The Curragh was the location for the 2026 Leinster Senior Cross Country Championship. This race feels like a step up with the distance for the Women at 6km and 9km for the men and the standard in the race can also be high. Following the battle call from Adam Furlong full teams signed up to the race. The race was scheduled for a Saturday which everyone seems to like better than Sundays.
On arrival at the Curragh you could see the whole course laid out just beside the main race course. A number of junior races were being run so we just had to get our race numbers, do a warm up and work out the plan for the race. There was a fitting tribute to Ciara Mageean before the ladies race with a large turn out from her UCD club in the race.
The ladies were up first with Aoife Carroll storming to a top 20 position in a fast paced race over 6km. Lorna Quinn was close behind using the Autumn open race to make big improvements. Megan Walls was close behind in a close packed team. Elaine Kennedy really engaged with the race and even though she had a ring of runners around her finished strongly to bring the women’s team home in 4th place.
Next up the men had 6×1.5km laps. The course was fair with barely any mud after a day of races. There were a couple of small climbs each lap but race conditions were really good. Owen Grogan used his strength from the marathon training to finish in a brilliant sub 35minutes. Richard Lacey still improving each year was second home for the team. On home turf Adam Furlong maintained his love of cross country and finished a strong third for the team. Michael Cunningham seriously questioned his logic in entering the 9km race on arrival at the Curragh but you rarely regret doing a cross country race when its over. Andrew Murphy in I think his first Leinster Senior race had a very strong run and Brian Conway on the team must have one of the best records on the number of cross country races completed.
Thanks to Emily and Myles for travelling out to the race. There are more cross country races coming up. If you have not done a cross country race yet try out the Saturday training which will get you ready for any race and doing a cross country is some of the best training you can do.
