6 of the 245 runners who took part in the Bob Heffernan Memorial 5K this past Tuesday evening were representing Sportsworld. The race is part of the fantastic Meath summer race series. The course a fast, flat 5K  loop close to the the outskirts of Enfield Co. Meath. The weather was great and the fresh air made it one of the most enjoyable races of the year so far.

The mens race on the night was won by Andrew Ledwith in 15:12. One runner commented after the race saying ” he looked really comfortable, at one stage I was expecting him to take out a cigar and have a victory puff or two”. Pauline Curley took the womens race in 17.11.

Both Sportsworld teams took home 1st team prize with some great individual performances. Everyone went home with more money in their pocket than they left home with and enjoyed a great race.

Race entry was 12 euro on the night (10 for pre-entries) and included chip timing. The first 100 to register got t-shirts also. There was plenty of tea/coffee, biscuits and sandwiches afterwards as well. Not only was the race cheap to enter I reckon all entry fees taken in were distributed back out in prizes. I would encourage everyone to look at the remaining races in the series.

There is some good pictures on RacePix

Five of our club members took part in the BHAA Intel 10km in Leixlip, Co Kildare last Saturday on possibly the warmest day of the year so far. As the field lined up at 11.00 for the three lap race around the Intel campus the temperatures were already high. Mick Traynor from AnPost/Raheny set a scorching pace at the front winning in a time of 32.47. Having completed the race the general consensus was that Lanzarote would be a cooler place to run. Team Lloyd deserve special mention since both picked up individual age category prizes.

107     Stephen Willoughby    2868    00:46:27
127     Colin Mahon    2867    00:48:02
145     Trevor Lloyd    2990    00:49:07
153     Tara Murphy    2848    00:49:33
154     Judith Llyod    2716    00:49:46

Full results and photos at http://bhaa.ie/event/intel2010. The next BHAA race is the 5 Mile Government Services race in Dundoyne on Tuesday June 1st 2010 at 8pm.

Picture from RacePix

Tuesday night was the Paul O’Connell memorial 8K road race in the Dublin Docklands. It’s a nice easy course with a good crowd for support and one of the few opportunities to run through the city. This year after a very sunny day the rain started falling about 6.30PM. It made for good breathing but slippy running conditions. This wasn’t helped by being asked to run on the paths in certain spots with racers on.

Paul ran a strong race and continued to stretch out a lead.  Paul came home first with Paul Duffy taking second place. Trevor Sweeney was with the leading group. Myself and Michael were fighting it out for 4th for most of the race.

In the end it was a clean sweep for Sportsworld winning both the mens and womens races and continuing their dominance of the event. Results below.

Pos Bib Name Sex Age Time
1 1746 Paul O’ Connell Mal 32 00:26:48
2 1038 Paul Duffy Mal 29 00:26:49
3 1435 Trevor Sweeney Mal 37 00:26:57
4 3 Gareth Murran Mal 28 00:27:49
8 1845 Michael Cunningham Mal 32 00:28:22
12 372 Edward Mc Entee Mal 42 00:29:00
14 5 Caitriona Jennings Fem 29 00:29:06
80 342 Stephanie Bergin Fem 29 00:33:20

The Sportsworld ladies were well represented on Sandymount strand for the BHAA ESB 5km beach race on Tuesday evening. Stephanie Bergin won the  ladies race, with Mary Finn following closely in third place. It was good to see Rachel Morgan back racing after the arrival of her second daughter. Stephen Willoughby ran a s0lid race also. I resumed my usual battle with Dave Byrne ( ex-sportsworld), but was piped in the last 400meters.

http://bhaa.ie/event/esb2010

Last Sunday amazing as it sounds the 119th running of the Clonliffe 2 took place earlier today in perfect conditions. Close to 100 athletes toed the line for the 2 mile event which once again started at the bottom of the hill pub in Finglas. The course went down hill for the first mile with a tough climb for 400m at Glasnevin cemetery and on to the finish at Kavanagh’s Pub (The Gravediggers).

Sportsworld have done well at the event in the past few years. Right from the off the race was on down the hill. A Donore Harriers athlete took up the early pace but then fell back as Paul Duffy took the lead for the majority of the first mile. After a tough session on Saturday Paul slowed a bit on the hill and was passed out by 3 runners. At the top of the hill Paul Fleming Rathfarnham and
Gary O’Hanlon of Clonliffe Harriers proved too strong and they went on to create a 30 second gap between themselves and the rest of the field.

It was a good day of results for Sportsworld but due to the club name not being one of the form the mens team were denied the team prize. The race organizers knew that Sportsworld had come third but wouldn’t allow it because the team had not been declared at registration but the Sportsworld team were under the impression they had registered the team.

We felt the prizes had already been handed over but the results could have been adjusted. Full results below

3 Gareth Murran Unattached M35 9.58
4 Paul Duffy Sportsworld Ac SM 10.03
6 Trevor Sweeney Sportsworld Ac M35 10.05
11 Michael Cunningham Sportsworld Ac SM 10.20
28 Lucy Darcy Sportsworld Ac F40 11.12
35 Crona Brady Sportsworld Ac FS 11.29

The Meet and Train Road Race Series kicked off in Raheny (Sunday, April 25th). Compared to the winter cross country races Sportsworld had a smaller representation of teams but this doesn’t mean that the red and white was any less prominent. In the top ten alone our club had six finishers with Susan McDonnell winning the race in a time of 12.09, Lorna Quinn was second and Ciara Foster third. Also in top ten was Mairead O’Callaghan, Louise Nolan and Ann Higgins. Well done also to Catherine Higgins who being relatively new to the club showed a great form and finished in 14th place in this 2 mile race.
Next up is Lucan (Sun May 23rd 11am) which is a 3 mile road race and an important part of build-up to the upcoming Flora Mini Marathon.
Here is the list of teams for this series:
Team A
773 Mairead O’Callaghan
774 Susan McDonnell
775 Louise Nolan
776 Ciara Foster
777 Ann Higgins
778 Catherine Higgins
Team B
779 Tara Quirke
780 Natalia Sokolowska
781 Eileen Dalton
782 Ann Sweeney
783 Catherine Gilmore
784 Clare O’Reilly
Team C
785 Kim Masuda
786 Claire O’Brien
787 Maura Maughan
788 Cliona O’Riordan
789 Laurence Delair
790 Milena Delussu

Sunday 11th April at 10.30am I found myself with Jack and Billy Tyrell standing at the start line of the 9th Connemara Marathon. Spectacular was how the view could be described as it temporarily took our minds off the 26.1 miles of road that lay ahead. However it was to get a whole lot better. The sun split the stones and the rugged landscape and the motionless Lake Inagh reflected the surrounding mountains back in their glorious detail.

Once again the hooped sportsworld vest had been taken from the national history museum for its first outing of 2010 through the hills and beauty of Connemara.

Never in all my years of running have I enjoyed a race as much. I was determined to soak up the atmosphere and scenery along the route. And so with Jack and Billy and Mary on the bike with all our supplies we set off on the road ahead.

One hour and 43 mins later we had covered half way through the village of Leenane with the Killary harbour on our left. After a further 2 miles of climbing we started to pick up the back markers on the half marathon race. Thus set the scene for the next 11 miles as we weaved our way in and out of these runners.

Through 20 miles in 2hrs and 39 mins and most of the talk and joking had stopped although we were still feeling quite comfortable on our schedule. At 22 miles we commenced our climb of the ‘hell of the west’ which we had heard so much about. Not much of a hill I suppose compared to the ‘Ballinascorney hill’ on the waterworks run, however after 22 miles in the legs it’s a different story. Eventually the ‘hell’ was conquered and we passed the memorial to Frank Haines at 24 miles . Frank died tragically at this point in the race in 2006 and a plaque and tree along with his commemorative medal is there for all to see.

The final 2 miles and 385 yards was a gentle downhill trot and brought me under the finish clock in a time of 3 hours 27 mins and a credible 32nd place. Billy and Jack, about a minute ahead placed 1st and 2nd respectively in the over 50 age category, congratulations to them. Whilst thanks also to Mary who played a stormer on the bike and catered for our every need along the way.

Hope this piece will encourage a bigger sportsworld entry for next years race. Everything about the event was superb and is certainly in our race diary for ’11 all going well.

Report by
Joe Byrne

Congratulations to the Sportsworld Masters Ladies Team who came second in this years running of the road relays in raheny. Helan White lead out the team on a one mile leg, passing onto Lucy Darcy on a two mile leg and the final leg being ran by Aideen Downes. The senior women and men also had teams on the day.

Sunday afternoon was the 41st running of the Annual Dunboyne 4 mile road race. Dunboyne is located just off the N3 about 10 minutes from the Blanchardstown exit of the M50. One of the first major road races after the cross country season it brings out a strong bunch of runners. This year there was a new apparently faster course over the same 4 mile distance but with a strong head wind and a twisty last mile times on Sunday were very similar to last year’s race.

The reason so many people turn up at Dunboyne is the solid organisation that many road races cant compete with.This year maybe down to the new course there was a mix up at the end where the road was partitioned with cones to carrel the leaders to the finish (and those with 1.5 miles still to go away from finish). Traffic was allowed to overtake the runners and not enough room was left for the lead car and a few cones were flattened. It cost the leader a few second to overtake the lead car but he was already twenty seconds clear. A good few other athletes were impeded by passing cars. It seemed to be a coordination issues between civil defence and club volunteers.

There was only three people from the club running but three very good performances none the less. First home for the club was Paul Duffy in 21:19 followed by Gareth Murran in 21:34 and Sandra Armstrong in 24:43. The race was well won by Joseph Sweeney from DSD in 18:52 and Ciara Durkan in 21:44. I’ll be going back next year it was a very enjoyable race. It would be great to get a few teams out.

Some pictures can be found on racepix