Weekend of mass participation by Crusaders

4/10/2021

Fiona Shine, Sarah Lyons, Rebecca Fleming (ladies club captain), Kathryn Gibbons, Julie McGrath, Lorraine Healy

We had an incredible number of participants spread across a multitude of events over the weekend, from the national road relays, through the parkruns showing increasing numbers generally, in the mountains and on the roads, up to marathons, including the national marathon championships. It feels, finally, as if we are getting back to something close to normality. Well over 60 of our athletes took part in some event over the weekend, one or two in more than one race.

The national road relays took place on Sunday and, although way off in terms of time of year because of the scheduling delay, coincidentally took place as usual on the same day as the London marathon which itself had been delayed from April. Because of the late notice of the event in Raheny, which was hosted by Raheny Shamrocks as usual, for the most part only Dublin and Wicklow clubs took part this year. Despite this, the competition was strong and frenetic. We fielded 4 teams, 1 in each of the O/35 men’s and women’s masters’ categories and 2 senior women’s squads. The senior women’s A team produced the closest result to a podium place for us on the day, finishing an agonisingly 12 seconds off bronze in 4th place, despite super runs from each of Sarah Lyons and Julie McGrath who ran the 6th and 7th fastest times for their respective one-mile legs and Niamh Allen running the 2nd fastest time for her 2-mile stint. In the end, the presence of elite athletes in the top 3 teams helped make the difference. Our B team of Fiona Shine, Lorraine Healy and Kathryn Gibbons came in 11th. The masters’ women’s team, of Niamh Corby, Joanne Carey and Gill Earley, had to be content with 7th place, only 6 seconds off 5th spot, whilst our masters’ team of Peter O’Toole, Eddie Nugent and late replacement Alan Kavanagh came home in 12th place in a competition of extremely high standards, with the first placed team finishing nearly 3.5 minutes ahead.

On the roads this weekend, we continue with Saturday’s running of multiple distances in Galway. The event is known as the Run Galway Bay 10k, half and full marathons and we had participants in each. Unfortunately, in the marathon, our lone competitor, Adam Flanagan, was forced to drop out with calf cramps whilst lying in 3rd place at the time. Conditions were generally quite tough for the marathoners with strong westerly winds, which created a heavy buffer for half of each of the four long out-and-back loops and the two short ones too on the course between Claddagh and the golf course along Salthill prom. The half marathon and 10k would have experienced the same issues, albeit over the shorter distances. Despite this, we had some excellent times recorded. We had 4 runners take part in the 10k, the contingent being led home by Galway native Brian Hyland who placed 14th in a field of 758 in a time of 37:34. Brian was followed by Tim O’Donnell, 27th in 39:55, Brendan Glynn, 76th in 43:56 and Aitor Arribas Velasco, 165th in 49:06. Then, 3 Crusaders contested the half marathon, with our best placed runner on the day being Daniel Lowe who ran 1:24:27 for 15th place in a field of 693. Also taking part were Fiachra O’Cionnaith (279th in 1:53:05) and Barry O’Neill who ran 2:00:46 for 427th place.

On Sunday, 7 of our members travelled over to London to take part in the 40,000-strong field of the rescheduled London marathon. Again, we had some super results. In great conditions for running on a relatively flat course newcomer Kevin Fitzgibbon was our first runner across the line in 2:48:55. Kevin was followed by Robert Browne who also had a strong run, producing a 2:48:59 result. Then came Warren Swords who found himself in difficulty just after halfway but managed to hold himself together to come home in 2:54:45. Our next runner recorded a PB in finishing in 3:09:44: Aine Kenny broke 3:10 for the first time and was totally delighted with the result. Aine finished just ahead of Rory Goldsmith, whose training had been interrupted by an Achilles issue. Having been significantly sub 3 hours in Seville last year, Rory had to be content with a 3:09:50 result in London, an outcome that was excellent considering the circumstances. Olwyn and Joe Dunne were next, finishing within a minute of each other. As usual, Olwyn smiled the whole way round and finished in 3:33:51, with Joe not so far behind in 3:34:33. Members will also be interested to learn that another runner whose training was impacted by injury, United Striders’ Sean Murphy, who trains with the club, ran an excellent 3:07:46, whilst ex-Crusader, recently Dunboyne and now Cambridge-based and sister of Ilona, Katie McElroy, registered a PB time of 3:28:59. The London marathon is an amazing experience and the deep support on the course is fantastic with thousands lining practically the whole route. Our athletes would have been significantly buoyed by that as well as by some great support from Crusaders.

Closer to home, 5 of our members travelled up to Belfast to take part in the marathon there which belatedly also incorporated the Irish national marathon championships. Although the race itself was reasonably well-organised from start to finish (despite several cars getting themselves onto the route at times creating issues for a few runners), the pre-race build up was anything but, with all of us having to queue for between 2 and 4 hours on Saturday outside in what became rainy conditions for several just to pick up our bibs, souvenir shirts and bag drop stickers. For at least 3 of us we were actually able to complete the marathon in a shorter time than we spent queueing for our race numbers. We also fully expected to get severe chills from standing outside for so long. Apparently, there were similar experiences for runners towards the end of registration in London too.

On the day, the race started in front of the iconic Stormont House outside the city centre and finished in Ormeau Park in the city, having passed by or along several famous historical landmarks and streets as well as a few industrial estates. It was a relatively new course proclaimed to be fast and flat. However, it was in fact quite challenging with several unexpected hills, particularly facing into a strong headwind. In one place around 30k into the race, we were almost forced to run sideways to make progress. In the blustery and hilly circumstances, it is incredible that there were several recording PBs. Our first man across the line was Paul Dempsey who found the going tough throughout but still managed to record a brilliant time of 2:48:57, placing 65th in a field exceeding 3,000 marathoners (this excludes the 1500 relay teams with up to 5 participants in each (most of whom we all beat), but does include those athletes entered in the national championships of whom there were approx. 850). Paul was followed by Maurice Kelter who, finding that he’d outgrown his Crusader singlet during lockdown, donned a Superman shirt for the occasion. His time of 3:01:41 for 222nd place was excellent in the circumstances, as was that of James Rea who recorded a PB time of 3:02:25 for 231st. They both ran for much of the race with the 3-hour pacers who actually finished around 2:58 and in the early stages were running a maniacal pace of 4:10/minute when they should have been closer to 4:15. In fact it would have been a tough course on which to have maintained a steady even pace, with the additional complications of the weather too. In his first marathon, Kevin Kavanagh also initially ran in the pacing group and completed the first half in 1:28, only to experience a trapped nerve in his quad just afterwards and, although having to walk/hobble for the rest of the race, finished in a highly creditable 3:33:58 and 749th place. James Cottle also took part in the race, but allowed himself to be dropped from the pacing group early on, also suffering from nausea before we had gone through 10k. This condition lasted for the entire remaining 30k of the race but James was able to hold on until just after crossing the finishing line he embarrassed himself by emptying the contents of his stomach right in front of the cameras filming everyone crossing the line at the end. Coverage of the event was momentarily diverted during this episode! James did try to take the pace up a bit at one stage during the second half, and having not looked at his watch at all to that point (and indeed didn’t know what his time might be until he saw several bright red timing clocks still running on the top of lead cars parked just at the turn for the actual finish, which produced a false finish line as we approached them, 200m before finally reaching our destination) heard a large group approaching him from behind with one of the runners shouting out instructions to the rest of the pack. James thought that it was the 3:15 pacer group coming to swallow him up and was determined that would not happen. In fact several kilometres later he realised it was just a rather noisy group from Lusk. He finally crossed the line in a time of 3:08:43 for 307th place. Based on an initial view of the results, James won the M65 age category by 2 minutes and found that he would have won the M60 cat. too.

Members will be interested to hear that Donnacha McCarthy, our visually-impaired paratriathlete won an edition of the World Cup series over the weekend. In the sprint event, staged in Alanya, in Turkey, Donnacha finished over a minute ahead of two Ukrainian rivals. Pablo Sanchez, our Spanish exile, won the O/35 One mile International in Madrid where he recorded a time of just inside 5 minutes. Finally, recently-transferred Crusader, now living in Cork, Shane Collins, placed 7th overall and was a member of the gold winning team for Leevale in the Co. Cork senior XC championships at the weekend.

IMRA resumed its programme on Sunday, with an 8.5k race up in Carlingford, Co. Louth. The event, held on moderate terrain, involved a climb of 540m on an out-and-back course taking in Barnavave and Slieve Foye. 4 Crusaders took part. With the best placed, in a field of 44, being John McAuley who took 4th spot in 48:34. John was also the first M40 over the line. In finishing as 1st M50, Brian McGuckin was next home, in 9th place overall and a time of 52:36, and Brian was followed by Michael Maughan (20th in 58:00) and Pat Quill (30th in 1:04:50).

Finally, we come to the parkruns. We had participants in at least 13 of them, all of which saw numbers increased from the previous week. Outside the island of Ireland, we had runners in a couple of events. Before her great effort in the marathon, Olwyn Dunne took part in the one in Fulham Place (carefully aware that UK-based parkruns start at 9:00, half an hour ahead of those taking place in Ireland). In a field of 431, Olwyn placed 215th overall and 53rd female finisher in 26:12. Then in Australia, Kris Ryan ran again in Paradise Point. In a field of 279, Kris ran 25:36 for 110th and 13th places. Back home, newcomer Toby Benham was the first finisher in Bushy Park where he ran 18:31. He was followed by Kate Murray (42nd and 5th) in a field of 137. Meanwhile, similar exploits were recorded by Cristian Vilchez Ceballos (1st in 17:06) and his partner Esther Requena Ferri (12th and 1st in 19:05) in St. Anne’s Raheny. In a 377-strong field, they were accompanied by Henry Griffin (4th in 18:34), Kieran Martin (9th in 18:53), Paul and Aoife Kelly (respectively, 44th in 21:57 and 226th and 71st in 28:57). Lisa Shine was a first finisher in Newcastle West where she ran 25:02 for 4th place overall among 52 competitors, whilst David Long ran 19:25 for 18th place in the 359-strong field in Marlay Park. Mairead Cashman ran in Corkagh along with 124 other participants, where she recorded a time of 29:35 for 62nd and 15th, whilst Luke Haran ran in Mungret where, alongside 73 other runners, he ran 22:06 for 9th place. Brian McGuckin came down from the mountains to run in Brickfields where he placed 11th in 21:24 in a field of 100, whilst Colm Foley took 28th place in Griffeen in a time of 24:10 in a field of 150. In Malahide Brian Scanlan led home Darina Scully and Kevin Flynn, with Brian placing 67th in a field of 295, in a time of 22:49, with Darina finishing in 31:22 for 224th and 73rd, whilst Kevin ran 34:11 for 265th place. Sharon Woods was our lone participant in Tymon where, among 140 runners in total, she placed 96th and 32nd in 30:21, whilst we had several runners in both Cabinteely and Tolka Valley. In the former, David Carter took 3rd place in a field of 141, followed by Emiliano Sanchez (6th in 20:14), Gavan Doherty (32nd in 24:24), Emma O’Mahony (68th and 17th in 28:02), Fiona Shine (101st and 30th in 31:24) and Mairin Shine (103rd and 31st in 31:39). Lastly, in Tolka Valley, in a field of 70, John Lohan took 6th spot in 21:13, followed by Tara Murphy (29th and 11th in 25:52) and Gillian Lyons (46th and 17th in 29:44).

Run Galway Bay 10k (758)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Jake O’Regan 1 00:29:32
12 Edel Gaffney 1 00:36:46
Crusaders AC runners
14 Brian Hyland 00:37:34
27 Tim O’Donnell 00:39:55
76 Brendan Glynn 00:43:56
165 Aitor Arribas Velasco 00:49:06
Full results here: http://redtagtiming.com/results/2021_RunGalwayBay_10km.pdf
Run Galway Bay Half marathon (693)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Greg Lundon 1 01:18:44
14 Grainne Ni Uallachain 1 01:24:07
Crusaders AC runners
15 Daniel Lowe 01:24:27
279 Fiachra O’ Cionnaith 01:53:05
427 Barry O’Neill 02:00:46
Full results here:http://redtagtiming.com/results/2021_RunGalwayBay_21km.pdf
Carlingford (IMRA race) (44)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Michael Dowling 1 00:46:43
17 Eimear O’Brien 1 00:55:43
Crusaders AC runners
4 John McAuley 00:48:34
9 Brian McGuckin 00:52:36
20 Michael Maughan 00:58:00
30 Pat Quill 01:04:50
Full results here: https://www.imra.ie/events/results/id/2109/
Malahide Parkrun (295)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Conor Fitzpatrick 1 00:17:19
18 Kate Magner 1 00:19:54
Crusaders AC runners
67 Brian Scanlan 00:22:49
224 Darina Scully 00:31:22 (73)
265 Kevin Flynn 00:34:11
Marlay Parkrun (359)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Christopher O’Reilly 1 00:16:52
11 Amy Moran 1 00:18:50
Crusaders AC runner
18 David Long 00:19:25
St. Anne’s Parkrun (377)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Cristian Vilchez Ceballos 1 00:17:06
12 Esther Requena Ferri 1 00:19:05
Crusaders AC runners
1 Cristian Vilchez Ceballos 00:17:06
12 Esther Requena Ferri 00:19:05 (1)
4 Henry Griffin 00:18:34
9 Kieran Martin 00:18:53
44 Paul Kelly 00:21:57
226 Aoife Kelly 00:28:57 (71)
Griffeen Parkrun (150)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Jaroslav Blacharski 1 00:19:01
15 Mags Treacy 1 00:22:41
Crusaders AC runner
28 Colm Foley 00:24:10
Corkagh Parkrun (125)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Sean McCarthy 1 00:18:16
4 Tara Campbell 1 00:19:08
Crusaders AC runner
62 Mairead Cashman 00:29:35 (15)
Cabinteely Parkrun (141)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Ted Burke 1 00:18:48
11 Orna Dilworth 1 00:21:28
Crusaders AC runners
3 David Carter 00:19:48
6 Emiliano Sanchez 00:20:14
32 Gavan Doherty 00:24:24
68 Emma O’Mahony 00:28:02 (17)
101 Fiona Shine 00:31:24 (30)
103 Mairin Shine 00:31:39 (31)
Tymon Parkrun (140)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Rahul Roy 1 00:18:32
2 Niamh Markham 1 00:18:40
Crusaders AC runner
96 Sharon Woods 00:30:21 (32)
Tolka Valley Parkrun (70)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Paul Fleming 1 00:17:16
4 Anna Broderick 1 00:19:48
Crusaders AC runners
6 John Lohan 00:21:13
29 Tara Murphy 00:25:52 (11)
46 Gillian Lyons 00:29:44 (17)
Bushy Parkrun (137)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Toby Benham 1 00:18:31
21 Jean McAdam 1 00:22:25
Crusaders AC runners
1 Toby Benham 00:18:31
42 Kate Murray 00:24:22 (5)
Brickfields Parkrun (100)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Eoin Callaghan 1 00:17:16
26 Naomi Byrne 1 00:23:33
Crusaders AC runner
11 Brian McGuckin 00:21:24
Mungret Parkrun (74)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Sam Hand 1 00:18:16
3 Ann McPhail 1 00:19:51
Crusaders AC runner
9 Luke Haran 00:22:06
Newcastle West Parkrun (52)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Seamus O’Rourke 1 00:23:47
4 Lisa Shine 1 00:25:02
Crusaders AC runner
4 Lisa Shine 00:25:02 (1)