Well done to John Travers on a brave run in the 3000m in the European Indoors in Gothenburg, it is great to see John represent Ireland at this level and while he must be disappointed with not making the final his brave front running style is fastly becoming his trademark. John always gives 100% and he races from the heart which guarantees an eventful race every time so watch this space for more from John in the near future, very well done John and we are proud of you. A big congrats to Ciaran O’Lionard and Fionnuala Britton on their bronze medals in this event from Donore Harriers.
Meanwhile back on home turf we had a very busy weekend of road racing in Cork, Meath and Dublin which saw some great performances with a good few pb’s thrown in. There were some great performances in the Ballycotton 10 where we had a large contingent who made a weekend away of it. Twenty four of our athletes braved the chilly conditions and were faced with a strong headwind on the final one and a half mile uphill climb to the finish. The ever improving Dervila Holmes was our first finisher in 62.45 taking a large slice of her previous best and earned herself a brilliant 6th overall placing in the women’s race, she was followed in by Joe Murphy 67:18 and Des Gill 67.19 both slicing huge chunks off their pb’s, the rest of the club finishers were St John Walsh 70.16, Breda Mahoney 70.45 (pb), Nicola Dowdall 73.42 (pb), Joe Rankin 74, Joan McTernan 76.14, Frank McNally 78.35, Dave Hudson 80.48, Colm Nugent 81.05, Sarah Ni Ruairc 81.01 (pb), Mary Kingston 82.03, Niamh O’ Brien 83.00, Liz Mc Curtain 83.27, Jennifer O’Keefe 83.38, Tom Halton 86.19, Michelle Murphy 86.23, Linda Curtin 88.19, Lou McCurtain 90.57, Barbara Riddell 91.39, Tony Jenkins 91.56, Michael Brophy 92.14 and Deborah Duffy 92.08. Unfortunately Cliodhna Carthy had to pull out at mile 7 due to a knee injury. Very well done to all!
In the Bohermeen Half Marathon, we saw some great runs from Graham Hopkins 76.18 (pb) and 2nd O40 followed by Fred Kiernan who also got a pb in 77.54 followed in by Derek O Neill in 83.17, all three are training for spring marathons so their form is looking good for fast times over the big distance, next in was Shane McAuley in 84.42 (pb?), Florence Curley was next in in a pb of 85.18 and was 2nd woman overall, this is a great return to form for Florence who now seems to be back to her old self on the roads, next in was Andrew Rodger who is making a welcome return to road racing in 97.57, followed by the unstoppable Jim McNamara who was using the race as a warm up for an upcoming ten miler in Mallow, unfortunately his hamstring went at 11 miles and he hobbled in in 140.19, nevertheless he was delighted with his effort as he still ended up being the first O65 and no doubt will keep running on one leg till he gets better! John Gleeson was next in 142.23 followed by Terry Mee in 142.49 2nd O65, Alma Hanevy was our second lady to finish in 144.41 and she was followed in by Peter Daly in 151.33. Michelle McCabe ran 24.34 in the 5k race. Well done all.
In the Carlingford Half Marathon in Louth we had one representative Lee Chambers who ran 151.28.
Aoife Rickard was first woman in the Malahide Parkrun in a pb of 1859. Well done Aoife!