Runners who care win everywhere

There were Cru winners everywhere last week, from the hugely popular, but flawed, Run in the Dark to the Parkruns.

We start last Wednesday evening on a blustery evening in Dublin’s docklands. The Run in the Dark involved 5k and 10k races on a course that probably has now reached saturation point. The more than 7,000 runners (the two distances had fields split pretty much 50:50) who turned up for the charity event, had to wait, shivering in the cold, nearly half an hour beyond the original gun-time to start the races and then found that the course using each side of the road on the North Wall in particular was too narrow for both the outward and inbound runners. At times the participants were faced with other runners coming towards them on the wrong side of the cones whilst many were forced to run on the pavement, with the risk of severe injury stumbling on the kerbs. To add to a certain amount of confusion , the finish lines were not clear and the outcome of the 5k race in particular was determined (unknowingly to the racers) by a chip timing mat placed allegedly several hundred metres before the gantry finishing line. The only redeeming feature of that was that runners did ultimately get an accurate 5K time. On the other hand, any athletes saving themselves for a final sprint for the line would have found their efforts wasted.

Our two club members in the 5k acquitted themselves well, with Garret Dunne, in the colours of his former university running club, winning the event in a time of 16:53, followed closely by Michael Kiely in 4th place in 17:08. We had at least 9 Crusaders in the 10k event, led home by Brian Leonard who placed 32nd in a time of 37:49. He was followed by Brenton Systermans (36th in 38:17) and Conor Fahy (42nd in 38:38), fresh from their recent marathon efforts. 2 others achieved sub-40 results: Neil Monahan placed 49th in 39:03 and Alan Sheehy made a welcome return to the racing scene after his recent family bereavement to place 60th in 39:27. After them came Karl Walsh (108th in 41:06), Matt Cranley (147th in 41:46) and Katie Eisenhauer, another recent marathoner, in 173rd place overall and a time of 42:14. The contingent was completed by Roisin Harkin who placed 550th overall in 46:51.
On Sunday, 17 Crusaders, again in windy conditions, took on the Care to Run 5k in Raheny’s St. Anne’s park, partly-organised as it happens by Mary Fitzsimons who works for the charity benefitting from the race. The course had to be changed at the last minute because of partial flooding, but thankfully there was already a usable fast and flat course available from the usual Parkrun there.

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In a field of nearly 80 runners, the overall race was run by local Raheny athlete, Freddie Sittuk, in a time of 15:33. The women’s race was won by our own Fiona Shine, who is getting back to excellent form, in a time of 20:54 and placing 10th overall. Not to be outdone, her sister Lisa also took a place on the podium with a third place finish and a PB to boot, coming home in a time of 21:39 and 13th place overall.  The first Crusader home, though, fittingly was Michael Fizsimons, one of several members of the family to participate in the event. Michael placed 4th overall in 17:58. He was followed by John Thuillier, another runner making his first competitive outing since the Dublin marathon. John placed 6th in 19:13. Next came Michael Maughan in 9th place (20:50), followed, after Fiona, by Donal Foley in 12th (21:35), Kate Murray (16th overall, 5th female, in 22:57), Rhona McGrath (17th overall, 6th female, in 23:02), Aoife Quinn (19th overall, 7th female, in 23:16), Olwyn Dunne (20th overall, 8th female, in 23:30), Fiona Bane, like Olwyn also another marathoner (22nd overall, 10th female, in 24:03), Eileen Coughlan (26th overall, 13th female, in a PB time of 24:35), Emer Kenny, who was treating the race as part of her usual long Sunday run (32nd overall, 18th female, in 25:34), Mairin Shine (40th overall, 22nd female, in 27:33), veteran runner John Fitzsimons (45th in 29:15), marathoner Paul Kelly (53rd in 30:15) and finally, to bookmark the Cru contingent, Lorraine Fitzsimons (55th overall, 33rd female, in 31:32).

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There were also several long-distance exploits last week and over the weekend. From northern Italy, Federico Corradini reports that he participated in the highly technical and challenging Valtellina Wine Trail marathon, a race that involved running on a hilly course and taking in caves. Federico placed 31st in the race, 50 minutes behind the winner, in a time of 4:22. Over the weekend 3 of our maddest (sorry, extreme) runners, Kris Ryan, Torben Dahl and Leo Lundy, took part, along with Anthony O’Reilly, in the Tollymore Tail run events. The races took place in the Tollymore Forestpark in the foothills of the Mountains of Mourne, just outside Newcastle, Co. Down. The 4 distances (ultra, marathon, half marathon and 10k) were held on a 13.1 mile loop with a climb of 2,100 feet each loop in low cloud. The course was extremely wet and muddy in places. Kris participated in the 39.3 miles Ultra and, of the 56 finishers, she came home in 16th place overall, winning the women’s race in a time of 6:28:45 (Kris ran 4:09 for the marathon distance within the race).

Both Leo and Anthony ran the marathon distance, with Anthony placing 36th overall out of 137 finishers in an excellent  4:01:40 and Leo, 57th overall in 4:20:28 (an improvement over last year’s time of 28 minutes), whilst Torben Dahl placed 5th in the half marathon out of more than 350 runners in a time of 1:26:22. Also, over the weekend, as part of his preparations for the San Sebastian marathon at the end of this month, Paul O’Meara took part in the East of Ireland series half marathon in Balbriggan and gave his confidence a big boost by winning the nearly 80-strong  event. In a time of 1:26:15, Paul beat 2nd-place finisher Paddy Moran by 1 second in a sprint to the line.

There were more winners coming from Cru participation in the parkruns at the weekend. In Marlay Park, John McAuley placed 2nd in a field of nearly 280 runners, in a time of 18:17. Peter O’Toole placed 5th out of 170 participants in St. Anne’s. Eamonn Mcwalter was first finisher in Knocknacarra in a time of 19:23. The field was just over 50. Finally, David Cuddy was 1st finisher in the event in Athlone, finishing ahead of 23 other runners in a time of 19:36.
To complete the picture of winners, we finally received confirmation last week of the medal haul from the County Dublin marathon championships, held as part of the recent Dublin marathon. Ciaran Diviney took silver in the individual O/40 category , whilst leading the men’s O/35 team to a bronze. The team scorers were Ciaran, Kieran Martin and Ger Forde, whilst James Cottle added to his national bronze medal in the event with individual gold in the O/55 category and gold in the O/50 team category, together with team-mates, David Long and Leo Lundy.

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Run in the Dark 10K
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Emmet Jennings 1 00:32:11
4 Jessica Davies 1 00:34:37
Crusaders AC runners
32 Brian Leonard 00:37:49
36 Brenton Systermans 00:38:17
42 Conor Fahy 00:38:38
49 Neil Monahan 00:39:03
60 Alan Sheehy 00:39:27
108 Karl Walsh 00:41:06
147 Matt Cranley 00:41:46
173 Katie Eisenhauer 00:42:14
550 Roisin Harkin 00:46:51
Full results here: http://results.runinthedark.ie/?event_id=30
Run in the Dark 5K
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Garret Dunne 1 00:16:53
11 Anna Sadowska 1 00:18:14
Crusaders AC runners
1 Garret Dunne 00:16:53
4 Michael Kiely 00:17:08
Full results here: http://results.runinthedark.ie/?event_id=30
Care to Run 5K
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Freddie Sittuk 1 00:15:33
10 Fiona Shine 1 00:20:54
Crusaders AC runners
4 Michael Fitzsimons 00:17:58
6 John Thuillier 00:19:13
9 Michael Maughan 00:20:50
10 Fiona Shine 00:20:54
12 Donal Foley 00:21:35
13 Lisa Shine 00:21:39 (PB)
16 Kate Murray 00:22:57
17 Rhona McGrath 00:23:02
19 Aoife Quinn 00:23:16
20 Olwyn Dunne 00:23:30
22 Fiona Bane 00:24:03
26 Eileen Coughlan 00:24:35 (PB)
32 Emer Kenny 00:25:34
40 Mairin Shine 00:27:33
45 John Fitzsimons 00:29:15
53 Paul Kelly 00:30:15
55 Lorraine Fitzsimons 00:31:32
Full results here: http://accuracetiming.ie/?page_id=420
Marlay Parkrun #133
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Damian Bourke 1 00:17:53
43 Margaret Galvin 1 00:21:17
Crusaders AC runner
2 John McAuley 00:18:17
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/marlay/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=133
St. Anne’s Parkrun #106
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Cillian O’Leary 00:15:53
18 Orla Manley 00:20:28
Crusaders AC runner
5 Peter O’Toole 00:18:14
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/stannes/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=106
Knocknacarra Parkrun #79
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Eamonn McWalter 1 00:19:27
12 Eavan Griffin 1 00:24:28
Crusaders AC runner
1 Eamonn McWalter 00:19:27
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/knocknacarra/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=79
Athlone Parkrun #18
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 David Cuddy 1 00:19:36
11 Jasmine Maloney 1 00:26:20
Crusaders AC runner
1 David Cuddy 00:19:36
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/athlone/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=18
EOI Balbriggan Half marathon
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Paul O’Meara 1 01:26:15
7 Suzanne Kenny 1 01:33:00
Crusaders AC runner
1 Paul O’Meara 01:26:15
Full results here: http://sportszone.ie/view-results.php?euk=nM2FeDWnTS