Team medal for Cru women in the National Novices

17/12/2017

Back row: Graine Regan, Emer Kenny, Lesley Ann Doughan, Darina Scully, Susan Walsh, Niamh Aspell, Carina Davidson and Ruth Dwyer. Front row: Dee Ni Chearbhaill, Niamh Corby, Lisa Shine, Amy Wright, Rachel Yorke and Catherine Thornton

“A winter’s day in a deep and dark December….I am a Rock”, go the words of the famous Simon and Garfunkel song; and rocks indeed were our runners on Sunday in the National Novices XC held in late afternoon down on a hilly course next to WIT in Carriganore just outside Waterford. We had seen the course before a few years back but had forgotten to some extent how tough it is. The 1500m full lap takes runners down into a field from the start on a slight zig zag, lasting some 500m or so, followed by a steep bank of about 20m onto a slight plateau and then round a corner up an inexorable hill of more than 300m and then down a fast descent back to the start. The course was made even tougher by the fact that, following overnight rain, it was extremely muddy nearly everywhere and particularly on the long drag where it was deep and truly strength-sapping. There was also standing water on one of the corners coming off the descent, where shoes (and even a pair of glasses) were lost by several runners. Also, because it was run effectively on the side of a hill, little of it was flat, so runners had to cope with a camber in places. Long spikes were vital!

The women were up first and in calm and mild conditions for their 4km race the field of 108 runners had to negotiate one short loop (which missed out the zigzag detour) of 1000m, followed by two full laps. From the start Catherine Thornton and Niamh Corby established decent positions towards the middle of the top half of the field and were able to pick off targets throughout the race, indeed both taking 2 or 3 runners in the final run in. A little further back came Lesley Ann Doughan who also ran a gritty race on the back of little hill training, followed by Amy Wright, having taken a last minute decision to confirm her entry. She was glad she did, because although it was an exceedingly tough race, Amy was able to come home as 4th scorer in the bronze medal-winning team. After having led our contingent from gun to tape Catherine was first home in 16th (16:39), followed by Niamh (24th in 16:54), a tremendous result again for our master athlete, Lesley Ann (40th in 17:13) and Amy (56th in 17:53). Rachel Yorke ran with Niamh Aspell for most of the race just pulling ahead towards the end, Rachel taking 63rd (18:12) and Niamh just behind in 67th (18:24). Grainne Regan was not too far behind either, taking 71st spot (18:34). Lisa Shine and Dee Ni Chearbhaill also spent the race working together with women’s captain Lisa coming home in 81st position (19:02), followed by Dee in 83rd (19:08). The 13-strong contingent was completed by a Cru B team led home by Emer Kenny (88th in 19:20) and Emer was followed by Ruth Dwyer, making her XC debut (94th in 19:42) and also picking off runners in the final sprint, Darina Scully (97th in 19:50) and Carina Davidson (101st in 20:21). When the smoke had cleared, Cru A finished in 3rd place on 136 points, 9 points behind 2nd place Leevale (127), whilst the overall victory went to Sportsworld (91).

The men’s team suffered slightly from a few last minute pullouts for injury reasons, but the 11 Crusaders who were able to participate made a good go of it in the 6k (3 full laps) race. There was a substantial field of nearly 190 runners, with a strong club representation from all over Ireland despite the event being held so far south. Karl Fahy had been selected to run for Dublin as well as the club, but decided the risk of becoming ineligible for future races was too big to take and asked to be taken off before the race. In the final event, he was proved right as Dublin took gold (Indeed the same thing could have happened to Catherine in the women’s race. Dublin finished out of the medals, but would have taken gold if she had been selected, which fortunately was not the case. Such an outcome would certainly have been bittersweet for the girl from Galway).

Karl was first Crusader home for the men in a solid 18th place (20:38), followed by men's captain Michael Kiely (27th in 21:01), who also managed an extremely steady performance. Jason Kehoe, for whom the course may well have been designed with his experience of mountain running (!), found himself coming through the field and finishing 3rd scorer for the team (46th in 21:39). As with his fiancée Amy in the women’s race, Vinnie McGuinness came home as 4th scorer (52nd in 21:50) and the team was able to take 5th place on 143 points, 13 points behind Finn Valley in 4th and only 17 points off bronze position. Next home was Ciaran Diviney in his 7th county, province, national or international XC race in 2 months (72nd in 22:08) and Ciaran was followed closely by Swedish newcomer and XC debutant, Albin Ingmarsson (75th in 22:10). Michael Wycherley (101st in 22:38) had an adventure, losing his shoe not once but twice, finally deciding to abandon it with two laps to go. The contingent was completed by Garret Dunne (115th in 23:00) and Joe McDermott (139th in 23:49). Spare a thought for Niall O’Connell, one of our runners who had to pull out of the race after a couple of laps with an asthma attack but also suffering from having been spiked early on in the race.

There didn’t appear to be much if any in the way of road racing over the weekend. If anyone participated in a race, please let the club know. We do know, however, that Leo Lundy's year is ending on a good note when he participated in yet another ultra marathon at the weekend. This one was in Kent in the "Usual Suspects" Ultra around Dover. 33.75 miles in near perfect conditions was good enough for 4th place overall from 122 starters. A result from last weekend that was missed occurred in Texas, USA. One of our two Dallas exiles, Yvonne Macauley, took part in the Dallas half marathon, placing 54th overall in the field exceeding 6,500 runners, 7th woman home, in a super PB time of 1:24:57, her first time breaking 85 minutes.

23 club members took part in 5 parkruns on Saturday. One of the runs of the day came from Daniel Lowe who placed first finisher among the nearly 80 runners who took part in the event in Lough Key. Daniel’s time was 17:52. Then in Poolbeg Louise Dobbyn came home in 2nd place (21st overall) in 22:15 behind the return from long-term injury of elite Raheny athlete Fiona Roche. In the same event, with its field of nearly 70 runners, David Timony took 7th place (19:22), followed by Dave Tilly (11th in 19:50), Padraig Walsh (16th in 21:37), Russell Murphy (25th in 22:36), Fiona Bane (33rd overall, 6th woman, in 24:41), Gillian Errity (38th overall, 7th woman finisher, in 25:16), Cuan Moore (43rd in 26:24) and Zalan Kovacs (44th in 26:45). We had 7 runners in the field of nearly 350 in Marlay. First home was Neil Brown (30th in 21:52), followed by Paul Kelly (206th in 27:48), Mairead Cashman (230th overall, 65th woman, in 28:20), Aoife Quinn just behind (232nd overall, 67th woman, in 28:21), Kris Ryan (233rd overall, 68th woman, in 28:21), in her last parkrun for the moment before her return to her native Australia shortly, Kate Murray (235th overall, 69th woman, in 28:22) and Fiona Shine (237th overall, 70th woman, in 28:23), just coming back from injury. Darina Scully prepared for the following day’s XC by running alongside Maria Pertl and more than 90 other runners in Poppintree. Darina came home in 44th place overall (8th woman) in 26:26, whilst Maria mopped up the back markers (94th overall, 31st woman) in 49:31. Finally, in St. Anne’s we had 4 runners, led home by Peter O’Toole. Peter took 4th place out of more than 260 participants in a time of 18:08. Peter was followed by Matt Cranley, with yet another strong run pushing his baby in a buggy (30th in 20:19), Denis Murphy (35th in 20:40) and Colm Kernan (41st in 21:14).

National Novices XC (women’s 4k)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Nakita Burke 1 00:15:41
Crusaders AC runners
16 Catherine Thornton 00:16:39
24 Niamh Corby 00:16:54
40 Lesley Ann Doughan 00:17:13
56 Amy Wright 00:17:53
63 Rachel Yorke 00:18:12
67 Niamh Aspell 00:18:24
71 Grainne Regan 00:18:34
81 Lisa Shine 00:19:02
83 Dee Ni Chearbhaill 00:19:08
88 Emer Kenny 00:19:20
94 Ruth Dwyer 00:19:42
97 Darina Scully 00:19:50
101 Carina Davidson 00:20:21
Full results here: http://www.athleticsireland.ie/downloads/eshop/Novice_Women.pdf
National Novices XC (men’s 6k)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Jack MacGabhann 1 00:19:55
Crusaders AC runners
18 Karl Fahy 00:20:38
27 Michael Kiely 00:21:01
46 Jason Kehoe 00:21:39
52 Vinnie McGuinness 00:21:50
72 Ciaran Diviney 00:22:08
75 Albin Ingmarsson 00:22:10
101 Michael Wycherley 00:22:38
115 Garret Dunne 00:23:00
139 Joe McDermott 00:23:49
Full results here: http://www.athleticsireland.ie/downloads/eshop/Novice_Men.pdf
Marlay Parkrun #237
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Enda Marren 1 00:17:26
10 Amy Moran 1 00:19:50
Crusaders AC runners
30 Neil Brown 00:21:52
206 Paul Kelly 00:27:48
230 Mairead Cashman 00:28:20 (65)
232 Aoife Quinn 00:28:21 (67)
233 Kris Ryan 00:28:21 (68)
235 Kate Murray 00:28:22 (69)
237 Fiona Shine 00:28:23 (70)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/marlay/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=237
Poppintree Parkrun #163
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Tom McKenna 1 00:18:41
18 Karen Slye 1 00:22:43
Crusaders AC runners
44 Darina Scully 00:26:26 (8)
94 Maria Pertl 00:49:31 (31)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/poppintree/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=163
Lough Key Parkrun #82
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Daniel Lowe 1 00:17:52
12 Noreen Colreavy 1 00:23:49
Crusaders AC runner
1 Daniel Lowe 00:17:52
Full results here: 2
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
St. Anne’s Parkrun #212
1 Graham O’Dwyer 1 00:17:23
10 Lucy Barrett 1 00:19:10
Crusaders AC runners
4 Peter O’Toole 00:18:08
30 Matt Cranley 00:20:19
35 Denis Murphy 00:20:40
41 Colm Kernan 00:21:14
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/stannes/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=212
Poolbeg Parkrun #17
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Peter Kern 1 00:18:22
12 Fiona Roche 00:20:12
Crusaders AC runners
7 David Timoney 00:19:22
11 Dave Tilly 00:19:50
16 Padraig Walsh 00:21:37
21 Louise Dobbyn 00:22:15 (2)
25 Russell Murphy 00:22:36
33 Fiona Bane 00:24:41 (6)
38 Gillian Errity 00:25:16 (7)
43 Cuan Moore 00:26:24
44 Zalan Kovacs 00:26:45
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/poolbeg/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=17

Back row: Michael McGovern, Michael Wycherley, Joe McDermott, Jason Kehoe, Karl Fahy and Albin Ingmarsson. Front row: Michael Kiely, Ciaran Diviney, Vinnie McGuinness and Niall O'Connell.

Amy qwright and Vinnie McGuinness, accompanied by Michael Wycherley, Joe McDermott, Jason Kehoe and his girlfriend Anne.

Lisa Shine with some trophies

Albin Ingmarsson

Amy Wright

Grainne Regan, Amy Wright and Niamh Aspell

Carina Davidson

Niamh Corby and Catherine Thornton

Albin Ingmarsson and Ciaran Diviney

Back row: Ruth Dwyer, Carina Davidson, Susan Walsh, Darina Scully, Grainne Regan, Lesley Ann Doughan, Niamh Corby. Front Row: Rachel Yorke, Niamh Aspell, Lisa Shine, Amy Wright, Dee Ni Chearbhaill, Catherine Thornton, Emer Kenny