The Graded Meet Series concluded with an exciting finale at Tallaght stadium on a sweltering Wednesday evening, the 12th August. Entries for ‘real’ non virtual events these days are at a premium so we were up very early at 6am booking this online a few days before as we knew it would sell out very quickly.

Five Sportsworld runners ran 400m and 5000m events over the course of the evening. First up, Elaine Kennedy continued her blistering vein of form in an incredibly competitive women’s B race with a superb 103.76 to better her own time as the second fastest in the distance in the Sportsworld record books. With this rate of progress surely an all-time Sportsworld record must be within reach for Elaine and she’s really been doing the club proud in track events both indoor and outdoor.

Anthony Gillen and myself decided we would try to get as much value from the final Graded Meet as we could by entering two events, the 400m and the 5000m. Drawn in a very fast heat, I’d rather not dwell on it too much other than to say I appreciated the experience of an outdoor block start and getting under 70 seconds. Other than that, it was a torrid minute or so. Anthony did rather better in his heat, clocking an impressive 66.18 and finishing a credible fifth despite a difficult draw in the outside lane.

On to the 5000 metres. Conor Keating had travelled from Tipp to run this. Also lined up was Timothy Morahan, another Sportsworld athlete who, like Conor, has been hugely impressive on the track this season and who has excelled in all three of the graded series, really doing Sportsworld proud. Anthony and myself, made up the rest of the Sportsworld contingent, all of us racing in the same heat.

Just prior to this we had all watched the ‘A’ 5000m which contained quite a cast of stars, not least Mick Clohissey, Eoin Everard, Conor Duffy, Sean Tobin, Sean Hehir and our own Stephen O’Donnell’s brother Paul who runs for DSD. Paul ended up coming second to Sean Tobin and it was hugely exciting to see such a competitive field. That’s the great thing about the graded track events, both indoor and outdoor, you really feel you are rubbing shoulders with the best in the country even though part of you thinks that you have no right to be competing in such exalted company.

Our 5000m had a big field, it was a sticky balmy evening and we all know it was going to be a tough twelve and half laps of the track. Having done the 400m already I know it would be quite a physical ask. I think I’d set my own target beforehand of being happy with anything under 20 minutes but after about three laps of glancing at my watch I realised that this was going to prove difficult. The incessant cornering of the track over that distance seems to hold you back a bit unlike a road race. It’s as if there’s a kind of sideways gravity at play that is restricting. The race began with a familiar pattern, leading my old nemesis Anthony around the early stages then being slowly ground down by him as the race wore on a bit. Once people start to pass you, a Donore athlete was next, you start to wonder how many are behind you and all the doubts then surface.

Before the race I’d been chatting to Frank McNally, the Irish Times journalist and Donore runner who writes ‘An Irishman’s Diary’ in the Irish Times and I knew he was behind me at least. I’d asked him if he was going to write about the event, thought he might dig up some hitherto virtually unknown piece of information about the history of the location of the meet. He wrote instead about his 12 and a half lap experience in his Irish Times column two days later; “As I was reminded during 12 and a half laps of pain on Wednesday night, even their slowest events are too quick for me these days.

Also – speaking of horizons – there are no such thing on a running track. In most road races, at least, the faster people can overtake you only once. After that, they usually have the decency to disappear”.

Briefly, I managed to claw Anthony back a bit over the mid to latter part of the race but in the end my revival petered out – if you pardon the pun – missing my 20 minute target by 45 seconds. Meanwhile, both Timothy and Conor had lapped us and were looking strong. In the end, Timothy finished in 5th position (out of 24) with a hugely impressive time of 17.57, Conor following a few places after in 18.21. Even though there were no team prizes, it was great in some way to feel part of a collective Sportsworld effort. Very often in these track events, they feel very individual and that you are often ‘out on your own’. This can be character building when you are on the blocks staring down the barrel of the starters pistol but there are moments equally when you appreciate your club mate’s presence and encouragement before, during and after a race. Also, a big thanks to Nicola and Pádraig who came to shout their support, which we heard ringing in our ears as every lap passed by.

By the end of the race, the darkness had set in. Another great fantastic meeting concluded. It seems that some of the teething problems in the first graded meet around getting people in and out of the athletes area under the required restrictions had been ironed out. The Tallaght track appeared to work very well in this regard and the organisers are to be congratulated on their excellent organisation of and completion of a very successful series of meetings in challenging circumstances.

400m women

Elaine Kennedy 1.03.76 PB & 2nd fastest outdoor Sportsworld 400m

400m Men

Anthony Gillen 66.18

Peter Knaggs 69.52

5000m

Timothy Morahan 17.57 (5th place)

Conor Keating 18.21

Anthony Gillen 20.29

Peter Knaggs 20.45

OMG… Just call me Karol

 Full of the joys of last week’s IMRA Scalp race, I signed up for my next Wednesday evening escapade, at IMRA Prince William’s Seat – 364m of climb, over 8.39k, according to the blurb.  This is not far from Johnnie Foxes, Glencullen.  Also, ready to do battle, were Karol Cronin and John Fitzgerald.

There is an early start option for all but the shortest of IMRA races.  This is for those who expect to finish at more than 160% of the winner’s time. This is my usual option.  I call this the Championship option.  Karol, of course, was in the Champions League and looking to add to his Ticknock and Scalp victories.

The top 5 places were taken up by Crusaders, Sportsworld and Rathfarnham.  Karol had an almighty battle.  Judging by the photos, he took an early lead. Paul Stephenson, Rathfarnham was right on his shoulder though.  Jason Kehoe, Crusaders, came into the frame as the race progressed. There was some confusion at one of the turns (No reflection on the marking of the course – again, superbly executed by IMRA). In the end, Jason pipped Karol by 8 seconds. Karol pulled 20 seconds clear of Paul.  Two firsts, and a second at Prince – Karol remains our Mountain King.

Meanwhile, back in the Championship, with Tim.  I had been watching Karol, the previous week…so tied my compulsory rain jacket around my waist and took to the front at the starting line. A little downhill had put 3 of us out in front. Then a climb of 1k saw me move into second place.  I was happy to try to stick with the ‘leader’ as uphill and me aren’t best friends yet. Then, he started walking, and I figured that he was struggling as much with the hills as me.

OMG, I was in first place in a race for the first time in my life. Only 7k to hold on. Off the fire road, and through the forest. A bit of downhill and I accelerated. Ahhh…I need to look out for the route markings! Red and White ribbon attached to trees or rocks, as the route zig zags through forest, bog, and rocks. A steep climb up the bed of a waterless stream. I look behind and figure that I am ok to walk for a bit. The adrenaline of leading is really kicking in but I am pleased that I hold myself back, and keep myself strong. I figure the following pack will also walk here. I focus on ensuring I stay on route.

Out of the forest and onto the Wicklow Way, downhill, and I push on, before a left onto the mountainside for a climb to crest Prince William’s Seat. I am slow again here. As I near the peak, I can see my primary rival maybe 400m behind. Roughly halfway now and I am feeling confident with the downhill to come.

Trickier than I thought, looking out for the markers, whilst jumping from rock to rock ‘at speed’.

Over to Raven’s Rock next – one of my favourite spots. It was too misty this evening for great views, but worth a trip, and a pint at Johnnie Foxes after. Then down a steep and very tricky and dark stream bed.

Back into forest for a bit and out onto fire road.  Hit a junction and it seems logical to follow it down but I hesitate and correctly decide to go right, uphill again, as these are the only markers I see. A bit of a drag uphill and then I hit a dead end. I have gone wrong. I backtrack 200m and cop my rookie error. There was a plethora of ribbon indicating a junction (I did not know this) and I could now see a marker in the forest. My rival was now clearly in sight, about 100m away. I knew that I would have now given him some hope. Still – happy to be back on route – still in lead – and feeling strong, I leaped through a very tricky forest and onto a fire road, only to see my rival 10m behind me, already on the fireroad! (Not sure how that happened).

I shot off downhill, in shock – maybe a bit more than 1k to go I thought. Then it surprisingly hit uphill again. I was giving it my all now and really feeling it.  Then I copped that I had an extra 400m than I thought to go, because of my detour – keep pushing. I was looking behind me, but all was quiet. Downhill again and happy days…

John Fitzgerald was also in heroic form and came in first in his age category !

Karol (2^nd Overall) came home in 36:55; Tim in 55:49; and John (1^st in Age Cat) in 62:38.

It was a really enjoyable race; superbly organised; €7 (plus €10 annual membership). Great training and whole-body workout. I look forward to moving up to the Premiership in my next IMRA outing. I thank Karol and John for them inspiring me. Happy Running.

It was great to be back running competitively under these challenging times and a huge thanks to IMRA and everyone involved with hosting the Scalp run last Wednesday. It was a fine sunny summer’s evening and what I found helpful afterwards is not knowing what the course was going to be like as it was a tough, tricky but short roller-coaster 6km race on trail road, scrub and up one strenuous rocky climb . Representing Sportsworld along with myself was Deirdre McGing which was her first ever IMRA race and Tim Murphy.

The race started uphill in Carrickgollogan Wood with everyone having to wear a face covering for the first 200m skirting up alongside the disused Ballycorus Leadmines Chimneys. It then turned downhill steeply and turned into a narrow path of bracken where I took an early lead followed by a group of three others. The organisers had called this part the muc-ky trail as anyone who doesn’t know, muc is the Irish for pig. And racing ahead was a mother pig and her three piglets on the trail in front of me.

Like a scene from Pamplona, the pigs were trying to avoid me and all they could do was to run ahead of me but thankfully they found an exit as I started the tough climb up the rocky Carrickgollogan Hill. This is an exposed  hill that tests every sinew in your body and saps all your strength. I needed my hands to lift myself up parts to reach the top.

From the summit, there was a marshall pointing me to the right as I turned down a fast and meandering path from the hill to a forest road trying to recover from the longest climb of the race and then up a slight hill and back to where we started. I looked back at this stage and could see I had a good lead on the rest of the pack.

From there, the race crossed into Barnslingan Woods and turned a left into a forest with nice soft ground. The route slowly assended in a circular way around the forest with plenty of ups and downs and near misses of route marks.

At this stage there was no sight of the pack behind me and I was unsure of how far I still had to go to the finish. I thought there would be a slight climb to the finish but I was delighted to see a group of people and the finish mat. I crossed the line in 24min 32sec in first place. A painful return to competitive racing but well worth it. Well to Tim who finished in 36min 14sec and Deirdre who 8th lady home in 38min 39sec.

Last Saturday the Moyne AC summer games took place on the club’s 4 lane track which is just a 15mins drive from our family home in Two-Mile-Borris where I have been working for the past 4 months.

It’s great to see the return of competitions and, similar to the Dublin graded tack meets, the organisers were inundated with enquiries as soon as entries opened resulting in them closing entries a whole 2 weeks before the original closing date. Luckily I had expressed interest in B Mile race the day the entries opened and I got confirmation of my entry around a week later.

The track in Moyne was opened in September 2015 and was a huge venture for the club including taking on a substantial loan for same. The official opening involved a track meet and such was the success of this the club decided to make it an annual fixture.

To help finance the above mentioned loan the track is open to the public and there is a €2 honest box; I am a regular user of the track during Christmas holidays etc. and the track re-opened to the public a few weeks ago which allowed me to get a feel of the track again and get some variety into my recent solo training…for a few months I was confined to running in the local community field (which is very small) and the old Dublin-Cork road which is just around the corner from our house and has a big hard shoulder but is very straight and has the feel of Groundhog day and my repetitive running of same has attracted a few comments on Strava.

Anyhow the 2020 event attracted a stellar field with the 2 main races being the women’s 800m (which included European U23 bronze medialist Nadia Power and Olympic hopeful Michelle Finn who was stepping down from her usual 3000m stleepchase) and the men’s mile where they were looking to run the first sub 4 minute mile in Tipperary (which looked likely with the likes of Irish 4 mile National record holder Sean Tobin and Olypmic 1500m hopeful Andrew Coscoran on the start list). As extra incentive there was a €500 bonus for going under 2.05 in the women’s 800m and sub 4 in the men’s mile.

With government restrictions on outdoor events remaining at 200; competitors were kindly advised, in advance, to leave the facility soon after our race.  The meet started at 2:30 with a 3km race and there was a full list of events (ex. The 1500m) from 100m to the mile. The men’s B race was spilt into 2 heats and I was in heat 2 @ 3:25 with the 2 main races, outlined above, were scheduled for 7:15 and 7:30.  The event was really well organised by Moyne AC and the whole meet was streamed live on the club’s facebook page. Unfortunately the weather didn’t read the script and it was pretty damp and wet for most of the day although it did clear up for the major events later in the evening..

Following advice I arrived close to my start time, and did a quick warm-up, including in the club’s indoor facility, but it was soon time to step out into the rain and onto the start line. There was a high standard in the race and there was nothing tactical about the pace despite the conditions. There was a runaway winner in our race and it turned out his time would have finished half way up in Heat 1 (ie. he was in wrong race) and he had an 800m PB of 1.53 (for context the night before Ciara Meegan had become the first Irishwomen ever to break 2mins with 1:59:69 in Switzerland). I managed to keep a fairly consistent pace and was happy enough with 5.14 in light of the conditions and the fact it was first race for 4 months.

In the main races there were 2 anguishing missing with Nadia Power running 2.05.10 and Sean Tobin clocked 4.00.38 having pulled away from Andrew Coscoran in the final 200m. I was actually just coming off the 9^th green in Thurles golf club when I managed to get the last few laps of the mile on mine phone before heading to the back 9 (thankfully I’ve had to shout 4 less on the golf course in recent weeks having taken the game up during lockdown). Despite the limited numbers there was a great atmosphere at the event with the cream of the Irish Athletics community (Sonia O’Sullivan and Catherina Mckiernan) and the local livestock turning up. It is great to see such a high profile event being held down the country. I’ll definitely be back next year and all going well it will be bigger and even better than this year’s event. It would be great to see some other Sportsworld athletes take part and I’ll let me the club know when the 2021 entries are opening.