Well done to all those who ran the Dublin City Marathon today.  Lots of amazing performances and great pb’s today. The standout  performance of the day has to go to Phil who ran a new club record  of 2:33:31. Phil finished 34th in a top class field. Incredible stuff. He might make it to London yet.

Watch National Lottery Dublin Marathon on RTE Player http://bit.ly/uMlwQU

Full results below.

Phil Kilgannon 2.33
Paul O’Connell – 2.43
Ed Mc Entee – 2.53
Lucy Darcy – 3.05
Ruth Kelly – 3.10
Joe Byrne – 3.15
Jakub Splawski – 3.27
Orla Jordan – 3.29
Louise Bruton – 3.32
Enda Mc Morrow – 3,48
David Grimes – 4.01
Dave Trimble – 4.06
Killian Mc Morrow – 4.09
Ray Carpenter – 4.15
Claire Harrington – 4,26
Claire Finnegan – 4,27

A large contingent from the club took  the bus to Mullingar for the Leinster Novice XC 2011.  The race took place on the same hilly course as last year. A slippery course meant long spikes and made the going bit tougher than last year.

After a few hours putting up the new club gazebo the ladies race was first up.  After slogging it out in Novice races for a few years  Ciara Foster put in a great performance to finish 9th securing  some rest and relaxation next year when Novice cross country season comes a-knocking.  Ciara was quickly followed by Natalia and Catriona who both keep getting better and better each race. There was also some great runs by cross country newbies Any and Erin.

In the mens race Michael was always going to take some beating in his beloved mud. He got into a strong position on the first lap and continued to stretch out a good lead.  Damien in only his second cross country finished second on the team. Damien keeps getting stronger each month. I had a feeling of deja vu as he passed me out on the last lap after a similar move in the Dublin Novice.   This year we have a strong novice mens cross country team. If we run well we should get a good placing at the Nationals in December.

In the Master Helen White gave a demonstration of running  perfection as she sailed to victory making it look easy. The rest of the master team finished well.

A full list of results is shown below. Paddy did a great job on the camera. Like the album on Facebook.

9 246 Ciara Foster Sportsworld 16:51
11 245 Natalia Sokolowska Sportsworld 17:01
12 248 Caitriona Higgins Sportsworld 17:08
23 252 Amy Wright Sportsworld 17:47
28 250 Eirn O’ Connell Sportsworld 17:59
37 249 Maura Ginty Sportsworld 18:36
47 254 Orlagh Fleming-Lavery Sportsworld 19:17
51 251 Lynn Merrimon Sportsworld 19:32
54 253 Nuala O’ Connor Sportsworld 20:10
Helen Dixon ?

29 1767 Michael Cunningham Sportsworld
39 1771 Damien Kelly Sportsworld
42 1766 Gareth Murran Sportsworld
53 1768 Kevin Curran Sportsworld
61 1773 Tony Ryan Sportsworld
66 1769 Conor Butler Sportsworld

1 255 O45 Helen White Sportsworld
16 261 O40 Aideen Downes Sportsworld
27 256 O40 Sandra Armstrong Sportsworld
35 257 O40 Val Lacey-Power Sportsworld
37 258 O40 Ann Sweeney Sportsworld

Sunday the 2nd of October was the Dublin Novice Cross Country race in Phoenix park. As its first race of the season it is always a shock to the system even more so as it was the first cross country race for some of the Sportsworld runners who were fooled once again by the word novice. The race conditions were perfect with no rain or wind and even with a weeks worth of rain the course was very dry. It was Gold again for the Novice women with Ruth Kelly just missing out on an individual medal with 4th place and Ciara Foster in the top 10 in 6th. Natalia earned her first gold medal in her first club cross country race. For the mens team it was close but it was 4th place again but it was good running with all team members making it to the finish line and it was half of the teams first taste of the joys cross country.

Next race is the Leinster Novice in Mullingar on October 30th with all runners needed due to some taking the easier option of doing the marathon the following day instead of the cross country.

Better late than never the results of the summer race series are available. Race Series Mens and Race Series Ladies results can be downloaded.

Congratulations to Helen White who won a fabulous bronze medal in the World Masters Mountain Running Championships which were held in Paluzza in Northern Italy on Sunday 18th September 2011. This is a fantastic achievement for Helen particularly with record numbers competing this year and the race being held on a particularly difficult course. The Irish ladies team also picked up third place in the team competition. Well done!

Dublin’s Phoenix Park played host to the annual Frank Duffy 10 mile road race. As always, any Phoenix Park race will a be challenging test of stamina, fitness and speed.

This race also doubles up as the Dublin 10 mile Championship and, as ever, Sportsworld were again in the medals.

Congratulations then to our;

Men’s Senior Team – Senior Silver – Phil Kilgannon, Paul O’Connell and Paul Duffy
Ladies Senior Team – Senior Silver – Caitriona Jennings, Lucy Darcy, Stephanie Bergin, Ruth Kelly

Men’s Masters Team – Bronze – Conor Kenny, Enda McMorrow, Killian McMorrow, Sean O’Byrne

Ladies Individual – Senior Silver – Caitriona Jennings
Ladies Individual Masters – Silver – Lucy Darcy

Conditions were good for the 2011 National Half Marathon which took place this past Saturday in Waterford. The event had a record entry of over eight hundred taking part. Apart from a few heavy showers in the last few miles the conditions were favorable for a distance event.

The club had good representation with our senior mens team putting in some fantastic individual and team performances to narrowly miss out on 3rd place in the team event. Finishing 4th they were just over half a minute behind Raheny in 3rd. Paul O’Connell lead them home running the fastest half marathon by any club member in recent times. Paul finished in 70:18. That’s an incredible 5:21 per mile. Well done to Paul, Phil and Paul Duffy who finished shortly behind Paul.

Our ladies team did well to finish 7th. Our masters men finished 8th overall in a competitive competition.

Overall victory on the day went Sean to Heir of Rathfarnam/WSAF Athletic Club who had what turned out to be a comfortable victory. Congratulations to Sean on his excellent achievement. Ava Hutchinson of Dundrum South Dublin Athletic Club won the women’s national title in her first race over the distance- finishing in 74:30.

Paul O’Connell-1:10:18
Phil Kilgannon-1:10:50
Paul Duffy-1:11:14
Karol Cronin-1:15:27
Michael Cunningham-1:15:49
Kieran Foley-1:21:13
Joe Byrne-1:23:57
Lucy Darcy-1:25:49
Ruth Kelly-1:28:24
Stephanie Bergin-1:29:17
Ciara Foster-1:31:00
Phillip Kerr-1:34:12

Long time club member Stephen Willoughby is organising the Zurich 2 Mile Race under BHAA rules on August 31st. The race will be run over 2 miles and takes place at Tallaght Stadium. Entrants will run in the race matched to their BHAA grade.

The timetable for the races on Wednesday 31st. Note the 7.15 start

Race 1 7.15pm Standards 1 – 6
Race 2 7.30pm Standards 7 – 8
Race 3 7.45pm Standards 9 – 11
Race 4 8.00pm Standards 12 – 15
8.15pm Retrorunning Demonstration
Race 5 8.20pm BHAA Team Relay
Race 6 8.30pm Non Bhaa Members
Race 7 8.45pm Standards 16 – 30

It’s likely to be the last track run of the year for many so enjoy. Stephen is looking for volunteers to help out. If you are free or woould like to watch a good night of track races, get in touch with Stephen.

The national track championships took place  this past weekend in Santry stadium. The club had 3 runners taking part this year.

First up was Phil Kilgannon on Saturday. Phil  was running the 10K. 25 laps of the track requires allot of mental toughness and concentration.  Phil ran a great finishing in a very respectable 13th place. Running a time of 32:53 Never letting the head drop Phil ran the whole race neck and neck with some of the best long distance runners in the country.

Aoife Brady ran  the 5K on Saturday. Aoife was up there setting the pace for much of the early part of the race. Even when she  fell back into second place Aoife still looked relaxed and smooth as always on the track. For the 2nd time in 3 years Aoife took home the national sliver medal. If there had  been an extra lap she would have been likely to win the gold.

Last up was Paul Duffy on Sunday. In one of the toughest races of the championships Paul was always going to be looking for some runners to hang on to. Unfortunately many of the lower ranked runners dropped out or managed to hang onto an early lead over Paul. With the top 10 runners all going under 15 minutes the pace was tough. Paul put in a good effort and finished the last few laps strong.

It’s not until you see the national championships that you realize the standard that exists out there. Well done all!

Congrations to Stephanie Bergin (01:30:19) and Ruth Kelly (01:34:51) who came 1st and 3rd in the Midlands Half Marathon on Monday

http://www.midlandshalfmarathon.com/