Report by Karl Shevlin

A cool and grey morning had emerged as I left on foot for the CHQ building race starting point on Sunday. I felt quite relieved, with a slight cooling breeze and no burning sun (unlike the Tallaght 5K) this felt like perfect racing conditions. I strolled along the Grand Canal enjoying the early morning calm, and focusing the mind on the task ahead. The herons at Wilton Terrace stood fixated, with ever ready bellies, as the moorhens corralled their juveniles among the reeds.

After my early rise and early breakfast, all that was required was a prompt arrival, the bag drop, followed by a pre-race warm-up and some stretches. The vibe was relaxed around the portentous Triumphal Arch at the canal dock, as the early birds idly surveyed the scene. The set-up looked good; we were all at ease in the calm of a quiet Sunday morning.

As the Sportsworld faces emerged from the growing masses around the CHQ, we formed small warm-up groups and went through our own mostly purposeful routines, with some light warm-up runs around the neighbouring blocks. As we gathered on the road outside the CHQ for a final pep talk of sorts, there was the opportunity for some pre-race photos. I felt I was in good company.

Attention shifted to our starting positions, so we headed towards the defunct lock bridge which acted as pen to contain the now swelling masses behind the starting line. I followed the lead of our contenders as we snaked our way to towards the start line and into the 20 minute wave. The pre-race warm-up steadied any nerves. The atmosphere was friendly and relaxed. A final crowd wave photo and we were under starters orders. The starting gun was raised (it was in fact a hooter), and we were released from the pen.

The route consisted of a series of left and right hand turns in and out of the quayside up to the Point Village. Garrett, Wes, Damien, and Maria promptly disappeared around the first corner onto Commons Street, and by the second corner were moving out of sight as their lead on me grew with each targeted stride along Mayor Street. The thinning pack slinked through this sleepiest of urban quarters, a hushed purposeful procession as the contenders stretched out in front on the vacant asphalt.

The nature of the route, with numerous twists and turns within the first 2K slowed my pace on the turns whilst in the pack. The lack of gradient allowed a swift return to race pace once back on the straights. But how to keep it going? Paul Hamilton strode purposely ahead in his first 5K race. Keeping Paul within 10 to 20 metres, and happy with the going pace, I opened my stride along the approach to the Point Village on Mayor Street.

We funnelled out onto North Wall Quay taking the right-hand turn from Castleforbes Street. The Samuel Beckett bridge and the 3K marker lay ahead. Whilst not quite the slingshot effect I had hoped for coming off the bridge and onto Sir John Rogerson Quay, I felt better entering the 4^th km than I had done in Tallaght two weeks earlier. A quick glance at Tom Tom affirmed a 15.3 km/h racing speed, which held the promise of a sub-20 finish. I knew I just had to do a good 4^th km, and that the finish would look after itself. Paul Hamilton lay ahead, within striking distance. He did not relent.

Past the diving bell a series of right hand turns took us back along the quay and then along Hanover Street East via Cardiff Lane, introducing the route’s only significant gradient. A dash down Lime Street was followed by the final left-hand turn into the finish along City Quay. With the gathered spectators and the finish line looming into view I worked along the quay and brought the morning’s proceedings to a close. Tom Tom had given me my reward, even if Titan had not.

A Sportsworld gathering had ensued within the finishers area, as we enthused on the race, our respective finishes, and the stellar performances of others. Special mention to Maria Jones who departed the scene laden in gold.

The chips really are down for Titan, and as of Tuesday morning they have 774 chip times available, so some participants are not recorded here.

Sportsworld results

4th Gareth Murran 00:16:08 1st in age category
XX Martin Doyle 00:17:40
19th Wesley Harrison 00:18:15
22nd Damien Geraghty 00:18:30
25th Maria Jones 00:18:43 1st female!
29th Kieran Long 00:18:54
37 Noel Tobin 00:19:19 3rd in age category
46 Paul Hamilton 00:19:48
47 Karl Shevlin 00:19:48
92 Gerard Neenan 00:21:32
XX Katie Nugent 21:34
104 Stephanie Bergin 00:21:54
115 Derrick Long 00:22:11
116 Eoin O Brien 00:22:14
143 Mary O Hare 00:23:11
153 Conor Kenny 00:23:29

According to Eoin O Brien the worlds greatest 5 mile road race took place last Sunday in Terenure so how exactly did that happen.

34 years ago Emily and Mick Dowling started the Sportsworld 5 mile race, ‘The Classic’, and 34 years later it is still going strong and still doing what it set out to do – raise money for a charity, put on a quality top class race and get people into running and joining the club.

Over the years the course has changed a few times and there have been different course directors, race directors and committees but the volume of work probably hasn’t changed much. Believe it or not the work on this years race started back in September trying to get people interested in going on the race committee with the first meeting happening in October.We had 13 people on the committee this year with everyone playing their part. We had Delourdes Seymour, Nigel Elliott, Grainne Lynch, Karl Shevlin and Jim Browne working on the committee for the first time bringing huge improvements to the runner email design, extra stewards form the DCC , reduced printing costs, free face painter, sponsorship money, provided baking for every single meeting and most importantly brought new ideas and view points to the race.The last few years we have struggled coming up with a T shirt design and tying the race image together. Bronwyn has been a real asset to the race this year bringing a real professional uniform look to all the graphic design work (T shirt, information leaflets, posters, pacer flags) and rivaling the look of any professional race organisation.

Adrian Lanigan is on his second year on the race committee and linked in with all the running clubs and corporate teams to get almost 200 entries in the race.

Again a few years ago we had serious trouble getting any sponsorship for the race. The race is expensive and there is only so much money we can bring in with race entries. So to be able to give anything to a charity and for money to go back into the club we need sponsors. Liam Lenehan and this year Mark Hogan have not only got race sponsorship money but added value sponsors like a radio sponsor, waste management sponsor, food sponsor. As well as paying for the race this again gives a professional look to the race and improves the day out for runners.Maria Finnegan has the unenviable job of getting all the accounts together, making sure all the money has come in, all the bills are paid and pointing out again how much money Eoin wasted on novelty balloons.

Sandra Gowran is an amazing public speaker and no matter how rowdy a running crowd can be she has no problem controlling the room and getting all the sponsor, charity and race information across to the crowd.Frank Greally says Eoin O Brien has a race promotions job anytime he wants which might be a good thing if his employer ever finds out how much time he spends on the race each year.  Some people think all Eoin does is spend the year thinking of the most expensive novelty balloons he can get away with buying but the fact is without Eoin’s constant race promotion the race would not of sold out the last few years and a big part of the charity donation each year is down to the race numbers he brings in.So what made the 2018 race special.

Like everything there were loads of jobs and small details that people may not realise happened that made the race a success.

Sandra Armstrong getting the cub scouts to deal with handing out the finish line water

Ronan Masterson getting a chilled van to give out the Glenisk yogurts

Noel Lynam collection 1700 bottles of water before the raceLaurence Delair and Niamh Cunningham setting up the refreshments after the raceJoe Byrne collecting the Burco’s for the race and stewarding the finish line after returning from the European Rugby championship final 4 o clock that morning

Val Power entering a company competition and getting the charity a $1000 prize

Mark Heffernan, Jose Chapa, Noel Lynam, Paul Cassidy, Jim Browne for sponsoring the race.

Dr Louise Jackman for taking care of 1380 finishers

Breda Browne for getting 2000 Donate Blood Pens for race

Everyone who did the Friday and Saturday pre-race registrationEveryone who put up the 100 posters and the 2000 leaflet drops

Anthony Gillian and Cormac Garvey for providing free PA systems

Amazing photos by Anna Delaney and Alan HynesSean Donegan for once again giving Summer concert ticket prizes

Martin Doyle, John Flaherty and Neil Purdy for putting out and lifting 500 traffic cones and 50 crowd barriersConor Kenny for safely driving the lead car around a tight courseAll the pacers who were complemented by Frank Greally on their professional job and all the runners who said they got them the time they wanted.Michael O Grady and Justin McKeever for working solidly on tired runners for 3 hours after the race for free

I’m sure there are things and people I have forgotten but it’s just to show it’s a club effort to put the race on each year and although at times everyone questions ‘is this worth it’ I think the positive atmosphere the race brings to the area, the money raised for the charities each year and the fact that the race is proven to get people involved in running makes it something the club should always try to continue.

11  VALERIE Power Sportsworld 6:30.55
12 IRENE O’Connor Sportsworld 6:39.07
13 CARMEL Dolan Sportsworld 6:51.59
14 BRONWYN Murphy White Sportsworld 6:53.64
15 OLIVE Fogarty Sportsworld 6:55.10

I was ranked 14, which was the average age of everyone bar the five of us representing Sportsworld in the Women’s C grade 1500m race up in Tallaght track last night.

Race reporter Bronywn 

Since starting on the track on Saturday mornings last summer and loving it, not to mention seeing serious improvements in my running, I have been dying to get back to it after such a gloomy winter. So I was delighted when I heard that Dublin Athletics were hosting a fortnightly race in Santry and Tallaght from May until August and thought I would rope a few others in to do it with me, so I wouldn’t make a complete show of myself on my own.

However, when we got there and saw the ‘competition’ in their short-shorts and serious looking multi-coloured spikes we got a little nervous. One girl was so serious she had two different coloured spikes on, which must mean she actually owns two pairs of spikes and not a pair of spikes between the five of us! We all felt a little out of place and a lot old. As Irene put it, she had ‘socks older than some of the girls in our race’ but it was too late to back out, so we did a few warm-up laps then stood around for half an hour and got cold again, as you do.

Our clumpy road runners plonked firmly on the wrong side of the starting line, we were ready to go, but there was a little delay and we were told to wait a few minutes and stay warm. Our competitors kept warm by doing strides and dynamic stretches and we rubbed our cold hands together, which we regretted as soon as the race took off.  ‘Why didn’t I warm up?’ and ‘why am I doing this?’ were the only things going through my mind when I had no oxygen for the 6:53.64 mins it took me to get around the track, but once it was over and I stopped coughing, I thought it was brilliant. That’s one thing nobody warned us about; the post track race smokers-cough you get that lasts for hours afterwards! Carmel even had to go get a cough bottle.

As for the race, I started way too ‘fast’ trying to hang on to the back of the group, but Carmel and Irene paced themselves very well and both surged on the last lap. Val hung on extremely well to the short-shorts girls the whole way round and myself and Olive managed to not be lapped by the winner! That was my main goal – just don’t get lapped!

Seriously though, and all joking aside I would totally recommend others in the club to try this one out. We had great support, Emily and Miles were there and we all heard loads of cheers for us by name and cheers for Sportsworld as we were running, which was quite unexpected, really encouraging and greatly appreciated.

We represented the ‘normal’ non-short shorts runners, who might be afraid to go to something like this, but we were made feel very welcome there and we would all definitely do it again and would encourage others to try it as well. Val spoke to a man who has been running the graded meets for 20 years and comes second last every time but said he doesn’t care as it’s great for improving your road racing time.

We went there for the laugh and the novelty of a track race on a Wednesday night, but honestly we really enjoyed it. It’s a totally different kind of running – lung busting and exhilarating and if it helps improve 5k and 10k time, its well worth the 6-7 minutes of body shock. The only down side was that we couldn’t find coffee afterwards, first world problems, but a coffee cart would make a killing up there.

When we finally got our breath back, we watched the Sportsworld men running their races. Gareth Murran ran a blinder for 2^nd place in the B grade men’s 1500m and so nearly got the win, as did Will Greensmyth in his C grade 1500m, narrowly missing out on 3^rd place, with Conor Keating and Diarmuid Ó Súilleabháin placing 8^th and 9^th respectively in the same race.

Representing Sportsworld in the men’s D grade 1500m were Declan Brady (who came 3^rd), Aidan Curran and Alan Power (7^th and 8^th) and Timothy Morahan ran the 5000m in a very impressive 17:43.76.

Apologies if I missed anyone!

Next meet is next Wednesday 23rd in Tallaght:

Full results

Women’s C grade 1500m:

https://www.dublinathletics.com/attachments/article/505/1500m%20Womens%20C%20-%20RESULT.pdf

Men’s B grade 1500m:

https://www.dublinathletics.com/attachments/article/505/1500m%20Mens%20B%20-%20RESULT.pdf

Men’s C grade 1500m:

https://www.dublinathletics.com/attachments/article/505/1500m%20Mens%20C%20-%20RESULT.pdf

Men’s D grade 1500m:

https://www.dublinathletics.com/attachments/article/505/1500m%20Mens%20D%20-%20RESULT.pdf

Men’s 5000m A/B/C/D:

https://www.dublinathletics.com/attachments/article/505/5000m%20Mens%20A%20+%20B%20+%20C%20+%20D%20-%20RESULT.pdf

Full results:

https://www.dublinathletics.com/

Fixtures and joining up:

https://www.dublinathletics.com/fixtures/register-online.html

Only one word can adequately describe the Great Limerick Run of 2018. Hot. Maybe two words… very hot! Temperatures hit 20 degrees on the streets of Limerick on Sunday 6^th May 2018. Granted not quite Marathon des Sables…but it felt pretty close! ‘Strategy’ quickly evaporated in the heat… we would be happy to finish in a reasonable time.

The Great Limerick Run happens on the Sunday of the May bank holiday, and is part of Riverfest. So I was sold a promise of “a bit of a run, and then food, drink, fun and fireworks”.

The Great Limerick Run has a full and half marathon, a relay marathon (which nobody told me about when we were signing up) and a 10k. Staggered starts made for an almost seamless start. I say seamless because when meeting friends in Pery Square don’t tell them “I’m beside the church”… there’s a church at both ends of the square!

Nevertheless we set off together on the half-marathon, bemoaning the lack of training, lack of clouds and lack of sunscreen…

The first few miles took us south/southwest-ish through the suburbs, into open country, past the Old Crescent RFC, back into more suburbia, and then back in the same road towards the city.

The halfway point was back by the city centre, and cheering crowds for whom there was an obligatory spurt for about 50 metres to make me look like a proper athlete (followed by the shuffle as I passed out of sight!)

We then crossed over the Shannon and into the leafy (and deceptively uphill) suburbs of the North Circular Road.  Somewhere around mile 10-11 a spectator had turned their garden hose outwards onto the road.

I have never appreciated somebody turning their garden hose on me so much in my entire life! It felt like a little bit of heaven.

Then it was onwards (and upwards) towards the Ennis Road, from which it seemed I was running towards the roof of Thomond Park!

By now it was clear that heat had gotten to some runners, and their race was unfortunately over for the day. Thanking my lucky stars, the extra water stations and slow pace I progressed, finally reaching the summit of Thomond Park!

And then the relief of moving downhill towards Sarsfield’s Bridge, with the inflatable arches in the near distance, neither of which turned out to be the finish line! Too late, I’d already put on a finishing flourish for my adoring public and had to sustain it for another  50 metres up the street, around the corner onto O’Connell Street and about another 50 metres to cross under the actual finishing arch completely banjaxed!

I have to say I’d underestimated what Limerick city has on offer – it lived up to its promise of running, good food and drink, fun and fireworks.

It’s a nice route for a slightly cooler day (or fitter version of me)!

Half Marathon                   Pos            Time

Kieran Foley                     207         01:38:14

AnnMarie Scanlon             186         01:57:23

Ann Belton                       246         02:02:23

Grainne Wall                     317         02:08:00

Marathon                   Pos            Time

Shona Keane               1         03:00:29

Ed McEntee                 78       03:12:39

My last race report, a mere 4 weeks ago on Easter Monday at Raheny described excessively cold, wet and windy conditions for the race. Fast forward to May Bank Holiday and conditions were positively hot, dry and calm. God, is there any ideal weather conditions for a race I ask myself?

What a great days racing for the club though. Best summed up I think in the words of one of the organisers to Emily, during the presentation ceremony, “Ye lot cleaned up here today”.

May Bank Holiday Monday means one thing. The trip to Gowran, for the annual, round and
round the village we run. 5 of our Ladies and 19 of our men together with Emily and Myles took the trip South to compete for the club in the Leinster Masters and Novice Competitions.
Liam Lenehan and Peter Knaggs had educated us thru ‘whats app’ that apparently 90 000 souls were buried in the adjacent restored abbey grounds. Despite the hot conditions endured by the 23, thankfully we won’t be adding to that number anytime soon.

First to race for Sportsworld over 4 laps or 6k were the Mens Masters. Despite great efforts
from our M35 team led home by Gavin Finlay back from the U.S, they were narrowly beaten
into 4 th place in what was a very competitive and keenly contested race.
Our O50s team were to fair 1 place better collecting bronze, led home once again by Noel Tobin.
Congratulations to Liam Lenehan for picking up bronze in the o55 category. Especially sweet for Liam, doing the business on his home turf. Well done.

Like the weather, the afternoon was to get better as the club pulled off a great double, winning both Ladies and Mens Novice team gold. Special mention to Maria Jones and Ciara Brady claiming silver and bronze respectively in the individual category, to go with both Club and County gold medals. 3 medals is certainly a fine days work.

Not to be outdone by the Ladies, the Mens team led home by Stephen O Donnell who ran an
incredible 4 th lap in making up 3 places also brought home the gold to bring the days racing to an end.

In addition to medals mentioned above our athletes collected 4 County Gold and 9 County Silver to add to the haul.

Well done to all who competed in Gowran. Be sure to mark it in the diary for 2019.

Special thanks to Emily & Myles for their support on the day.

Results:

Grainne Lynch

When I woke up on Sunday I immediately regretted not running away from Emily when she cornered me on the Tuesday after training asking where I was racing over the weekend. It seems my answer of “I’m not racing” wasn’t one of the options.

It was hot out there and I was in hayfever hell! After some initial confusion registering teams for the Dublin Novice Championship I met up with Martina for a warm up. I desperately wanted to break 23 minutes so I decided I would run as fast as I could for as long as I could – foolproof really! At the start line, already sweating there were a good few Sportsworld singlets to be seen. I lined up (with itchy eyes and sneezing) alongside Martina, Linda, Val and Carmel. Midday struck and we were off – did I mention it was hot!! The course is flat and fast except for the hill at the end. Jose had warned me to save some energy for the slight drag at the end – it’s a hill Jose!! At least it felt like that to me.

My strategy worked for the first 3 KM. I felt great and was sure I was going to smash my sub 23 target. Oh how things can quickly change. By the 4th Km I had blown up and decided that I in fact hated running. Linda and Martina started to pull away from me. It was only when I glanced at my watch I realised how much I had slowed. I pick up my pace again and even attempted a sprint finish on the track but alas I crossed the line in exactly 23:00. My sub 23 was not to be.

There was great support from the club all along the course. Thanks to Emily, Myles, Paul, Naoise, Catherine, Aileen, Karl and Jose for the shout outs! There was a decent spread after in the clubhouse and presentations took place on the track in the glorious sunshine. Due to technical issues the team results for the Dublin Novice were not announced so we only found out a day later that the ladies team came 3rd. I foolishly shared this good news with Olive Fogarty whose response was “great, well done, will you write a race report”? it seems “no” was not an option. Well done to everyone who raced in that heat.

Oliver Hedborg

Journey up to the race:

When it came to preparations for this race, I had none. Honestly! I’d just come back to Tuesday’s training session after running the Madrid Marathon and had no what-so-ever idea that I was going to be running a 5k race on Sunday.

Like any other training session I walked through the clubhouse doors and was immediately met by Emily who was smiling at me. “How was Madrid? Happy enough?”. I nodded, indicating I was. Emily continued by saying something like “How about running Sunday or Monday?”

Sunday would be alright, I responded. Unlike most people, I did not have the luxury of having Monday off as my bank holidays are planned after the Nordic market.

Nevertheless, without too much thought, Sunday sounded pretty good. Half a minute later and I was signed up for a 5 km race.

Fast forward to Sunday – race day:

9.30 a.m. sharp. That’s when I was convinced everyone was going to meet outside of the clubhouse to car pool to Tallaght. Embracing my inner Swede I showed up early – like 30 minutes early and decided to enjoy the beautiful weather by waiting out the remaining time on a bench just outside of the clubhouse. Ten minutes go by and at the corner of my eye I’m noticing someone running towards me. It was Enda, out for his morning run on a beautiful Sunday morning.

Happy to see a familiar face I turn to greet him. With a confused face Enda asks me what I’m doing here (for those who do not know I happened to live over at the north side in Clontarf, so for me to be found that far south is not very common unless there is a session). I explain to Enda that I’m waiting for the car pool.  The expression on his face clearly indicated I’ve made a mistake. No one is coming and there is no car pool for today. I texted the Sportsworld men’s group, fingers cross, hoping for someone to respond that they are driving.

Enter Michael to the rescue who was driving over there around 10:45 am.

With some time to kill I head over with Enda to grab a coffee (also what Swedish people like to call “fika”) to wait out the remaining time. An hour and lots of coffee later I’m sitting in the car together with Michael and Conor on our way to Tallaght.

In the car I get my first introduction of the course where both Michael and Conor (who ran it previously) explain that it’s a fast one. Fun fact – they announced that if you beat the course record of 14:XX you have the chance of winning €500. The trick is not to blow up in the beginning and make sure to save some energy for the 3-4 km where you are faced with some uphill.

The course itself started just a couple of minutes outside the Tallaght AC’s clubhouse on Greenhills Road and took you around, in one single loop, the neighbourhood of Tallaght finishing fast on the club’s track.

Whilst discussing the layout of the course and how we were going to try to pick people off during the last km of the race, we arrived at Tallaght where we met up with the rest of the Sportsworld team. Eager to race I started my normal routine of stretching followed by some laps together with the team on the tracks. After about 15 minutes it was time to line up and together as a team we headed down to the start line (see first picture). I pushed my way up to the front of the starting line ready to run.

The clock turned to 12 pm and off we went. Like Michael and Connor said, it was fast. I was aiming to average on a 3.45-ish pace and immediately caught myself running more on a 3.20. I had to slow down, let people pass and steady myself. I saw Michael, Connor and Wesley shoot by me – all going strong. First 2 km felt alright. Pace was as intended and I continued to move forward. The course really felt like a typical run in the neighbourhood, taking you through the suburban areas.

I passed the 3 km and noticed I’d slowed down a bit, conscious of the hilly part ahead of me. To my relief it wasn’t as bad as expected. With only a couple of second’s slow-down, I increased the pace again for the last km. At this point the heat was becoming more noticeable as well. The weather was fantastic, but more suitable for tanning than running. It was warm and around +20 C with blazing sun.

Nevertheless, the end was close and I couldn’t stop. With my last shred of energy I forced myself to pick up the speed, hitting the final stretch of the track and finishing on a chip time of 19:24.

Conor McCarthy 17.09

Michael Cunningham 17.46

Wesley Harrison 18.18

Oliver Hedborg 19.24

Padraig Looby 19.55

Karl Shevlin 20.08

Gary Hobbert 20.34

Martina Nolan Jones 22.46

Grainne Lynch 23.00

Val Power 23.42