British Athletics Cross challenge – U17s Juvenile athlete Julie Cleary wore the Irish vest for the first time when she was part of the U17 Irish Team at the British Athletics Cross Challenge and Scottish Inter District cross country held in the grounds of Scone Palace in Perth Scotland. Athletics Ireland sent a 12 strong squad of promising young athletes to this event to gain valuable international experience.The sun shone in Perth but conditions underfoot by all accounts were muddy and testing . Julie finished 14th in her agegroup in a race which saw the younger runners mixed in with U20 athletes so extremely competitive – , team results for the Ireland squad to follow.
Art O’Neill 60k ultra A great achievement from Aideen Burke who finished 3rd female in this gruelling 60k challenge in 9.40.08 which started on the evening of Friday 13th at a drizzly Dublin Castle and finished in the early hours of Saturday morning in Glenmalure Co Wicklow. The route follows the escape route of patriots Art O’Neill and Red Hugh O’Donnell who broke out of the Castle in 1592 and fled to Wicklow. The extreme cold and wet conditions forced many to drop out of the challenge but not Aideen! She has competed in a number of testing mountain races in the past year – many of them over the ultradistance and is proving to be a formidable competitor! First female was Ellen Vitting who last year was only one of three left standing in RTE show Ultimate Hell week so she is in good company. Here is her account of the race
The Art O’Neill Challenge, a 60km (63km for me!), self-navigated race starting from Dublin Castle at 11pm in the middle of January, was never going to be a stroll in the park but nothing could have prepared me for what was to unfold on Friday 13 January 2023 (perhaps the date should have been a red flag?!). 120 runners departed Dublin Castle at 11pm, dodging drunken revellers, cars and many enthusiastic AON supporters, heading through town, Kimmage, Terenure and Oldbawn and on to Kippure on a rainy but otherwise (then) relatively mild night. The first 15km of road was nice and steady, I settled into a decent pace, chatting with my running buddy and enjoying the atmosphere. Things got a bit tougher at about 13km as we climbed a long 5km or so up towards Kilbride. From Stone Cross (15km) the rain got heavier and the mist came down… there was less chatting now as we dug in and focused on toughing out the climbs. A decent downhill section stretch at 18km gave a chance to recharge and chats resumed as we made our way to Kippure Estate where our bags were waiting for us. At Kippure, I changed into trail shoes and threw on my race pack. I also changed my top which was already soaked through (so much for my jacket being waterproof). I was told I was placing 4th at this stage so I didn’t stay at CP0 for long and quickly headed back out towards CP1 at Ballydonnell North. After taking a wrong turn, we got back on track. The first 3km after Kippure was a frustratingly slow trudge through mud, marshy grass and thick tussocks until we got to Gap Road where we could finally run again. We passed through CP1 quickly and headed straight for Ballydonnell Forest. The first forest road section was fairly runnable although less so than usual due to heavy downpours in recent days, plus heavy legs after the slog out of Kippure. Once the forest path finished, it was a long, muddy hike towards Billy Byrnes Gap. Fatigue had set in at this stage and it was slow going all the way. We chose to take the higher ground due to the rain which meant that we had more of a climb on this section, but the river crossings were slightly more manageable than they would otherwise have been lower down, plus it meant that we ended up at the gate leading to Ballinagee forest, after which we had a lovely few runnable km to CP2. At CP2 I checked the tracker again which suggested I was placing 5th with the first two ladies having already finished in 6 hours (it lied!!). Seeing this, my focus shifted towards simply finishing the race. The next few kms along the river heading to Arts Cross had been runnable on my recces but not so on the night due to darkness, muddier terrain that usual plus fatigue and stomach issues which I had been battling since Kippure (and which continued for the rest of the race). We had decided to take the waterfall route to Arts Cross which meant an easier river crossing but a vertical climb up the side of a waterfall, and the line I took saw us climbing up slabs of rock and at one point losing my entire leg in a bog hole (who put that there?!). In hindsight this may not have been the wisest route as it took forever on tired legs, but when the spectacularly lit-up Arts Cross came into view, the pain of the climb was quickly forgotten. The route to Three Lakes was pretty slow, the usually runnable path at the start was now a total mudfest. The dreaded peat hags were now waterlogged and had me very confused as I wondered where these new ponds had come from! On we battled towards Table Track, making a number of river and brook crossings on the way, climbing in and out of peat hags. Amazing how normal wading knee-deep through rivers becomes after the first few crossings! Finally, Table Track came into view. At this stage it was still dark and I was feeling dejected that our original aim of finishing under 8 hours (hahahahaha) was not going to materialise. We trotted down Table Track at a slower pace than planned but it was great to get moving properly again and to know that the nav was over for the night. We hit the road to Glenmalure as the sun was coming up, taking it handy on the last undulating 5 km home, even stopping for photos and a chat on the way! I was stunned to learn that I was 3rd lady home (damn that tracker!!) and had I know 4th and 5th ladies were so close behind I wouldn’t have taken it quite so easy in that last stretch… lesson definitely learned for next time. Immediately after the race I said ‘never again’ but now, just one day after, I’m not so sure. It’s a challenge like no other and despite the misery of it, I feel incredibly privileged to be able to participate in such a unique and historic event. Massive thank you to the fantastic DWMRT team who were endlessly upbeat and supportive throughout the race, and kudos to all the hardy souls who toed the start line. Until next year.. maybe!
Leinster Intermediate and Masters Rathdrum Co Wicklow (thanks women’s captain Anne Curley for this report) We had a number of competitors on the hills of Rathdrum in the Leinster Intermediate and Masters. The famous hill felt more like a mountain to everybody that raced and in truth it is one of the toughest cross courses in the country by far. First off we had our masters out of the trap and Sorcha Loughnane made it look so easy – she ran like the true pro she is to finish in 6th place, she hasn’t done many cross country races but she beat most of her rivals and earned a silver o45s medal in white hot competition, Next in was Grace Kennedy-Clarke 31st, like Sorcha she is more comfortable running ten times that distance but ran a powerful race all the way around making mush of the hills, she was followed by Suzie Henley Willis who had her best race of the season so far 57th going great on the hill, and anchoring the team was club stalwart and legend Mary McDermott 65th who brought them home with a super strong run and didn’t let the hills get the better of her either a great team effort from everybody with very tough competition. The o65 men were also in the women’s masters race and our own Barry Potts was next in finishing 4th O70 after this 2nd place in Dublin masters last week which gives an indication in just how hot the master competition was out there.
The master men followed and Des Tremble club treasurer had a storming race to win his age group and 20th overall . Our Intermediate women were off next in a small field which seemed daunting at the start line but all equipped themselves superbly. Audrey was first home in 18th and was mixing it with Liffey Valley and Sportsworld runners who were packing around her like wolves and they scrapped all the way to the finish line, next in was Amy Moriarty 21st who is really finding her feet on the country this season, strong on the hills, she kept Audrey in sight, held her place and also had a thrilling fast finish with a sparring rival, close behind again was Caroline Mc Carthy 23rd who toughed it out the whole way we saw probably the best finishing sprint of the day from her , hot on her heels was Aisling Kirby 25th who ran a very controlled race all the way round bringing them home, a superb effort from Aisling and everyone regrouped after the race ecstatic and relieved that the battle was over. It was a grueller for sure. Our master women finished 8th overall (90 finishers) and our intermediate women 4th (29 finishers), a great team effort from everybody
Indoor track success stateside (Thanks Gerry Naughton for this report):
Louis O’Loughlin made his USA indoors debut in the Clemson Invite Meet in South Carolina on Saturday afternoon. Representing the Auburn University Tigers O’Loughlin made a positive start in the 3,000m ‘A’ race and passed the 1,000m mark in 2.45.56 in 7th place. He held form for the remainder of the race to cross the line in 5th place in a new person best time of 8.16.99. The race was won by Micah Gilpatric (8.03.10) of Charleston Southern, with Louis’ team-mate Ryan Kinnane (8.11.26) in 2nd spot. O’Loughlin will be encouraged by the fact that he was fastest over the final 400m, which he covered in 60.79. He placed 5th of 36 competitors (A & B) for the 3k event.
Abdel Laadjel returned to indoor competition on Sunday in the University of Massachusetts Flagship Indoor Meet at Boston. The 19 years-old sophomore student ran a huge personal best for the distance with a new time of 4.10.28 to finish 3rd of 8 competitors. The race was won by his Providence College team-mate Patrick Thygsesn in a time of 4.07.18.
Results
CLEMSON INVITE, SOUTH CAROLINA (14.01.2023)
Men’s 3,000m A Race: 5th Louis O’Loughlin (8.16.99 PB) ranted 5th of 36 competitors.
UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS FLAGSHIP INDOOR MEET, BOSTON MA (15.01.2023)
Men’s Flagship Mile: 3rd Abdel Laadjel (4.10.28 PB)
World half marathon races Donadea In Donadea Forest Kildare on the circuit which is used for the well known Donadea 50k, a series of half marathon races took place on Sunday 15th January at different times – many of the runners using this as a warm up for the February 50k event. The first race of the day on 5 laps of the forest path featured Wayne Waldron who finished 2nd in a time of 77.37 and he is getting ready to take on the 50k in February so great preparation. Anna McMahon finished in 2.54.36 in 192nd place
Parkruns
Brickfields
80th Ann Woodlock 33.54
87th Shiofra McCarthy 36.12
Cabinteely
119th Ciaran McCarthy 30.01
Castletown
76th Joan McTernan 28.38
Corkagh
3rd Eoin Mooney 19.30
Hartstown
11th Mark Devine 22.19
Waterstown
1st Dylan McKenna 19.30
3rd John Curran 22.13
72nd Andrew Maguire 46.15 (8th female)