Report by Adrian Lanigan
Race photos sourced on the Facebook page of ‘Running in Cork’. For full albums: click here.
Cover photo from the chip timing company myrunresults.com. Sportsworld results at the bottom of page.
Unfortunately the group photo didn’t come out folks 🙁
Ballycotton is one of the more famous races on the calendar, a highlight of the year for many runners. Over 3,000 runners gather to take on the famous course and bring back a Ballycotton mug, hopefully a PB and maybe even a T-shirt for anyone lucky enough to slip into the top 100.
Race reporter Adrian Lanigan in action Sunday
Eoin O’Brien was on top of things early, organising a luxury coach for a bargain basement price to bring the runners down in style. Things looked good early, as the day was dry and we set off shortly after 8.30am.
View from the bar on the luxury bus
14 Sportsworld runners (and one Tri-Athlete) made their way down with race scheduled to get under way at 1:30pm. To help pass the time there was a competition to guess the time of a random sportsworld runner. Pick a name out of a hat and guess that person’s time. The winner would get to write the race report while whoever was furthest away in their prediction would get a €10 consolation prize. (or maybe the other way around, I can’t quite remember).
Race reporter Adrian realising he lost the betting sweep and has to do the race report
Saturdays weather in Ballycotton. The race was on Sunday unfortunately.
Anyway, we arrived down in plenty of time but unfortunately the weather had taken a turn for the worse. Rain was now the order of the day. After a brief warm-up and bag drop it was down to a crowded start line. As ever in Ballycotton the start is congested so it is important to get a good starting spot.
The first 2 miles are downhill so a good opportunity to set a good pace. The rain continued throughout most of the race but there was thankfully little wind. After 3 miles we go right to commence a 4 mile loop, which is mainly flat, on good country roads.
Sandra Gowran racing to a 75min finish and doing her best to ensure Michael Cunningham writes the race report
After this loop we rejoin the course and the last 3 miles are a reverse of the first 3, which means a punishing climb from 1.5 miles out.Those who were smart enough to leave something in the tank for this section can really make up some ground while those who don’t tend to struggle. While the last mile is difficult we are helped through it by the helpful announcer and good support from the sidelines.
Checking the chip times against the predicted times
And the winner is: Like the cat who got the cream; Diarmuid guessed Kevin Curran’s finishing time to within 11 seconds. Michael came a close 2nd last after an outrageous prediction for Sandra Gowran. Outrageous I tell you, he should have been made do the race report anyway.
After finishing the honour of collecting the famous mug and for one Sportswolrd runner the coveted T-shirt (although several sizes too big) A great day for Sportsworld as 22 runners in all completed the race.
Kevin Curran came home in 59th position while Noreen Brouder was the top female sportsworld athlete in 11th place.
With all the PB’s floating around the post race meal was a great occasion. Thanks to Eoin for organising the bus and Andrea for organising the restaurant.
Sportworld results:
59 Kevin Curran 58:11:00
87 Paul O’Connell 59:38:00
121 Conor McCarthy 01:00:42
131 Michael Cunningham 1:01:17
214 Diarmuid Ó’Súilleabháin 1:04:05
220 Brian McCartan 01:04:20
234 Noreen Brouder 01:04:14
277 Ruth Kelly 01:05:37
367 Will Greensmyth 01:08:31
470 Caoimhe Costigan 01:10:07
489 Stephen Willoughby 01:10:37
614 Phillip Kerr 01:13:21
624 Anna Delaney 01:13:14
739 Ann Higgins 01:15:23
760 Sandra Gowran 01:15:36
830 Eoin O’Brien 01:16:09
864 Naoise Waldron 01:16:45
942 Enda McMorrow 01:18:38
1076 Patrick McMorrow 01:18:26
1121 Adrian Lanigan 01:21:38
1164 Peter Duggan 01:21:09
1650 Kathryn Potterton 01:27:33
Full results: myrunresults.com
You must be logged in to post a comment.