Unknown

28 November, 2009

On a fine spring evening, albeit in June, 200 runners waited patiently as our glorious leader abused a poor innocent megaphone on the penultimate working day of her school year. A cursory glance about the start line showed many of the lean and hungry persuasion and one small dog. Kevin Keane led from the gun, presumably still high on jetlag. The dog scattered. Mick Byrne had jets in his legs and loped along easily beside the early leader. Paul Nolan and Eoin Keith were doing their ould bull impression and letting the young turks off on the initial punishing incline. A satisfied Nolan gave an insight into racerunning afterwards when he opined the race would be won AND lost in the first 400metres. He lay in 7th at this point.
The heavy muggy evening combined with the steep slope to sap the strength of most of the field on the looooong flat section across the face of the mountain although the likes of John Farrelly and Martin Francis seemed to be in a different race as they flew along this section. As the runners felt the pain and fire spread through their legs and lungs on the climb to Fairy Castle our extremely well organised commitee were setting up their efficent finishing chute which managed to contain the high speed finishers. I believe Grahams local hardware store is of the belief he is a medium sized building contractor at this stage...
High speed finishing was still a distant hope for the future on the climb up to Fairy as the race shook inself down and settled into a stream of humanity only disturbed by the odd mountain biker. On the rocky descent Richard O?Donnell took the brakes off and flew into 3rd spot which would be his to the finish. This section was very competitive on the night with quite a few runners displaying their cuts and bruises from tumbles on the unforgiving rocks as they made up ground on saner runners. Barry Minnock managed to cut both hands, one elbow, his calf and a forearm and still come sixth. Those GAA players are hardy men.
In the ladies race Beth McCluskey was making the most of her short break from mountain biking to canter to a very strong win and 20th overall, just behind another prizewinner - Rory McDonnell in the juniors. On a good night for the M40 lads Mick Byrne was fifth, Gerry Lalor 9th and John Farrelly 10th. ?Tis getting a bit like road running at the elite end of the field. Not content with one prize Laura McGinley was second lady home and first F40 finisher. In fact she wasn?t content with one run either and collected the markers afterwards too. In the M50s 38 seconds seperated Bruce Shenker, Joe Lalor and Noel Goldrick. Henny surveyed his challengers from the lofty race marshall perch this week. A category to watch. Hazel Thompson was well clear for third lady. Fresh from winning the Outsider challenge at the weekend Roisin McDonnell beat Mary O?Connell for 2nd F40. Brendan Ring was 119th. Good man Benny. M60Eddie Hughes, F50Ger Power, F60Caitlin Bent and M70Mike Gomm were all winners on the night.
Martin Francis had the best finish that I saw, passing 2 runners about 3 centimetres before the line and another 4 in the previous 400metres. Of the best finishes that I didn?t see Paul Nolan ran a very clever race and in the end had a comfortable win with the jetsetter Kevin Keane shaking off the cobwebs for a good Second on the night considering he should have been asleep. Once again, many thanks are due to the small army of helpers who make it possible for us to run our poor little bodies into the dirt every Wednesday.

Great job by everyone at the finish, we had the results ready by the time everyone got to the pub. Only mystery was that two women ran with number 525, one was Meg who is the owner of the number, we put the other as 526 Angela Pratt, if that or anything else is incorrect please email to bruce.shenker using @imra.ie.