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.

Sunday 21 July saw the first of the eagerly anticipated Dublin race series; part of the build up to the Dublin marathon in October.  10km was the distance required and as always there were plenty of Sportsworld singlets and that distinctive diagonal red stripe on show.

I car-pooled with me old pal Andy Gordon and as we made our way over to the Clondalkin course, two things struck me:

1.       Aren’t we very early for a 10.35am start?  Turns out Andy sets his own time in his head and was mentally tuned in for a 10am start!

2.       Why are we using a sat-nav to find Clondalkin?  Where is Andy from?  You guessed it.  Clondalkin.

Anyway as I was co-pilot only, I said I’d keep quiet.  Until now.

Conditions on arrival were reasonably good, a warm and mostly overcast summer’s morning, with a stiff enough breeze.  My usual pre-race routine followed – nerves – bag drop – toilet – laces check – few kms warm up – pretend stretches – into the start chute – push up past people you think you’re faster than (note:  I’m not; but I don’t let reality get in the way)

Those last few minutes before the start feel like eternity, but finally the gun sounded and we were off at 10.35am (FYI Andy).  The first part of the race was along one side of a dual carriage-way and while that might not sound appealing it was actually fine.  However, one of the great mysteries of running is how one day you feel great, the next day you feel awful.  Today it was the latter for me & after 2 km I pulled back.  It was not going to be my day.  Excuses (part real, imagined and outright lies) are available on request, they are too numerous to list here.  Having made my peace with my fate, I enjoyed the rest of the race on a nice course.  From the dual carriage-way, we turned into Corkagh park for a nice down-hill section before taking in Clondalkin village and then onto the banks of the Grand Canal for 2+ km.  The finish came pretty quickly after leaving the canal; back in the business park where it all started.

As always there were some good performances; none more so that Ronan Masterson who clocked 35.32; a huge PB & well deserved.

Full results:  http://kbcdublinmarathon.ie/results-certificates/

This was the 9th running of the Run Killarney Half Marathon and 10K. A race that is billed as the most scenic half marathon course in Ireland. The course starts at Molls Gap and finishes outside the Gleneagle Hotel Killarney. This is 21.1K of extreme ups and downs to challenge runners of all ability levels. 

The race attracts a big crowd of local, national and international runners. I ran the race for the first time last year and received free entry for 2019 after placing 3rd. 

The race starts at 8 AM so free shuttle buses leave at 6.40 AM for the half-hour drive to the start. The roads are closed along the route so there is quite literally no way back other than running or walking. 

Friday was a very wet day down in the South West so everyone was a bit concerned about the weather up at wild and windy Molls Gap. It turned out to be one of the best days of the week with stunning vistas at the start line and on the run back to Killarney.

Myself and Martin Doyle ran the Half Marathon with a separate Sportsworld group running the 10K including Padraic and Siobhan with the Sanctuary running group. Although the results don’t allow you to search by the club so I’m not sure of their positions or times.

Both Martin and I swore that we would take it easy at the start having both gone out too fast last year, but 200M into the race we found ourselves out front, having almost jumped the gun. After seeing sense I settled into a group with 2 other lads.

My pace over these first few kilometres was slower than last year but I found myself in a very similar position at 4K with the leader ahead and running with the eventual 2nd place finisher. 

The race profile makes it look like the course is all downhill or flat but even in these early stages you have some tough hills to contend with and your legs can only take so much running downhill, which adds to the difficulty.

At 5K I had fallen maybe 20 meters behind 2nd place but I managed to pull that back to a 30M lead at 10K with a nice 15.30 split. Then came a point about 12K were my legs started to tie up. Over the course of a kilometre, I went from coasting and feeling good, to starting to struggle on the uphill sections.  I could hear the footsteps approaching behind me and over the next 3 kilometers, I was down into 4th. 

Once we hit Muckross at 16K I was holding the gap but it was too late to claw it back. Local running celeb Sinead Tangney was there to offer support which was welcome but the damage was done and that last 6K of the race was painfully slow. I finished 4th in 72.05 with Martin running 77.58.

I tried a few things out in the race, like wearing my trainers (Adizero Boston 8.0) rather than racers (Adizero Sub 2.0), they felt a bit heavy in the closing stages but the damage the next day was less. I also tried a new Cliff brand gel which turned out to be useless and too thick to use. Good to test a few things in less important races. 10 weeks to Berlin.

My only gripe and I might get some slack from the environmentalists but the race made the move to paper cups this year which for a summer Half Marathon wasn’t a smart move. There is only so much water you can get from a cup and dehydration was an issue for most of the runners I spoke to. All saying that they slowed up as a result of lack of available water.    

The atmosphere around the race is fantastic and I highly recommend it as an excellent weekend away but book early as Killarney hotels ate expensive in peak season. With no prizes to collect this year, we drove out to Dingle for lunch, went for a swim at Murreagh beach and explored in the Saturday sun. In the evening we met up with a few familiar faces and headed out on the town, exploring every bar in the town and drinking a little too much. Thanks to Sinead for showing us around. A great bookend to a week in the South West.

Beara is one of five peninsulas that form the distinctive jagged-edged ‘fingers’ in South West Ireland. From North to South they are Dingle, Iveragh, Beara, Sheep’s Head and Mizen. Beara (Irish: Béarra) or the Beara Peninsula lies between Kenmare Bay on the north side and Bantry Bay on the south. Here you can experience the rugged beauty of the Wild Atlantic Way, no two parts of the coastline are the same. Beara stretches out in the middle and trully is a little kingdom of West Cork mystery.

As you see above, Beara is bounded at its most westerly point by Dursey Island, well worth a trip on the cable car. Dursey is the most southwesterly point in Ireland and an incredible place to go hill running.

Moving east along the shores of Bantry Bay, Castletownbere is the principal white fish port of Ireland. Further east still is the scenic village of Glengarriff which has been a tourist attraction from the 18th century.

Glengarriff is the southern gateway town to the Beara Peninsula while to the north, Kenmare, at the head of the Kenmare River, is the northern gateway town. The N71, Glengarriff to Kenmare road forms the eastern boundary of Beara. Glengarriff also has great Parkrun.

Further along the Beara way are the villages of Allihies, Eyeries and Ardgroom. Ardgroom holiday village was our base for a week in West Cork.

Ardgroom is a quaint, picturesque village perfectly located on the Ring of Beara. A central point for walkers, hikers, cyclists, runners who like hills and people enjoying the scenic drives in the area, Ardgroom is a great place to catch up with the locals for a cup of tea or a quiet pint at the village in!

This isn’t an advert for the Beara Way but I wanted to set the scene. Beara is often bypassed for famous cousins in Dingle, Cahersiveen or Bantry, its time had finally come through, just don’t tell too many people.

At the entrance to the magnificent Bantry Bay and just 2kms offshore from the town of Castletownbere, Bere Island is a quiet paradise that has many attractions for walkers, cyclists, bird-watchers and history lovers. Accessed by car ferries, and with a population of just 200, Bere Island retains that distinct, easy charm of a rural community far distant from city life.

Bere Island is also a popular destination for runners who join its weekly parkrun every Saturday. Every July, there’s a bigger test when the Bere Island Midsummer Run draws islanders, mainlanders and tourists alike to the West Cork island which has a rich history and a lively community. The race is part of the West Cork island series.

This was the 6th Midsummer Run which features a 5km and a 10km road race around the scenic roads of Bere Island, with views stretching from Whiddy Island to the USA. Previous winners of the 5K include Sportsworld’s own Andrea McNamara in 2017. There was also a great report on last years race from Mark Heffernan.

This year we had 4 runners taking part. Myself, Maura Ginty and Mark Heffernan in the 10K and Claire Harrington doing the 5K. The race starts at 1 PM and the best way to reach the start is to get the Murphys ferry boat at 10.30 or 11.30. The return trip is only €5.

The start at the GAA club is just a short 10-minute walk from the dock. The facilities are great with showers and changing areas.

This was my second time to run on Bere. My first was the Parkrun, during last June’s heatwave. I found the course challenging but definitely the most scenic I’ve run in Ireland. This years weather was similar with afternoon temperatures hitting 24 degrees. Just to warn you in advance there is a huge hill at the 3KM marker.

I love doing races in different parts of the country as you don’t know the runners and just have to see how the first few kilometres go. The course is two laps so I just settled with a group of 3 runners that was down to 2 after 3 kilometres. My strategy was just to sit on lap one and see how the race went. The course is very hilly so you aren’t going to run a super-fast time.

At 4K you get a break with a fast kilometre. I took my chance to inject a bit of pace and took the lead for the first time in the race. The next 5K was actually very tough as haven taken the lead I needed to keep it. When we got back around to the steepest part of the course between 8 and 9 kilometres the heat was beginning to bite. The top of that last hill couldn’t come soon enough but had enough in reserve to push down the last hill for a fast last kilometre and strong finish. Nice to take the win in 35.32 and get a new course record.

Maura won the women’s race in 44 minutes with Mark just behind. Claire ran 30 minutes in the 5K. I forgot to mention that Maura had won the Parkrun that same morning. They only make them like that in Mayo.

After some chill time on the island, the early evening was spent in Castletownbere at MacCarthy’s bar which is right on the main square. Holding pride of place at the heart of the town since 1860, for over 150 years, the bar has been passed down from generation to generation of MacCarthy, creating a deep-rooted connection between this establishment and the rich heritage of the Peninsula. It’s local, traditional… mesmerising. A little bit of history really. It’s just charismatic. You just have to see it, have to feel it and judge for yourself. Next and final stop was the Village Inn in Ardgroom.

This is an epic race in one of the best spots in Ireland. Such real silence is hard to find. I can’t recommend it enough! Bere Island is a super place, so good in fact that I spent all day Monday walking around and exploring the entire West end of the island and its rich history. I’ll be back next year and will hopefully make one of the other runs over the summer. If you can invite Maura Ginty and ask her to drive the convertible, you’ll be onto a winner.