Mid-September Catch-Up: And so it begins

Market Green and Walshtown sessions are back up and running, the nights are closing in and the weather’s taking a turn for the worse. It must be time to run around a field again so…

East Cork Senior & Masters Cross-Country
The good folk of Ballynoe certainly had the best of both worlds on the second Sunday in September. In the morning rain they could head to the shelter of the Community Centre to gaze upon the delights of the Miniature Model Show. Then, as the rains cleared and the sunshine broke through, they could simply stroll down the road to sample the more mobile delights of the East Cork Senior & Masters Cross Country Championships – the traditional curtain-raiser of the cross-country season.

The field, prepared by St. Catherine’s AC, showed no signs of the morning’s deluge, and all was set for a good day’s racing with the under-10s kicking proceedings off at 11.30 sharp.

In the senior ladies race our sole representative was Niamh O’Connor. A newly-reduced race distance of 3k ensured that action would be frenetic and Niamh was in the mix during the initial stages. It was the youth of Carraig na bhFear that came to fore in the end though and Niamh finished up in 5th place overall, picking up the bronze F35 medal in the process.

Though numbers were looking low in the run-up to Sunday, in the end we had enough on hand to field both senior and masters teams in the men’s race. As usual, both junior and senior events were run off together with the young bucks completing three 1500m laps with the world-weary seniors made to suffer a fourth.

Ballymore Cobh junior, Gabriel Le Donne took up the early running but was soon dispatched by Frank O’Brien and Nicky O’Donoghue who led the way for East Cork. Frank, as one might expect, went on to retain the crown he earned in 2024. Nicky, somewhat hot and bothered having tried, and failed, to squeeze himself into his good wife’s slightly more petite singlet ahead of the race (much to his clubmates’ amusement), had a very solid run to second, just under 40 seconds behind Frank. Matt Horrigan, making a return to racing, put in a typical Matt-like performance - starting sensibly, then gliding by the opposition on his way to a 3rd place finish.  Stephen O’Brien was next up in 4th place with Ciarán McNamee 5th, these two citing rib and back discomfort as their excuses for losing out to the race-rusty Limerick man. A week later, and official results are yet to be published, but reports suggest that Martin Hennessy and Ollie Smiddy finished inside the top-10 with Martin one spot ahead of the Mogeely man. Denis McCarthy, attending the East Corks for the umpteenth time, did not have too far to travel and completed the club representation on the day.

Thanks to St. Catherine’s for hosting a well-organised event as always.

County Senior XC Championships
West Muskerry will host the County Senior Cross-Country Championships in Carrigadrohid on this coming Sunday – September 28th. Races are due to commence at 12 noon and beware that the senior races opened proceedings last year so get there early to avoid disappointment. At this stage it looks like we will have a strong contingent representing the club. Best of luck to all!

Road racing – the long and short of it
A couple of half marathons
On the same day as the cross country, we had East Cork representation at two international half marathons. Annelise Hutch got to enjoy the worst of the weather in Charleville, completing the course in just over 97 minutes. Mike Harty ventured further afield to Copenhagen. Though not quite at the level he hit on the Antrim coast a few weeks ago, he still ran a very impressive 66m 10s on his way to a 68th place finish in the Danish capital. A past member of the wider training group was making his own headlines at the half marathon in Copenhagen.  Congratulations to Youghal AC’s Fearghal Curtin who finished 8th in 60 minutes 22 seconds, breaking the national record set by Efrem Gidey a year earlier.​

Passing the baton in the UK
Fresh from his exploits in a field in East Cork, Frank found himself in the Hampshire town of Aldershot a week later. He was there representing his English club, Newham & Essex Beagles at the SEAA 6/4/3 Stage Road Relays. At senior men’s level this was a 6-leg (or stage) road relay race, with each leg measuring 6 kilometres in length – a distance familiar to Frank from the previous week. The Beagles finished 12th out of 113 entrants with Frank running the 5th leg in a handy 19m 17s. This was followed by an even handier dash to the airport to catch the last flight home.

A single mile
Friday 12th September saw the inaugural running of the Reb Heffernan Mile along the Marina in Cork. Tim Mahony represented the club coming in at 5 mins 38s. Tim’s primary responsibility on the night, of course, was to be a taxi driver for his son, Matt. Fed up with following Donal’s reps around Market Green, Matt let loose to record a 4m 35s mile, finishing 7th in the U18 race. Matt has a bit more in the tank and we will all be following his progress over the coming years with interest.