First off were the women and Barbara Cleary and Sinead Jennings were dominant in the first lap of the 4 lap undulating course. As the race settled down Barbara pushed on and mixed it with the elite group which earned her a fantastic 9th place, she is continuing to return to her best form after a recent break from racing but there is lots more to come from Barbara and no doubt she will show her true form on the road in the months to come. Next in was Sinead Jennings who had a powerful run to finish in 20th place. She went out fast and never gave up holding off fierce competition from far more experienced runners.  This was her first cross country race since the National Intermediate in 2007 but it was no surprise that she could pull out such a gutsy run as giving it 120% is Sinead’s known trademark, it is great to have her back as part of the team and we hope to see more of her if she can find the time with her very busy rowing schedule not to mention being a mother to two young children.  Not far behind Sinead was Anne Curley in 25th place who was running very strongly for most of the race before hitting a bad patch and losing a few places but it was a good run coming off a tough marathon schedule. She was followed in by the ever improving Dervila Holmes who had a fine run in 29th, there was probably  a few more places there for the taking but Dervila will show her recent great form again in the months ahead and is fastly making a name for herself in senior women’s running.  Íde NicDhomhnaill ran brilliantly in her first ever outing over 8k in 31st, it was probably a baptism of fire for Íde over the longer 8k distance but it was a fine end to what was a superb cross country season for her.  Sinead McCauley was next in and probably paid for her very fast and brave earlier pace to finish in a very decent 40th but Sinead and Íde will be the backbone of senior teams in the future when they get more experience of senior cross country running under their belts.  Not far behind was Florence Curley who was delighted to be back running on a national senior team after a long spell of below par running, she is definitely coming back to her old self and ran around with a smile on her face to finish in a solid 43th , hopefully there is a good road season ahead for Florence.  The stalwart experienced Samantha Conroy completed the team in 53rd place and found the going tough on the day. It wasn’t a good day for Samantha who has scored on previous silver and bronze medal teams in this race in 2008 and 2009 but no doubt she will be back showing her true form on the road in the next few months. This was a superb team effort from everybody with our strongest ever team  of 8 women running, unfortunately it wasn’t enough to secure a medal on the day where the competition was white hot but 4th place wasn’t bad on a day that saw the most competitive women’s Interclubs race in years.

Next off were the men who had 6 gruelling laps and we just had the bare four brave souls Darren Hand, John Downes, Fergal Whitty and Jonathon Daly who put themselves on the battle line. All had superb performances and 6th place was excellent considering the team was sorely depleted. Darren had a superb run in 36th and is continuing to improve on his recent great form, he was followed in by the evergreen John Downes whose teak toughness and years of experience got him around in 40th place, he looked to be enjoying himself on the tough course as he left much younger competitors struggling behind him, closing him down was the teak tough Fergal Whitty who seemed to struggle early on but rallied brilliantly in the second half of the race to push through the field finishing in 46th, He was followed closely by Jonathon Daly who had been been ahead for much of the race but tired a little in the latter stages probably due the effects of his  recent marathon training, nevertheless he rallied to finish strongly in  49th. Less than a minute separated our four finishers who packed brilliantly in a what was a solid team effort. This is superb running in one of the toughest days in the racing calender and well done to all who turned out. A big thanks to everybody who came down to support us and to Maurice Ahern, Tom Byrne and John Geogheghan who got down to Charleville Estate early to get the tent set up on a bitter cold day!