Quality racing in Cork and Meath

12/3/2017

Back row:Michael Kiely, Grainne Regan, Adrienne Jordan, Frank Halligan, Rob Cross, Will Owens, Front row: Michael O'Conor, friend, Jason Kehoe

The weekend was dominated by two major races, one celebrating its 40th anniversary, the Ballycotton 10 miler, the other, the Meath Spring Half marathon organized by Bohermeen AC, in only its 6th edition, but it is getting an excellent reputation already for being fast and relatively flat.

We start with the classic Ballycotton. Some 24 of our clubmates descended on the small picturesque seaside village in Cork, several hopeful of finishing among the first 100 across the line (irrespective of gender) to win the traditional coveted tee shirt, and, indeed this was achieved by 7 of our athletes. On a windy, but otherwise dry and sunny day, in a race won for the first time by Mick Clohisey (49:20) from 5 times winner Sergiu Ciobanu (49:46), our first runner home, and winning his age category, was Rob Cross in 20th place (54:40), just in front of men’s captain Michael Kiely (21st in a PB time of 54:51). Other top 100 performances, which also included several PBs (as runners took advantage of the strong tailwind on the return), in the field just shy of 3,000 finishers, were those of Brendan Murphy (28th in 55:25), Michael O’Conor (48th in a PB of 57:41), Jason Kehoe (62nd in his first 10 miler in 58:26), Ger Forde, on Jason’s coat-tails (64th in 58:29) and Frank Halligan (73rd in a PB of 58:46). John Thuillier was just outside the top 100 in 117th place, but at least had the satisfaction of also recording a PB (1:00:31). Colm Kernan was using the race for London marathon preparation and finished in 237th in a time of 1:04:33 and Will Owens was also able to place in the top 250 (250th in 1:04:58). It was good to see Marius McNicholas (546th in 1:11:28) and Barry O’Neill (1,010th in 1:18:12) make a return to racing and John Fahy accompanied his wife Ruth around the course (1,560th in 1:26:37). The men’s team (of Rob, Michael and Brendan) placed 5th overall.

After consecutively placing 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the previous three Ballycotton races, Borrisokane’s Siobhan O’Doherty made a return to winning ways in the women’s race. Adrienne Jordan was another of our runners to use the race as a warm-up for a marathon, this being in Manchester in 3 weeks’ time, and Adrienne placed 10th in the women’s race (251st overall), 3rd in her age category, in a time of 1:04:57. Adrienne led the team which included Grainne Regan (484th overall, 34th woman, in a PB time of 1:10:29) and Emer Kenny (777th overall, 79th woman, in 1:15:33) to 5th place, like the men. Among the 1,200 or so female finishers, there were also excellent performances from Fiona Bane (1,055th overall, 144th woman, in 1:19:49) and the trio of Orlaith de Burca, Fiona and Lisa Shine, who all got roughly the same time of 1:30:29 and placed 485th, 486th and 487th women finishers (1,875th, 1,876th and 1,877th overall). Mairead Cashman also made a welcome return to competitive running (2,283rd overall, 739th female finisher, in 1:37:13). It was also great to see that Laura Schwirz was back in Ballycotton, her first time in a 10 miler since a knee operation a couple of years back. Laura placed 561st overall (48th female finisher) in a time of 1:12:00, whilst her partner Brian Flannelly scrambled successfully to that all-important 100th place in 59:50.

Nearer home, an hour outside Dublin in the depths of County Meath, 12 of us took part in two races organized by Bohermeen AC. As in Cork, we faced blustery conditions on the 2-lap clockwise course (reversed from 2 years ago and consequentially faster), with an increasing westerly wind. The first race was a 10K in which 3 of our number participated. In a race comprising 335 competitors, Mary Fitzsimons came home in 83rd place overall (18th woman) in a time of 48:04, whilst her sister Lorraine, running a 10K for the first time, placed 298th overall (166th woman) in 1:06:14. In between came Emma O’Mahony, in her first outing since a recent stress fracture to her foot (103rd overall, 32nd woman, in 49:24). Emma’s husband Barry, a relatively recent newcomer to the club, ran in the half marathon, and like all the rest of us who ran in this extremely rewarding race, is preparing for a Spring marathon. For him it’s Rotterdam and he derived significant confidence for the race in 4 weeks’ time from a PB run on Sunday, placing 29th in 1:20:20. He was preceded in the race, which was won by Balbriggan’s new Lithuanian member, Valdas Dopolskas, in 1:08:32, by Ian Kinsella, who is preparing for the Toronto marathon and recovering from a nasty fall in the mountains last week. Ian did well to place 24th in a time of 1:19:17. After Barry came two Milan marathoners: Joe McDermott, recently recovered from injury, in 32nd place (1:21:44) followed closely behind by Michael Maughan in a huge PB improvement of over 90s (39th in 1:22:27). Paul Dempsey, who is preparing for Limerick on the May bank holiday weekend, also recorded a PB with a time of 1:24:43 (58th place). Another runner preparing for Milan in 3 weeks’ time, James Cottle, came next in 77th place (1:26:59 and winning his age category), having run within himself at a steady pace, mostly alongside the 2nd placed woman and her pacer, and also picking off runners in the second half of the race. James was closely followed by Brian Leonard, following a similar strategy in his preparation for the London marathon (79th in 1:27:19), and the team, which came 2nd to Donore (the scorers being Ian, Barry, Joe and Michael), was completed by Phelim Murray (preparing for Connemara) who placed 168th in 1:32:42 and Alan Bermingham (training for London) who placed 180th in 1:33:44.

Leo Lundy ran in the Larmer Tree Marathon in rural Dorset and Wiltshire on Sunday. A Peacock-themed event with more than 1000m of climb on a muddy quagmire of a course made for a tough day and naturally slower than normal (5:23:55). Still, it was good hill training for up and coming longer events. Next up is the Carrickfergus Ultra on St. Patrick's day.

On Sunday Luke Horan joined nearly 250 other competitors to run in the Castleconnell 10K in Limerick and he placed 14th in a time of 43:01

There was a decent turnout of Crusaders in the parkruns on Saturday morning and we had one first finisher: on the hilly Knocknacarra course in Galway and steadily reeling in runners, Catherine Thornton took 2nd place overall, 1st woman finisher, in a time of 20:06. the field measured 105 runners. Leo Lundy warmed up for his Sunday marathon with an outing in Basingstoke, placing 205th out of nearly 530 runners in a time of 27:09. Darina Scully took on Malahide and, in a field of nearly 360 participants, she placed 51st overall (4th female) in 22:28. We had 3 runners in Marlay where more than 660 runners took part. Alex Romano placed 7th in 18:23 and he was followed by David Long (66th in 21:48) and Kate Murray (109th overall, 14th woman finisher, in 23:15). Three of our Ballycotton runners did a dress rehearsal for side-by-side finishing in Castle Demense. In a field of nearly 80 runners, Fiona Shine, Emer Kenny and Lisa Shine placed, respectively, 45th, 46th and 47th overall (17th, 18th and 19th women). All three were given the same time of 32:16. Mairin Shine stayed closer to home, taking part in Cabinteely where she placed 76th overall (29th female) out of 102 participants, in a time of 32:48. Lorraine Fitzsimons prepared for her 10k debut the following day, by joining Peter O'Toole and nearly 350 others in St. Anne's Raheny. Peter took 9th spot in 19:02 , whilst Lorraine came home in 238th overall (92nd woman) in 30:58. Another runner to race twice in the weekend was Orlaith de Burca who took on Shanganagh with Neil Brown. In a 135-strong field, Neil placed 50th in 23:54 and Orlaith, 54th (11th female), in 25:47. In the modest field of 31 runners in Athlone Dave Cuddy took 3rd place in a time of 21:25, whilst Mairead Cashman, another to run Ballycotton the following day, took 53rd spot overall (10th female) in Bushy Dublin in a time of 28:32. Finally, it was great to see Tom Fitzpatrick of Tallaght return to a competitive environment, leading the field of 140 runners home in Tymon in 15:59, whilst Sharon Woods brought her time for the distance back to meaningful levels with a 51st place finish overall (4th woman) in a time of 24:53.
Ballycotton 10 mile race
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Mick Clohisey 1 00:49:20
54 Siobhan O’Doherty 1 00:58:02
Crusaders AC runners
20 Rob Cross 00:54:40
21 Michael Kiely 00:54:51 (PB)
28 Brendan Murphy 00:55:25
48 Michael O’Conor 00:57:41 (PB)
62 Jason Kehoe 00:58:26 (PB)
64 Ger Forde 00:58:29
73 Frank Halligan 00:58:46 (PB)
117 John Thuillier 01:00:31 (PB)
237 Colm Kernan 01:04:33
250 Will Owens 01:04:33
251 Adrienne Jordan 01:04:57 (10)
484 Grainne Regan 01:10:29 (PB) (34)
546 Marius McNicholas 01:11:28
561 Laura Schwirz 01:12:00 (48)
572 Denis Murphy 01:12:09
777 Emer Kenny 01:15:33 (79)
1010 Barry O’Neill 01:18:12
1055 Fiona Bane 01:19:49 (144)
1560 John Fahy 01:26:37
1875 Orlaith de Burca 01:30:29 (485)
1876 Fiona Shine 01:30:29 (486)
1877 Lisa Shine 01:30:30 (487)
2283 Mairead Cashman 01:37:13 (739)
2581 Paul Kelly 01:42:07
Full results here: http://www.myrunresults.com/events/ballycotton_10_mile/1987/results
Bohermeen Meath Spring Half Marathon
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Valdas Dopolskas 1 01:08:32
72 Karen Costello 1 01:26:17
Crusaders AC runners
24 Ian Kinsella 01:19:17
29 Barry O’Mahony 01:20:20 (PB)
32 Joe McDermott 01:21:44
39 Michael Maughan 01:22:27 (PB)
58 Paul Dempsey 01:24:43 (PB)
77 James Cottle 01:26:59
79 Brian Leonard 01:27:19
168 Phelim Murray 01:32:42
180 Alan Bermingham 01:33:44
Full results here: http://www.myrunresults.com/events/meath_spring_half_marathon__10k_/1864/results
Bohermeen Meath Spring 10K
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Clive Quinn 1 00:33:45
20 Nicola Sheridan 1 00:39:07
Crusaders AC runners
83 Mary Fitzsimons 00:48:04 (18)
103 Emma O’Mahony 00:49:24 (32)
298 Lorraine Fitzsimons 01:06:14 (PB)
Full results here: http://www.myrunresults.com/events/meath_spring_half_marathon__10k_/1864/results
Castleconnell 10K
Overall place Name Cat. place Chiptime
1 Julio Cesar Castro 1 00:33:52
4 Sinead Lynch 1 00:37:12
Crusader AC runner
14 Luke Haran 00:43:01
Full results here: http://www.titantiming.ie/results/
Malahide Parkrun #227
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Unknown 1 00:17:02
4 Sive Brassil 1 00:17:51
Crusaders AC runner
51 Darina Scully 00:22:28 (4)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/malahide/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=227
Marlay Parkrun #200
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Timothy Bowen 1 00:16:44
9 Grace Sweeney 1 00:18:41
Crusaders AC runners
7 Alex Romano 00:18:23
66 David Long 0:21:48
109 Kate Murray 00:23:15 (14)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/marlay/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=200
Cabinteely Parkrun #102
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Eoghan Byrne 1 00:19:52
4 Ailish Toomey 1 00:20:40
Crusaders AC runner
76 Mairin Shine 00:32:48 (29)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/cabinteely/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=102
St Anne’s Parkrun #174
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Aidan Jones 1 00:17:24
29 Adrienne Atkins 1 00:20:45
Crusaders AC runners
9 Peter O’Toole 00:19:02
238 Lorraine Fitzsimons 00:30:58 (92)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/stannes/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=174
Castle Demense Parkrun #191
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Conor Lucey 1 00:19:41
18 Sinead Twomey 1 00:25:23
Crusaders AC runners
45 Fiona Shine 00:32:16 (17)
46 Emer Kenny 00:32:16 (18)
47 Lisa Shine 00:32:16 (19)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/castledemense/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=191
Shanganagh Parkrun #103
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Sam Davies 1 00:18:25
19 Ellie Murphy 1 00:22:33
Crusaders AC runners
50 Neil Brown 00:25:34
54 Orlaith de Burca 00:25:47 (11)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/shanganagh/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=103
Knocknacarra Parkrun #144
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Adam Leadbetter 1 00:19:51
2 Catherine Thornton 1 00:20:06
Crusaders AC runner
2 Catherine Thornton (1)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/knocknacarra/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=144
Athlone Parkrun #81
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Seamus Fagan 1 00:21:00
13 Eabha Crehan 1 00:29:41
Crusaders AC runner
3 David Cuddy 00:21:25
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/athlone/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=81
Bushy Dublin Parkrun #3
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Niall O’Briain 1 00:18:25
7 Christine Kinsella 1 00:21:06
Crusaders AC runner
53 Mairead Cashman 00:28:32 (10)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/bushydublin/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=3
Tymon Parkrun #142
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Tomas Fitzpatrick 1 00:15:59
18 Sinead Tighe 1 00:20:30
Crusaders AC runners
51 Sharon Woods 0:24:53 (4)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/Tymon/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=142