Renewed success in the Wicklow Way Relay and in Terenure. Good Track running too.

15/5/2017

Eddie Nugent, John McAuley, John Mulvihill, Amy Wright, Catherine Thornton, Ciaran Diviney

The activities to be reported this week started on Wednesday with two events: the third and last race of the Women’s Meet and Train Summer league in which 12 Crusaders competed, and, on the same night, Tallaght stadium hosted the 2nd graded track meet of the season.

The WM&T race was organised by Donore and held around the Furze and Ordnance Survey Roads in the Phoenix Park but ran into some difficulties before the start owing to the official visit of Prince Charles and Camilla who were residing at Farmleigh on the same evening. Because of the Garda roadblocks in the park, the race had to be shortened from 4 miles to approx. 3.5 and, in addition to there being lots of parked cars, there was traffic on the course during the race, so the 65 or so runners were presented with more challenges than usual. Our first Crusader home was Amy Brogan, 6th in a time of 24:38. Amy was followed by Rachel Yorke, 17th in 25:36 and Emily Ferghan right behind her in 25:39. Kate Murray was 20th (25:44), Niamh Quinn 24th (26:13) and Kris Ryan 30th (26:50). Hot on Kris’ heals was Carina Davidson, the only Cru runner to complete all 3 races in the Summer series, 31st in a time of 26:53. 33rd place went to Keira Gleeson who came in with 27:14. Louise Yorke took 54th spot in 30:10 and Maria Estevan, one place behind in 30:28. Sarah Lyons was next in 56th (31:30) and Ciara McElligott flew in for 64th spot in 34:03.

In Tallaght on Wednesday we had several athletes take part in the 2nd graded meet of the Summer. In the men’s 200m B race Sam Bolger placed 5th in 24:49, with Peter Murphy 6th in 24:51. Graham Flynn placed 5ht in 25:34 in the 200m C event, race 2, whilst in race 4 of the C standard John O’Loughlin took 5th spot in 26:28. The Shine sisters represented the women’s section of the club on the night, with both Fiona and Lisa continuing to show great form. Fiona ran 5;05:30 to place 4th in the women’s 1500m B race, whilst Lisa placed 10th in a big field of 19 runners in the 1500m C in 5:33:76. The men’s 1500m A&B combined race saw Michael O’Conor take 10th spot in 4:23:69, whilst John McAuley ran in the 1500m C race 1, taking 8th place in a time of 4:49:95. Alan Sheehy ran strongly in race 2 of the 1500m C standard, placing 6th in 4:34:45 and Frank Halligan turned out for the D race, placing 3rd in 4:43:80, only then to go on to run the 5000m and take 4th spot in 17:14:34.

Sticking with track, on Saturday Waterford AC hosted the Ton Le Gaoithe Games on their relatively new Mondo track. We had some excellent performances in the rather confusing format, with some of our runners competing in two races of the same distance in an event which unusually was promoting wind assistance (if it was there!). In both race 1 and 2 of the men’s 110mH Valentinos Goularas won the youth/junior events in 14:86 and 15:26, whilst in the senior men’s 110mH Matthew Behan ran respectively 14:25 and 14:41 to win both races. Nick Ennis actually ran in 3 events: firstly he ran both 100m races placing 6th in one (11:21) and 3rd in the other (11:26), whilst also placing 4th in the 200m in 22:92. Ben Maze placed 4th in the 100m in 10:91, and, in another heat of the same distance, Brian Murphy placed 4th in 11:46 and then followed it with a 3rd place in another heat in 13:26. Andrew Mellon also ran one of the 100m races, placing 6th in 11:01. Ben Maze went on to run in the 200m, placing 2nd in 22:25, whilst Alix Hughes took 3rd spot in one of the 200m races in 28:44. Alix also ran in the 100mH, but no time appears to have been attributed to her.

On the same day Kieron Sexton took part in a BMC meet in Solihull near Birmingham, placing 3rd in the men’s 800m in a time of 1:54:92.

One of the major highlights of the year is the Cru participation in the IMRA-organised Wicklow Way relay, which covers the entirety of the distance of approx. 125km between Kilmashogue Park in South Dublin and Shillelagh, deep in County Wicklow. It always throws up some excitement with its thrills and spills and anything can happen, with runners getting lost or injured on the uneven surfaces of the hills and mountains. It is also an event which attracts those that rarely participate in IMRA events competing alongside experienced mountain runners, generally in teams of 8, with the requirement of at least two of the runners having to be female and (in addition) there needs to be at least 2 runners over 40 of age in each team. The race is currently extremely well-organised by Crusader Jason Kehoe and ex-Crusader Rene Borg.

This year’s event proved to be as unpredictable and as exciting as ever. A couple of teams dropped out during the week and so we were left with 34 that started the event on Saturday morning in rainy and windy conditions. Several of the teams at least (including us) were forced to make last-minute changes to their line ups at the last minute too and this was to prove costly for one or two of the teams that would have been expecting a podium position or even the overall win.

Before that, it needs to be pointed out that several of our clubmates, who are also IMRA members, took part in a shortish race (by IMRA standards) on Wednesday over Scalp, which helped to warm them up for Saturday’s ordeal. There were 222 runners in the race, among them Warren Swords, who placed 9th (25:41) behind winner Ian Conroy (23:40). Brian Leonard was next in 25th (27:57), followed by European Masters F40 silver medallist Becky Quinn (1st female, 32nd overall, in 28:35) and Brian McGuckin (34th in 28:39). Roisin Harkin, who did not run in the WWR, was next (44th overall, 2nd female, in 29:35), followed by Laura Flannelly (nee Shwirz) (76th overall, 4th female, in 31:55). The race on Wednesday proved to be costly for Rathfarnham as Barry Minnock limped off the course at the end and was not able to compete for the team on Saturday. The enforced change, with a runner unfamiliar with leg 2, created a challenging scenario for the west Dublin club on Saturday morning.

So we come to the big day. Crusaders fielded 3 teams, one official (Crusaders) and two unofficial (the “Hateful Eight” and the only all-women’s team in the race, the “Agony of Defeet”). At the end of the 1st leg the A team found itself in 2nd place with Michael Kiely having run a stormer to finish just 2 minutes behind Terry McConnon’s elite runners’ team (TT Racers) and 30 seconds ahead of Rathfarnham. Brian Leonard also ran well to come home in 11th place for the B team. In the second leg, Paul Fleming of Rathfarnham unfortunately got lost because of his unfamiliarity with the leg and the club fell back to 10th place, whilst Warren Swords (with a 6th place individual time) was able to capitalise on Rathfarnham’s misfortune and move the A team into 2nd place. TT racers were by now, however, starting to build an unassailable lead. Captain of the B team, Brian McGuckin, put in a leader’s performance to bring the B team up to 8th place (with a 9th place individual result). The 3rd leg had its share of excitement too. Niamh Devlin consolidated the TT Racers leading position (winning the leg individually), but Sonya McConnon, running for the team that eventually placed 4th (and who placed 2nd individually only 1 second behind Niamh), fell on a rail sleeper whilst overtaking Amy Wright of the A team but managed to pick herself up to finish in 2nd after the stage. Amy had gamely stepped into run the 3rd leg the day before, recced it on Friday night, and despite having raced in the le Cheile 5k on Wednesday, put in a sterling effort to place 9th individually and kept the team in the hunt in 3rd place, under 3 minutes behind the 2nd placed team. For the B team Jane Wallace put in a cracking performance with a 5th place individual result and enabled the team to hold onto 8th place. Rathfarnham, meanwhile were beginning their fight back, with Vanessa Sallier taking one place to put them in 9th position, about 3 minutes behind our B team.

The A team was represented on leg 4 by debutante Catherine Thornton who continued to maintain the 3rd place for the team, but also ran impressively to finish overall in 7th place for the leg and first female of the 16 women who ran the leg. James Cottle, for the B team, on the other hand, tried to catch Crusader Becky Quinn who was running for the team in 7th place (ultimately to place 4th by the end), but Becky’s considerable experience meant she came in 2nd female and 9th overall for the leg, whilst James ran 13th individually and was overtaken by Ronan Kearns of Rathfarnham who were continuing their drive to get back to close to the top positions. In fact, Ronan ran the second fastest time for the leg. James also had the narrowest of escapes on the run, coming within inches of being taken out as he crossed a fire road on the leg by a barrelling cyclist who was equally in competition in a cycle race that was being staged around Glendalough, we learned later. Neither expected the other and if James had been just 1 second faster there could have been a major accident.

Leg 5 started in Glendalough, finishing in Glenmalure. John Mulvihill, making his first start in a race of the kind, found that he is equally at home in the mountains as on the roads or track. He placed 3rd individually, but, more importantly, put the team only seconds behind the then 2nd placed team. So the A team going into leg 6 with captain John McAuley had an opportunity to improve even further from their 3rd place at the finish of leg 5. Pat Quill took over for the B team for leg 5 and ran well, but lost one more place, so that at the end of the stage the B team were lying in 10th place.

John ran a super leg for the A team. At around the halfway stage, in misty conditions of low cloud and rain, he had overtaken the runner in 2nd, but there were 5 other runners (including the overtaken runner) within 90 seconds behind him. He put in an excellent second half effort to drop the pursuers and by the time he had handed over to Ciaran Diviney (with a 4th place individual finish) there was only one runner within 1 minute of him (Rathfarnham). Unfortunately for the B team, Eamonn McWalter, a recent ex-Crusader guest-running from Rathfarnham, managed to turn an ankle on the technical course, with its steep descents, and limped home with the team now in 12th place.

The 7th leg, the longest of the day at half marathon distance, enabled Ciaran to consolidate further the 2nd place for the A team, with a fine individual effort, also coming home in 2nd place individually, despite a tumble at one point, behind another Crusader, Brendan Murphy, running for the TT racers, who by now were far ahead. Ciaran was also able to build a decent cushion for Eddie Nugent taking over the 8th and final leg. Michael Maughan, placing 14th individually for the leg, was able to keep the B team in 12th place to hand over to another mountain debutante, Niamh Aspell, on the 8th leg.

So, on a leg which contained Laura Shaughnessy (for TT Racers) and Olympian Linda Byrne (running for the 4th placed team), Eddie ran well (under the watchful eye of John McAuley following in his car past the Dying Cow pub to ensure Eddie did not get lost at the last minute!), taking 5th place overall for the leg and bringing the team in for a podium finish in second place. Niamh also ran exceptionally well in her baptism of fire, taking 11th place overall and bringing the B team home in 12th position. For the record, Rathfarnham were able to grab third place overall, an admirable recovery.

It was the first time doing the Wicklow Way Relay for all of the women in the Agony of Defeet. They were left one runner short when Geraldine Clements had to drop out a few weeks ago due to injury, so they got their team home by Kris Ryan, Emma Cathcart and Mairead Cashman all running leg 8 together as a second leg for each of them that day, Kris having just completed the very long leg 7 (half marathon)! They had a close battle all day with the bottom six teams, and were part of the 6-team mass start from Glenmalure Lodge at 1pm. To show just how competitive the race is right down to the last few teams, there was great excitement for the team when Kris was part of a group of four runners that all came to the end of leg 7 within a few seconds of each other, pushing each other up the hill! Hats off to the team of Kate Murray, Emma Cathcart, Mairin Shine, Mairead Cashman, Lisa Shine, Claudine Hughes and Kris Ryan who came home in 32nd place overall. Other Crusaders to compete in the thoroughly enjoyable and well-organised event, also included Laura Flannelly (leg 3) and Andrea Talpo (leg 6). As mentioned, Brendan Murphy was a key member of the winning team, whilst Becky Quinn helped her team to 4th place overall. A big thankyou must go to the captains of each of the teams. Writing as someone who has had to organise multiple Cru teams several times in the past, it is a major undertaking, organising the recces beforehand and managing the travel logistics and the team morale on the day, not to mention finding the inevitable last minute replacements!

The next big event of the weekend for the club was the Terenure 5 miler on Sunday morning, held in gloriously sunny but challenging conditions, with a bit of a warm breeze. Inter alia, we were defending M35 team champions, having won it in each of the previous two years.

At least 32 members of the club took part in a two lap race that saw a record field of more than 1,350 participants and for which entries had closed earlier in the week.

The outcome of the race was similar to the recent 6 miler in Limerick and a carbon copy of last year's result. Peter Somba won, but this time the victim he hung in behind for the majority of the race was Mick Clohisey, whom he beat in the same race last year. Siobhan O’Doherty also duly won the women’s race as she had last year and again Orla Drumm was second, but she narrowed the gap considerably from Limerick so that by the end they came in only 3 seconds apart, well clear of the rest of the women’s field.

Rob Cross was our first man home, an age category winner, in 7th place in 25:58. He was followed by the strong running of Bram D’hoedt (15th in 27:52) and Ger Forde (18th in 28:04). Together with Frank Hague (42nd in 29:24), Rob and Ger were able to defend successfully the M35 team trophy from Rathfarnham (65 versus 72 points) and have our masters take the prize for the 3rd year in succession. Maybe, Sportsworld will have to give it to us! Top 100 places went to Frank Halligan (25th in 28:35), Joe McDermott (50th in 29:43), Joe Walsh (76th in 30:47), Colm Kernan (88th in 31:21) and Gearoid Grogan (98th in 32:02). Top 150 runners included Michael Fitzsimons (102nd in 32:16), David Killion (111th in 32:29), Dave Tuohy (121st in 32:40) and, just outside, Tom Dunne (151st in 33:26). Of note, Gian Piero Allerta placed 178th in 34:07, a week after having paced a marathon in Northern Italy. The men’s senior team came in 4th (behind Raheny, Sportsworld and Donore). Of interest to members will be to hear that Sean Murphy, who trains with us, came home in 32nd place in 28:55.

In the women’s race, behind Orla came Adrienne Jordan, 5th overall and strong winner of her age category, in a time of 30:47 and together with Carina Davidson (403rd overall, 72nd woman, in 38:49) and Fiona Bane (454th overall, 91st woman, in 39:14) the women’s senior team placed 5th overall. Olwyn Dunne ran with a visiting friend and came home in 399th place overall, 69th woman, in 38:08 (7th in her age category), whilst other top 150 positions went to Sharon Woods (606th overall, 140th woman, in 41:17) and Aisling Dilworth (623rd overall, 147th female finisher, in 41:40).

In terms of more road racing, last Wednesday saw the Le Cheile 5K. The race of nearly 260 runners was won not unexpectedly by Peter Somba. Crusaders participating included Alex Romano who came home in 46th place in 19:11. Amy Wright was next, 83rd overall, 11th woman finisher, in 20:26 followed by Gill Earley, 95th overall, 17th woman and 4th in her age category, in a time of 20:57.

On Sunday, Leo Lundy managed a baby Ultra of 30 miles at the oddly-named Pyjamathon in Nonsuch park on the Epsom Downs in >20 degrees heat on a beautiful course. His run was good enough for 9th overall out of 104 finishers. There was some serious fancy dress and medals, including a "52 marathons in 52 weeks" award for Leo!

Also over the weekend, Luke Haran competed down in Limerick in the Mungret 10K, placing 27th in a field exceeding 330 runners in a time of 42;52, whilst in Cambridgeshire, Diarmuid Byrne took advantage of a trip to the UK to take part in a Fenland 10K on fairly flat terrain. Recovering from recent injury, Dairmuid ran the Eye 10k in 42:06, placing 51st in a field of more than 500 runners. Of interest to members will be the report from Dave Tilly that he and his visually-impaired partner in sport, Donnacha McCarthy, completed their first triathlon together in Carlow over the weekend.

As usual, the last part of the weekly report is dedicated to the parkruns on Saturday morning. Crusaders took part in 7 of them this weekend, with two of the events in the UK. In Brockwell Park in South London, Darina Scully placed 83rd overall (10th woman) in a field exceeding 360, in a time of 22:52, whilst Maria Pertl and Diarmuid Byrne took on Cambridge and graduated with respective times of 25:16 and 25:17, 227th and 228th overall, and Maria 34th female finisher. At home, Killian Barry placed 14th in 19:29 in Marlay. In a field of 430 runners, he was followed by Sophie Smith (152nd overall, 22nd woman, in 25:10) and an easy-running Alex Romano (162nd in 25:30). Peter O’Toole and Niamh Quinn ran in St. Anne’s with Peter placing 4th in 18:43 and Niamh, 81st overall, 9th woman home, in 23:41. They ran with 331 others. Shanganagh saw Orlaith de Burca come home in 3rd place in the women’s event (37th overall) in a time of 24:46 and among a field of 132. Padraig Walsh joined 82 other runners to take on Mullingar, finishing in 38th place in a time of 27:17. Lastly, Dave Carter placed 5th in 20:37, Colm Foley, 28th in 24:14 and Olwyn Dunne, 77th overall, 19th woman, in 29:52, in the 111-strong 111th running of the Cabinteely parkrun. Poetic!

Well done all. The club had a great showing last week and there was super support all over the place as usual!

Terenure 5
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Peter Somba 1 00:24:08
29 Siobhan O’Doherty 1 00:28:46
Crusaders AC runners
7 Rob Cross 00:25:58
15 Bram D‘hoedt 00:27:52
18 Ger Forde 00:28:04
25 Frank Halligan 00:28:35
30 Orla Drumm 00:28:49 (2)
42 Frank Hague 00:29:24
50 Joe McDermott 00:29:43
76 Joe Walsh 00:30:47
77 Adrienne Jordan 00:30:47 (5)
88 Colm Kernan 00:31:21
98 Gearoid Grogan 00:32:02
102 Michael Fitzsimons 00:32:16
111 David Killion 00:32:29
121 Dave Tuohy 00:32:40
151 Tom Dunne 00:33:26
178 Gian Piero Allerta 00:34:07
204 John Gleeson 00:34:25
206 Denis Murphy 00:34:32
271 Stephen Mulligan 00:36:07
290 Russell Murphy 00:36:19
399 Olwyn Dunne 00:38:08 (69)
403 Carina Davidson 00:38:09 (72)
454 Fiona Bane 00:39:14 (91)
467 Neil Brown 00:39:46
606 Sharon Woods 00:41:17 (140)
623 Aisling Dilworth 00:41:40 (147)
697 Sarah Lyons 00:43:13 (181)
897 John Fitzsimons (M65) 00:46:25
932 Paul Kelly 00:46:14
1094 Mary Fitzsimons 00:49:45 (432)
1095 John Fitzsimons (M75) 00:49:45
Full results here: http://www.myrunresults.com/events/terenure_5_mile/2281/results
Le Cheile 5k
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Peter Somba 1 00:15:28
21 Jane Bandila 1 00:17:52
Crusaders AC runners
46 Alex Romano 00:19:11
83 Amy Wright 00:20:26 (11)
95 Gillian Earley 00:20:57 (17)
Full results here: https://www.popupraces.ie/race-results/le-cheile-ac-5k/
Mungret 10k
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Colm Turner 1 00:33:49
4 Grace Lynch 1 00:36:19
Crusaders AC runner
27 Luke Haran 00:42:52
Full results here: http://racetecresults.com/results.aspx?CId=19671&RId=30
Shanganagh Parkrun #112
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 William McCann 1 00:18:52
27 Sharon Bailey 1 00:23:44
Crusaders AC runner
37 Orlaith de Burca 00:24:46 (3)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/shanganagh/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=112
Mullingar Parkrun #55
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Mel Carthy 1 00:19:12
12 Jane Creevy 00:22:03
Crusaders AC runner
38 Padraig Walsh 00:27:17
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/mullingar/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=55
Marlay Parkrun #209
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Brian Furey 1 00:17:05
17 Bryony Treston 1 00:19:55
Crusaders AC runners
14 Killian Barry 00:19:29
152 Sophie Smith 00:25:10 (22)
162 Alex Romano 00:25:30
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/marlay/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=209
Cabinteely Parkrun #111
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Peter Daniel 1 00:18:49
10 Joanne Ryan 1 00:22:07
Crusaders AC runners
5 David Carter 00:20:37
28 Colm Foley 00:24:14
77 Olwyn Dunne 00:29:52 (19)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/cabinteely/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=111
St Anne’s Parkrun #182
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Simon Ryan 1 00:17:10
25 Aine Crimin 1 00:20:30
Crusaders AC runners
4 Peter O’Toole 00:18:43
81 Niamh Quinn 00:23:41 (9)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/stannes/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=182

Michael Kiely

Warren Swords

Eddie Nugent and Ciaran Diviney

Eddie Nugent

Catherine Thornton

James Cottle

Becky Quinn

Michael Kiely

Brendan Murphy (3rd from left), Jason Kehoe (2nd from left)

Eddie Nugent, John McAuley, Amy Wright, Catherine Thornton, Ciaran Diviney

Lisa Shine, Kris Ryan, Kate Murray, Mairead Cashman, Claudine Hughes, Emma O'Mahony, Mairin Shine

Niamh Aspell, Brian McGuckin, Pat Quill, Brian Leonard, Michael Maughan

Back row: Emily Ferghan, Rachel Yorke, Louise Yorke, Carina Davidson, Keira Gleeson, Amy Brogan, Kate Murray, Kris Ryan, Don Anderton. Front Row: Sarah Lyons, Maria Estevan, Niamh Quinn, Ciara McElligott