Spring has finally sprung: great running abroad and some decent results at home

8/4/2018

Brian McGuckin

There is a lot to report on this weekend, both at home and abroad. Outside of Ireland we had some marathoners take on Paris and Rotterdam in extremely warm and humid conditions, whilst we also had a couple of runners participate in UK races. Then, at home there were a couple of 10Ks on offer as well as a half and ultra in the mountains. Crusaders took full advantage of several of these opportunities.

One of the hazards of running a Spring marathon is that we often train in wintry weather, meaning temperatures often close to or around zero, but then when we come to race, particularly outside Ireland, we can often face quite challenging warmer conditions which would be welcome in the Autumn after a hot Summer but tricky if we're not otherwise acclimatised. Such was the case on Sunday in both Paris and Rotterdam. We had 7 runners in Paris and they ran really well in the circumstances, at least two of them recording PBs. In a huge field of more than 36,500 finishers, Joe Walsh ran a super PB time of 2:58:30 (a 45s improvement), followed by his wife, Alma Hanevy, who also recorded a PB with a time of 3:09:50, finishing as 58th woman across the line and 8th in her age category. Both reported that with the mounting heat the last few miles were extremely tough. Leslie Lluyd Hughes was next home, in 3:37:23, followed by Matt Clarke (3:46:58), Katie McElroy (3:47:13) and Ruth Dwyer (3:52:54). Miriam Logan finished in 4:28:22, whilst Lucy Collender completed the group, coming home in 5:04:01. A challenging day for all. Bob Manson reported similar tough conditions in Rotterdam, running alongside nearly 14,000 other runners and recording a time of 3:09:25. Members will also be interested to hear that Johannes Frederking ran 1:23:40 in the Hannover Half Marathon in Germany in warm conditions, whilst Katie Eisenhauer also ran a half, this time in Geelong, Australia, finishing in a time of 1:30:11 (most likely even warmer!).

In the UK, on Saturday, Leo Lundy ran what he described as a recovery run following his Belfast to Dublin ordeal of the week before. This was just a gentle 30 mile race along the banks of the Thames. There appears always to be some kind of theme to these events and this one was no different, with a medal based on the movie Leon the Professional, for reasons that remain unclear! On Sunday, Michael Kiely joined his older brother Tom in running in the Round the Houses 10k in Edinburgh. In a quality field of nearly 700 runners, Michael placed 13th in a time of 33:10. For the record, Tom placed 142nd in 40:17. Lastly, Jon Lawrence ran in the Manchester marathon, coming home in 3:20:23.

Back in Ireland, the first race of the weekend was on Friday evening. Eanna Farrell reported that he took part in the Ballinroad 5k in Waterford, placing 51st out of 235 runners, in a time of 20:49. Then, on Saturday morning, there was a substantial turnout in excellent, pretty windless conditions for the first running of the BHAA DCC 10K in St. Anne’s Raheny. Because of the size of the field of nearly 430 the organisers were obliged to change the loops previously used for two and four mile races of previous years to avoid interference from backmarkers (the field swelled with a fair number of walkers from the Lord Mayor’s 5-alive campaign), and, with only two extended loops in the park along with some proficient stewarding, the race went extremely well.

It’s a fast race, clearly reflected in the results. It was won by Joe O'Donoghue, who is in the process of transferring to the club, in a time of 33:10. Many congrats to him. In total, we had 12 runners in the event, including only one woman, Sarah Lyons who improved on the previous week’s K Club time by 20 seconds, coming home in 76th place overall, 14th female across the line, in 46:23. There were other improvements too. Behind a super run from Swede Albin Ingmarsson who placed 4th in 34:19, came Michael Wycherley with yet another PB (his 2nd 10k PB in a week), placing 6th in 34:57, his first time breaking 35 minutes. Michael was also 2nd M40 in the race. Just behind, in 10th place, came John Fahy, who is training for the Hamburg marathon, with a massive PB improvement to record 36:46, his first time under 38 minutes. The result will have given him some confidence for the marathon. Let’s hope weather conditions are otherwise favourable! Ger Forde came next, running at tempo pace for him as he gets back into it after a long trip abroad. Ger placed 16th in 38:49 and he was followed by Eddie Nugent (24th in 39:57), Tony Owens (31st in 41:14), TJ Bourke (55th in 44:09), Tony Hackett (80th in 46:35) and Robbie Moore (84th in 46:44).

There were a few mountain trail races on Saturday too. Michael Maughan travelled up to Carlingford to take part in an extremely challenging half marathon around Cooley Mountain. In a field of 109 finishers, Michael tested a recently injured ankle and came out well, placing 29th in a time of 1:52:22. Meanwhile, in Wicklow we had contestants in both ultra and half marathon events on the Wicklow Way. Conditions were cool and damp under foot but again not windy.We had one runner in the Ultra, Ali Onur Uyar, our Turkish club-mate, who placed 29th in a field of 174. Ali’s time was 5:24:45 for the 51k distance. On the other hand, 5 of our club-mates took part in the half (actually 25.5k). Four of them are in training for a spring marathon and will have gained some confidence from the outcome. In a field of 168, John McAuley placed 8th in a time of 2:03:45, and John was followed by Warren Swords in 9th place in a time of 2:05:30. Brian McGuckin came next in 16th spot (2:11:40), followed by Brian Leonard (25th in 2:18:16) and Anthony O’Reilly (45th in 2:28:30). Warren is currently training for London in two weeks’ time, whilst the two Brians and John are looking forward to a trip to Hamburg in three weeks.

On Sunday morning Joe McDermott and Mary Fitzsimons took advantage of excellent spring conditions, cool but sunny, to run in the Grocers Fun Run 10K in the northern end of the Phoenix Park. The race which took in a climb out of the Furry Glen onto the Upper Glen Road twice, saw Joe taking a highly creditable 2nd place, running a super time of 37:31. Mary also ran well to record a time of 48:19, placing 47th overall and 10th woman across the line.

There are 10 parkruns on which to report. In Coomera, Australia, Kris Ryan kept up her parkrunning, placing 29th overall, 5th female in a time of 24:05 and a field of nearly 180 runners. Closer to home, Kate Murray took first women’s finisher place, 21st overall, in Lough Key in a time of 23:50. Aoife Quinn was 2nd woman finisher in Fairview, in a time of 25:41, ahead of Mairead Cashman (90th overall, 29th woman, in 31:45). Meanwhile, in Cabinteely, Niamh Quinn took 3rd woman’s finisher spot in 24:31 (30th overall) ahead of Laura Gilbride (81st overall, 27th woman, in 29:11). Maria Kennedy celebrated her recent professional promotion with 4th place (32nd overall) in Kilkenny. Maria’s time was 24:01. We also had solo runners in Killarney (Colm Foley who placed 10th in 22:17) and Shanganagh (Janet McManus who placed 57th overall, 7th woman, in 25:02) and also in River Valley (Lorraine Fitzsimons placed 51st overall, 20th woman, in 31:58). Finally, there was a good club turnout in Poolbeg. Kieran Finucane led our club-mates home in 8th place (20:21) and he was followed closely by David Timoney (9th in 20:30) and then by Diarmuid Byrne (20th in 21:31), Russell Murphy (28th in 22:15) and by Maria Pertl (115th overall, 33rd woman finisher, in 29:25).

Cooley Legends Half Marathon (109)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Shane Toner 1 01:24:40
3 Jenny King 1 01:26:37
Crusaders AC runner
29 Michael Maughan 01:52:22
Full results here: http://chipit.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Legends-Half-Results.csv
BHAA DCC 10K (427)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Joseph O’Donoghue 1 00:33:10
17 Mary Leech 1 00:39:02
Crusaders AC runners
1 Joe O'Donoghue 00:33:10
4 Albin Ingmarsson 00:34:19
6 Michael Wycherley 00:34:57 (PB)
10 John Fahy 00:36:46 (PB)
16 Ger Forde 00:38:49
24 Eddie Nugent 00:39:57
31 Anthony Owens 00:41:14
45 Phelim Murray 00:43:08
55 TJ Bourke 00:44:09
76 Sarah Lyons 00:46:23 (14)
80 Anthony Hackett 00:46:35
84 Robbie Moore 00:46:44
Full results here: http://bhaa.ie/race/dcc-10km-2018/
Maurice Mullins Half (Wicklow Way Half) (168)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Eoin Lennon 1 01:45:00
19 Martsje Hell 1 02:12:50
Crusaders AC runners
8 John McAuley 02:03:45
9 Warren Swords 02:05:30
16 Brian McGuckin 02:11:40
25 Brian Leonard 02:18:16
45 Anthony O’Reilly 02:28:30
Full results here: https://www.imra.ie/events/results/id/1577/
Maurice Mullins Ultra (Wicklow Way Ultra) (174)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Tom Hogan 1 04:13:55
26 Man Troend 1 05:20:50
Crusaders AC runner
29 Ali Onur Uyar 05:24:45
Full results here: https://www.imra.ie/events/results/id/1576/
Ballinroad 5K (235)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Noel Murphy 1 00:16:15
12 Sally Forristal 1 00:18:03
Crusaders AC runner
51 Eanna Farrell 00:20:49
Full results here: http://www.westwaterfordathletics.org/images/pdfs/2018/Ballinroad_5k_18.pdf
The Grocers 10K fun run (249)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Adrian Campbell 1 00:37:13
14 Aine O’Donnell 1 00:41:29
Crusaders AC runners
2 Joe McDermott 00:37:31
47 Mary Fitzsimons 00:48:19 (10)
Full results here: https://www.popupraces.ie/the-grocers-fun-run-2018/#1_7D3CAC
Round the Houses 10K (686)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Will Mackay 1 00:31:16
19 Stephanie Pennycook 1 00:34:14
Crusaders AC runner
13 Michael Kiely 00:33:10
Full results here: https://www.stuweb.co.uk/live/race.shtml#3173-7201
Kilkenny Parkrun #178 (190)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Gary Clerkin 1 00:18:21
3 Siobhan O’Doherty 1 00:18:45
Crusaders AC runner
32 Maria Kennedy 00:24:01 (4)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/kilkenny/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=178
Killarney Parkrun #144 (54)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Padraig Courtney 1 00:18:34
7 Caroline Murphy 1 00:21:36
Crusaders AC runner
10 Colm Foley 00:22:17
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/killarney/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=144
Poolbeg Parkrun #32 (202)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Ashley Hayes 1 00:18:43
15 Stephanie Bergin 1 00:20:49
Crusaders AC runners
8 Kieran Finucane 00:20:21
9 David Timoney 00:20:30
20 Diarmuid Byrne 00:21:31
28 Russell Murphy 00:22:15
115 Maria Pertl 00:29:25 (33)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/poolbeg/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=32
Lough Key Parkrun #97 (202)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Daniel Dill 1 00:19:31
21 Kate Murray 1 00:23:50
Crusaders AC runner
21 Kate Murray 00:23:50 (1)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/loughkey/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=97
River Valley Parkrun #88 (94)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Bryan Lynch 1 00:20:07
4 Cecile Ollagnier 1 00:20:43
Crusaders AC runner
51 Lorraine Fitzsimons 00:31:58 (20)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/rivervalley/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=88
Fairview Parkrun #38 (123)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Paul West 1 00:18:59
30 Mary Lynch 1 00:24:37
Crusaders AC runners
36 Aoife Quinn 00:25:41 (2)
90 Mairead Cashman 00:31:45 (29)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/fairview/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=38
Cabinteely Parkrun #157 (160)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 George Callery 1 00:19:11
5 Orna Dilworth 1 00:20:44
Crusaders AC runners
30 Niamh Quinn 00:24:31 (3)
81 Laura Gilbride 00:29:11 (27)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/cabinteely/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=157
Shanganagh Parkrun #157 ()
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Ben Paviour 1 00:16:39
28 Ciara Carter 1 00:22:20
Crusaders AC runner
57 Janet McManus 00:25:02 (7)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/shanganagh/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=157