Phew, what a scorcher!

16/7/2018

John Mulvihill, Vinnie McGuinness and Ciaran Diviney

For the record, Ireland enjoyed another weekend of summer sun and the races that took place tested all our runners, particularly the longer distance road racing.

We start with last Wednesday’s IMRA race around Brockagh in Co. Wicklow. The mountain race on mixed surfaces involved a climb of more than 400m over a distance of 11km and was won by Barry Minnock in 52:20. Yet again, however, Becky Quinn won the women’s race (58:41) an, indeed, was the first Crusader across the line in 20th place overall. In the 127-strong field, Becky was followed by Anthony O’Reilly (32nd in 63:02), Gavan Doherty (35th in 64:18), not too far behind, Ali Onur Uyar (41st in 65:01), Laura Flannelly (57th overall, 5th woman, in 67:55) and Berndt Heim (112th in 91:17).

The major road race of the weekend took place on Saturday morning in the Phoenix Park and was a new event, the Irish Runner 10 miler. Several of those in training for the Berlin marathon took advantage of the race to get some idea as to how they are doing and acquitted themselves well. In hot and calm conditions on a hilly course with a substantial field of nearly 1,200 runners, John Mulvihill led our nearly 20-strong contingent home in 6th place (55:07) behind race winner Freddie Sittuk (52:36). Vinnie McGuinness was next, in 9th (56:10), followed closely by Ciaran Diviney (56:47), who also managed to take 2nd place in his age category. Karl Walsh also ran well to place 21st in 60:07, followed by Derek Lawlor, another marathoner in training (44th in 63:19). Joe Walsh was next (54th in 65:01) followed by our first Crusader woman finisher, Kiera Roche who placed 7th in the women’s race (80th overall) in 68:48. Damien Fitzgibbon (83rd in 68:54) split our two top women finishers, with Alma Hanevy, another Berlin marathoner on a training run, who took 9th place (94th overall) in 69:59 (having aimed for 70 minutes…metronomic!). Our other runners were led by Sean Smith (117th in 71:34) and they included Maria Kennedy (218th overall, 22nd woman, in 78:14), Ciara Lehane (219th overall, 23rd woman, in 78:15), right alongside Maria, Kate Murray (240th overall, 28th woman, in 78:52), Niamh Quinn (353rd overall, 55th woman, in 80:54), like Kate, in training for the Dublin marathon, Carina Davidson (357th overall, 58th woman, in 84:29), Ela Szkamruk (509th overall, 114th woman, in 88:59), Aisling O’Connor (532nd overall, 121st woman, in 88:23), Joe O’Reilly (571st in 92:07) and Emma Peyton (920th overall, 312th woman, in 108:22).

On Saturday afternoon, in conjunction with an IMC meet in Irishtown stadium, the club held its annual GV Ryan event, which included the Ronnie Delaney 1500m. We had several Crusaders participate on the various races on offer. Patrick Saunders won the 100m Men’s grade B race in 11.41, followed by James Brian in 5th (12.22) and Damien Murphy in 6th (12.46). John O’Loughlin took 6th place in the 400m grade B in 57.49, whilst Mary Horgan took 2nd place in 2:11.59 (a outdoors PB) in the women’s 800m A race, after a photo finish sprint with one of her rivals, Claire Earls (2:11.90), who took 3rd. Rachel Yorke ran in the B race of the same distance taking 6th in 2:30.03. Meanwhile, in the men’s grade A 800m, Fearghal O’Hare continues to produce great times, with a 6th place finish in 1:53.31, whilst in the C event, Michael O’Conor ran 2:02.27 to place 4th and Garret Dunne, 2:08.14, to place 8th. In the men’s grade A 3000m Rob Cross placed 16th in 9:32.19. Finally, in the mixed 3000m B standard, the race was won by Anna Reddin in 9:42.91, with Joe McDermott consolidating his recent performances with a time of 9:57.90 in 4th place.

On the same day, unusually there was a rival track meet sanctioned by AAI in Le Cheile in Leixlip, advertised as the Day of Irish PB's (sic). Essentially, it was an effort on the track to improve participants’ 5,000m times. We had two members participate, Fin Lawler and Denis Murphy. Fin ran 21:26 and Denis, 20:48, neither recording a PB.

Ilona McElroy ran successfully in two races last week. On Wednesday she took part in the Oldcastle 5k and won the women's race in a time of 19:06, placing 16th overall in a field of 173. Then, over the weekend, she placed 3rd in the Dunleer 4 mile race in 24:28 (22nd overall in a field of 348). Many congratulations to her.

We had at least two runners participate in longer distance activity. In Iceland, Jonathan Clardige joined more than 500 competitors in the mountain ultra-marathon, the Laugevegur, a distance of 53km with an elevation gain of 1,772m. Jonathan finished mid pack in 147th place in a time of 6:50. Meanwhile, on Friday, Leo Lundy took part in the Sharkrun Hammerhead marathon in Essex, finishing in a time of 5:48.

One of the major successes of the year so far for two of our members took place over the weekend. Dave Tilly and visually-impaired athlete, Donnacha McCarthy, took part in the Magog ITU Paratriathlon World Cup race in Canada, taking 3rd place on a borrowed tandem, after their bike failed to transfer with them from Iceland. A huge achievement for the athletes!

There were some solid performances in the parkruns over the weekend. Podium places went to Gerard White in Porterstown, where he placed 2nd in 19:33. Aoife Clarke also placed 2nd (22nd overall) in Poolbeg. Aoife was joined by Kieran Finucane (5th in 19:35), David O’Donnell (24th in 21:50), Zalan Kovacs (43rd in 24:07), Gillian Curran (61st overall, 10th woman, in 25:35), Emilie Fournier (96th overall, 27th woman, in 28:11), Lisa Shine (105th overall, 31st woman, in 29:11), Jennifer Armstrong (122nd overall, 42nd woman, in 30:55) and Mairin Shine (149th overall, 63rd woman, in 35:50). Peter O’Toole also finished on the podium, this time in Malahide, where he placed 3rd in 17:08. Meanwhile, in Brickfields, Cormac McGuire took 8th spot in 22:45, whilst, in Tymon, Sharon Woods ran 28:25 to place 80th overall, 18th woman. In the hilly Cabinteely run, Tim O’Donnell placed 10th in 21:08, followed by Mairead Cashman (126th overall, 33rd woman, in 31:14). Solid performances came from Andrej Kujikis and Killian Barry in the twisty turny event in Bushy Park. Andrej placed 7th in 19:23, whilst Killian was just behind him in 8th in a time of 19:25. Colm Kernan took 10th spot in Fairview in a time of 22:20, whilst Emma O’Mahony ran 29:12 to place 159th overall, 40th woman, in Ballincollig. In Shanganagh, Luke Davis came home in 12th place in 20:18, followed by Orlaith de Burca (59th overall, 7th woman, in 24:37), Neil Brown (61st in 24:48) and Lorraine Fitzsimons (122nd overall, 39th woman, in 30:26). Finally, we had 3 members participate in parkruns outside of Ireland on Saturday morning. In Germany, Sarah Lyons was on the podium in 3rd place (17th overall) in the 58-strong field in Wohrder See, whilst Brian Scanlan ran in the Crissy Field parkrun in San Francisco, placing 21st out of 135 in 20:46. Lastly, James Cottle, took advantage of a trip to London for the wedding of his daughter, to participate in the scenic but extremely hilly Hampstead Heath parkrun. In a field of 335, James placed 9th in an official time of 20:20.

Irish Runner 10 mile race (1180)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Freddie Sittuk 1 00:52:36
30 Caitriona Jennings 1 01:01:21
Crusaders AC runners
6 John Mulvihill 00:55:07
9 Vinnie McGuinness 00:56:10
10 Ciaran Diviney 00:56:47
21 Karl Walsh 01:00:07
44 Derek Lawlor 01:03:19
54 Joe Walsh 01:05:01
80 Kiera Roche 01:08:48 (7)
83 Damien Fitzgibbon 01:08:54
94 Alma Hanevy 01:09 :59 (9)
117 Sean Smith 01:11:34
218 Maria Kennedy 01:18:14 (22)
219 Ciara Lehane 01:18:15 (23)
240 Kate Murray 01:18:52 (28)
353 Niamh Quinn 01:20:54 (55)
357 Carina Davidson 01:24:29 (58)
509 Ela Szkamruk 01:28:55 (114)
532 Aisling O’Connor 01:28:23 (121)
571 Joe O’Reilly 01:32:07
920 Emma Peyton 01:48:22 (312)
Full results here: https://www.myrunresults.com/events/irish_runner_10_mile/2662/results
Oldcastle 5k (173)
Overall Place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Barry Murphy 1 00:16:05
16 Ilona McElroy 1 00:19:06
Crusaders AC runner
16 Ilona McElroy 00:19:06 (1)
Full results here: https://www.popupraces.ie/oldcastle-5k-2018/#1_A87D4D
Dunleer 4 mile race (173)
Overall Place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Paul Fleming 1 00:21:37
8 Catherina McKiernan 1 00:22:45
Crusaders AC runner
22 Ilona McElroy 00:24:28 (3)
Full results here: https://www.myrunresults.com/events/dunleer_4_mile/2640/results
IMRA Brockagh (127)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Barry Minnock 1 00:52:20
20 Becky Quinn 1 00:58:41
Crusaders AC runners
20 Becky Quinn 00:58:41 (1)
32 Anthony O’Reilly 01:03:02
35 Gavan Doherty 01:04:18
41 Ali Onur Uyar 01:05:01
57 Laura Flannelly 01:07:55 (5)
112 Berndt Heim 01:31:17
Full results here: https://www.imra.ie/events/results/id/1605/
Malahide Parkrun #296 (335)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Gary McLoughlin 1 00:16:37
4 Annette Kealy 1 00:18:13
Crusaders AC runner
3 Peter O’Toole 00:17:08
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/malahide/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=296
Tymon Parkrun #212 (169)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Jack Byrne 1 00:18:17
11 Vanessa Sallier 1 00:21:37
Crusaders AC runner
80 Sharon Woods 00:28:25 (18)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/tymon/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=212
Shanganagh Parkrun #171 (149)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Alan McCormack 1 00:15:56
11 Sarah Baryga 1 00:20:05
Crusaders AC runners
12 Luke Davis 00:20:18
59 Orlaith de Burca 00:24:37 (7)
61 Neil Brown 00:24:48
122 Lorraine Fitzsimons 00:30:26 (39)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/shanganagh/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=171
Cabinteely Parkrun #171 (174)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 unknown 1 00:18:32
14 Dee Zuercher 1 00:21:39
Crusaders AC runners
10 Tim O’Donnell 00:21:08
126 Mairead Cashman 00:31:14 (33)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/cabinteely/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=171
Porterstown Parkrun #143 (91)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Sean MacSeoin 1 00:18:32
21 Eithne McNeela 1 00:24:10
Crusaders AC runner
2 Gerard White 00:19:33
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/porterstown/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=143
Ballincollig #107 (269)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Michael Buckley 1 00:18:12
13 Sandra Manning 1 00:21:04
Crusaders AC runner
159 Emma O’Mahony 00:29:12 (40)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/ballincollig/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=107
Bushy Dublin Parkrun #72 (277)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Dave Holmes 1 00:17:53
39 Kathleen Horgan 1 00:22:18
Crusaders AC runners
7 Andrej Kujikis 00:19:23
8 Killian Barry 00:19:25
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/bushydublin/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=72
Fairview Parkrun #52 (126)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Adam Condon 1 00:18:41
14 Anu Ojanen 1 00:22:55
Crusaders AC runner
10 Colm Kernan 00:22:20
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/fairview/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=52
Poolbeg Parkrun #46 (155)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 James Kelly 1 00:17:52
2 Lynne Hennessy 1 00:19:05
Crusaders AC runners
5 Kieran Finucane 00:19:35
22 Aoife Clarke 00:21:48 (2)
24 David O’Donnell 00:21:50
43 Zalan Kovacs 00:24:07
61 Gillian Curran 00:25:35 (10)
96 Emilie Fournier 00:28:11 (27)
105 Lisa Shine 00:29:11 (31)
122 Jennifer Armstrong 00:30:55 (42)
149 Mairin Shine 00:35:50 (63)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/poolbeg/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=46
Brickfields Parkrun #26 (61)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 John Cleary 1 00:17:37
20 Carmel Donlon 1 00:26:17
Crusaders AC runner
8 Cormac McGuire 00:22:45
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/brickfields/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=26