Leinster intermediate 2013 – aka the one with all the medals
Adamstown, county Wexford is now a familiar fixture in the cross country season. Just under two hours from Dublin it takes an early start to get there in time for afternoon race. This year’s course was new, moving to the other side of the town.
Minus a ladies team this year we set off with the strongest men’s team the club has had for quite some time. With 4 of the 8 man team fresh from the Dublin marathon expectations were high that we could do quite well. Today’s race the Leinster Intermediate in Adamstown was the 1st 8K of the year with both previous races being over the faster 6K distance.
Despite the cold and a few big climbs it was a very dry day and the course wasn’t too muddy. We started just after 3PM with two shorter laps and finished with 4 of the larger laps.
Paul and Karol were right up there from the start with Paul taking up much of the early running. With a few laps to go Karol started to push ahead and ultimately ended up winning the race. Paul ended up just a few places back in 5th. Not far behind Paul was Gavin in 7th and Gareth in 10th. The lads took the gold medals for both club and county (1-2-3-4). Our best men’s result in over 10 years and a fantastic win for Karol who is fast making a name for himself.
As mentioned above we had 8 strong runners taking part today. Damien finished strongly to take 21st with Michael in 36th, Kevin 42nd and a man with huge potential Mark Small in 46th.
As the team goes from strength to strength I’ve learned how important it is to run your own race. At the start of a cross country race, you need to stay with the pack. Once you lose sight of them, it will be nearly impossible to get back up to them. But also remember that most Cross Country runners take off too fast, and don’t hold their first half mile pace the whole way. Pain is temporary. It may last for a minute or the entire race. But it will subside. If you quit, however, it will last forever.
A great day for the men’s section of the club wouldn’t have happened without the fantastic support, advice and encouragement from Myles who ran the show and the course as Emily fro once was unable to attend.
Karol Cronin 1
Paul Duffy 5
Gavin Finlay 7
Gareth Murran 10
Damien Kelly 21
Michael Cunningham 36
Kevin Curran 42
Mark Small 45
