Virtually There – most recent predictive time trials

Aine Kenny

As we keep our fingers crossed for a relaxation of the 5k limit and a possible return to club training we continue to participate in the Crusader virtual predictive challenges and these will remain with us going into April with the staging of our own version of the road relays.

In the meantime, there are two events on which to report. The first took place the week ending 20 March and was an individual predictive 5k time trial which some participants chose to use as their running of the MSB Virtual St. Patrick’s Festival 5k, which has suffered in recent years through cancellation.

In fact, 12 of our club-mates entered the MSB-organised event, which attracted 470 competitors, more than 330 of them women. In this virtual race, which was won overall by Sean Hehir in 15:13 with Donore’s Sorcha Nic Dhomhnaill leading the women home in 9th place overall in 16:48, Eddie Nugent was our fastest runner, recording 19:16 for 29th place overall and 4th M45. Tim O’Donnell (19:35 for 33rd) and Patrick Needham (19:50 for 37th) also took part. 8 Crusaders placed in the top 100 overall, with all 12 finishing in the top 200. Indeed, Fiona Shine (20:51), Margaret Foley (21:15), Olwyn Dunne (21:18), Aine Kenny (21:23) and Dee Ni Chearbhaill (22:22) finished among the top 25 female finishers and top 70 runners overall. Olwyn won her age category in placing 52nd and 17th, as did Mairin Shine (28:57) who placed 173rd overall and 82nd female finisher. Congrats to all. Results can be found here: https://www.myrunresults.com/events/msb_ac_st_patrick%E2%80%99s_virtual_5k_run/4050/results.
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We had 28 runners take part in our own virtual 5k time trial challenge in parallel with the MSB event and it seems several of us are getting really good at predicting our times. We had 4 winners sharing the spoils with a 1 second differential between predicted and actual. They were Philip Hamilton who predicted 20:00 and ran 19:59, Seamus Moore, who predicted 18:40 and ran 18:39, Evelyn Neary whose 24:10 was only one second slower than her prediction of 24:09 and Michael Fitzsimons who similarly predicted 18:30 and ran 18:31. Another member of the Fitzsimons family, Lorraine, deserves an honourable mention, as she was only 2 seconds out with her prediction of 30:00 and an actual result of 30:02. The fastest runners for the event were Orla Drumm who ran 7 seconds slower in 19:07 than her prediction of 19:00, followed by Fiona Shine with her MSB 20:51 and Margaret Foley, also with her MSB time of 21:15. For the men, Michael Fitzsimons was fastest with his 18:31, followed by Seamus Moore (18:39) and Dee Lawlor (18:45).

The following week’s medley relay challenge, that ended this weekend in lovely sunny conditions, involved 36 runners divided up into 9 teams of 4, with, as usual, each team having to predict its overall time. The combined distance was 16k, with 2 of the runners running 3k and the remaining 2 running 5k, the decision as to who was to run which distance being left to the team members to make. The teams were of mixed ability and as usual it was hoped that the spread of overall times between the teams would be relatively narrow.

In terms of the predictions, the fastest time was predicted by one of the teams at 66:24 and the slowest at 78:00, a spread of eleven and a half minutes for the combined distance. When the smoke had cleared and the results were in, the spread ended up at almost exactly 12 minutes, the fastest time being 64:51 and the slowest, 76:52.

The winners of the challenge were team 4, comprising Brendan Glynn, Fiona Shine, Orla Drumm and Fiona Lane, who were the 5th fastest team on the day, but the closest in prediction with a gap of only 13 seconds. They collectively predicted 72:30 and ran 72:43. Indeed, within the team result, Orla’s 3k prediction was only 2 seconds off, whilst Brendan’s 3k prediction was slower by only 8 seconds. The 2nd placed team was 20 seconds off its predictive time of 73:05. Team 1 ran 73:25 with Darina Scully, Mairead Cashman, Philip Hamilton and Michael Fitzsimons. Michael was only 6 seconds off his 5k prediction. The bronze medal went to team 6 of Julie McGrath, Amy Roe, Kevin Kavanagh and Tim Purdy. They predicted 70:26 and ran 70:51. Kevin’s prediction of 21:10 for 5k almost came true as he finished in 21:09, a 1 second differential. Other notable results came from Kate O’Malley in team 7 who predicted 12:45 for the 3k and ran 12:47, David McEvoy and Lorraine Fitzsimons in team 2 who both ran the 5k distance and who respectively were 1 and 2 seconds out with their finishing times of 21:59 and 30:00 and Robbie Moore in team 3 who predicted 14:15 for 3k and ran 14:16. Team 5 should get an honourable mention with their differential of 34 seconds, with 3 of their members, Andy O’Sullivan, Lisa Shine and Margaret Foley, being, respectively, only 8, 2 and 6 seconds off their predictive times.

The fastest team was that of Gill Earley, Kenan Furling, Evelyn Neary and Catherine Thornton, who was a last minute replacement for Aoife Quigley, running her 3k as part of a Saturday morning longer training session. Collectively, they ran 64:51 for the 16k distance.

The fastest 3k runners were Michael Fitzsimons (10:51), Orla Drumm (10:58), Seamus Moore (11:06), Julie McGrath (11:31), Catherine Thornton (11:42), Kate O’Malley (12:47), Margaret Foley (13:01) and Brendan Glynn (13:08),  whilst the fastest 5k participants were Kenan Furlong (18:33), Dee Lawlor (18:57), Eddie Nugent (19:12), Gill Earley (20:51), Aine Kenny (21:18) and Dee Ni Chearbhaill (21:50).

Well done to all!

Mairead Cashman

Mairin Shine

Olwyn Dunne with Orlaith de Burca, Fiona Shine and Tanja Narancic