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Cork County T&F Champs (Day 2): Day 2 of the County T&F was on last week. Stephen O'Brien was our sole representative. He ran in the 1500m and wsa 11th in 4.34. Other Track and Road: Frank was 5th in the Eltham BMC 1500m running an impressive 3.56. With his 800m PB as well recently this is a nice breakthrough spell for him so let the good times keep rolling! The Ballymacoda 4 Mile was the main local road race on last week. Nicky continued his purple patch and won the race in convincing fashion, leading from the gun to the tape in a new course record and PB of 20.30. John Spelman took some time out from his studies to finish 8th overall and first junior in 22.30. Donal was just behind him in 22.41. Stephen was next in 23.00 with Tim O'Mahony racing for the first time this year and showed he still has a bit of fitness with a solid 21st in 23.56. Niamh O'Connor was our first lady home just outside the 27 min mark (by a mere 2 seconds!), Lorna was next and had a nice improvement from Ballintotis in 28.33. Conor launched his trademark sprint finish to keep Denis at bay and finished in 28.56 with Denis just behind in 29.18. Cloyne 5 Mile: The Cloyne 5 Mile is on this Thursday at 8pm sharp. It is being supported by East Cork AC so if you would like to race/help out etc please let Liam or Brian Harty know. 
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Follow the yellow man they say! Where to start.. Firstly well done to all from the club that helped make this work. While this might not be a championship race or even an Athletics Ireland event (God forbid!) it is one of the few events that as a club we get big numbers together with a common purpose. The Wicklow Way Relay brings out all the best characteristics of East Cork AC. The race is long, hard, tricky to get right and needs a big team effort to pull off a result. Luckily on our 3rd attempt we managed to have a clean race with nobody getting lost or missing the start. In the end we finished 2nd overall just behind Rathfarnham AC. We had two route records on the day. Congrats to Kenneth on Leg 4 and Tim on Leg 7. There is comprehensive database on the IMRA site with course and route times over the years. The Race itself: The race started just outside Marlay Park at 7am on Saturday May 14th. Graham only 2 weeks after the Limerick marathon was on the first leg and completed it 62.02 in touching distance of the leaders in 5th position. Graham handed over to his marathon friend Donal who maintained the 5th position on the 2nd hardest leg of the route, a 15km mostly uphill run from Prince Williams Seat to Lough Tay carpark. Donal ran a decent 75.58. Fiona was on the third leg and luckily had reccied the route the night before as apparently there were some questionable junctions.... Fiona made up one place for the team and got us into 4th 12 minutes down on the leaders TT Racers. Kenneth over the years has owned leg 4 and this year proved no different. Kenneth blitzed his leg to get us into 2nd with only a 7 minute deficit on Rathfarnham with still more than half of the way to go. Kevin was up next and ran a solid 61 mins up and over Mullacor to hand to Nicky still in 2nd place. Nicky during his reccie had assessed the route and knew the fastest way to go. He had a great run in 57 mins to claw back another few minutes on the leaders and then it was down to set loose our trump card Tim to see how much damage he could inflict on the longest leg of the course. A 21km leg with about 600m of climbing. Tim failed to disappoint. He had a 9 minute disadvantage when he took off from Iron Bridge and started as if he was running the Cloyne Commons 4k. At the 14km mark of his leg he had completely closed the 9 minutes and had 7km left to go. At the final handover point Tim had clawed us to first place with a buffer of 4 minutes. Tim ran the leg in 72.30 (a sickening 3.33 min/km) Annelise on the anchor leg had a tough task ahead of her as despite the lead, she was up against Laura McDonnell a 35min 10k runner. Annelise gave it everything to stay ahead but was passed on the very hilly road section coming into Shillelagh village, the finish of the race. In the end we finished in a well deserved 2nd position in an very exciting tight race in 7 hours 34. A huge thanks also goes out to Lavinia, Lorna and Eadaoin who supported during the race and volunteered for some car parking duties that was necessary. Eibhlin and Ger were a massive help too providing logistics on the day and keep a close eye on the splits and keep the whole crew aware of the race situation as it was unfolding. At one point Ger got so caught up in the event he must have thought we were competing in the Tour De France, as he was roaring in French out the car window. And last but not least a huge thanks to Rosemary Hutch for provide sponsorship towards the race entry fee too. Hopefully we can get another team together again next year and give it another go. National Road M40 5k Record: Micheal had a sense of history correcting itself where he reclaimed the national M40 road record that was cruelly taken away from him after Kilkenny when they realised the course was 50m short course. In another top quality field Michael was 3rd home in 14.20. Congrats again Michael and well deserved. MTU and National League Round 1: Paul raced in the MTU Day 2 in the 1500m. Paul had a solid run in 4.04 for 7th. Paul also represented the East Cork division in the 800m at the National League in Templemore, where he ran another sub 2 (1.59:67) for 4th. Matt stepped up after his holidays to run the 5000m. He was also 4th in 16.45. Frank ran in the Watford Open in the UK. He won his 800m race in a new PB of 1.57:46. Road Races: Again the summer season of road racing is hectic this year. We had a good few race the Cheetah Run 5k (organised by Eagle AC). Nicky had a solid run for 4th in 16.05. Ger Lynch was next in 20.54. Lorna reversed the result from Ballintotis and pipped Conor by 7 seconds this time finishing in 22.10. Eibhlin ran 27.38 but would have finished faster if she wasn't too distracted by the animals along the very scenic route. The John Buckley 5k was also on last week. Usually a well organised fast race and this year didn't disappoint again. Donal ran 17.08 for 35th, Stephen 17.40 for 47th and Avril ran a huge PB of 21.27 for 206th.  Updated on Limerick Last Week: This was actually a Munster championship event. So congrats on Tim, Graham and Donal who all won individual medals. Graham was 2nd and Donal 3rd in the marathon and Tim with his club record was 1st in the half. As quirks have it they all won their medals in the M35 category but they would have also won the exact same medals if they were in the Senior category. Cork T&F Champs (Day 1): The Cork County Track and Field day 1 was on last Monday. John Spelman was there to improve his speed and won the bronze medal in the Junior Mens 100m (in 14 seconds) and silver in the 800m with 2.16. Denis won silver in the mens M55 3000m with 14.09. Paul Hartnett also ran and won the A 3000m race in 8.44. This was not a championship event on the night however. Road Racing: Lots of road racing the last couple of weeks. We had two podium finishes with Michael dominating and winning the Midleton 5 mile with a superb solo 24.21 on Thursday the 5th. Nicky was 2nd in the Youghal 5k Thursday 12th in 15.56. Hopefully everyone else is building fitness and shooting for PB's!  East Cork Road Champs: The East Cork road championships were held in Ballynoe last Thursday night. We had 11+1 athletes running on the night. The 3k ladies race was up first and Fiona lead the team to a gold medal finishing 4th overall. Niamh O'Connor was next in 9th with Eadaoin just pipping Avril for the final medal in 15th. Avril was 16th, Lorna 17th and Claire 23rd. Well done for winning the team title. It is a pity the press corps did not get a picture of the team accepting the trophy. They will have to win it again next year now! The mens race was split in two. Nicky was in one race and the rest of the field were in the other. Nicky comfortably took out the win with an impressive solo run in 27.09. I will have to trawl through the record books but this might be the first time in the East Cork roads that the trophy was passed from one brother to another. John Spelman, the +1 in the above was running as an individual until his limbo period ends on May 1st, was second home after a good battle with Chris Kelly in 28.47. Chris faded a bit on the last lap and gave the ever present Stephen a chance to snipe past him in the final 100m for 6th with Chris just behind in 7th. Diarmaid Collins was 11th with Denis in 32nd. This was good enough for the team silver medal. National M40 track Record: Some unfortunate news came in this week that the Streets of Kilkenny course was a bit short and the Road natoinal record that mike won was scrapped. However that might of provided more motivation to go get another one. This time Mike got the National M40 record on the track while racing in the high quality IMC meet in Dublin on Saturday. Mike was 5th and ran a time of 14.24. Congrats Mike. Great Limerick Run and Club Record: We had four runners competing in this event. Firstly Graham and Donal (affectionately known as "the splinter group") completed the marathon. Graham showed his experience at the distance to clock a very impressive 2:38.52 for 6th overall. And Donal who only decided to chance the marathon a couple months ago ran a very competitive 2:44.45 for 11th. Tim and Chris McGrath ran in the half marathon. Tim was 2nd overall and ran a new club record of 65.04. This is 4.58 miling for 13+ miles. Super going. Chris ran in 1:44.17. Other races: James ran the first MTU track night of the year in the 3k and ran a solid 8.49 for 7th overall. And Eric was 9th Bartlemy 6k in 23.46. Up Next: - Tonight is the long standing Midleton 5 mile race. Starting at 8pm. - A part of the County Track and Field championships are on next Monday night in MTU. Championship events are 800m, 3000m (for all women and masters men only). Enter online per Liams email. - The Wicklow Way relay - On Saturday May 7th at 7am. You should know your route by now and have reccie done or planned. More details to follow by email.  |
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