong run in 2:38.68, whilst, as mentioned, Lesley-Ann won the 2nd race, having run with Grainne Regan (4th in 2:33.69) who just edged out Niamh Aspell, the latter having taken the lead early on in her first ever 800m (5th in 2:34.28). Orla Kennedy demonstrated her experience in the 800m B race, hanging back for the first 250m of the race with Fiona Shine tucked in behind and Catherine Thornton, another total newcomer to the 800m, slightly further up the field. Orla then ran extremely strongly to come through the field and finish in a well-deserved 3rd place in 2:26.18, with Fiona just behind in 2:27.05. It was certainly a PB for Fiona and quite possibly one also for Orla. Catherine had the misfortune of a severely tightening leg in the last 250m and placed 10th in 2:34.31. In the women’s 800m A race, Mary Horgan was untouchable, from gun to tape, coming home in 1st place in a time of 2:14.45.

Four of our clubmates competed in the men’s 800m. In the 800m D race John Fahy and Niall McGeorge placed respectively a close 3rd and 4th in 2:15.93 and 2:16.60, whilst Alan Sheehy also had an excellent race in the men’s 800m C event, placing 4th in 2:13.91. Finally, Michael Kiely participated in the men’s 800m A race, taking 6th spot in 2:03.67.

So, back to Tuesday. We had 4 clubmates participate in the Na Fianna Bob Heffernan 5K road race in Johnstownbridge Co. Meath. The race, with nearly 500 competitors, was unsurprisingly won by Peter Somba (15:08) and Laura Shaughnessy (16:31), each having significant margins of victory in otherwise quality fields. For the club, our small contingent was led home by Vinnie McGuinness in 58th place overall (17:11), followed by Colm Kernan (154th in 18:59), Amy Wright (232nd overall, 25th female finisher, in 20:12) and Denis Murphy (249th in 20:35).

Several Crusaders ran in the Staff Relays in the Phoenix Park on Thursday evening. On a winding 5k course that took runners down the Khyber Pass from a tented village on the Fifteen Acres, via the Snake on Military Road then up by the hospital back on to the area where the tents were laid out facing onto several bends of the course towards the finish and on an extremely warm evening, there were nearly four thousand participants running a total distance of 25k in teams of 5. It was an extremely chaotic (but well-organised) event and almost impossible to determine who was leading at times (chiptiming essential!). Notable Cru participants included Karl Fahy (2nd after the first leg) and Ciaran Diviney, Adrienne Jordan (who took over from Sean Hehir (of the primary schoolteachers team) for the first handover and was still leading the race when she finished), Vinnie McGuinness, Michael Moriarty, Emer Kenny, Ilona McElroy, Luke Haran, Joe McDermott (who ran an extremely strong second leg) and Tony Owens, to name but a few. No idea if any Cru were in the top 3 teams, but the primary school teachers eventually finished 4th.

On Saturday in wet conditions in Tullamore, the IMC held its second track meet of the season. Michael Kiely decided to run in the 1500m men’s A race this time, placing 11th in 4:08.39. Kevin Woods recorded a PB in the men’s 800m A event with a time of 1:51.79 and first place, whilst in the C event, Michael O’Conor placed 6th, also in a PB time of 2:04.72. Mary Horgan once again took on the 800m and in the A event ran an excellent 2:12.48 and 6th place, pretty close to or bettering her PB for the distance. Rob Cross ran in the 3,000m, taking 5th spot in a time of 9:07.00 and then we had two runners in the sprint events. Ciara Barry placed 6th in the women’s 200m in 26.74, whilst Nick Ennis ran 49.83 to place 2nd in the men’s 400m.

Then on Sunday, we had several competitors in the AAI Open games. Valentinos Goularas ran in 2 races and winning them both in 14:77 and 4:72. Niamh Boland was joined by Orla Kennedy in the 1500m with Niamh placing 3rd in 4:42.33 and Orla, 6th in 4:58.41. Nick Ennis placed 2nd in the 400m in a time of 48.85.

Recent exile, Ian Kinsella, reported that he won his first race on Canadian soil this weekend. The event was the Sulphur Springs 25K trail run.

In spite of IT band issues Leo Lundy strapped himself up this weekend as he needed time on his feet for some big events coming up. He chose a Saturday night marathon on the banks of the Thames that finished using head torches at close to midnight in extremely warm and humid conditions. Following that he travelled off to Kent for a 7:30am start in the Jeskyns Park marathon near Gravesend. In humid conditions and a temperature of 29 degrees Celsius on a hilly course he considered it was a monster. Not a fast series of races, but plenty of miles in the bank for Leo going forward.

Finally, we had some pretty notable performances in the parkruns on Saturday, with a plethora of podium finishes. In Marlay, Alban Coghlan and Lesley-Ann Doughan jointly finished first finishers ahead of nearly 400 runners. Alban’s time was 16:47, whilst Lesley–Ann continued her winning ways, placing 26th overall in a time 20:40. Kate Murray also ran, taking 63rd spot overall (6th woman) in 22:22. Gillian Errity was our sole runner in Griffeen among 170 other participants. Gillian placed 42nd overall, 3rd woman, in 22:51. Meanwhile, in St. Anne’s with its field of 364, Peter O’Toole also placed 3rd in 17:55, followed by Niamh Quinn (90th overall, 12th woman, in 22:34, Colm Kernan (111th in 23:30), Ciara McElligott (250th overall, 65th woman, in 29:24), and Aoife Quinn (285th overall, 84th woman, in 30:14). Another top finish went to Katie McElroy in Poppintree among a field of 134 runners. Katie placed 5th overall, 1st woman finisher, in 20:33 and was followed by Maria Pertl (68th overall, 29th woman, in 30:54). Neil Brown came home in 47th place out of 133 in Shanganagh. His time was 25:00. Lisa Shine was also a sole runner for the club in Cabinteely. In a field of 108 runners, Lisa placed 35th overall, 4th woman, in 25:40. Lastly, Sarah Lyons and Dominick Branigan took on Bushy Dublin. Sarah placed 25th overall, 3rd woman, in 23:56, whilst Dominick placed 5th out of nearly 100 runners, in a time of 18:38

Bob Heffernan 5K
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Peter Somba 1 00:15:08
33 Laura Shaughnessy 1 00:16:31
Crusaders AC runners
58 Vinnie McGuinness 00:17:11
154 Colm Kernan 00:18:59
232 Amy Wright 00:20:12 (25)
249 Denis Murphy 00:20:35
Full results here: http://www.sportsplits.com/Home/Results
Griffeen Parkrun #206
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Paul Martin 1 00:16:51
18 Karen Clarke 1 00:20:59
Crusaders AC runner
Gillian Errity 00:22:51(3)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/griffeen/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=206
Shanganagh Parkrun #114
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 unknown 1 00:18:21
21 Ciara Carter 1 00:22:27
Crusaders AC runner
47 Neil Brown 00:25:00
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/shanganagh/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=114
Poppintree Parkrun #134
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Tom McKenna 1 00:19:00
5 Katie McElroy 1 00:20:33
Crusaders AC runners
5 Katie McElroy 00:20:33 (1)
68 Maria Pertl 00:30:54 (29)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/poppintree/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=134
Marlay Parkrun #211
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Alban Coghlan 1 00:16:47
26 Lesley- Ann Doughan 1 00:20:40
Crusaders AC runners
1 Alban Coghlan 00:16:47
26 Lesley-Ann Doughan (1)
63 Kate Murray 00:22:22 (6)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/marlay/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=211
Cabinteely Parkrun #113
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Paul McDonnell 1 00:19:48
25 Dee O’Mahony 1 00:24:25
Crusaders AC runner
35 Lisa Shine 00:25:40 (4)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/cabinteely/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=113
Bushy Dublin Parkrun #14
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Des Kennedy 1 00:17:18
6 Hannah Wylie 1 00:20:13
Crusaders AC runner
25 Sarah Lyons 00:23:56 (3)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/bushydublin/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=14
St Anne’s Parkrun #184
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Colin Griffin 1 00:16:47
28 Maria O’Sullivan 1 00:19:37
Crusaders AC runners
3 Peter O’Toole 00:17:55
90 Niamh Quinn 00:22:54 (12)
111Colm Kernan 00:23;30
250 Ciara McElligott 00:29:24 (65)
285 Aoife Quinn 00:30:14 (84)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/stannes/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=184