New opportunities

15/8/2021

Aine Kenny

Road races here in the south are so scarce, and with fields unlikely to exceed 200, that any opportunity to race is being eagerly snatched up. This was the case last Wednesday, when 3 of our members ventured up to Westmeath to try their hand for the first time in the Castlepollard 5k, back after a one year absence. It was billed as fast and flat (isn’t every race?), and this was reasonably fast, but effectively an out-and-back along country roads with a climb in the first half and inevitably the opportunity for a negative split with a returning descent. The three intrepid racers were Ilona McElroy, Gill Earley and Dee Ni Chearbhaill. Ilona has been carrying a nagging injury for some time and had intended to treat the run as a tempo effort, but inevitably her competitive spirit took over and she ran a super 19:02 to place 54th overall in a field of 185 and 8th female finisher, whilst Gill and Dee also ran well, placing respectively 75th and 85th (20th and 23rd female finishers) in excellent times of 20:15 and 20:56. Dee reported that the effort rewarded her with a faster time than her last 5k.

At the weekend, Aine Kenny ran in her native Galway, her first real race since January 2020. This was the Slieve Aughty Challenge 22k. The trail race had 68 participants, all running on one of the muddiest courses Aine has seen, with loads of hills and across bog and through forests with exposed tree roots. In any event, Aine acquitted herself well, running 2:04:51 for the distance, placing 12th overall and winning the women’s race. The overall winning time was 1:40:39, an indication as to how tough the conditions were. Many congrats to Aine.

In the local mountains there were three races this week. The usual Wednesday race, this time on Howth, involved a distance of 11km and a climb of 368m on a fully-marked multi-loop course of moderate difficulty around the top of Howth. There were 93 finishers out of the field of 97 who started the race, among them Donatas Jocius, Brian McGuckin and Michael Maughan. Once again, Donatas had a great outing, placing 3rd in a time of 56:58, behind race winner Raheny’s Ian Conroy who ran 56:48. Brian McGuckin placed well up the order in 17th with a time of 63:53 (3rd M50), whilst Michael was further back in 62nd place with a time of 78:09. Donatas went one better on Saturday in another long-distance event. Along with 20 or so other runners he competed in the 81km Glendalough Tucker Trail race. It was an event described as being of extreme difficulty, with a climb of 3000m involving 3 separate out-and-back legs. The full results have now been published and Donatas came home in 2nd place in a time of 8h39m, having come across and taken a runner who was lying 2nd at the time around 78k. Only 15 of the 22 runners who started the race actually finished. Then, on Sunday, we had two athletes participate in an IMRA race on Annagh Hill, Co. Wexford on the border with Wicklow at the Wicklow Gap. The 10.4km race involved a 490m climb over difficult terrain, essentially an out-and-back course. Despite a fall during the race, Warren Swords placed 3rd (1st M40) in the field of 51 finishers, whilst Brian McGuckin took 12th place in 68:57 (2nd M50).

Finally, we had a few runners participate in UK parkruns on Saturday. In Portrush, Fiona and Lisa Shine, along with Orlaith de Burca, took part in an event with 314 other participants. Fiona placed 23rd overall and 2nd female finisher in 21:45 (the first woman home ran 21:27), whilst Lisa ran 25:07 for 99th place overall (14th female). Orlaith took on the role of tailwalker. Meanwhile, in Bognor Regis, Michael Wycherley placed 6th in a field of 237 in a time of 18:52. He described the course as narrow and twisty for 800m then three big laps, occupied by lots of backmarkers and dogs! One of our exiles, Thom Martini, who appears now to be based in London, placed 57th in 23:08 in the Gunnersbury parkrun with its field of 364 participants.

Please let us know if we have missed reporting on any events and we can update the report accordingly.

Howth Summer race (IMRA race) (97)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Ian Conroy 1 00:56:48
19 Sarah Brady 1 00:64:25
Crusaders AC runners
3 Donatas Jocius 00:56:58
17 Brian McGuckin 01:03:53
62 Michael Maughan 01:18:09
Full results here: https://www.imra.ie/events/results/id/2104
Slieve Aughty 22k Challenge (68)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Marcus Bishop 1 01:40:39
12 Aine Kenny 1 02:04:51
Crusaders AC runner
12 Aine Kenny 02:04:51 (1)
Full results here: http://www.redtagtiming.com/results/SlieveAughty2021_22km.pdf
Glendalough Tucker Trail 81k (IMRA race) (22)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Brian McFlynn 1 07:47:00
10 Avril Challoner 1 10:26:00
Crusaders AC runner
2 Donatas Jocius 08:40:00
Full results here: https://www.imra.ie/events/results/id/2073
Annagh Hill (IMRA race) (53)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Paddy O’Leary 1 00:51:20
13 Caroline Harney 1 01:09:55
Crusaders AC runners
3 Warren Swords 00:58:31
12 Brian McGuckin 01:08:57
Full results here: https://www.imra.ie/events/results/id/2071
Castlepollard 5k (185)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Ben Brunton 1 00:14:58
25 Rose Finnegan 1 00:17:01
Crusaders AC runners
54 Ilona McElroy 00:19:02 (8)
75 Gillian Earley 00:20:15 (20)
85 Deirdre Ni Chhearbhaill (23)
Full results here: https://www.myrunresults.com/events/castlepollard_5k/4150/results