The Spring marathon season continues as a number of Donore runners made the trip to Madrid in Spain for the half and full marathon. Training partners Ken Cronin and Tony Griffin tackled the full marathon in impressive times with Ken finishing in 3.35.34 and Tony in 3.37.52. A number of runners did the half marathon too – Lou McCurtain 1.51.18, Arthur Connick 1.53.25, Charlie O’Neill 1.55.53, Dave Hudson and Joan Mcternan finished 2.03.07 and Liz McCurtain 2.07.24. Over in Hamburg Germany, Chris Muldoon ran an excellent 2.38.24.
Back in Ireland, Peter Bonnar did his second marathon in a fortnight tackling the fearsome Connemarathon in 4.22.48. In Longford , Laura Murray did her second ultramarathon along the Royal Canal – a 53k distance – and finished 6th woman in 5.52.25.
The second race in the Meet and Train road league took place in Waterstown Park Palmerstown – relocated there after a late change of venue. 6 runners took to the line on this tough and hilly lap which sweeps down into the Liffey Valley with a tough climb back up covering a distance of 5k – identical to the parkrun which takes place here every Saturday. First over the line for the club was Elaine Verdon 17th in 22.59, Caren Crowley 20th in 23.07, Lee Chambers 24th in 23.25, Ruth Chambers 25th 23.41, 33rd was Mary Murphy in 24.29 and Sue Lynch 44th in 27.05. After this race the A team now lies in 4th so the next race could push the team into top 3 position.
The outdoor track season is now officially underway with the first meeting of the Dublin graded series in Morton Stadium on an unseasonably cold and windy night. Some of our athletes from the relays were in action and our younger athletes who are gearing up their summer season were out in numbers too. In the field events, Lucy Hurley and Lara O’Byrne jumped 1.45 in the High Jump and Max Carey jumped 1.6 in his competition. Andie Maguire jumped 4.92 in the Long Jump.
On the track, Adam Halpin ran 11.84 to come 4th place in the 100m B race and Sean O’Broinn was 5th in 12.53. In the C race, Ben Iveagh came 5th in 12.03. Maura Kearns ran a season opener of 2.24 in the 800m A race finishing in 10th. In the B race, Joan Kalemi ran 2.50.22 finishing in 11th. In the 800m men’s B race, Paul Cummins finished 8th in 2.06.46, and Kevin Nolan 9th 2.06.49. Sean Fox ran 9.39.70 in the men’s 3000m.
The next day saw the long-running Clonliffe 2 mile race – now run on Santry Demesne and finishing in Morton Staium, it used to go through Glasnevin and finish at the Gravediggers pub. There was a good result for Donore with 3rd place for Lee Van Haeften in 9.41. Sorcha Nic Dhomhnaill, also fresh from the national relays, had a blistering win in a time of 10.58 (PB). Terry Mee finished in 13.59
At the Virgin Media night run around Dublin City centre, 7000 runners took to the streets – amongst them a number of Donore runners – Dean Glennon ran 45.00, Susan Clarke 55.36 (PB), Deirdre Coyle 56.13 and Jennifer Hogan 64.34.
The club had a good showing in the Tallaght AC 5K which also doubled as the Dublin Novice Road championship. Starting near Tallaght AC clubhouse and on a single loop with a hill at 4k and finishing on the track – first home was Barbara Murray 1st W40 in 19.27.43 despite a stop at 4k. Stephen Dawson was close behind in 19.29.58. The ever-improving Audrey Gahan got another PB in 20.29.07 which earned her overall novice bronze. Next in on that team was new member Fiona Barrins with another PB in 22.18 Terry Mee was 1st M65 in 22.58. Caren Crowley was the third novice member home in 23.35. Mary Murphy had a storming finish in 24.17 with Catherine McKeon some seconds behind in 24.27 followed by Michelle Dawson 25.28, Susan Clarke 26.00 and Ann Woodlock 29.31. The novice team were out of the team medals in 5th but thanks Willie Smith for the support on the day!
Down in Limerick, the club fielded two teams in the marathon relay event of a festival of races. Team one were 9th in a cumulative time of 3.07.05. The all ladies team of Elaine Verdon, Ariana Ball, Nicola Dowdall, Grainne Nolan and Marie came 11th and got a cumulative time of 3.17.05 – exactly 10 minutes between the teams – well done all.
In the half marathon event, Pat Egan did his best time over the distance in a number of years running 97.11.
The increasingly popular Boyne 10k which runs through the historic centre of Drogheda and out to Oldbridge along the river and back had 2 Donore runners – Ian Redican 44.42 and Sian O’Connor working her way back into racing in 51.27.
Finally, in the Phoenix Park on bank holiday Monday there was a 1-2 for Donore in the 5k ARC charity race – Anthony Flannery won in 16.31 and Kevin Nolan was 2nd in 16.33.34. Ciaran Ryan got another PB for himself with a time of 19.23
Report by Florence Curley