Conditions were perfect for the annual Rathfarnham 5KM. It’s a popular race with club members but one I’ve never managed to do so was looking forward to it. I had heard that it was a fast, PB course. After a warm up with Martina we joined the other Sportsworld singlets at the start line. There was a good buzz with everyone telling each other to enjoy the race when a voice piped up “5k’s aren’t to be enjoyed” Thanks Adrian, you are right. We have a job to do.

With that we were off. I had heard that it was a fast start but I was not prepared for how fast – we took off like greyhounds out of a cage! Ray Carpenter came up alongside me and said “this is way too fast” as he continued to speed on ahead of me, his fluorescent T-shirt becoming a mere beacon of light in the distance. 1 KM done and my watch buzzed 4.09!! Cop yourself on Grainne I thought, you have no business running at this pace, who do you think you are. So I slowed it down anxiously (my head always wins these battles unfortunately). There were no surprises on the course as it’s one we are familiar with being one of our regular winter training routes. As always there was great Sportsworld support along the route. There were too many of you to mention but thank you!!

I came across the finish line 1 second off my 5KM PB. Not too shabby I thought. Not great but it’ll do! It took me about 3 minutes to realise that this mediocre run was not going to get me any attention. Worried that Gemma White and Martina Nolan-Jones (both ran blinders picking up fantastic PB’s) would take all the limelight I knew I had to do something. Without going into too much detail my plan involved me sitting on a wall, dizzy and disoriented wrapped in tin foil with the Civil Defence checking all my vitals. Not content with this I sent poor Gemma and Martina off in a panic looking for sugar for me. In fairness to the girls they brought me back a nice little stash only for it to be taken away from me as it was discovered my glucose levels were far too high (the cause of me feeling unwell).  Anyway, my plan was going great – I was surrounded by concerned Sportsworlders until Neil Purdy showed up with his camera. Showing a complete disregard for me he announced “club photo”. I swear,  I have never seen a bunch of concerned people lose interest in their object of concern so quickly! Within seconds I was looking at their backs as they posed for the photo (if you look closely you will see my feet right behind Diarmuid). Gemma however was the exception. She pulled me up off the wall much to the annoyance of the Civil Defence and proceeded to argue with them “she’ll be grand, I’ll hold her up long enough for the photo” she lost the argument  but cheers Gem!!

Back to the race: Karl Chatterton was the first male home for Sportsworld in a super time of 16.36 while Maria Jones led the girls in with a fantastic time of 18.25. Well done to Declan Brady who not only got himself a PB but also came second in his age category. The ladies team also did great coming 4^th so congrats to Maria, Katie, Gemma and Martina. There was some great running so well done to all who got out and raced. Post race saw myself (fully recovered you will all be relieved to hear), Maria, Gemma, Katie and Olive drinking coffee, eating cake, talking and laughing for 5 hours!! It was a great day and I’ll be back next year with a PB and without the drama!

Results:

Karl Chatterton                                 16:36

Wesley Harrison                               16:42

Stephen O’Donnell                         17.02

Brian Byrne                                         17.30

Maria Jones                                        18.25

Diarmuid O’Suilleabhain                18.36

Peter Knaggs                                     18.53

Declan Brady                                      18.54

Noel Tobin                                          19.59

Liam Lenehan                                    20.00

Katie Nugent                                     20.31

Ray Carpenter                                   21.18

Gemma White                                  21.55

Martina Nolan-Jones                      22.08

Adrian Lannigan                                22.10

Lisa Singleton                                     22.25

Grainne Lynch                                   22.27

Ann Sweeney                                    24.13

Last weekend marked the start of Ireland’s Rugby World Cup and just as important the start of my 9 days away from the office on annual leave. There was talk that a typhoon threatening the Ireland v Scotland match but thankfully it had blown over to Ireland by match time and it was a great performance to start the tournament (Disclaimer: I started this race report Friday night but then decided to go to the cinema so I finished it Saturday afternoon; to keep positive – the underdog status usually suits Ireland) . With an equal enthusiasm for Cross Country as the RWC I decided to enter a pre-season open XC in Kilmacow, Co. Kilkenny and set off shortly after the aforementioned match. It was a good drive down from my family home in Tipperary as Kilmacow is very close to the Kilkenny/Waterford border and is actually much closer to Waterford city than Kilkenny city centre – there was a proposal in 2017 to re-draw the Waterford/South Kilkenny border so that Kilmacow would become part of Waterford but this was shot down as I quote ‘We don’t want our identity to be changed’. On a related subject one of my brothers has recently got engaged to a Kilkenny girl – As for their future kid’s I’ll just say that they’ll be no half and half jerseys in this family…a tug of war maybe?

Anyway during the drive down the severity of the rain made for treacherous road conditions and it had only slightly relented by the time I got there. After a quick dash to register and get my number it was back to the car for cover and thoughts of ‘”Won’t somebody please think of the children!’ – despite the conditions there was a reasonable turnout for the juvenile (U8 up) and senior races;. probably bigger crowd than for the Kilkenny team homecoming if some people are to be believed.

I eventually talked myself into doing a short warm up, in the improving conditions, and shortly before my race the rain stopped which almost made me feel a bit guilty given what the children had to run in. There was about 35 in the senior’s men’s race made up mostly of Waterford and Kilkenny and  athletes plus a few Tipp men including myself. Our 7000m race consisted of 2 small laps and 6 big laps.  I was in a solid mid pack group for most of the race and I ran a consistent pace and ran 27:38 for 7.27km according to Strava which I was happy enough with – a useful exercise to see where I’m at before the start of the championship races. The ground wasn’t actually too bad after all the rain. I was relying on the local club to get a few more photos but their facebook page said the camera was drowned by the time our race came.

Doing that race meant that I could take a more relaxed attitude to my trip to Geneva, Switzerland the next day – I didn’t think I would get much running done especially since the weather was supposed to be bad. However this forecast was as accurate as the Irish paper’s predictions for Ire v Japan so we were lucky that we had nice weather for our 3 day visit. The Hotel was just down the road from the southerly tip of Lake Geneva. I went for a long run on the path along the lake – not quite the full 72km circumference of the Lake but long enough to get to the Swiss countryside which explained why I saw a few tractors in the city centre.

Another day we took the train up the mountains to Montana (around 5,000 ft above sea level) and played golf at Crans sur sierra golf course which hosted the Swiss Open a few weeks ago – The views were amazing and apparently the golf ball goes 10% at this altitude – which doesn’t make much of a difference if you’re not very good.  I did get a short run in as well but didn’t particularly feel the air being thinner or the run being relatively harder but I suppose it would be more of a factor in longer/more intense runs.

We were flew back to Dublin on Thursday and we ended up seeing Damien Duff, Robbie Keane, Keith Andrews and some of their colleagues at Geneva airport. I think they were (on a group bonding session) doing some research ahead of the Ireland v Switzerland game in Geneva on the 15^th October. I’ve attached the great photo of the four retired Irish soccer legends – my epic soccer career consisted of lining out for St. Kevin’s (Tipperary) underage, UCC J3’s and St. Kevin’s Senior B team. In terms of legend status I’m still clinging onto my performance the one time in my career where I was team captain. I remember the day if it was yesterday – It was the night of Tuesday 8^th April 2003: Real Madrid beat Manchester United 3-1 in the champions league quarter final first leg but in Tipperary a performance was being given (almost) as legendary as the real ronaldo’s hat trick in the second league of that tie at Old Trafford. Actually I was having a subdued game in central midfield and we were 1-0 down half way the second half. We get a corner, the ball breaks to me on the edge of the box and I hit a sweatly executed first time volley (take a random swing at it) and it nearly bursts the back of the net. I really grow into the game after that and we dominate and are unluckly not to win the game with it finishing 1-1. Unfortunately this was before the day of smartphones so you’ll have to take my word for it when I say it would have definitely made this video if it was caught on camera. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqAmfI4NMaQ Anyway years and years of mediocrity later I retired from soccer in 2014 to join Sportsworld. I won’t causing any stirs this cross country season but am looking to make progress in terms of time/position relative to last year. They are good days with the club and you have the extra incentive to run as part of a team. I once turned up for an away match with UCC and they were cutting the grass on the pitch shortly before kick-off.  Thankfully I haven’t seen that in at a cross country race and hopefully I experienced the worst of the XC conditions at the race last Sunday which should set me up for a solid and rewarding season ahead. 

The Greenway Half Marathon starts in Kilmacthomas and finishes in Dungarvan. I had never been on the Greenway before and was looking forward to seeing it. I stayed with my friend Kate the night before the race. Alarms were set for 5am to make it to Dungarvan for 7:30am! Runners were brought by bus from Dungarvan to the start line in Kilmacthomas. The race started at 9am. Kate and I met Liam Lenehan and his brother Pat in Kilmacthomas. It was a beautiful sunny morning, and I wondered how congested the start line would be on the greenway path! I was pleasantly surprised by how uncongested it was! The race numbers are restricted because cyclists and walkers can still use the Greenway during the race, though there were very few on it that morning. It’s a beautiful scenic route!

We ran over viaducts with beautiful views of the Comeragh mountains and surrounding farmlands and past the Flahavans factory. There are a few short inclines on the route but it is mostly flat – so a great race for PBs. Towards the end we ran through a 400m long tunnel, and on the other side were trees and walls of rocks covered in moss and fairy doors. Then my first glimpse of the sea.. the sea was flat as a mirror and the sun glistened on the surface. The last few kilometres have stunning views of Dungarvan Bay and Clonea Beach. Waterford was showing off all her beauty in the sunshine. Kate and I crossed the finish line together, and were greeted by Liam who was waiting with glasses of water for us. Really enjoyable race topped off by Liam, Pat and Kate all getting PBs! Liam also came 2nd in his age category! Well done Liam! Sportsworld Results Liam Lenehan 1:33:22 Martina Nolan-Jones 1:53:56

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