Irish Mountain Running Association Winter League 2010

The IMRA Winter League is a series of five races held on Saturdays/Sundays between January and March. The race routes are well marked and are generally between 7 and 10km in length with a mild to moderate climb. The races are very popular, typlically attracting a field of between 120 and 180 runners of all ages, colours, religions, sexes etc. The cost to enter a race is €7 per race plus an annual IMRA membership of €10.

The Winter League is an ideal way to introduce yourself to trail running. The atmosphere is very friendly and welcoming and the majority of runners are there just to enjoy a trot, in fantastic scenery, in the company of like minded individuals. That said there is plenty of competition all through the field – some of the fiercest rivalries are in the M70 category where a little sculdugery is not unknown.

Last year a number of us ran the Ran the Howth Winter Race (1st race in the Winter League) and ended up getting hooked. Your intrepid reporter ended up entering 17 races – and will be doing at least that number next year. Mr. Wall was our secret weapon in Howth getting to the top of the first hill in 3rd position and finishing in a very impressive 10th.

Sean Wall, Howth Winter 2009 (photo by John Shiels, IMRA)

Over the course of last year we had many enjoyable outings to IMRA races. Some of the regulars are shown below. Unfortunately the photo does not show Mr Kilgnanon who was last send heading south from Ticknock at high speed. We also had some ladies including Brid Higgins, Kate Healy and in a fantastic debut season Helen White winner of the Lugnacoille race and Irish Team member at the European Championships in Telfes, Austria.

Kate Healy, Howth Summer 2009 (photo by John Shiels, IMRA)

Girls take note that if you can get 3 of you to turn up for these races you are almost guaranteed the team prize!! The boys will need a couple machine guns to have any hope of a similar result.

Sportsworld Hill Runners, Crone Woods 2009

For more details on this series see the IMRA website by clicking here.

By Paul Mitchell

Happy Christmas folks and a great New Year from everyone at Sportsworld!

We’d an outstanding year of success….don’t believe me? Then check out the 2009 section of our club titles!

We won Gold medals, silver medals, bronze medals, chocolate medals. We’d athletes selected for international duty including Helen White at the European Mountain Running Championships in the hills of Austria, Ed McEntee at the World Masters in the snow of Norway, then Aoife Brady with the National Senior Cross Country Team in the sand at Belgium and Lucy, Helen & Carol at the Masters CC at Spaghetti Junction. We’d trips to Ballyvaughan, Ballycotton, Roddy Bolands, Kilmore Quay, Lanzarote and Waterford not to mention marathoners running from Chicago to Berlin. We had another classic 5 mile, thats 25 I believe now, a quarter of a century of Sportsworlds world record (Ismael Kirui in ’93) road race and we even won the Dunshaughlin 10km super cup (see facebook for those pics!).We’d also highly successful track runners, road runners, cross country runners, mountain runners, mini-marathoners and our all conquering meet and train runners. We’d generous fund raising and cake sale nights. But most importantly we saw Joe Byrne’s endangered retro horizontal striped Sportsworld singlet somehow survive another safety-pin-holed year.

Long may it continue! Enjoy!

Santry, Dublin 13th December 2009

Euro2009

Saturday 13th December 2009 had finally arrived. Irish running enthusiasts had the chance to have the great spectacle of the European Cross Country Championships in our own back yard -the Santry demesne, rather than on TV in our sitting rooms. The course that was graced with Merrick, Cunningham, Duffy et al. at the national inter-clubs only a few months ago, now hosted the cream of Europe’s running talent fighting it out for the big prize.

A huge crowd turned out to watch the days events; consisting of Ladies and Mens Junior, U-23 and Senior races. The young Irish teams gave a great account of themselves, representing their country with great distinction. The Senior Ladies was dominated form start to finish by the relentless Liz Yelling. In a feat of great courage and confidence Liz blew the rest of the field away with an awesome display of front running. She powered around the course with mechanical efficiancy, her arms driving her along like pistons while the rest of the field struggled through the heavy mud.

The strongly fancied Portugese athletes fought it out for the remaining places, but claimed the team prize as expected. The Irish challenge did not materialise as hoped. Fionnula Britton was first home with a highly creditable tenth place and return to form after a frustrating couple of years. Mary Cullen had high hopes here but could not find the big performance when she needed it the most. She started off towards the front before falling back after half way and looked to be struggling. Mary dug deep though and showed to work her way back up the field, eventually finish in twelfth place. She will be glad to put 2009 behind her – a year in which she faced great adversity following her brilliant bronze in the European Indoors in March. Class though… is permanent. Deirdre Byrne put in a brave display, looking at one point the strongest of the trio after closing in on her team mates and puttig the team in a strong medal position. It was tragically not to be though as Deirdre fell away on the last lap. It appeared that she hit the wall, but could well have picked up an injury, such was the diminished pace of her final kilometre. Deirdre is a calibre athlete though who will no doubt have a great track season come the summer.

The men’s race was expected to be a rerun of the epic duel of last year between the Ukranian legend and nine time winner of this title Sergei Lebed and Mo Farah, Britain’s main man in long distance who pushed Lebed all the way last year. The men tore off like the wild horses pulling the chariots of fire around the colesseum. It was quite something to witness these thoroughbreads at such close quarters. It was clear from early on that Lebed was not going to complete a decade of dominance. Farah and the Spaniard Bezabeh (born in Africa) quickly escaped and made a two horse race of it. The two went stride for stride before the Spaniard turned the screw around half way. Farah dropped off but then fought his way admirably back onto the shoulder of the Spaniard. However, as is often the case with such a titanic effort Farah had shot his bolt and could not match his opponent in the finishing straight. Farah collapsed at the end, needing medical attention such was the heart and soul he put into the race.

The Irish men overall flattered to deceive. The performance of the day came form the Dublin-based Mark Kenneally, who overshadowed his more celebrated US-based team mates to finish a fantastic eighth. Mark went out hard and held his own all the way, showing great stamina and strength inachieving a career high. Fagan was next in in 26th, a disappointment given his promising display in the past two years. Cragg was 40th, not appearing to relish the difficult conditions. Many anoraks waxed lyrical about their preparation for the race, flying into Dublin at the last minute to avoid the after effects of ‘coming down’ from altitude. It would appear the finer details of race preparation can be over analysed and simply having a few days of R&R is the way the way to go. Andrew Ledwith finished along with Cragg. The remaining athletes, both based in Dublin, Sean Connelly and Mick Clohessy both ran good steady races. This will have been a good learning experience for both men who have each had superb years and were very deserving of their places on the team.

Report By
Phil Kilgannon

Cake Sale 2009!

They bought apple cake, Birthday cake, Back Forest cake, Bundt cake, Butter cake, Butterfly cake, Carrot cake, Eoinys Strawberry Cheesecake, Chocolate cake, Christmas cake, Chiffon cake, Cupcakes, Devil’s food cake, Eccles cake, Erotic cakes, Fairy cake, Fruit cake, Garash cake, Mary Finns Infamous Sponge cake, Gingerbread, Gooey butter cake, Pineapple Upside Down Cake, Pound cake, Queen Elizabeth cake, Brown bread, Red velvet cake, Seed Cake, Spice cake, Stack cake, Suncake, Stephs Very Special K with Milky Bar Cakes, Tres leches cake & Wedding Cake?

A big thank you to everyone who organised, contributed cakes/prizes and bought at another roaring success of Sportsworld’s bring & buy cake sale, run fun and raffle. An impressive €860 was raised in aid of turn2me last Tuesday evening. Also great work by Jakub for capturing the evening with some photos in the above album.

NOTICE FOR WATERFORD HALF MARATHON
For those that are booked on the bus to the Waterford Half Marathon day trip this weekend, it leaves on Saturday at 7.15am sharp from the clubhouse.