Charleville is a town in north County Cork. It lies in the Golden Vale, on a tributary of the River Maigue, near the border with County Limerick.  It’s half marathon has developed a solid reputation over the past few years as one of the best in the country, and deservedly it attracts a stellar field.

When the chance of a free number came up last week I jumped at the chance to make a weekend of it and see some of East Cork on Saturday and do my last 24K marathon pace run in the race on Sunday.

On Saturday morning I was up at 6 AM and set off to see a list of some of Irelands best touristing sites on route to Charleville. Cashel, Knockmealdown Mountains, Lismore, Ballycotton and Roches Point all got a look in, with a stop into Ballymaloe for a bit of lunch and Cork City for some shopping.

With no accommodation left in Charleville or nearby, Kilmallock County Limerick I made it to Mallow for the All Ireland Final. As the only Dub in the town I was keeping a low profile. You would be forgiven for thinking that the good people of Cork would support Dublin in favour of their neighbours Kerry, but it seems like that the anyone but Dublin attitude prevails. 1.2.3.4.5 Woo!

The race kicked off at 10 AM on Sunday morning, with my race number already attached firmly to my singlet there was no rush to be there too early. This was to be my last marathon pace effort for the Berlin marathon on September the 29th. The plan was to do 24K with the first bring the half marathon and then finishing 3K on the track.

My target was to run in 3 phases with 7K at 3.35, 7K at 3.32 and the final 7K at 3.29, bringing the average out at 3.32. That would leave me with a finish time of around 74.40 and then do 3K at 3.30 pace to finish. I’ve completed similar runs over the past few weeks so was looking forward to it.

Despite not feeling amazing on Saturday I felt ok warming up. My usual routine is 2-3k and 4 long strides. It’s nice not to be racing as you don’t feel the pressure to get off the line like a lunatic.

Unforuanley looking at my watch after the race and from my perceived effort during the race, I was a bit more under the weather than I had first thought. The first phase up to 7K was ok. I was passing out lots of runners but my heart rate was going a little too high.

During the second phase, my heart rate went even higher as I tried to increase the pace ever so slightly too my planned marathon pace. It was around this stage of the race that I saw Sportsworld teammate Mark Hogan in front. I expected to catch and run with Mark around 10K but I wasn’t making any ground. At this point, I made the call to finish the race but in hindsight probably should have jogged home.

In the last phase, my heart rate was way too high and it was a big struggle just to keep going, given this is the tougher windier part of the course. I ran with Mark for 3-4K and was able to push ahead a tiny bit towards the end. Congratulations to Mark on a well earned PB.

Immediately I was thinking that was a very disappointing and worrying run with only a couple of weeks to go until the big day. But looking back at my heart rate values compared to the previous week. That time I ran 36K and my average HR was 156 bpm and my max was 176. For this run, my average HR was 167 and my max was 185. That’s an objective measure that my body was under a lot more stress, so best leave it behind me and forget about it, I can’t get the opportunity back.

This is a great race with a top-class field. The top women ran 74 and the top man ran 63. ou would find it hard to get many half marathons in the country with those finish times.

Sportsworld had a few other taking part listed below and congrats to former Sportsworld a lister Shona Keane who came 7th in 84 minutes.

Gareth Murran 77.21
Mark Hogan 77.25
David Kennedy 93.25
Jessica Kennedy 105.57
Anne Higgins 113.59

By Colin Kenny

This was my first time doing this race and it was a really enjoyable experience. It was also my first 5 Mile of the year with my goal to finally crack the 40 minute barrier. My work colleague Will Byrne who is a member of Lucan Harriers assured me it was pancake flat which of course it wasn’t but in fairness it wasn’t anywhere like the torturous course at the 10k Dun Laoghaire which I did recently . The race was celebrating the official opening of the new club track which I know involved years of hard work, false starts and lots of lobbying so   the last few hundred metres finished on the brand new spanking track.  

There was a real party atmosphere when I arrived with a DJ blasting out the 80s tunes (including The Jam – top marks …I don’t like Elton Johns music but in fairness he played I’m Still Standing which is a corker – forget the rest and apologies to any Elton John fans)! It was a beautiful day – warm with a light breeze so there was no excuse to crack the 40 minute barrier. Well in truth I did have 2 excuses lined up. I left my Garmin watch at work  and had no sunglasses! However there was a 40 minute pacer which was a God send as otherwise I could’ve done the race in 35 (wishful thinking) mins or 45 mins (more likely).
In the warm up and at the start line  I did not see any  fellow Sportsworlders until Ann appeared out of the crowd at the start also looking for the 40 minute pacer. Happy days as we could encourage each other along the way. Ann was with her husband and being a local of course knew everyone!
Anyway off we went and about 1k in we went up a pretty long drag over the train line which was unexpected which was real hello to the legs. We turned on to the canal which was a beautiful part of the course and from there on in the course was a series of drags up bridges, some downhill and long straights including one around the 6k mark which went on forever seemingly into the wind or  maybe I was just goosed. The good news for me was that I’d left the pacer after the 5k or so mark but. But not having a watch meant I was looking behind to see where he was. With  1k to go I’d noticed he was catching me up. I put the foot down (well I went a tiny bit faster) to make sure he didn’t catch me up. Anyway by the time I got into the track to run the last 300m I’d lost him again. I got a shout out from the DJ too which was nice though at that stage in pretty sure he’d found his 90s mojo and was blaring out the Spice Girls so I needed to get out it out of there as quick as possible. I blocked it out and sprinted for the line imagining it was a less torturous version of our Saturday track sessions..
Anyway I crossed over the line in 39.20 and was delighted. Ann was not too far behind and congratulated each other as she crossed the line..
There was loads of food and craic and a real buzz after the race with a lot of runners hanging around after to encourage the later finishers. A great race and definitely one I’d encourage more people from the club to do this next year. It’s a similar course to our own 5 mile but with a few more uphill drags so it’s a fast enough course.
I for one will be back next year even if it is to hear my guilty Elton John pleasure being blared out by the DJ. Well done to all at Lucan Harriers for such a great event and best of luck to the club with the new track.

Report by Carmel Breen , Photos by Carmel Breen, Conor Kenny

The Blessington Lakes 10k is usually such a scenic and enjoyable race, so once I convinced Val and Irene to stay away from the booze on Friday night, we all signed up!

‘Twas a lovely morning for a race – if you were fit – unlike me! I was treating this race as punishment for all the French food and wine I have consumed over the last few months.

I picked Irene up at the KCR and off we headed. Along the way, we bumped into Phil, Conor and Sandra also going to the race – although Conor had the man flu so he was just there as our mascot and official photographer!!

15 mins before the start they put on a Dance class for a warm up, so me and Val had a dance-off at the top of the class which was a great way to wake the aul’ body up!

When we all lined up at the start, I started to panic a little as the field was very small and all I kept thinking was ‘Holy Christ Im going to be last in this race’. I knew I wasn’t fit enough to get a good time, so it was all about getting it done without stopping.

It took me about the first 5k to warm up but I enjoyed the scenery and took in some powerful rural aromas along the way.

Then at 6k the route took an unwelcome turn as the organisers thought it was a great idea to get us to run 500m up a steep hill, which was just complete torture for me, but because I had run the Achill 10k I was able to get up the hill without stopping, which I have to say I was chuffed with!

‘What goes up must come down’ is all that I could think of, so I was really looking forward to my reward which was the downhill – the downhill part is where I picked up and felt strong coming into the finish.

We must tip our hats to the spread of goodies that was given out afterwards, we were able to fill up our goody bags with a week’s supply of muffins and fruit!

Then myself, Val and Irene sat in the boot of my car in the car park discussing joining the over 55s Aerobics classes that Irene teaches, and its only €5 (which includes tea – but no biscuits!!!)

Overall a most enjoyable race experience in a beautiful setting, so I reckon we will definitely be back next year.

Well Done to everyone.

Below are the Race Results.

Peter Knaggs 40:20

Ciara Brady 41:03

Anthony Gillen 41:32

Noel Tobin 43:13

Sandra Kelly 48:22

Adrian Langan 49:03

Val Power 54:02

Carmel Breen 57:40

Phil Daly 57:55

The final track session of the season was on Saturday with the club championships involving a 200m , 1500m and final 4x400m mixed relay. Big thanks to Myles and Emily for organising the event and all the helpers taking the times, doing race numbers, organising the food and stopping the cheating.

First up was the 200m sprint. Runners had to first solve the problem of what the metal object at the start lines were, how do you get in and out of them and why they were being used to slow people down.

The mens race was a very tight finish between Brian Byrne (who has been talking about this race for the last month) and 200m new comer Conor McCarty. Its been a tough year for Wexford and Saturday was no different with Brian just edging Conor out.

In the ladies race it was not as close with the current 200m ladies record holder Elaine Kennedy showing how it is done.

Next up was the 1500m. Again anyone new to track running it can be hard to judge how to pace the nearly 4 laps. Maria Jones back from injury led start to finish to make it two years in a row with Katie Nugent timing the last lap perfectly to take second with Mayo Thirty year old Maura Ginty taking third.

In the mens 1500m Gareth is still regretting the holiday he took 2 years ago ruining his drive for 5 but showed despite large marathon mileage he still has a lot of pace. 5 seconds split 1st, 2nd and 3rd with Gareth getting his name on the trophy again, Conor McCarthy getting his second silver of the day and sleep deprived Andrew Brett getting an excellent third.

The final race was the mixed 4x400m relay. The first job was to match the names of the people on your team with their faces and hope to god they showed up so you wouldn’t not have to do 2 laps. I had to do 2 laps (someone is not getting any Strava Kudo’s for awhile). I think everyone felt the 400m team pressure to do well but its always amazing how some runners can make track running look easy. Padraig didn’t look like he broke sweat to out sprint Andrew.

The winning team was Gareth Murran, Joe Byrne and Gemma White. Some say the team was slowed down by all the holes in Joe’s singlet and by not putting Gemma in to do the 2 laps but they were still clear winners.

All the results are up in the clubhouse and there is a small mountain of photographs below.

I know someone who knows someone and got on the list of visitor attendees for the Progression parkrun in Mountjoy, Dublin.

Each parkrun is all about the community and there is always some element that makes an event unique and a positive experience – even if the event contains an inconvenient hill or the course is a refurbished industrial wasteland (hello Cork parkruns!!). There tends to be a kind of ethos to each – anything from rules focused to a borderline cult operation like Tralee.  My favourite was the one with a pre race briefing being essentially “And mind that burnt out motorbike by the flyover. Go!”

Here, seeing as you go through all the prison security rigmarole before the briefing, the parkrun itself turns out to be one of the more relaxed ones.

The course is circa 7 times around what I would like to say is a prison yard but really it is just the prison building perimeter, on tarmac with a gradual incline which becomes less gradual as the lap-count goes up.  There is plenty of support and shout-outs along the way.  It is not a fast course as there are too many sharp corners.

And never thought I would be chatting with the lads about training approaches, how to break 20 (I was giving tips here all casual like) or the monotony of the treadmill and gym facilities.  The chats and tea/cake after were the same vibe as every Saturday morning, and everyone was so friendly and welcoming.  The latter, whilst sounding a bit trite, makes such a difference when you are attending a parkrun for the first time.

Apart from the ostensible benefits of parkrun for both the participants and volunteers, the hope is this event will also help link the prisoners to the outside community. After release, the guys can approach their local parkrun with confidence and hopefully expand their social network. Well, they have me hooked on this idea anyhow – I will always relish the chance to hang out with anyone who will listen to me drone on about sub19s.  

Finally, a particular thank you to the volunteers – there seems to be a good bit of extra work in putting on this event, and it’s really appreciated by the guests.  

report by Bron –Winner Murphy-White

Ten miles, ten weeks from the marathon at ten past ten. Billed as “ideal preparation for those training for the marathon”, this was its second year in existence and a few of us decided to enter as we heard it was flat. It was relatively flat, but when you hear a race is flat and then there’s any sort of incline you feel a little bit outraged, so there were one or two moments of outrage during it. But, mostly, it was flat.

It was a very nice one loop course, around quiet country roads, with the last two miles straight along the canal path. When looking at the course map, the canal seemed like the nice bit, but it was a little gruelling due to a kind of sandy, gritty surface and a cruel hump back bridge just before that. I swore out loud when I saw that bridge at mile 8.

Weather conditions were pretty good, slightly on the warm side, but we were sheltered from the couple of rain showers by the trees along the country roads. I think it was windy, but I can’t remember.

The race was held by St. Coca’s Athletic Club and it was very smoothly organised. Very well stewarded along the route, and good support. It could have done with one or two more water stations. This will definitely become a very popular race, it was highly enjoyable and it was fast and would especially appeal to those who like a good post-race spread, there must have been about a million home-made cakes.

A few of us had decided we would go for breakfast in a nearby café, so we missed the prize giving, which was a shame as unbeknown to us, our incidental dream team of Maria Finnegan, Claire Rowley, Bronwyn Murphy-White and Rosie Mulhern won something for the first time in our lives. Then, due to ‘a recovery night’, ‘being late’, ‘the dog ate my homework’ etc, we also all managed to miss Myles’ announcement at the club on Tuesday about our inaugural victory. I found out via text on Tuesday night that we were prize-winners. Stop the lights. Ladies Team Bronze. We may retire now.

Results (as always, apologies if anyone is missed):

Phil Kilgannon 58:31

Maria Finnegan 1:22:01

Claire Rowley 1:22:09

Bronwyn Murphy-White 1:22:13

Rosie Mulhern 1:22:34

Catherine Gilmore 1:28:06

Anna Carrigan 1:29:17

Rock N’Roll Half Marathon and 10k

The annual Rock N’Roll Half Marathon took place on Sunday 11^th of August with a 10k option limited to the Phoenix Park. This race also acted as the Athletics Ireland National Championships which meant that anyone who signed up with their AAI number was assigned to wave 1 which took off from Fitzwilliam Sq at 8am. The early start and the finish line being in Phoenix Park meant that race logistics needed to be considered well in advance and there was no rolling out of bed to turn up for this one!

Running conditions were good with rain forecast that didn’t happen, a gentle-mild breeze and some reasonable temperatures. The course itself was quite challenging with a lot of uphills followed by downhills in the first 10k. The second half of the race was an intense rise as you entered the park and then a good downhill stretch to 15k with a steadily growing incline for the last 6k which proved tough for many! The route had a band every mile although my expectations may have been unrealistic and in truth it was a mixed bag with some good and others that didn’t do much for the motivation!

There were good club performances throughout with some PBs and great times across the races. Like Dublins victory the night before, characteristics of champions was definitely shown for many doing the race with Mark Hogan taking home the Sportsworld leading athlete title. Rumour has it a technicality ruled out some others from the title for not wearing a Sportsworld top! Other notable performances were from Ronan Masterson who broke 80mins and Ger Neenan who clocked a PB. Ger surely won’t be happy with the comparison to Dublin and would rather be compared to the mighty Kerry team who will try to stop the drive for 5! My own race was more described as a Mayoesque performance where I had a great first half but couldn’t handle the heat in the second. I’ll be hoping the Kilkenny hurlers can take note and perform for the full game on Sunday! In the end I was happy to get in another 3 miles afterwards which meant I could keep a straight face when Myles asks for my weekly long run mileage!

The post race treats somewhat made up for the hefty entry price with a decent medal, a beer and many people filling bags up with energy drinks, bars & goodies. I heard one person comment that it will do for the kids lunches for a few weeks! All in all it was a good day, pbs for some, miles in the tank for others and a general sense of satisfaction of a race done, all by 10am on a Sunday morning!  

Thats a wrap from my first race report. I’ve heard Brian will run a spell check and provide a grade so hopefully I’ve done enough to pass! 

Apologies if anyone was missed:

Eileen Rowland 1:54

Mark Hogan 1:18

Ronan Masterson 1:19 (PB)

Oliver Hedborg 1:28

Brendan Keogh 1.28

Adelie Reinaudo 1.32

Gerard Neenan 1: 35(PB)

Aidan Curran 1:38

Colum Roche 1:39

Paul Canniffe 1:55

John McGeown 1:41

Tim Murphy 1:45

The final graded of the season was on last night at the Tallaght track in pretty good conditions. We had another addition to the club records with Elaine Kennedy winning her 400m graded and taking 2nd on the records. Thanks to Elaine Kennedy, Emma Meade and Brian Byrne there has been 6 improvements to the records this summer.

We also had two new runners to the graded with Conor Cavanagh coming second in his grade in the 400m and Ross Ennis getting a target for next year also in the 400m.

We had some great running through out the evening but we had two PB’s in the final race of the evening with Karl Chatterton coming home 2nd in his graded 3000m and improving his PB and Conor Keating also getting a PB in the same race.

Full results are on the Dublin Athletics website

Elaine Kennedy – 400m – 64.25

Conor Cavanagh – 400m – 60.16

Ross Ennis – 400m – 64.78

Cian Buckley -400m- 65.85

Nevan King – 400m – 68.38

Margaret Crowley – 1 mile – 6.08

Elaine Kennedy – 1 mile – 6.22

Conor McCarthy – 1 mile – 4.52

Michael Cunningham – 1 mile – 5.10

Michael Lillis – 1 mile – 5.36

Nevan King – 1 mile – 5.43.15

Cian Buckley – 1 mile – 5.43.66

Aidan Curran – 1 mile – 6.02

Karl Chatterton – 3000m – 9.50

Conor Keating – 3000m – 10.21

Thanks to the sports n social sub committee for coming up with some fittingly mature activities for the club last night.  Karol unleashed his inner headmaster and whistled us into team lines  while Gemma resurrected her junior cert A in hula hoop to demonstrate what we “should” be doing. 
Demo and instruction out of the way we all took into it. Getting into the sack proved surprisingly difficult for some (“it’s been a while” was the most frequently heard excuse), while the various interpretations of “balancing” the ball on the hurley meant the yellow and red foul cards ran out just seconds into the competition.  
Relieved of the pressure to follow rules, some people really came into their own. In the 3 legged race Phil Daly, Aoife Lavin and others proved that skipping the odd training session to watch a few episodes of ‘Strictly..’ really pays dividends. (Having never seen Strictly things didn’t go so well in my pairing and I’m now on the hook for Gerard Neenan’s ankle surgery.)

New skills were again required for the “water pass” game. Gareth Murran did not have these skills and as an expression of frustration his jug of water ended up flying through the air. Gemma (ditching her brief foray into responsible adulthood ) then grabbed the other jug and proceeded chase him around the place. So far so good.

The grand finale was the tug of war and the end of all dignity. Despite earlier protestions by some and the very real dangers of ‘carpet’ burn on the grass, when the time came, no one held back. Myles and Padraig managed to be unofficially on every team, the faces of Carmel, Val, Anne Sweeney, Rosie and Bronwyn were showing again the kind of committment that got them through their races in Achill on 3-hours-sleep and-a-solphadine-shake a few weeks ago, AnnMarie Clyne lost a shoe, Grainne Lynch found another skill to throw into the multi sport events she’s at these days,  Maria Jones (#nevergiveup #hontipp) almost went flying through the air at one point with sheer determination not to let go, Martin Doyle and Brian Byrne accidentally pulled down some trees. But the prize for most wholehearted tugger surely goes to Paul Duffy who, in a rush of blood to the head, jumped in the line forgetting he was holding his first born in one arm. (That’s the sportsworld spirit right there. Wait’ll your wife gets you home!).

Anna Carrigan had a clipboard for the unenviable task of keeping the “scores” but in the end there was “so much cheating” no prizes could be awarded.

An amazing spread of salads and barbeque awaited us afterwards. Trevor got the burgers defrosted just in time (thanks Judith), Neil Purdy was unrecognizable in a cloud of smoke (eating or cooking?), there were some amazing cakes that just “appeared” and Chairman Michael whipped up some fab granola treats that he swears were healthy (ish).

Afterwards the adults went to Bradys, That report will be on facebook circa 5am.
Thanks to everyone who organised, cooked, prepared behind the scenes and took part in the playing and the eating. Ye are braver than an AIB ad.