Sunday March 10^th saw the latest running of the well-established Bohermeen half marathon in Co Meath.  I had heard a lot about this race over the years and despite plenty of talk, I had never actually run it before.  However, the race comes with a good reputation and so I put my name in the hat and signed up.  This was to be the last in a series of about 6 races over the course of 10 weeks so I was determined to give it a good shot.  The course itself is fast with few hills to worry about and a high-quality field to drag you along.

Both Garry Hobbert and Martin Doyle accompanied me in the car for the 45 min drive down to the venue.  As usual it was a pretty wet and miserable morning and but for the 2 guys in the car with me, there’s every possibility I would have arrived, had tea and left.  Eventually I dragged myself out onto the road for a good warm up in advance of the freezing cold and wet start.  There was a 7 minute delay in the 11am gun time so I used that window to think strategy.  I decided there and then to break the race into 5km chunks – just run 5km and see how you feel.  I was aiming for 4 min per km, so the math’s were simple.  I was pleasantly surprised to run the first 5km to schedule and then hit 10km at 40.01 and 15km at 60.06.  From there I was into the last 5km chunk so I ignored the watch and just focused on finishing strongly.

I was starting to hurt now, so it was just about keeping it moving and trying not to drop any time.  I was very pleased to finish in 1.24.37 (4.01 per km) for a 3 minute PB.  Post race the atmosphere was strange – very quickly runners started to feel the cold conditions and people dispersed.  Garry arrived at the finish area having been undone (pardon the pun) by a shoe lace which he could not properly fasten due to his fingers being frozen stiff – a stark indication of the conditions.

Also in Bohermeen flying the Sportsworld flag were Eileen Rowland and Catherine Gilmore – well done ladies.

Overall the race is one I would recommend and hope to get back there some day.

Full results:  Events-Events (myrunresults.com)

by Deirdre McGing

So, what made me want to run in circles for 50km?

I’m not entirely sure what prompted the idea but I was familiar with the Donadea 50K through my local Parkrun where a number of runners I know take part every year and rave about it. I had seen some videos as well and thought the atmosphere looked great. Ultimately, I decided that if I was ever going to do it then I was going to do it following on from the Dublin Marathon as I would have a lot of training done already and would just need to keep ticking over for another few weeks rather than starting from scratch. 

I completed the Dublin Marathon in October in a time of 3:39:00 and then took a full month off training to recover. I started back with the long runs in December which was hard with Christmas and work/social activities taking over. If I’m honest, I found the increasing mileage a bit of a burden. It didn’t help that the weather wasn’t great in December – dark, cold, wet & windy! However, once I got past New Year’s and the weather improved, I really started to enjoy the process. Donadea 50K famously comes with a 5 hour cut-off and my main focus was on making it to the finish on time. They do allow you to finish beyond 5 hours but they say the results will be wiped afterwards. I didn’t focus on time or pace – the goal was to complete it. Because of this, I focused on only one hard session a week and the rest was just building mileage. While I wasn’t going to be setting the world alight with fast times, it did mean I wasn’t that fatigued during training and I hoped that my recovery post-race would be relatively swift. I never doubted that I would complete the distance or that I wouldn’t make the cut-off but I did worry about the mental side of things. It is a looped course where each lap is normally 5km. Round and round and round… I wasn’t sure how my head was going to cope. Then, while spectating at the Raheny 5 Mile, someone I know told me they heard the course was waterlogged in one section and that it might not be 10 laps, but rather 15 or 16! I didn’t know what to think of that.

Race day rolled around on Feb 10th. The weather Gods were good to us and it was a dry day in Kildare. I rocked up on my own just over an hour before the start time and met the great Irene O’Connor in the line for the numbers. Irene runs marathons the way I run Parkruns – nearly every week, so 50K wasn’t going to worry her.  

After leaving my drinks & gels at the feeding station, I walked/jogged the kilometre or so to the startline. Knowing I was going to do ten parkruns back-to-back, I didn’t feel there was a need to add extra mileage. I wasn’t going to be challenging the leading women so I could afford to warm up during the first lap or two. At 10am we were off! I fell in with the 4:45 pacing group. That was going to mean a 5:42km for 50km. For context, I was running 5:11 for the marathon so I felt that I should be comfortable with the pace for quite some distance. The race consisted of a 1.058 run up towards the finish line and then 13 laps of 3.77km or so. This meant going through the finish area 14 times and remembering this was one of the hardest parts of the day. A guy I know from Parkrun got confused and missed a lap – imagine thinking you had done 50K but really you had only done a measly 46km? The shame! 

I got into a rhythm and relaxed after about 5km and it was nice to be with a group. As always, the group started out quite big and whittled down after a few laps but we maintained a core group right to the end. People have asked me if I found it really boring but honestly, I was so focused that I didn’t mind. A bit of chat here and there with other runners helped as well. 

A number of running clubs set up their tents after the feed stations and so each lap when we’d approach the finish area, we would have a good stretch of clubmates & families cheering everyone on. I wondered if I made a mistake telling my own family not to bother arriving until at least 1pm but I knew a lot of the crew from Blackrock AC through the Parkrun and they cheered me on each lap from the beginning until the end which was really uplifting. Eventually, as I approached the finish area for the 11th time, my support squad arrived.  

The interesting thing about running laps was knowing that I would be lapped several times by leading runners. I think I was lapped three times by the winning male & female and it was honestly quite cool (and slightly annoying) to see them ease by. Special mention has to go to Sorcha Loughnane from Donore Harriers who smashed the Irish National record and also set a world age best with her finish time of 3:18:04. She is a super athlete and a highly impressive individual. I didn’t see her at the end, probably because she was already at home with her feet up before I crossed the line. 

I felt fresh until around 40km and then it doesn’t matter what pace you’re running, you start to feel sore and heavy. I passed the marathon distance and entered the unknown. In training, I went to 36km on my longest run and I’ve done 4 marathons to date so when I went over that distance, it became a mental game to get to the end. I fell slightly off the back of the 4:45 group and the second last lap was really tough. It’s amazing what can happen though when you know you only have one lap left. I went from feeling terrible to inspired. After taking on drinks as I passed the finish area, I focused on reeling back in the pacers. They weren’t far in front of me and it gave me a focus. I caught the group with around 2km to go and following some final words of encouragement from the pacers, our little group pushed on. I knew once the pacers remained behind me that we were on for a sub 4:45 time. As we approached the final bend, a couple of us exchanged well wishes and then we made a final run for home. Approaching the finish line was a great feeling and the buzz around the place was amazing. I had actually picked up the pace so much on the last lap that my own mother didn’t see me coming through as she was busy chatting. My official chip time was 4:43:06. 

I was dutifully given my medal and then the best prize of all – a cold can of Coke! 

After cheering on the final runners, we headed off for coffee nearby and a post-mortem of the event. 

Overall, this was a very well-organised event with a super atmosphere. It is getting bigger and bigger every year as the organisers try to grow the interest in ultra running. I would highly recommend it to anyone mad enough to consider going beyond the marathon distance.

Will I be back? Never say never but for now I’m going back to the 5K.

Sunday February 4^th saw the latest iteration of the John Tracey Dungarvan 10 mile road race.  I had heard good things about this event over the years – a well organised event with a very nice t-shirt from a well known sports brand (no free advertising here).  There is also usually a high quality field which is nice to see.  I’m never sure how to race 10 milers as I find it a bit of a funny distance and there are not too many races at this distance – oddly enough Trim had its own 10 mile race on the same day which I found strange.  Having not mastered the art of being in two places at once I made up my mind and signed up to Dungarvan which is organised by West Waterford Athletic Club.

Poor forward planning meant I was on the road to Waterford on the morning of the race for an 11am start.  I found the drive long and would probably stay over the night before if I were to do it again.  Arriving in Dungarvan in good time, I was disappointed but not surprised to find a gusty but dry morning.  This event is indeed well organised and after a good warm up we were under way at 11am sharp.

Disappointingly, there was only 1 other Sportworld contender and that was Gareth Murran whom I spotted on the start line a few yards ahead of me.  The start of the race winds its way through Dungarvan town before heading out the main N25 and then turning off onto very pleasant boreens.  Racing is hard.  I felt I was working hard from the get-go and the wind certainly wasn’t helping.  I tried to tuck in with a group and let them take the wind for me, but I think everyone had the same idea.

The groups usually disintegrated quickly and you found yourself either dropped or moving ahead of people. Hitting half way I saw I was under 32 mins which put me on course to run my fastest ever 10 mile.  I had to work hard to run 32 mins for the first half so I was kind of dreading the 2^nd half. Will my splits fall off or can I keep this going?  This is where the mental side of the game comes into play.  I starting counting the kms down in my head.  Just 8 km to go Pádraig – keep at it.

Approaching 14km, Gareth appeared out of nowhere on my shoulder and had some welcome words of encouragement which I needed.  Approaching the finish I was doing some sums in my head.  I was confident now I would finish sub 64 min and realised maybe even sub 63 was possible.  Alas it was not to be and I finished with 63.13.  Its my fastest time over that distance – any day you can say that is a good day so I will gladly take it.   Post race I caught up with Gareth and former Sportsworlder Conor Cavanagh who also raced.

Between the three of us we more or less drank and ate everything Dungarvan had to offer that night.  I was sore and sorry the next day but I regret nothing.  Will race Dungarvan again some day God willing.

For the last cross county of the season Sportsworld travelled to Dundalk IT on a fresh, dry February morning. Initial inspection of the course showed a relatively flat twisting course around the playing fields at the back of the IT under the massive wind turbine. Things are not always as they appear. There were no Avondale hills or lashing rain but the course held a number of surprises and challenges for the 6 teams Sportworld fielded for the championships.

First up were the ladies Masters. It has been a successful year for the ladies masters team with a number of Dublin and Leinster Medals won, but this was the big time, the Nationals. There were two teams, O35 and O50 both the same 4km distance. The ground was saturated in a lot of places and it did not take long for long stretches of quick sand muck to develop. Lucy Darcy came away with a gold Dublin team medal and the ladies Sportsworld O/50 came away with National bronze medals.

                            Sandra Gowran, Lucy Darcy, Anna Delaney, Anne Sweeney

Next up was the Men’s Masters. Again the standard at the Nationals is very high with a number of known top runners in the field traveling from all over the country. The Masters men was a 7km marathon. Trevor Sweeney and Bruce Campbell however both came away with Dublin gold medals.

The intermediate ladies team was next with the 5km race. The women’s intermediate team is getting stronger and stronger with new runners joining the team. Stephanie Bergin did however have to join the team at the last minute to get a full team but it paid off with the ladies getting National Intermediate bronze medals. Strong runs by team mates Veronica and Michelle Burke and Emma Meade secured the medals with 101 points.

Emma Meade, Veronica Burke, Michelle Burke, Stephanie Bergin

The final race was the mens intermediate 8km. At this stage the course was so badly cut up that they had to move the course stakes to give the runners a chance of getting fresh ground to run on. There was a lot of pain on a lot of faces and pacing and tactics seemed to count as some runners reduced their pace for the first few kilometers to save something for the last lap. There were no medals in the mens intermediate but it was still a top 10 national finish for the club.

Race reporter Michelle Burke

TEAMS STANDINGS SO FAR:

December 2023 Sportsworld Running Club celebrated 40 years as a running club. We had some of the original members of the club as well as brand members celebrating being part of Sportsworld at the Hilton Hotel in Dublin.

Mick Dowling, Club President, welcomed members to the event and gave an introduction on the early days of the club and the building of the Sportsworld Clubhouse in Bushy Park and Emily Dowlings 40 years of service to the club as head coach. Aileen Melody and Michael Cunningham were the MC for the black tie event. Sean O Byrne gave a great round up of the history of the 40 years of the club from the early days meeting under a tree to the first running of the Mini Marathon by the first Sportsworld members.

Eoin O Brien and Gareth Murran but together a collection of photos playing in the back round from championship race wins to the annual club BBQ. The celebration went into the following day with stories and memories being shared.

A big thank you to the organising committee for putting on a brilliant and memorable event. Only 5 more years to wait for the next anniversary dinner.

If you would like to see more photos from the event follow the below link.

https://tdstudios.pixieset.com/sportsworldrunningclub-anniversarydinner/

People are familiar with football world cup finals, rugby world cup finals or All Ireland Finals. The National Senior Cross Country Championships may not have the glamour or TV coverage but for some this is their world cup final and for their club it’s the All Ireland. This years race was held in Gowran, a very familiar small town to some runners but the course was nothing anyone had seen before. The layout was similar to previous events but the ground conditions showed the continuous heavy rain that has fallen for the last few months.

Some people are into their pre race premonitions, seeing 2 magpies around the course, a double rainbow over the finish line. One thing you never want to see when you jog around a course is a pile of single cross country spikes staked beside a marshal on the course. This is scientific proof the course is going to be seriously tough, especially when any runner doing nationals knows to triple tie their shoe laces.

There was a small enough field for the womens senior XC which this year for the first time was 9km matching the men’s distance. I guess the jury is out on if matching race distances is going to work long term but the course and distance was no problem to first time national senior winner Fionna Everard of Bandan AC. There was only 63 finishers in the women’s race with DCH winning the women’s team title.

After around a 30minute delay the men’s race lined up. There were some top names in the field with Brian Fay, Darragh McElhinney or Efrem Gidey all tipped to win. Sportsworld had managed to get a team together for this important race with Karol Cronin, Paul O Beirne, Stephen O Donnell, Gavin Finlay, Michael Cunningham and Brian Conway.

Its hard to describe the race. The course was familiar, the distance was the same as the Leinster senior a couple of weeks before but the depth of the mud and the length of the muddy sections meant the 9km was more like a marathon and you almost had to constantly look at the ground to keep your balance and keep moving. There were a lot of non finishers and a lot of lost spikes. Cormac Dalton was the unexpected winner of the mens race with Kilkenny City Harriers winning the mens team. Kilkenny City Harriers had only 1 runner in the top 10 but still got the top place.

Full results on  MyRunResults

Since joining Sportsworld a couple of months ago, I was determined to try cross-country running at some point. Despite my best efforts, however, I never attended the weekend training sessions.

I was encouraged to go to Meet and Train in Tymon and thought that sounded like a gentle way in. I decided to buy some spikes and try them out before Tymon, and off I went to Eamonn Ceannt Park to run up and down a few slopes. The spikes felt VERY flat and VERY weird, and with my odd feet, I was a bit worried about how I would run in them on the day.

As the Meet and Train Day got closer, I became nervous. Reading WhatsApp messages in the build-up, I was so nervous that I misunderstood a few texts. Nerves do that to me. Running as an Individual, I thought, meant I wasn’t running for the Club. When I was added to a Team and saw that four races were scheduled, I thought I would have to run four on the same day. FOUR RACES, despite Zero training, never having run cross country, plus wearing weird shoes on my odd feet.

Not surprisingly, I was properly panicking when I turned up an hour early on the day. One of my running mates later remarked, ‘Your hands were shaking when you were trying to pin your race number on’. She was right.

I warmed up with the other runners, got a little more used to the strange shoes, and the nervousness shifted a little. My feet were soaked and muddy, and I thought, Hello, cross-country running. As a newbie, I was given fantastic advice and encouragement from experienced Club cross-country runners before the race, which helped give me a sense of belonging.

Lining up at the crowded start line, I suddenly felt 14 again at a school sports event and became slightly overwhelmed by the competitive vibe. I pushed those memories from my mind and took comfort that I was only running one race and not the four I had been dreading. Surely, I could manage one.

The crowding and slight jostling at the start made me take off faster than I had planned, and that, coupled with unexpected post-dodging, left me a bit rattled. I did feel the benefit of the spikes, though, as I noticed a few other runners in trainers slip and slide ahead of me. I began to realise after the first lap that it wasn’t starting too fast; that was the source of my burning lungs, but the fact that this was a whole other type of running. I didn’t have the comfort of regular breaths, my usual pattern of breathing in slightly fast and slowly out. For that, I realised you needed even surface under your feet. This was jumping over tufts of grass, running up inclines, uneven ground and splashing through mud. T’was very different from the road races I had run.

At the end of the first lap, I thought, how in the name of God am I going to do three laps when I can barely breathe? All around me, I could hear people breathing like I was; other lungs were screaming as loudly as mine, which was a small comfort.

I tried to keep sight of the other Sportsworlders to stay focused, and I prayed that I wouldn’t completely disgrace myself on my first outing for the Club. I also decided that I wouldn’t look back to see where I was on the course at any point. I was too scared of seeing I was Paddy Last or Patricia Last. (Apologies if someone called Paddy or Patricia is in the Club). I don’t mean ye!

I counted each lap and, heading into the third, realised I didn’t have the push to run like mad for the final stretch. Instead, taking encouragement from people shouting my name and lifting my spirits, I forced myself to overtake as many other runners as I possibly could. I was never so glad to finish a race so I could breathe properly again. I was handed a card with a number at the finish line. I hadn’t a clue that the number related to my finishing place and had misread it anyway. There was a great laugh when I declared, between mouthfuls of biscuits later, that my place number was 18 when it was actually 81.

So many runners from the Club and organisers checked in to see how I felt the race went, which was lovely. Let’s face it: all you want to do when you finish a race is talk about it A LOT. As a newbie, I felt so supported by the other Sportsworlders on the day, and it did make me want to do more cross country. It was a beautiful day, full of sunshine, hope and encouragement, and I am locked and loaded for the next three races. Thankfully, the next one isn’t until January, so I will put the time in for training this time!