The Long and the Short of it this weekend

24/4/2017

Susan Walsh, Niamh Corby, Adrienne Jordan and Niamh Boland

The highlight for the club over the weekend has undoubtedly got to be the National Road Relays that took place just outside St. Anne’s Park in Raheny on the traditional 1 mile loop there (largely on concrete roads!) on Sunday. We were able to field no fewer than 9 teams, 2 senior women’s, 1 senior men’s, 2 masters O/35 women’s, 3 O/35 men’s and, for the first time (a baptism of fire for all 3 debutants), a men’s O/50 team.

The first event of the day, in calm and dry conditions, involved the O/35 women and this is where we saw the greatest success. The A team was led off by Niamh Boland who managed to survive (just) the elbowing and barging which apparently brought down a couple of Raheny athletes early on (although their trips may have been self-inflicted by all accounts), whilst the B involved Dee Ni Chearbhaill. Niamh’s stalwart effort on the 1 mile leg enabled Adrienne Jordan on the following 2 mile leg to pick up in 2nd place, and, despite being overhauled by international athlete, Letterkenny’s Annmarie McGlynn (in the first of two races she competed in on Sunday), Adrienne was herself able to overhaul Finn Valley, the team that had been in 1st place after the first leg. Despite being tracked down by Drogheda, Niamh Corby was able to hold onto second place behind the masters course record–breaking Letterkenny team, for the silver medal, with a 5 second cushion. The B team also acquitted itself well with Grainne Regan and Geraldine Clements, taking 12th place out of the 19 that competed, only 2 minutes behind the 2nd-placed Crusaders A team.

The men’s masters’ race featured 25 O/35 club teams and our 1st and 3rd teams were separated by less than a minute. Brian Carroll, James Murphy and John McAuley took 12th place, whilst the all-Cork team of John Fahy, Niall O’Connell and Ger Forde took 18th, followed in 22nd place by the team of Alan Sheehy, Frank Hague and Niall McGeorge. The men’s O/50 team faced a lot of strong competition of largely younger composition and in the event placed 11th out of the 12 who competed. David Long ran a super first leg, but neither James Cottle on the 2nd leg, nor Denis Murphy on the 3rd were able to build further and take any of the runners ahead of them, largely finding themselves in no man’s land for much of the race as the O/35 and most of the O/50 teams were well ahead. At least they were able to fend off the team behind them that was hard on their heels for much of the 2nd leg.

The two senior women’s teams also put in a solid effort in a highly competitive field, with the A team of Mary Horgan, Orla Kennedy and Catherine Thornton taking 11th spot, with only 20 seconds in total separating 7th from 12th place. Mary ran the third fastest 1st leg of the day among the women, only 1 second behind the two fastest who finished equally in 5:15. The B team of newcomer Lesley Ann Doughan, Yvonne Macauley and Niamh Aspell ran extremely well, with little reward ultimately, placing 16th out of 18, but importantly less than 1 minute behind the A squad.

The 4 members of the men’s senior team had a somewhat frustrating race in that, by the time of the end of the 3rd and 4th legs, they were largely in no man’s land with no one to target and no one threatening them. Still they ran hard throughout and it was great to see them all in action, with Karl Fahy starting off proceedings, followed by Kevin Woods, the track runner finding himself on an unfamiliar surface, Rob Cross and, finally, anchor leg, Michael Kiely. Among 27 club teams, they ran well to finish in 11th place.
So much was happening on Sunday. For the second race of the Women’s Meet and Train Summer league Waterstown Warriers Running Club stepped in at the last minute to host a 5k run in Waterstown Park, Palmerstown. On a surprisingly warm morning, runners enjoyed the lovely view across to Farmleigh and the Phoenix Park and the course, which followed the Waterstown Parkrun route, consisted of 2 loops of the lower part of the Park with some deceptive inclines and quite a hill climb to the finish at the top of the Park. Numbers were down on the day compared to previous races. However, this was unsurprising given the number of races taking place at home and abroad on the day. The results from the 2nd race are as follows: Kate Murray was our first runner home and she took 15th spot in 22:25. Niamh Quinn was next in 26th in a time of 23:45, followed by Carina Davidson (28th in 23:56), both runners using the event as a warm up for the Virgin Media Night Run later the same day. In her first time running in the League, Keira Gleeson placed 29th in 23:58 and the remaining finishers among our 7 intrepid runners were Rhona McGrath (40th in 25:52) and Mairead Cashman (48th in 27:31).

On Saturday, Leo Lundy and Kris Ryan headed to the Longford Festival of Running held around the Ray Flynn mile along the canal in Longford town. Around 700 runners ran on day 1 in a 10K, half, full marathon and 53K ultra. As a result of incidents that had put a halt to their progress over the past couple of week, Kris and Leo chose the ultra and decided to run this as a training run for major events coming up in the summer. In good running conditions they started steadily, coming through half marathon well under 2 hours, with Kris even for a brief moment leading the female event. Leo, however, realising it was a 2 day event, slowed down and managed a 4:22 marathon, 5:22 50K and finished in 5:41:32 for 17th place out of 27 finishers. On the other hand, Kris pushed on and managed a 3:55 marathon and 4:45 50K finishing in 5:05:40 for 3rd female finisher and 9th overall.

On Day 2, about 70 runners took part in a marathon and half marathon running in the opposite direction to Saturday’s events. This was always going to be a “sufferfest” and Kris managed it best by finishing at marathon distance in 4:24 and 3rd woman home again. Leo struggled a little and finished in 5:10 (results pending).

On Saturday morning, Neil Brown and Mairin Shine took part in the challenging Roundwood 10K. In a field of 164 runners, Neil placed 55th in a time of 52:03, whilst Mairin came home in 103rd place overall (39th female finisher) in 1:00:23.

We had several runners in Connemara on Sunday, participating in the half, the marathon and the ultra and there were some excellent results. Olwyn Dunne had a successful day in the ultra, with a 1st place finish in her age category, 7th woman and 45th overall out of 187 finishers in a respectable time of 5:59:11. Pat Quill and Phelim Murray took on the marathon, with Pat (3 weeks after the Milan marathon) taking 10th place in 3:07:01 and Phelim placing 212th in a field of 572 finishers and a time of 4:02:02. Finally, we had at least 3 runners in the half marathon. Killian Barry took 50th spot in a field exceeding 1,150 runners and a time of 1:33:56. Caitriona Joyce had a super day, taking 3rd place in the women’s race and 71st overall in a time of 1:39:10. Finally, Sarah Lyons came home in 487th place overall, 126th woman, in 2:04:03.

For the record, Joe Dunne paced in the Wexford half marathon on Sunday, finishing in 1:51:33.

Darina Scully and Maria Pertl were our only participants in the 8,000-strong Vienna marathon, most of the Cru who went over there for the weekend having opted for the half. In chilly but sunny weather and in picturesque surroundings, Maria, who is nearly 5 months pregnant, ran a super time of 4:07:36, whilst Darina, in her first marathon, also clocked a great time of 4:07:59. Both runners ran together for much of the race. Meanwhile, in the half, Luke Haran ran 1:34:53, followed by Aoife Clarke who made it round in 1:43:43, Russell Murphy (1:51:22) and Fiona Bane (1:58:04).

In mounting temperatures in London on Sunday, and in a race which saw the women’s-only marathon world record broken by Mary Keitany (1st and 2nd places going to 2 of only 3 women to have broken 2:18, the 3rd being Paula Radcliffe), we had some outstanding results. In a field of 40,000 runners, nearly all our runners got PBs, including Ciaran Diviney who was running his 2nd marathon of the year after Tokyo in February. Ciaran completed the course in a PB time of 2:35:35, dropping less than a minute in the second half from his first half time. Joe Walsh also had pretty much a similar metronomic race, just coming in under 3 hours in 2:59:41. Colm Kernan was next with a huge PB improvement in excess of 10 minutes (3:01:18), whilst Brian Leonard was able to knock a few seconds off his previous PB recorded in Rotterdam last year (3:01:39). Despite some disjointed training in the last few weeks, Alan Bermingham was able to come home inside of 3:30 with a great PB time of 3:24:20. Finally, Liam O’Brien, was also able to break 3:30 for the first time with a PB of 3:26:21.

On Sunday evening, at least 14 of our clubmates participated in the Virgin Media Night Run, a 10K race that took place in the Docklands, winding its way round and extending to Irishtown and the Point at one end and O’Connell Street at the other, involving nearly 5,000 runners and walkers. In a race won in 31:38 by Freddie Sittuk who looks to have returned to the country for the Summer, Brian O’Kelly, lately having completed the Rotterdam marathon, demonstrated residual aerobic endurance by taking 4th place in 33:52. James Moran was next home in 12th place (35:39) and other runners to break 40 minutes were Jim Stagg (36th in 37:14) and Anthony O’Rourke (61st in 38:32). Two runners came in almost side by side: Ali Onur Uyar placed 128th in 40:30 and Zlatko Kulic ran a strong 40:31(129th). They were followed by Sean Smith (182nd in 41:25), Gian Piero Allerta, another recent marathoner (from Milan), who recorded a PB of 42:06 (222nd), Alan Tierney (634th in 46:31), Carina Davidson (863rd overall, 83rd woman, in 47:55) and Niamh Quinn (940th overall, 97th woman, in 48:27), both runners in their 2nd event of the day. Our contingent was completed by Paul Kelly (4,030th in 1:03:21) who paced Ciara McElligott (4,033rd overall, 1,467th woman, in a PB time of 1:03:23) and, finally, Stephen Mulligan (4,488th in 1:07:54).

The weekend’s parkruns also saw some success for the club. In a field of 113 runners, Katie McElroy demonstrated improving form, by coming home as first woman finisher in Poppintree. Katie’s time was 20:40 (a PB?) and she placed 8th overall. Alban Coghlan placed 2nd in the field of more than 550 runners in Marlay and a time of 16:59. Alban was followed by Eddie Nugent 96th in 18:18). Emma Flynn placed second woman finisher in a time of 21:28 in Cabinteely There were 120 runners in the event. Suzanne Martin made a rare appearance in Shanganagh, placing 42nd overall (out of nearly 150 participants) and 6th female finisher, in a time of 24:31. We had 3 runners in St. Anne’s: Among more than 370 runners, Matt Cranley took 10th spot in 19:38, followed by Geraldine Clements (137th overall, 30th female finisher, in 26:04) and Denis Murphy (209th in 28:42), both athletes limbering up for the following day’s national road relays. Natasha Murray ran in Tymon, placing 152nd overall, out of nearly 160 runners, in a time of 36:55 and, lastly, in the 272-strong field in Ballincollig, Lisa Shine placed 122nd overall, 29th female finisher, in 27:36.

Many congratulations to all who raced over the weekend (and there were a lot of us)!

Connemara half marathon
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Christian Martinez Munoz 1 01:21:30
53 Elizabeth Wheeler 1 01:36:09
Crusaders AC runners
50 Killian Barry 01:33:56
71 Caitriona Joyce 01:39:10 (3)
487 Sarah Lyons 02:04:03 (126)
Full results here: http://www.redtagtiming.com/results/CNM2017_Half.pdf
Connemara full marathon
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Lyall Guiney 1 02:47:12
7 Hannah Fothergill 1 03:03:43
Crusaders AC runners
10 Pat Quill 03:07:01
212 Phelim Murray 04:02:02
Full results here: http://www.redtagtiming.com/results/CNM2017_Full.pdf
Connemara Ultra
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Sean Brosnan 1 04:32:29
9 Nicola Duncan 1 05:01:15
Crusaders AC runner
45 Olwyn Dunne 05:59:11 (7)
Full results here: http://www.redtagtiming.com/results/CNM2017_Ultra.pdf
Wexford Half marathon
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Myles Gibbons 1 01:13:43
53 Emma Furey 1 01:31:35
Crusaders AC runner
354 Joe Dunne 01:51:33
Full results here: http://www.redtagtiming.com/results/Wexford2017_21km.pdf
Virgin Media Night Run (10K)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Freddy Sittuk 1 00:31:38
39 Sinead Tangney 1 00:37:19
Crusaders AC runners
4 Brian O’Kelly 00:33:52
12 James Moran 00:35:39
36 Jim Stagg 00:37:14
61 Anthony O’Rourke 00:38:32
128 Ali Onur Uyar 00:40:30
129 Zlatko Kulic 00:40:31
182 Sean Smith 00:41:25
222 Gian Piero Allerta 00:42:06 (PB)
634 Alan Tierney 00:46:31
863 Carina Davidson 00:47:55 (83)
940 Niamh Quinn 00:48:27 (97)
4030 Paul Kelly 01:03:21
4033 Ciara McElligott 01:03:23 (1467)
4488 Stephen Mulligan 01:07:54
Full results here: https://www.virginmedia.ie/nightrun/results/
Roundwood 10K
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Noelie Kavanagh 1 00:35:54
9 Rachel Wisdom 1 00:42:01
Crusaders AC runners
55 Neil Brown 00:52:03
103 Mairin Shine 01:00:23 (39)
Full results here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1W0AZpy8eHjsGW0_lbzS6LJp5bRnLCp-7_TlHD_WIuYo/edit#gid=0
London Marathon
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Daniel Wanjuru 1 02:05:48
1 Mary Keitany 1 02:17:01 (WR)
Crusaders AC runners
154 Ciaran Diviney 02:35:35 (PB)
1801 Joe Walsh 02:59:41
1983 Colm Kernan 03:01:18 (PB)
2013 Brian Leonard 03:01:39 (PB)
4642 Alan Bermingham 03:24:20 (PB)
4875 Liam O’Brien 03:26:21(PB)
Full results here: http://results-2017.virginmoneylondonmarathon.com/2017/
Vienna Marathon
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Albert Korir 1 02:08:40
19 Nancy Kiprop 1 02:24:20
Crusaders AC runners
3891 Maria Pertl 04:07:36 (550)
3908 Darina Scully 04:07:59 (555) (PB)
Full results here: http://www.vienna-marathon.com/?surl=cd162e16e318d263fd56d6261673fe72#goto-result
Vienna Half Marathon
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Joe Simon 1 01:10:47
11 Fabienne Amrhein 1 01:14:43
Crusaders AC runners
904 Luke Haran 01:35:53
2050 Aoife Clarke 01:43:43 (204)
2677 Russell Murphy 01:51:22
5504 Fiona Bane 01:58:04 (1030)
Full results here: http://www.vienna-marathon.com/?surl=cd162e16e318d263fd56d6261673fe72#goto-result
Poppintree Parkrun #129
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Tom McKenna 1 00:18:45
8 Katie McElroy 1 00:20:40
Crusaders AC runner
8 Katie McElroy 00:20:40 (1) (PB?)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/poppintree/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=129
Marlay Parkrun #206
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 James Kelly 1 00:16:45
4 Harriet Ann-Marie Robinson 1 00:18:03
Crusaders AC runners
2 Alban Coghlan 00:16:59
6 Eddie Nugent 00:18:18
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/marlay/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=206
Cabinteely Parkrun #108
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Mindauras Igaris 1 00:19:43
5 Malika Hammani 1 00:20:51
Crusaders AC runner
7 Emma Flynn 00:21:28 (2)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/cabinteely/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=108
St Anne’s Parkrun #179
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Aidan Jones 1 00:17:07
8 Sarah Kelly 1 00:19:36
Crusaders AC runners
10 Matt Cranley 00:19:38
137 Geraldine Clements 00:26:04 (30)
209 Denis Murphy 00:28:42
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/stannes/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=179
Shanganagh Parkrun #109
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Ian McGrath 1 00:16:50
24 Eithne Walsh 1 00:22:47
Crusaders AC runner
42 Suzanne Martin 00:24:31 (6)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/shanganagh/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=109
Ballincollig Parkrun #45
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Conor Dolan 1 00:17:50
20 Sorcha Crowley 1 00:21:29
Crusaders AC runner
122 Lisa Shine 00:27:36 (29)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/ballincollig/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=45
Tymon Parkrun #148
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Brendan Beere 1 00:17:54
20 Ciara Kerrigan 1 00:23:17
Crusaders AC runner
152 Natasha Murray 00:36:55 (73)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/tymon/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=148