Leinster Novice Cross country
27th October 2018
Sportsworld had a great outing in Navan at the weekend just passed. Although we didn’t finish as close to the podium as we would have liked, everyone ran a good race and the mood was buoyant after as we all looked forward to not running the marathon the day after. It was also nice to get away from the marathon runners who were in the throws of taper madness.
The route at the Navan Sports and Adventure Centre is confusingly fast considering the hills and hairpins. There is some funny anti-gravity stuff going on there for sure. The surface is on the fairways of a golf course which make for a lovely forgiving smooth run. The dry enough weather of recent meant it was nice and firm. No need for the wellies just yet.
The ladies race was 4,000m (2 red & yellow laps) and the men had a 6,000m (3 red & yellow laps) route. The weather was cool and bright with a light breeze. Some rain threatened, but stayed away thankfully. Ideal conditions.
(above: Event Map and Race Route)
This was my first race since the Berlin Marathon and my first time doing a cross country since Clarinbridge (shudder) last season. Both tough days at the office. So I was looking forward to putting all that behind me.
Bang! We’re off. I found my pace after a lightning fast start. The route meanders nicely around the course so plenty of variety always makes the race feel shorter. On the final lap I thought I would push on and catch someone, alas, the wheezing auld lads in front of me had the same idea. The race finishes on a long uphill and as I came around the corner into it I said, right lets kick on, and my pace remained the same. More training needed. Sometimes when you run you find you ran faster that you felt during. This was one of those days.
There was great support on the day from our fellow clubmates, Myles and Emily the most fervent of the lot.
The route of the Leinster Novice happens to be the same as the National Novice on the 16th of December so those of us who ran will have an advantage over the others in a month and a half 🙂
Ladies (8th team)
16th Ciara Brady 15:59
28th Naoise Waldron 16:30
57th Patricia Fitzmaurice 17:24
61st Katie Nugent 17:30
67th Jessica Kennedy 17:55
73rd Elaine Kennedy 18:09
83rd Caroline Conway 18:28
92nd Margaret Crowley 19:13
103rd Orla Greaves 21:13
Mens (9th team)
35th Karl Chatterton 21:41
53rd Mark Hogan 22:08
57th Brian Byrne 22:12
70th Adam Moss 22:39
93rd Conor Keating 23:35
97th Diarmuid Ó Súilleabháin 23:56
100th Ronan Masterson 24:09
103rd Anthony Gillen 24:28
104th Alan Hynes 24:36
107th Karl Shevlin 25:15
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