County Senior XC - Carrigadrohid October 3rd, 2021

After a years break the County Senior XC was back. Tim was aiming for 3 in a row and boy did he not disappoint. All the pre race talk was on Ryan Creech and justifiably so after his 63 minute half and beating some heavyweights (not literally heavy obviously) up in the Antrim Coast International Half last month.

None of this deterred Tim and he set to work knowing a 10k cross country is a very different proposition to a road race. An uneven field, short hills, long hills, hills with a camber, wind in your face all makes cross country a true test of endurance. With Creech pushing the pace early Tim just sat on him and waited. The pressure of being in front and pushing the pace, without dropping your advisory, told halfway through. Tim made a surge on the long hill, broke the resistance and spirit of Creech in one move and that was that. Tim kept pushing the final 4000m to the line for a comprehensive victory in 32.29 taking his 3rd title in three years and cementing his name as the dominant distance runner in the county. Hopefully Tim can take this purple patch of form to the Munsters in 4 weeks and win that for the first time in his career.

Unfortunately our team did not run as well as Tim as we had to settle a distant second to Leevale in the team battle. However a silver lining was the emergence of Paul Hartnett, who is still a Junior, ran a very brave race for 5th overall in 34.46. The rest of the team did pack well but just a bit too far back. James was next home in 18th with 37.01, Kevin 20th in 37.05, Kenneth 22nd 37.40 and Nicky 37.44. Denis our talisman ran his 39th ever County Senior XC finished 43rd in 55.13. To put that in perspective, if Paul trys to beat that record he will have to run every County XC from now until 2060 (go on get out your calculator and see what age you will be then!!!)

The Counties were on a bit earlier than normal this year so with another 4 weeks of training in the legs as a team we should improve for the Munster and hopefully be in a position to put a reasonable team forward for the Nationals at the end of November.

Up Next:
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The County Intermediates is on next Sunday in Whites Cross. We only have Tim Mahony running in this so best of luck Tim.