Slippery conditions on a weekend of challenging running

13/3/2023

Back row L-R: Tanja Narancic, Emer Kenny, Joe Dunne, Joe McDermott. Front row: Miriam Logan and James Cottle

Crusaders were seen in a number of events over the weekend in Dublin and elsewhere. One of the highlights was the annual running of the Bohermeen Half marathon, which has become a fixture in the calendar for many of us training for Spring marathons, and, although conditions were tough on an otherwise attractive course, it did not disappoint and will have given encouragement to those who ran it.

The race, as usual well-organised by Bohermeen AC, took place on Sunday morning on a two looped course in Co. Meath, on country roads with a couple of uphill drags each lap and finishing on the club’s track. The rain held off, but, over the course of the race, the wind picked up from the southwest and it felt that only for limited periods did we have the wind in our favour, particularly on the first loop with an extended piece that for a while took us directly into the wind (thankfully not repeated on the second lap). Although there was a field exceeding 1,300 runners many of us found ourselves in no man’s land for long periods and not really able to draft. The course has otherwise PB potential and several of us over the years owe our PBs to the race. Having said that, despite the conditions on Sunday, we still saw at least 3 PBs coming from the 14 runners from the club who finished the race.

In a quality field for both men and women, Brendan Murphy led us home in 11th place with a super time of 72:28, despite slipping and falling on the remnants of a cow pat at one of the tight corners towards the end of the race (that’s country running for you!). Brendan is training for the London marathon in April, so it was a good workout. He and his wife Eavanne also should be congratulated on the arrival of his 4th son last week, so Brendan had to manage his time carefully and get back as quickly as he could! Behind Brendan came Vinnie McGuinness in 24th place and 3rd in his M40 age category (1:14:35) and next came Ciarain Kelly, just 3 seconds ahead of his twin brother Sean who runs for Raheny, in a PB time of 76:08 for 37th place. Without realising it, perhaps, we had a team of 6 men in the race and our third scorer was Joe McDermott (74th in 1:19:12) with a decent time in the circumstances and he was followed by recent new member, Charles Edouard Cattier who came storming through the field (169th in 1:25:09). Charles Edouard is training for the Madrid marathon (on the same day as London) and he improved on his previous half marathon time by 8 minutes! Our next athlete to cross the finishing line was Rory Goldsmith, our 6th team scorer, with a respectable 1:26:10 (for 193rd place) and he was followed by James Cottle in 282nd place and a time of 1:29:19. James, also in training for London, had unwisely allowed himself to get sucked into an age category battle with a fellow M65 in the first 3 miles of the race, and with the increased pace this created for a while, the effort came back to bite him later on. As they say “you can’t win a race in the first mile, but you can lose it”. Feeling himself slowing down and going backwards in the latter stages, James was, however, rescued by the 1:30 pacers who initially overtook him with about 5k to go but then pulled him along to the finish, helping him to win the M65 age category. The six-man team placed a respectable 3rd in a competition for the Rennicks Cup involving 22 teams.

The next Crusader athlete across the line was Ciara Lynch in a super time, just a minute off her PB, of 1:34:59 for 420th place overall and 39th female finisher. Ciara was followed by Miriam Logan, not too far behind in 486th place overall (56th female finisher) in 1:36:46, and then by Joe Dunne who enjoyed his 1:42:15 outing (657th place) and by Emer Kenny (670th and 106th in 1:42:50). After a faster start than intended, Tanja Narancic found the event challenging but still managed a 2 minutes PB by running 1:43:38 (696th and 119th) and she was followed by Evelyn Neary, also with a PB time (958th overall in a time of 1:55:35), paced by Michael Fitzsimons (959th in 1:55:35). Ciara, Miriam, Emer and Tanja made up a 4-woman team in the women’s team competition, placing 7th in a 21-strong competition for the Fr. Delany Cup. Members may be interested to know that ex-Crusader, Catherine Thornton placed 105th overall and 4th woman home in 1:21:02, not far off her PB, whilst Sean Murphy, who trains with us, ran 1:27:30 for 224th place.

On the same day, Dublin Athletics held the men’s 10k road championships in Garristown, Co Dublin, as part of the Windmill 10k. We had just one runner in the race, David Willis. In a field of 277, David placed 49th in a time of 42:34. There was also a 5k edition run on the day. In the 107-strong field, we had two runners. Diarmuid Byrne, although an inveterate parkrunner, was running his first truly competitive race in 3 years and he placed 4th in a time of 20:59. Diarmuid was followed by fellow parkrunner Darina Scully who appeared on the women’s rostrum in 3rd place (14th overall) in a time of 24:22.

Earlier in the week, we had runners take part in both the 10k and 5k editions of the Dublin Night Run. The races started and finished in Seán Moore Park on Tuesday evening, taking in quite a bit of beach and narrow footpaths along the Strand Road in Sandymount. There were reports with such large fields (respectively 679 and 443) there was a bit of congestion at times. Still, we had some good results. In the 10k, Rob Glascott placed 21st in 40:30 and he was followed by newcomer Cormac Fenton (43rd in 42:20). Next came Annie Hughes (64th and 11th in 43:29) and Annie was followed by Maria Kennedy running in a workplace team (382nd and 88th in 56:14). We had just the one runner in the 5k: Dave Tuohy placed 25th in 22:53. Further afield over the weekend, Clare Sullivan travelled to the Netherlands where she took part in the CPC Loop Den Haag (the Hague) 10k. On a flat looped course that took runners around an urban area and hitting the famous seaside resort of Scheveningen, Clare placed 137th overall and 13th female finisher in an international field of 5776 finishers and in a time of 40:17.

Saturday saw the conclusion of the BHAA winter league out in the grounds of NUI Maynooth, the XC event sponsored by AIB. In wet conditions, Kate Murray ran in the women’s 2-mile race on a course that was otherwise pretty flat, placing 11th and 2nd F50 (her new age category!) in 15:38 and in a field of 21. We had at least 5 Crusaders run in the mixed 4-mile race on the same course. The contingent, in a field of 75, was led home by Joe Walsh who continues to impress. Joe’s time was 25:00 for 6th place behind race winner George Snee (23:19) who in fact went on to run in Bohermeen the following day (placing 9th in 1:11:30). Joe was followed by Karl Walsh (27th in 28:46), Neil Brown (35th and 4th M50 in 29:48), Robbie Moore (38th in 30:21) and Tony Hackett (39th in 30:24).

Elsewhere, our Spanish exile, Esther Requena Ferri won the Circuito Carrera urbana Fuengirola, a distance of 5.3k, in 20:49. The relatively flat race was conducted on a mixture of road, grass and sand.

There was action in the National Indoor Arena on Saturday with the Leinster Masters indoor track and field championships and had some great results: Amy McGuinness won gold in the 800m F35 category in a time of 2:30.39, whilst, in the men's event, Enda Clarke ran 2:13.06 for silver in the M35 category. Liam Lyster took gold in the M65 60m sprint in a time of 9.36, followed by silver in the 200m with a time of 31.86, whilst Donal Swift took silver in the M70 category in the 60m (12.83) and silver again in the 200m (38.29). Meanwhile, Valantinos Goularas ran in both the 60m and the 60mH. In the former, he qualified for the final in the 4th heat with a 3rd place finish in 7.09, going on to place 4th in the 8-man final in a time of 7.04. In the latter event, the 60mH, his speciality, Valantinos won gold in a time of 8.33. Liam also won the M65 shot put title with a throw of the 5kg shot of 9.22m. Marcus Timlin took part in the championships too, finishing in 5th place in the M50 heat of the 60m sprint in 9.56. Congrats to all!

Another IMRA race took place on Saturday morning. This was the Trooperstown Winter 9.7k mountain race in Co. Wicklow involving a climb of some 380m. The race was described as a long loop over “Boots” mountain and Trooperstown itself, on difficult terrain. We had just the one runner in the event, an, naturally, she went on to win the women’s race. Becky Quinn placed 15th overall in a field of 85 and in a time of 57:26 for the distance. Conditions were wet and slippery on the snow-covered mountainside.

Finally, we had more good results from the parkruns on Saturday morning, with a slew of first finishes and podium places, despite numbers being down on recent times, possibly because of the wet weather. Once again, we had a large contingent in Poolbeg. The field of 138 was led home by Stephen Hurley who ran 17:48. He was followed by Ross Neill (4th in 18:41), Kenan Furlong (6th in 19:53), Ciara Regan (14th and 2nd female finisher in 21:11), Sophia Morgan (27th and 7th in 22:35), John Lohan (36th in 23:04), Sharon Woods (37th and 9th in 23:09), Evelyn Neary (preparing for Bohermeen) (105th and 36th in 30:14), Niamh Trihy (112th and 40th in 32:11) and Kevin Kenny (113th in 32:12). Irene Gorman was a first finisher in St. Anne’s. Our single representative also placed 10th overall in a field of 326 and a time of 19:52. Another first finisher was Caroline Crowley in Brickfields. Caroline joined 84 other runners there, placing 3rd overall in 20:46. Right behind her came Toby Benham (4th in 21:55) and, further back, Eoghan Corrigan (15th in 23:47). Elsewhere, Dee Lawlor led the field of 115 home in Cabinteely. Dee ran 20:10 and he was followed by Stephen Mulligan (24th in 25:33) and by Máirín and Fiona Shine (respectively, 69th and 23rd and 70th and 24th in 31:09). John McDowell came home ahead of 18 other runners in Strokestown. His first finishing time was 19:46, whilst, in the Clapham Common Parkrun, our London exile, Kate O’Malley ran in a field of 706, placing 33rd and 2nd woman home in 19:52. Darina Scully had an excellent weekend of running, placing first woman home in River Valley in a time of 24:40 for 21st place overall in a field of 93, whilst Tara Murphy ran once again in the Delaware and Raritan Parkrun in the USA. In a field of 27, Tara placed 6th overall and 3rd female finisher in 25:23.

Maureen McGinley ran in Limerick where she placed 45th and 11th in a field of 87, whilst Mairead Cashman stormed Mallow Castle, placing 29th and 12th in 29:41 in a field of 53. Carina Davidson was our solo representative in Shanganagh where, in a field of 155, she placed 117th and 42nd in 30:02, whilst Louise O’Riordan and Lisa Shine met up in Tramore, Cork. Lisa placed 143rd and 50th in 29:59, whilst Louise placed 144th and 51st in the same time. There were 198 runners in the event.

Finally, several of us headed over to Marlay Park, joining a field of 385 in celebration of the 10th anniversary of its parkrun. Aoife Quigley was persuaded to pace the 22-minute finishers and completed the task in 22:01 (placing 65th and 9th in the process). Aoife was followed by Orla Kennedy (87th and 16th in 22:50) and by James Cottle and Tanja Narancic, preparing themselves for Bohermeen. James placed 92nd in 23:02, whilst Tanja ran 26:04 for 186th and 37th places. Tanja was followed closely by Olwyn Dunne who ran 26;16 for 193rd and 39th spots.

BHAA AIB NUI women’s 2-mile XC (21)
Overall place Name Guntime
1 Laura Buckley 00:12:16
Crusaders AC runner
11 Kate Murray 00:15:38
Full results here: https://irp.cdn-website.com/15e8030f/files/uploaded/BHAA%202023%20AIB%20NUI%20Maynooth%202%20mile%20Result.pdf
BHAA AIB NUI mixed 4-mile XC (75)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 George Snee 1 00:23:19
Crusaders AC runners
6 Joe Walsh 00:25:00
27 Karl Walsh 00:28:46
38 Robbie Moore 00:30:21
39 Anthony Hackett 00:30:24
Full results here: https://irp.cdn-website.com/15e8030f/files/uploaded/BHAA%202023%20AIB%20NUI%20Maynooth%204%20mile%20Result.pdf
Bohermeen Half Marathon (1327)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Yared Derese 1 01:05:58
62 Kate Purcell 1 01:18:24
Crusaders AC runners
11 Brendan Murphy 01:12:28
24 Vinnie McGuinness 01:14:35
37 Ciarain Kelly 01:16:08 (PB)
74 Joe McDermott 01:19:12
169 Charles Edouard Cattier 01:25:09 (PB)
193 Rory Goldsmith 01:26:10
282 James Cottle 01:29:19
420 Ciara Lynch 01:34:59 (39)
486 Miriam Logan 01:36:46 (56)
657 Joe Dunne 01:42:15
670 Emer Kenny 01:42:50 (106)
696 Tanja Narancic 01:43:38 (PB) (119)
958 Evelyn Neary 01:55:35 (PB)
959 Michael Fitzsimons 01:55:36
Full results here: https://www.myrunresults.com/events/bohermeen_ac_half_marathon/4618/club-team-results?runnerClass=half%20marathon&type=Team&category=F
IMRA Trooperstown Winter 9.7k (85)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Killian Mooney 1 00:45:12
15 Becky Quinn 1 00:57:26
Crusaders AC runner
15 Becky Quinn 00:57:26 (1)
Full results here: https://www.imra.ie/events/results/id/2292/
Dublin Night Run 10k (679)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Karl Ennis 1 00:35:03
24 Irene Cawley 1 00:40:30
Crusaders AC runners
21 Rob Glascott 00:40:30
43 Cormac Fenton 00:42:20
64 Annie Hughes 00:43:29 (11)
382 Maria Kennedy 00:56:14 (88)
Full results here: https://www.myrunresults.com/events/dublin_night_run_10km__5km_2023/4761/results
Dublin Night Run 5k (443)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Dermot Kenny 1 00:17:55
5 Grainne Mulligan 1 00:20:04
Crusaders AC runner
25 Dave Tuohy 00:22:53
Full results here: https://www.myrunresults.com/events/dublin_night_run_10km__5km_2023/4761/results
Windmill 5k road race (107)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Caleb Long 1 00:17:32
9 Suzanne Forde 1 00:22:33
Crusaders AC runners
4 Diarmuid Byrne 00:20:59
14 Darina Scully 00:24:22 (3)
Full results here: https://my.raceresult.com/236571/
Windmill 10k road race (277)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 David McCarthy 1 00:31:00
33 Jill Horan 1 00:39:59
Crusaders AC runner
49 David Willis 00:42:34
Full results here: https://my.raceresult.com/236571/
Limerick Parkrun (87)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Oisin Spillane 1 00:15:22
7 Karen Raine 1 00:21:05
Crusaders AC runner
45 Maureen McGinley 00:28:04 (11)
Marlay Parkrun (385)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 James Murphy 1 00:17:20
35 Ruth Wilson 1 00:20:59
Crusaders AC runners
65 Aoife Quigley 00:22:01 (9)
87 Orla Kennedy 00:22:50 (16)
92 James Cottle 00:23:02
186 Tanja Narancic 00:26:04 (37)
193 Olwyn Dunne 00:26:16 (39)
Strokestown Parkrun (19)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 John McDowell 1 00:19:46
7 Martina O’Connor 1 00:28:42
Crusaders AC runner
1 John McDowell 00:19:46
Shanganagh Parkrun (155)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 George Callery 1 00:17:05
17 Eileen O’Toole 1 00:21:56
Crusaders AC runner
117 Carina Davidson 00:30:02 (42)
Brickfields Parkrun (85)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Garry Hobbert 1 00:19:48
3 Caroline Crowley 1 00:20:46
Crusaders AC runners
3 Caroline Crowley 00:20:46 (1)
4 Toby Benham 00:21:55
15 Eoghan Corrigan 00:23:47
Mallow Castle Parkrun (53)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Martina Kiely 1 00:18:38
2 Conor Nagle 1 00:19:27
Crusaders AC runner
29 Mairead Cashman 00:29:41 (12)
River Valley Parkrun (93)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Ian Kavanagh 1 00:19:44
21 Darina Scully 1 00:24:40
Crusaders AC runner
21 Darina Scully 00:24:40 (1)
Tramore Valley Parkrun (175)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Sean Twohig 1 00:16:32
9 Ann Moore 1 00:19:11
Crusaders AC runners
143 Lisa Shine 00:29:59 (50)
144 Louise O’Riordan 00:29:59 (51)
Poolbeg Parkrun (138)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Stephen Hurley 1 00:17:48
7 Maddie Garner 1 00:20:28
Crusaders AC runners
1 Stephen Hurley 00:17:48
4 Ross Neill 00:18:41
6 Kenan Furlong 00:19:53
14 Ciara Regan 00:21:11 (2)
27 Sophia Morgan 00:22:35 (7)
36 John Lohan 00:23:04
37 Sharon Woods 00:23:09 (9)
105 Evelyn Neary 00:30:14 (36)
112 Niamh Trihy 00:32:11 (40)
113 Kevin Kenny 00:32:12
St. Anne’s Parkrun (326)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Stephen Butler 1 00:17:08
10 Irene Gorman 1 00:19:52
Crusaders AC runner
10 Irene Gorman 00:19:52 (1)
Cabinteely Parkrun (115)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Derek Lawlor 1 00:20:10
16 Eva McCann 1 00:23:39
Crusaders AC runners
1 Derek Lawlor 00:20:10
24 Stephen Mulligan 00:25:33
69 Máirín Shine 00:31:09 (23)
70 Fiona Shine 00:31:09 (24)