Report by Eoin O’Brien

Photos by Noel Tobin

So my time as finally come. After explicitly telling Grainne Lynch on Thursday afternoon that Sportsworld race singlets do have to be worn for this event; I rocked into the Liberties sporting a grey number. I was never getting away with not writing this race report. Do as I say not as I do.

That smile was soon wiped off my face

I had packed my singlet but it doesn’t leave much to the imagination these days, and with a 7.45pm race start, it was still well before the 9pm watershed to have me running around in that thing in public.

Picking up Andrea McNamara who works up the road to me, it was obvious my reign of race report terror has crept into people’s unconsciousness as she was wearing her race singlet getting into the car. It transpired she actually wore into the courts that morning for fear of forgetting it and be writing this piece in my place.

We ended up parking in the first spot we saw, only after I insisted on a 20min recon of Kilmainham looking for a better spot closer to the start. I’m a runner not a walker. Andrea spotted a café on the course and suggested we just hang out there and cheer everyone on as the go by instead.  Finally realising she was just joking I cancelled by skinny latte order, much to the annoyance of the barista, and followed her up the road.

The Liberties Fun Run is a great little race starting and finishing in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham with all proceeds going to St James Hospital next door.  This was the 9^th year and for the first eight years it was a 6km race, this year they extended it slightly to make it an even 4 miles as Ireland has now fully adopted metric units.

This race has by far the most impressive number pick up, baggage area and jacks of any race. The hospital was built in 1684 and race registration and bag drop was in the impressive Great Hall. I actually love picking my number up here. The high ceilings and huge windows are complemented by portraits peering down on us that have been in situ since 1713, portraits of heads like King Charles II and the Duke of Ormond who built the place. It’s the only public collection of portraits in the country that have remained in their original position. They don’t hang pictures like they used too.

17th Century Registration and bag drop area

After a short ‘McNamara Special’ warm up at my race pace around the hospital grounds with Messer Greensmyth, we got into position at the start along the leafy boulevard at the Kilmainham Jail side of the hospital.  Me lining up with my hands on my knees after the warm up.

Mile 1

There was a scattering of about 20 Sportsworld runners around the start, all in good spirits as always. I tucked in beside Claire, Grainne, Eileen and Audrai before the gun went off. First mile is through the hospital grounds, around the courtyard and out the east gates towards Thomas Street. As we approached Thomas Street a band was inadvertently entertaining the crowd blasting out tunes on the upper floors of the Jam Factory rehearsal rooms.

It’s a congested start until you get out of the hospital grounds but it is clearly sold as a fun run and sure what’s the panic. I just wanted miles in my legs and to enjoy the evening, I can be an impulse shopper, I once owned a Slap Chop (Slap Chop explained on this video: Click here) so I entered the marathon last week before it sold out. Operation transformation to fit back in my singlet has begun.

Mile 2

The most enjoyable thing about this race is that it’s one of the few road races on the city streets – bringing you into parts of the city too I wouldn’t normally frequent. Passing Vicar Street we turned on to Francis Street into the Liberties and old Dublin. Here lies the Tivoli Theatre, where along with the SFX near Mountjoy square, were two of the main venues for gigs back in my rocker days. Back then they were both basically glorified bingo halls but still hosted the likes of Megadeth, the Stone Temple Pilots and Oasis in their pomp. The SFX is now long gone (probably for the best), as is my long hair (also probably for the best).

Going right near Patrick’s Cathedral we are deep into the Liberties, past rows of terraced houses and their small grottos built for industrial workers in the 19^th century. We also passed the former portico entrance to the original Coombe Maternity Hospital. After the hospital was moved to Dolphin’s barn in 1967, where I was born (not in 1967), they demolished the old hospital but retained the portico as a monument.

Old Coombe Maternity Hospital portico in the Liberties

Mile 3

We are around the back of the Guinness Brewery now. Support had actually been good along the course, the rain holding off helped, but this is a lonely part of the city apart from the 1 million tourists annually visiting the Guinness Store house.

The attraction to the Store house is something I’ve never fully understood, I prefer to visit places where stuff actually happened.  For example I just discovered the church opposite Cafe En Seine on Dawson street was where Bram Stoker married Florence Balcombe and Oscar Wilde was baptised (not all on the same day). Keep those facts up your sleeve until next time you are there for late pints.

I did actually worked in Guinness for a few months and it was an amazing place to explore going across rooftops and the warren of tunnels under the place; on my wanders I pulled back a tarpaulin one day I was standing in the old brew house with its old Guinness brewing tanks and birds flying in the rafters.

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Mile 4

Along the Spirit of St Luas tracks at the back of James hospital, onto south circular road I decided to pick it up. This race has a great finish as you pass through the Richmond Tower, where photographer Noel Tobin was waiting, and on to the Royal Hospital boulevard for the sprint finish. That tower gate we ran under was actually built in 1812 and located down at the River Liffey at Waiting Street beside the Guinness Brewery. When Houston Station opened the tower gate bottle neck was holding up commuters trying to catch their newly invented trains so it was dismantled and rebuilt in its current location in 1846.

The Richmond Tower – you’re not from around here are you

At the finish I first came across Lucy D’Arcy, encouraging as ever and who raced in the red and white as opposed to being the time keeper for a change. Stand out performances was Will Greensmyth being the first lad home in 24:53 getting a great 29^th place and Naoise Waldron just behind him in 25:53 and 4^th overall, narrowing missing out on 3^rd place by 7 seconds. We had two other top ten finishers in Ruth Kelly and Andrea McNamara.

Mile 5

This took us to Arthur’s pub on Thomas Street where a gang went for post-race rehydration – a top tip we learnt from the senior ladies team going to Longitude last Sunday.

Good news – The pub was giving out free pints in exchange for race numbers.
Bad news – I learnt this after I’d put my number in the bin.

I exited stage left early as I was yawning so hard my eyes where watering after a big night out the day before with friends back visiting from the states. Again do as I say not as I do.

To sum up, a really enjoyable race as always, I’ll be back next year, I’ll take the Friday off and keep my race number.

So there you go ladies and gentlemen, I hoped you learnt a little more about Dublin, a little more about me and a little more about the race.

Amazingly I didn’t mention Michael Cunningham once although today was Friday so I had my fun in the weekly email I suppose.

Ruth Kelly below: The next race report is yours.

Sportsworld Results

29th Will Greensmyth 00:24:53
47th Naoise Waldron 00:25:53 (4th female)
51 Ruth  Kelly 00:26:03 (5th female)
57 Alan Hynes 00:26:02
67 Andrea McNamara 00:26:40 (9th female)
74 Liam Lenehan 00:26:48
88 Peter Knaggs  00:27:31
94 Anna Delaney 00:27:42
118 Katie Nugent 00:28:29
149 Maura  Ginty 00:29:26
150 Stephanie Bergin  00:29:25
156 Lucy D’arcy 00:29:35
178 Eoin O’Brien 00:30:04
195 Eileen Rowland 00:30:20
209 Grainne Lynch 00:30:34
231 Claire Rowley 00:31:26
321 Audraí O’Driscoll 00:33:11
597 Eimear O’Neill 00:37:56

Report by Trevor Llyod

One thing the French do well (apart from producing wine!) is organising fetes in every village. One in our vicinity was organising ‘Un Boucle de Jeanaisse’ – a 10km walk at 8.00am and a 10km run at 7.00pm.

Why not give the run a try – €10 to enter and you got a nice T shirt. When registering and after producing evidence of insurance which is required for all fun runs and races in France, I enquired if there was a map of the course. “ah Non”. However it was explained the run was 2 laps of the village followed by a lap of 2 local lakes. Lakes are generally flat so that was ok. What I had forgotten was that like many French villages this one was set on the top of a hill. Setting off the temperature was a cool 24c- down from 34c the same time the previous week. 2 laps of the village entailed visiting the top of the hill at least 4 to 5 times –merde! Then around the lakes and back to the village to the finish, but merde encore, another 3 or 4 hills!

All female finishers received a rose and the male finishers- Michael take note- received a roof tile! Admittedly it did have an inscription. I presume those that had done the race the previous 24 years could now roof their garden shed. As we have found with races in France there was a full sit-down meal for participants and friends after the race. Now that I know the course I may give it a go another year when I can better time my finishing sprint!

Trevor in action

Massive congratulations to Eoin Keith who finished 18th in the world and won the Irish Championship at the 24 Hour World Championships last week in Belfast!!!

Great running also by Claire Harrington in the open race to finish 64th and cover 119km!!!

A short note from Eoin on his great achievement:

For the second time in a month, I drove down the M4 motorway destined for the bright lights of the Tullamore track. The national master’s championships took place this past Sunday in Tullamore Harries. I like running down in Tullamore. A tall hedge around the course reduces the wind, making it a fast course.

Due to injuries, there was only Anthony Gillen and I taking part. For those not too familiar, the Masters is run by age groups. Often they will combine two groups in the same race but there are still first and second in each category. Anthony was taking place in the over 50 and Gareth the over 35.

Anthony was taking advantage of the generous 3.5-hour break between the 800M and 1500M to line up for both events. Anthony toed the line in the 800M at 2.30PM and finished a respectable 7th place in a time of 2:24.54. Back on the track at 6PM he finished 8th this time in 5:03.74. A good day and congrats to Anthony for taking part in both races. His 800M time was a recent best as Anthony was a competitive runner in his teenage years.

In between Anthony running the 1500M I was up in the 1500M. At the start of the season, this was my A race but the season has not gone to plan. I won bronze in the indoors but the outdoors are more competitive. I expected to need to run sub 4.10 to medal. I had a bad summer last year with injury and although fit again now I didn’t factor in how much harder it would be to run a fast 1500M at 35 compared to 32 or 33. My PB of 4.04 in 2015 seemed like a distant memory over the Summer as I kept coming in around 4.15.

Going into the race on Sunday I felt great. I did a few reps at the track on Saturday and it felt easy. Warming up I felt like there was a bit in the tank. I was determined to get into 3rd or 4th place and track the leaders. I got a great start and quickly found myself in 2nd place. We went through 300M in 54 seconds and then 2.07 for 700M, effectively jogging in a 1500M and the pace was sure to pick up from there. Over the next 300M, there were some challenges to my inside line but a few elbows and injections of speed later I found myself chasing down the leader with 500M to go. The pace was now getting faster with the previous 400M going through in 66. I love these races were the pace just keeps getting faster and faster. It really puts your speed endurance to the test.

Every time I challenged the lead the guy in front matched it. I gave it one more go on the last bend but With 50M to go, I was more focused on keeping my silver medal than making that last push and potentially falling flat on my face when the legs give up. I leaned into the line just to make sure my celebrations weren’t premature. Happy with the effort. The last lap was by far the fastest in the race, running a 61.

Myself and Anthony had a nice cool down run in the old cross-country course across the road that brought back nightmares of muddy races from years gone by. Driving home there was a sense of satisfaction in the summer sun. I had my eyes on gold earlier in the year but will happily take silver at this stage of the season.I said to myself that if I ran well I would run the Seniors. I’ve also contemplated taking a break from the shorter stuff and throwing myself into marathon training. The next few weeks will tell what comes next. people do say that 35 is too young for masters. Whilst that may be true on the roads the track is a young persons event and it does get tougher as each years passes.

Report by Michael Cunningham

June 21^st is the summer Solstice and for some people it’s a big deal marking the longest day of the year. Some people gather at the Hill of Tara or Stone Henge others headed to Tallaght track to take part in the Graded races.

This weeks graded involved 200m for those people who constantly feel like they have just had 10 cups of coffee, 800m for those that think 800m is not a long distance until the last 300m and the 3000m race for the marathon track runners.

We had 2 brand new track racers this week, John Flaherty and Aidan Curran. There is no incitation ritual for new track runners this year but it may change next year so you’re better off trying out a track race this year. No one ever regrets it, not publicly anyway, and you can check out all the previous race times on the Dublin Athletic website so you know where you will finish in the grade of race you enter.

Margaret Crowley was up first in the 200m (30.82) and John Flaherty in his first race block start (32.63). If anyone wants to practice using blocks on the track on Saturdays we can organise getting them set up.

Next was Catherine Mulleady Elliot in the 800m (2.40) Margaret Crowley (2.41). I don’t think Margaret and Catherine have missed a graded race this year, it’s their nightclub.

Then Sportsworld took over the 800m men’s D race with Anthony Gillen (2.25), Michael Lillis (2.26), Alan Hynes (2.28) and Aidan Curran in his first track race in (2.36). It is definitely easier if you are planning on doing a graded race to rope in other people from the club to race with. Sharing is caring.

At this point I want to point out Eoin O Brien the Bere Island no show, the Trinity track no show was also a Tallaght track no show. Anyone else notice when he does do a race he doesn’t wear the club singlet!!!!

Next up we had the 3000m, 7.5 laps. B and C grades where packed together to have 28 runners in one race which means you have to watch your heels don’t get clipped or run 3200m by running in lane 2 or 3 the whole race. Stephen O Donnell had another great race finishing in 3^rd place (9.35), Karl Chatterton having a triple race week (9.56), Michael Cunningham (10.09), Conor Keating (10.40), Michael Lillis (11.12)

The next graded race is July 5^th in Irishtown so start planting the seed in the head of the person you run with on Tuesday and Thursday.

Sportsworld Results

200m Grade B & C
8th 30.82 Crowley Margaret

200m Grade C
7th 32.63 Flaherty John

800m Grade C
4th 2.40.0 Mulleady Catherine
6th 2.41.1 Crowley Margaret

800m Grade D
5th 2.25.25 Gillen Anthony
7th 2.26.40 Lillis Michael
9th 2.28.79 Hynes Alan
12th 2.36.70 Curran Aidan

3000m Grade B
3rd 9.35.79 O’Donnell Stephen
9th 9.56.89 Chatterton Karl

3000m Grade C
4th 10.09.37 Cunningham Michael
10th 10.40.97 Keating Conor
15th 11.12.11 Lillis Michael

Report by Sibeal Waldron

Photos by Will Greensmyth. Full album on Facebook: Click here

On a blistering hot (27⁰C) Saturday morning in the Phoenix Park the 15^th running of the Irish Runner 5 mile was set to start.  I had been up early for breakfast and picked up my sister Naoise (the very fast one in the family) on the way. I had signed up a few months beforehand when I was going through a good patch of consistent training …..unfortunately this hadn’t continued so I knew I wasn’t in great shape going in but it was a nice day and thought sure I’ll give it a go.

Race reporter Sibeal with sister Naoise during their warming up routine

Myself and Naoise warmed up together and got a few strides in and met a few familiar faces along the way. This is where I made my big mistake…..getting into the waves, I was going to stay back I didn’t want to be dragged along at Naoise’s pace but as I was standing there with Patricia we decided sure why not move up and be with all the Sportsworld gang. Sure what’s the harm we can still run at our own pace? So we moved up to the first wave. This is also where I bumped into Eoin (who was not wearing his Sportsworld colours)….and somehow got roped into writing this report.

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Eventually the race got going, there was about a 10 minute delay, which didn’t help in the heat. We headed down Chesterfield Avenue turning left at the Áras and left again at Ratra House onto the North Road. Luckily this part was somewhat in the shade, however I realised I was running way too fast & I knew I couldn’t keep it up. On towards Chesterfield Avenue where we went down the road and did a turnabout.

It was good to see a lot of the other Sportsworld contingent around plus I had my supporters there to cheer me on. From there we turned onto Ordinance Survey Road and towards the Knockmaroon Gate, down into the Furry Glen. Up until this point the course was mainly flat and I was feeling fairly ok. My legs had started to feel heavy at around 3 miles but I was thinking sure I’m over half way it’ll be grand….how wrong was I.

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Coming out of the Furry Glen and on up to the Upper Glen Road was a steady uphill for the last 1.5 miles to the Furze Road. At this stage the heat was almost unbearable and the water station felt like it was 10 miles back rather than 0.5 miles. For me I just walk/jogged the end of the race…..and ended up with a time that I think could be a personal worst…if there’s such a thing.

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I think a few others had bad days with the heat being a big factor, however there were also some great performances as you can see by the times listed below, with a 3^rd in her age category for Eileen Rowland and a PB for Naoise.

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After the 5 mile race came the serious business of the Family Race. I had entered along with my husband (and ex-Sportsworld member) Rory, our 2 boys Eamon (5) and Odhrán (3) and dog Rua. This was a 2.7km loop starting on Chesterfield Avenue up towards the Castleknock Gate, down Ordinance Survey Road and finishing on the Furze Road. The boys did a great job Eamon running the entire loop and Odhrán with a little help from Daddy’s shoulders. They were delighted with their medals and goodie bags.

The day as a whole turned out to be great fun and although my race didn’t go to plan I’m happy that I got out there, had a bit of banter with fellow club mates and seem to have passed my love of running onto my kids. Here’s hoping there will be a 3^rd generation of the Waldron family to keep Sportsworld going into the future!

P.S Thanks to Eoin for doctoring my time and letting me beat Naoise for the first time in about 5 years.

Sportsworld Results