Rathfarnham 5K 2014
Race Report by Gareth Murran

The local 5K is one of my favorite races each year. The fast start sets you up for a good pop at your PB. Add to that a good mix of inter club rivalry and you have a great race in prospect.

Like every year before the race yesterday started at a blistering pace. To hear the leaders going through a mile in just over 4 minutes, little more than 20 meters in front is both frightening and exhilarating at the same time.

By the time that mile marker arrived in yesterdays race Karol Cronin had already made his mind up that he was going for a PB. As we reached the AIB in Terenure he was already 80-90 meters ahead of myself and Paul Duffy. I had tried to keep the pace for the first mile but feel back on the hill.

It’s always good to run on a course that you are so familiar with but yesterday running up Tempelogue road we settled in a bit too much and let 10 seconds slip away. Those 10 seconds that make the difference between a good race and a great race.

At the 3K mark Emily was there to offer plenty of encouragement. BY that stage I had realized that the pace was a bit too comfortable and that it was time to take the risk and push on a bit. Karol had already headed around the corner and out of sight down by Tesco somewhere. When we hit the 1K to go mark the group that I was running with split up a bit. This is the time in the race when you really need to dig in. It doesn’t matter how well you have ran up to now. If you cant finish strong in the last 1K it will all go to waste. At 1K I was fine but at 800M I was struggling. Focusing on form and trying to block the voices telling me to slow down I kept pushing for those extra few seconds. Thinking about all that track work over the summer. I must have looked all over the place by that stage with any semblance of running form out the window

I saw the finish with 200 M to go. Totally unaware of the time on the clock I felt a few runners coming up behind. I wasn’t getting passed at this stage and kicked on putting 5 seconds between myself and the next guy. Later I was kicking myself that I didn’t kick sooner as I narrowly missed my target time of 15:35 finishing in 15:40. That little bit extra around Bushy would have made all the difference but it’s very hard to know that at the time. I was followed over the line by Paul and Gavin just 10 seconds behind.

It makes all the difference when the going gets tough to know that you have two top quality team mates chasing you down. That’s when the competitive streak comes out. I went up to congratulate Karol after piking myself up off the ground. How did you get on I asked? Around 15:00 minutes he casually replied as if it was no big deal. We now have a great team for the XC season with everyone staying fit we have some great race days ahead.

Why does it feel so good to hurt so badly? The best feeling after a good race is the feeling that you want to go run again straight away which is why I did the course 3 times again with Paul Duffy who was doing his marathon training long run.

Congrats to everyone that took part and a big welcome back to racing to Sean. Too many good runs to mention everyone and lots of shouts on the course.

Place Name Result
1185 » Sandra ARMSTRONG 20:55
1178 » Aggie BUCKLEY 21:23
1180 » Ray CARPENTER 20:22
178 » Karol David CRONIN 14:59
1127 » Margaret CROWLEY 22:28
258 » Paul DUFFY 15:53
1113 » Packie ENRIGHT 17:45
1129 » Gavin FINLAY 15:53
1170 » Ciara FOSTER 19:06
391 » Joseph HAUGH 21:18
702 » Sinead MITCHELL 25:36
775 » Gareth MURRAN 15:40
1199 » Sean O’BYRNE 27:35
1207 » Mark SMALL 18:07
1015 » Natalia SOKOLOWSKA 20:28
1130 » Stephen WILLOUGHBY 20:57

Phoenix Park, Saturday September 20th 2014.
Race Report by Mark Mc Daid.

Was an overcast morning when left for the small journey to the Phoenix Park, with wet ground from the rain the night before. Once I arrived inside the Park, I started to enter into a running mind set/mode. Going through a pre-made up strategy for the race ahead. With it been the Half marathon pacing was extremely important. I was now on my way, jogging to the Start area. I was surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of runners like myself all eager and waiting to run this Half marathon race. With not feeling the best and lacking running energy I put myself into the second wave, where I felt I could have a more enjoyable less pressured run surrounded by other same pace runners.

The time was just a few minutes after 10am and we were off. I warmed into the first few kilometres but was still not settling. I saw a familiar face past the 3mile mark shouting me on, none other than Nick Melody. I was shaking my head to him but he encouraged me to keep plugging away as we headed towards the Castleknock gate. Just before the 5mile mark and the road down to Farmleigh I was again cheered on by Brenda Egan. The route went through Farmleigh which for me was unusual as I have never ran through it before and onto Tower road. We went back into the Park by the Knockmaron gate where I heard Ann Higgins cheer me on by the 7mile mark. At this stage I was over half way and I started to count the kilometres/miles down from here.

Going down Chesterfield avenue covered the next 3 miles. Half way down I spotted Nick again calling on me to keep it going. I was more upbeat passing him this time around. Finally reaching Parkgate Street was the 10mile mark. My famous ‘only’ 3 miles to go from here came into play. Just as I got around the corner Paul Duffy ran up beside me and asked how things were going ‘hanging in there’ was my reply (him off on his warm down run with me still having 3 miles to go). Conyngham Rd up to Chapelizod Gate was pretty tough; you just had to hang on in there.

I was glad to get back in the park again where there was a mile and a half to go. I picked my pace up by whatever energy I had left, as was nearing the end, getting closer and closer to the finish line. Ann was there for the final cheer at the turn onto Furze rd. to push me on for the last 500metres to the line. I finally made it over the finish line, the Half marathon completed. My legs were tired and were sending me in different directions. As was walking through Sandra Armstrong greeted me and I got a big name calling cheer from Aileen, Nick and Aggie. I was grateful to have got to the finish line. I bumped into Denis who was extremely happy with his finishing time but not his old runners. Nearly opting to wearing his new ones for the race. He can proudly retire them now, and look forward to more PB’s in his new runners. A great day of running and accomplishment to all who ran and a special thanks to our club’s supporters along the route!

Apologies put we couldn’t get a complete list of the Sportsworld results due to issues with the available results sheet for this race.
Individual times can be found at both:
http://www.tdl.ltd.uk/race-results.php?event=1777
http://dublinmarathon.ie/results/

You had to buy the t-shirt if you wanted one,
there was no cup of tea after
and there is no longer a medal,
but the ‘The Lakes 10’ race
still gets the thumbs up.

The friendly volunteers and support,
the closed roads,
an accurate course and ‘precision timing’,
a relatively small field
(limited to 600 but actually just short of that),
a fine autumn day,
a samba band
and muffins,
added up to a good day out.

Of course you also had to run.
A new course record of 30.08 was set by Freddy Sittuk.
McMorrow.E.was 4th in category, Willoughby.S.
and McMorrow.K. both 7th in theirs,
Kenny.C. 9th in his.

Full results at
www.’the lakes 10k’.ie

In aid of Fighting Blindness. Are you up for the challenge? 15.5jkm Trail run and 10km jog/ walk through the scenic Glendalough Valley.

Register at www.GlendaloughTrail.com

For more information contact Clodagh on 01 6789004 or fundraising@fightingblindness.ie

Grant Thornton Corporate 5k Team Challenge 2014
By Will Greensmyth

Almost 4000 runners took part in the Grant Thornton Corporate Team 5k Challenge which took place on Tuesday evening in near perfect conditions around the Dublin Docklands.

Amongst the 4000 were a dozen or so Sportsworld members who were AWOL from Bushy Park for the evening to run under different team names and colours than the usual red and white strip.

Karol Cronin was the star of the show, last year’s Leinster Athlete of the Year marked his return from injury with a blistering 15.23 pb to claim third place. Despite only turning up two minutes before the start, Karol showed he  is back to his best with a strong finish. Paul Duffy was not far behind in eight place and will be delighted with his short speed performance in the midst of his marathon mileage.

A scan of the results show that Gareth is transitioning back nicely from the shorter track stuff and will be fancied for a strong sub 16 minutes run in Rathfarnham 5k and onwards into the mud and gutter of cross country racing. The benefits of the intensive marathon training were also apparent with Conor and Karl clocking great times. Anna and Stephanie cruised around the course – the hard training session last Saturday in the Waterworks no hindrance to either of them.

I’ve tried to include all the Sportsworld runners below. Apologies if I missed anyone. Roll on Rathfarnham 5k at the end of the month!

3 Karol Cronin – Capita Asset Services – 15.23
8 Paul Duffy – Capita Asset Services – 15.42
21 Gareth Murran – Car Trawler – 16.1
50 Ed McEntee- Base Systems – 17.12
60 Will Greensmyth – ByrneWallace Solicitors – 17.28
67 Conor McCarthy – HSBC – 17.34
72 Karl Chatterton – Logicalis – 17.36
103 Shane Toman – Davy Stockbrokers – 18.06
345 Stephanie Bergin – Capita – 19.42
506 Stephen Willoughby – Zurich Insurance – 20.25
591 Anna Delaney – Willis Insurance Brokers – 20.44

The last Dublin graded race of the year took place this past Wednesday. With just 2 events on the card the evening went to schedule.

First up was Will Greensmith running in the 800M C race.  Will ran an evenly paced  race, running in the top half of the pack.  Although final times are yet to be confirmed Will was unofficially clocked at 2:11

Our second runner on the night was Gareth Murran. Hoping to improve on his 2:03:90 from earlier in the season.  This was the second B race of the evening with the first won in 2:04.  Gareth went through his first lap in 61 and then ran strongly over  the next 250 meters to finish 4th in an unofficial time of 2:03:28 . The race was won in 2:01

Results have yet to be posted on the Dublin athletics website. It’s onto the marathon and cross country from here on in.

National half marathon/Rock n Roll Race Report
By Anna Delaney

There was an awful lot of giving out done about this Rock n Roll/National half marathon. Firstly, the course looked a bit mental throwing in hills all over the place and not to mention the start being in town and the finish in Phoenix Park. How would we figure out the logistics of that as well as the very early start? PBs were predicted to be thin on the ground with the hilly course. And then there was the Expo with its €6 parking fee and the water stations would only be giving out cups. Has anyone actually ever managed to figure out how to drink out of one of those things and run at the same time? I certainly haven’t. And with 6,000 people predicted to run, I was already dreading the portaloo queue. See, this is how I approached the Rock n Roll half, not very positive at all!

However, I’m happy to say that I was pleasantly surprised on the day. Bank Holiday Monday was bathed in sunshine after a monsoon weekend. The luxurious Maldron Hotel had no toilet queues so that was one hurdle crossed on the way to the start line. There was a good buzz around, the city looked great in the sunshine and there was no wind. So far, no complaints. Without any delay we were off down the quays and on our way. I took it handy at the start and felt good till our little detour off the quays to take in the hill number 1 at Christchurch. Then back onto the quays and on up through the Museum of Modern Art and out through Inchicore and Chapleizod and into Phoenix Park for the reminder of the course. The course was tough but the hills were spread out and for every uphill we had a nice cruisey downhill. By the time we got to mile 12 and the last uphill out of the Furry Glen I’d had just about enough of hills but we were near the finish at that stage and all was well.

There were some outstanding results from the day. The Senior girls team (Orna, Ciara and Ruth) won gold. Paul Duffy finished in a fantastic 14th place followed by Gavin in 28th. Orna was our first Sportworld woman home in 12th place. And there were PBs despite the tough course, Ciara Foster got one, as did Mark Small who had a fantastic race. He’s certainly one to watch for the future. There was a huge turnout from Sportsworld. Well done to everyone that ran, the times were very impressive. And great job Stephen Willoughby and Alan Dignam doing the 2 and 3 hour pacing.
Thanks to Myles and Emily as always for the encouragement and for the gruelling training plan to get us to the finish. And thanks to all the stewards & supporters on the course. The shouts were all very welcome.

Sportsworld National Half Marathon/Rock N Roll Results!

14 Paul Duffy 01:13:52
28 Gavin Finlay 01:16:09
71 Mark Small 01:23:02
77 James Brady 01:23:14
106 Paul O’Connell 01:26:04
107 Karl Chatterton 01:25:56
114 Michael Cunningham 01:25:51
120 Orna Dilworth 01:27:07
124 Sadanand Magee 01:27:25
127 Conor Keating 01:27:07
141 Denis Mccaul 01:28:40
148 Robert Mcmahon 01:29:31
149 Ciara Foster 01:29:32
154 Ruth Kelly 01:29:45
236 Eoin Cartwright 01:37:04
256 Gerard Byrne 01:38:15
257 Anna Delaney 01:38:54
258 Orla O’Flynn 01:39:12
271 Michael Mckeown 01:39:19
272 Francis Mahon 01:40:12
281 Stephen Doyle 01:40:17
386 Aileen Melody 01:48:34
418 Catherine Gilmore 01:51:35
430 Bronwyn Murphy-White 01:53:26
439 Maeve Keane 01:54:14
453 Deirdre Heavey 01:54:56
565 Stephen Willoughby 01:59:53 (2 Hr Pacer)
582 Paula Dooley 02:04:16
4774 Alan Dignam 2:59:43 (3 Hr Pacer)

By Aggie Buckley
Well done to all who took part in the Fingal 10k as part of the Dublin Marathon race series.

Well done to all that took part on what can only be described as a challenging course with many inclines and very little downhill’s. Wonderful times once again from everyone. Whoever said that this race wouldn’t be as bad as those hills in Phoenix park obviously forgot to tell us about all those little sneaky inclines, think I prefer the hills I know about there and get them over and done with.

Some very impressive work from members suffering from aching calves with just 6k into the race and giving it their all and coming back with yet another PB. Other people suffered from stitches early on to finish with very impressive time. Congratulations to anyone who managed to meet their goal on such a challenging course. It’s an excellent race to test yourself outside your comfort zone.

At least the sun stayed at bay and the water hose came out just in time to get us all to the finish line and keeping us refreshed! I believe there’ll be another challenge around the corner very soon.

Results from the race below, apologies if I missed anyone

39 Damian Kelly 35:51
154 Kieran Foley 39:48
193 Sean Donegan 40:39
330 Stephen Willoughby 42:47
387 Stephanie Bergin 43:39
405 Aggie Buckley 43:53
398 Francis Mahon 43:44
497 Padraic Moran 44:54
511 Jakub Splawski 45:14
557 Sandra Gowran 46:18
677 Mark Mc Daid 46:55
821 Eoin O’Brien 48:26
968 Claire Rowley 49:40
1089 Caroline Lynch 50:41
1676 Siobhan Clarke 55:33
1356 Jim Manning 53:04