There were several highlights this weekend for the club, both at home and abroad. We saw the welcome return of the Rathfarnham 5k which enjoyed a quality field, thanks to its reputation as a fast course and this year also incorporating the Dublin 5k road championships. There were also long- distance exploits from several of our members in Tralee, Tipperary, Wicklow and Berlin. We start with Rathfarnham with its field of nearly 900 runners on Sunday morning. The one loop, essentially flat, anti-clockwise course took athletes on the roads around Bushy Park. Conditions were nearly perfect with the temperature around 10 degrees Celsius and no real wind to speak of. We had at least 28 Crusaders in the race and their contribution produced some bling in the Dublin Championships. There were some impressive PBs too and at least 20 of our athletes had chiptimes below 20 minutes. Kieran Little was our first clubmate across the finishing line in a time of 15:34 for 26th place and the individual M35 bronze medal. Kieran was followed by Michael Wycherley, who also won a bronze medal, this time in the M45 category, with his PB finishing time of 16:00 for 51st spot. Next came Peter O’Toole (61st in a PB time of 16:06) and Peter was followed by Joe McDermott (90th in 16:43, another PB time), the 4 runners bringing home team O/35 gold in the Dublin Championships, having been only 50 odd seconds off a senior team medal. The remaining 13 male runners from the club were led home by Eddie Nugent (142nd in 17:34) and Eddie was followed by Rory Goldsmith (191st in 18:21), Tim O’Donnell (213th with a PB time of 18:39), Gareth Phelan (243rd, also with a likely PB time, his being 18:58), Kevin Kavanagh (248th in 19:12), Ruadhán MacCormaic (251st in 19:08), Alan Kavanagh, another runner with a PB time (293rd in 19:43), Michael Maughan (305th in 19:46), Brian McGuckin (313th in 19:58), Joe Dunne (367th in 20:57), Gian Piero Allerta (390th in 21:20), Eanna Farrell (391st in 21:39), Brendan Glynn (401st in 21:55) and Garret Dunne (416th in 21:18). Members may interested to hear that John McAuley, who recently transferred, ran 16:56 for 100th place. Kathryn Sweeney was the first female member of the club to cross the finish line, in what was likely a super PB time of 18:39 for 214th place overall and 35th woman home. She crossed side by side with Tim O’Donnell. Rachael Yorke followed in 19:16 for 257th and 48th, with Danielle Hopkins not too far behind in 264th and 50th in 19:20. Other top 100 places went to Gillian Earley (278th and 55th in 19:36), Miriam Logan with yet another huge PB improvement (289th and 60th in 19:16), Amy Wright (301st and 63rd in 19:52), Ciara Lynch (322nd and 68th in 19:59) and Kathryn Gibbons (340th and 74th in 20:23). Aoife Cowhie (566th and 149th in 24:51) and Carina Davidson (578th and 152nd in 25:04) completed the contingent. The O/35 team of Gillian, Miriam, Amy and Aoife were only just outside the medals, taking 4th place. Members might also be interested to learn that Catherine Thornton, who recently left the club to go back to her native Galway, placed 113th overall and 10th female finisher in a PB time of 17:11 to win the open F35 first prize. Well done to all who ran! Whilst we are on the subject of Co. Dublin championships, we now have the final results of the 10-mile championships run in conjunction with the Frank Duffy race last month. It has now been confirmed that individual medals went to Daragh O’Reilly (gold M35), John Mulvihill (silver M35), Aoife Quigley (bronze F35), Olwyn Dunne (bronze F55) and James Cottle (gold M65), whilst there were medals for the following teams: Daragh, John, Joe McDermott and Kieran Martin (bronze senior), Maura Mahoney, Aoife, Áine Crotty and Ciara Lynch (bronze senior too) and that of Miriam Logan, Rebecca Fleming, Olwyn and Margaret Foley (gold O/35). Congrats to all the medal winners! On Saturday, we had several runners compete in a couple of the Ecotrail races that took place in Co. Wicklow. On a hilly out-and-back course that, depending on the distance, took in both Sugarloafs, Djouce and the coast along Bray Head, Valentin Akdim and Gerald Hoare took on the 46k race. In a field of 214, Valentin distinguished himself running 4:40:31 for 14th place, whilst Gerald completed the distance in 7:29:03 for 195th spot. In the 30k edition, which just omitted the section near Djouce, Conor Macguinness placed 12th out of a field of 300 participants in a time of 2:56:30, and he was followed by Brandon Lai (21st in 3:00:48) and by Dee Lawlor (36th in 3:16:32). Also, on the same day, Maurice Kelter tackled the hilly Tralee marathon down in his native Co. Kerry, taking a fine 6th place in a field of 110 in a time of 3:06:44. It was great for those of us who travelled to Germany over the weekend to take part in the Berlin marathon and to be a part of history in the making, as Eliud Kipchoge took yet another big slice off the world record to bring it down by 30 seconds to 2:01:09. Indeed, if he hadn’t been waving to the crowds on the way into the finish, he might easily have brought it down even further. Conditions were ideal for the race with only a gentle breeze and a temperature for the most part below 15 degrees (starting off at 11 degrees). Although we had a few casualties, those of us who made it to the finish generally felt a huge sense of achievement and there were some great times in the massive field that took part. The course is largely flat and, for those of us running in the first two waves, not particularly congested. Brendan Murphy was our first runner home, in a great time of 2:34:01, despite suffering a little in the last 5k. Brendan was followed by our American clubmate, David Willis, who thoroughly enjoyed his experience in recording negative splits and a time of 2:40:13. Following David came Joe Walsh with a super PB time of 2:42 (a 2 minutes improvement) and the next runner across the line was Thurles’ Declan Ryan who was going for a world qualifying time as a visually impaired runner. Declan was paced initially by Crusader Ger Forde and then in the second half by another of our clubmates, Michael O’Conor. Hopefully, Declan’s time of 2:44:45, achieved with a 58 seconds negative split, will be enough to get him a place in the world championships. South African Michael Judge was next in a PB time of 2:59:56, followed by James Cottle who recorded his 4th fastest marathon of the 54 he has now run, in a time of 3:04:19 and taking 2nd place in his M65 age category. Interestingly, this was James’ 4th time running in Berlin and on each occasion the world record has been improved. TJ Bourke was next, in 3:28:26. TJ’s experience was somewhat different from the rest of us, in that, for some reason, although he had presented a qualifying time of 2:54 from Dublin in 2019, he was placed in the corral for those hoping to run 4:30. As a consequence, he ended up having to walk and weave in the early stages (his start was 45 minutes after the first wave) and knew early on that he would be incapable of breaking 3 hours again. Next across the line was Liz Nixon who surprised herself with an excellent time of 3:41:42 and Liz was followed by Kate Murray who also ran a good time of 3:50:07 and was delighted with the outcome given that her training had not gone particularly well. Mention should be made of Hector Jimenez Perez’s 4:29:34 finish. Hector had been injured in the lead up to the marathon and had been forced to take a month off, coming back within 2 weeks of the event. Despite this challenge he also decided to run his first marathon dressed as a tree, in aid of an African-based charity. Although he suffered mightily in the last 8k, his time is pretty impressive and hopefully he will have raised money for the charity. It should be noted that several of us also intend to run in the Dublin marathon in 5 weeks’ time. Another achievement over the weekend was recorded by Becky Quinn in the mountains of Co. Tipperary, Aherlow to be exact. In a small elite field of 32 on a zig-zagging challenging course across Sliabh Na Muck to Bansha Woods and back over a distance of 50k and a climb of 1200m, Becky placed 8th overall and won the women’s Irish Ultra marathon championships in a time of 4:55:05. Further afield, one of our Irish exiles in Australia, Katie Rogers, took on and won the Sri Chinmoy Iron Cove half marathon with its field of 54 runners. It was Katie’s first half marathon and she completed the race, having only entered it at the last minute, in a great time of 1:27:48. Chris Russell, on secondment for his employer for the next few months in Philadelphia, ran in the CHOP parkway “5k” (which measured about 4.15k!), finishing in 2nd place in a time of 13:53. Pablo Sanchez took part in a city streets mile event in Madrid where he placed 5th overall and first M35 in 4:44. Finally, Italo Giancaterina placed 4th in a 9.9k(!) street race in Sulmona in Italy, taking 4th place in 31:59. It was not so busy this weekend in the parkruns in Ireland. We had participants in only 8 events. We did, however, have 2 first finishers. Just back from her honeymoon, Sarah Lyons placed 4th overall in Tolka Valley Park. In a field of 41, Sarah ran a time of 21:03. Then, in Poolbeg, Stephen Hurley finished ahead of the field of 129 in 17:49. Stephen was followed by Kenan Furling (3rd in 18:42), John Healy (5th in 19:24), Paul Campbell (8th in 20:07), Anthony Owens (13th in 20:36), Stephen Mulligan (25th in 22:09), Rachel Calvey (37th and 8th in 22:50), Lisa Shine (39th and 9th in 23:15), Tara Murphy (83rd and 29th in 27:35), Maureen McGinley (85th and 31st in 28:08), Mairin Shine (94th and 36th in 29:04) and Mari Hansen, buggy-pushing (114th and 46th in 32:03). Darina Scully placed 18th and 2nd in a time of 24:53 in a field of 100 in River Valley Park, whilst John Lohan ran in Tralee, placing 8th in a field of 232 and a time of 20:40. Niall O’Connell made a welcome return to competition, placing 29th in 21:55 in the 255-strong field in Ballincollig in his native Cork, whilst Diarmuid Byrne ran 26:14 for 41st spot in the field of 106 in Poppintree. In Naas, with its field of 202, Karl Walsh recorded a time of 18:58 for 5th place, whilst Eoghan Corrigan joined 201 other runners in Griffeen Park where he placed 51st in 23:31. Finally, Fiona Shine ran in the other Bushy Park (in London) where, in a huge field of 1088 runners, she placed 379th and 53rd in 25:35. Rathfarnham 5k (Dublin 5k championships) (891) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Eoin Everard 1 00:14:30 50 Mary Mulhare 1 00:16:02 Crusaders AC runners 26 Kieran Little 00:15:34 51 Michael Wycherley 00:16:00 (PB) 61 Peter O’Toole 00:16:06 (PB) 90 Joe McDermott 00:16:43 (PB) 142 Eddie Nugent 00:17:34 191 Rory Goldsmith 00:18:21 213 Tim O’Donnell 00:18:39 (PB) 214 Kathryn Sweeney 00:18:39 (PB) (35) 243 Gareth Phelan 00:18:58 (PB) 248 Kevin Kavanagh 00:19:12 251 Ruadhán MacCormaic 00:19:08 257 Rachael Yorke 00:19:16 (48) 264 Danielle Hopkins 00:19:20 (50) 278 Gillian Earley 00:19:36 (55) 289 Miriam Logan 00:19:16 (PB) (60) 293 Alan Kavanagh 00:19:43 (PB) 301 Amy Wright 00:19:52 (63) 305 Michael Maughan 00:19:46 313 Brian McGuckin 00:19:58 322 Ciara Lynch 00:19:59 (68) 340 Kathryn Gibbons 00:20:23 (74) 367 Joe Dunne 00:20:57 390 Gian Piero Allerta 00:21:20 391 Eanna Farrell 00:21:39 401 Brendan Glynn 00:21:55 416 Garret Dunne 00:21:18 566 Aoife Cowhie 00:24:51 (149) 578 Carina Davidson 00:25:04 (152) Full results here: https://www.myrunresults.com/events/rathfarnham_5k_2022/4549/results Ecotrail Wicklow 30k (300) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Tudor Moldovan 1 02:25:15 22 Eimear O’Brien 1 03:01:59 Crusaders AC runners 12 Conor Macguinness 02:56:30 21 Brandon Lai 03:00:48 36 Dee Lawlor 03:16:32 Full results here: http://redtagtiming.com/results/EcotrailWicklow2022_30km.html Ecotrail Wicklow (214) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Enda Cloake 1 03:45:07 6 Kath Carty 1 04:24:28 Crusaders AC runners 14 Valentin Akdim 04:40:31 195 Gerald Hoare 07:29:03 Full results here: http://redtagtiming.com/results/EcotrailWicklow2022_46km.html Tralee Marathon (110) Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime 1 Karl Fleming 1 02:46:20 19 Jacqueline O’Connor 1 03:48:20 Crusaders AC runner 6 Maurice Kelter 03:06:44 Full results here: https://results.sporthive.com/events/6979091220833227776/races/1 Aherlow 50k (IMRA) (32) Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime 1 Henry Micks 1 04:06:21 8 Becky Quinn 1 04:55:05 Crusaders AC runner 8 Becky Quinn 04:55:05 (1) Full results here: https://www.imra.ie/events/results/id/2196/ Naas Parkrun (108) Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime 1 Adam Veighey 1 00:17:25 23 Gabrielle Aspell 1 00:24:05 Crusaders AC runner 5 Karl Walsh 00:18:58 Poppintree Parkrun (106) Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime 1 Sean McGrath 1 00:16:20 10 Elizabeth Daly 1 00:21:15 Crusaders AC runner 41 Diarmuid Byrne 00:26:14 Griffeen Parkrun (202) Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime 2 Enda Connolly 1 00:17:25 16 Niamh Murphy 1 00:21:14 Crusaders AC runner 51 Eoghan Corrigan 00:23:31 Poolbeg Parkrun (129) Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime 1 Stephen Hurley 00:17:49 12 Ava Rose Clarke 00:20:32 Crusaders AC runners 1 Stephen Hurley 00:17:49 3 Kenan Furlong 00:18:42 5 John Healy 00:19:24 8 Paul Campbell 00:20:07 25 Stephen Mulligan 00:22:09 37 Rachel Calvey 00:22:50 (8) 39 Lisa Shine 00:23:15 (9) 83 Tara Murphy 00:27:35 (29) 85 Maureen McGinley 00:28:08 (31) 94 Mairin Shine 00:29:04 (36) 114 Mari Hansen 00:32:03 (46) Tralee Parkrun (232) Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime 1 Aidan Dinger Leen 1 00:19:24 16 Sophia Hassett 1 00:21:44 Crusaders AC runner 8 John Lohan 00:20:40 River Valley Parkrun (100) Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime 2 Reinis Baltins 1 00:17:40 6 Cecile Ollagnier1 00:21:31 Crusaders AC runner 18 Darina Scully 00:24:53 (2) Ballincollig Parkrun (255) Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime 1 Anthony Mannix 1 00:16:25 12 Nollaigh O’Neill 1 00:19:57 Crusaders AC runner 29 Niall O’Connell 00:21:55 Tolka Valley Parkrun (41) Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime 1 John Golden 1 00:18:33 4 Sarah Lyons 1 00:21:03 Crusaders AC runner 4 Sarah Lyons 00:21:03 (1) Comments are closed.
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