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28 November, 2009

<b> Team Results</b>

Thanks mainly to a superb run by Aisling Coppinger in 21st place, Clonliffe Harriers regained the team title from last week?s winners Setanta. In the end though it was down to the best placed third scorer with Karen Duggan just getting the better of Hazel Thompson.

Setanta had recompense in the men?s race, and in the process they beat UCD who had won the first two races. Sli Cualann would have been very close had they not been missing Cormac Conroy, Martin Francis and Cormac O?Ceallaigh.

<b>Women?s team placings</b>
145 Clonliffe (Aisling Coppinger 21, Bronagh Ni Bhrian 57, Karen Duggan 67)
148 Setanta (Roisin McDonnell 38, Moire O?Sullivan 40, Hazel Thompson 70)
246 Crusaders (Aoife Joyce 48, Emma Sokell 95, Martina O?Kearney 103)

<b>Men?s team placings</b>
17 Setanta (Eoin Keith 4, Gerry Lalor 6, John MacEnri 7)
36 UCD (John Biddle 10, Tim Grummell 11, Eoin Syron 15)
49 GEN (Andrew Johnstone 9, Gavan Doherty 18, Alan Ayling 22)
59 Rathfarnham (Ronan Guirey 2, Mike Long 16, William Griffin 41)
73 Sli Cualann (Colm Mullen 3, Jimmy Synott 12, Brendan Lawlor 58)
185 Crusaders (Paul Kelly 44, Donough O?Keeffe 65, Diarmuid O?Colmain 76)

<b>Race Report</b>

Well as I sat huddled in the car with the rain pelting on the roof I had to wonder if I was slightly insane. But then miraculously the rain eased, and the fog on the windscreen cleared to reveal a fantastic view down over Dublin - and that was just from the car park!!

Nevertheless it was a little cooler than last week as we lined up to go... eager to set off to warm up. Unusually the race didn?t immediately head upwards and the first few minutes were relatively flat. This gives the illusion that you are breaking yourself gently into the race, into you realise you have set off far to fast and arrive at the bottom of the climb already out of breath! The climb was long and gentle, with plenty of passing space so no excuses that you got stuck behind someone who was walking when you really wanted to run ha ha! The wind picked up as we headed up to the top of Fairycastle but it had really turned into a beautiful evening with some great views.

The run then headed down and over toward Two Rock (or is it Three Rock)... well the masts anyway. And I for one thought we were on the way down and then a cruel twist faced us (yes you can see I had not studied the route!). The route turned back on itself and we headed back up again. A heard a collective sigh amongst the group I was running with but upwards we went. This is the time in the race when the only way to keep running hard is try and a) catch other people ahead of you, or b) if things are really bad, just make sure no one catches you. So I picked a few people... Brendan Lawlor is always a good target, and put my head down :-)

Then finally the long drag down came. But this proved tricky and it seems a few people had falls. Jason fell right in front of me, but sprang back up and fled off into the distance, so I think he was okay. The muddy tracks at the bottom required some tricky negotiating. Judging by the look of some people at the finish they had decided to swim through. And so it was onto that last straight home... when your mind is urging you to sprint and your body has long since given up the ghost... thanks goodness for gravity.

Congratulations to the winners ? Gary Crossan for the men, and Aisling Coppinger for the women. Gerry Lawlor took the M40, while Jean Bader took F40 after Laura Flynn and Roisin McDonnell took 2nd and 3rd in the main race - think those of us still under 40 should pull our socks up :-) Other placings went to Vivian O?Gorman (M50, despite apparently this being his 3rd race in almost as many days!), Marcella Dunne (F50), Mick Kellet (M60), Caitlan Bent (F60) and Charlie O?Connell (M70).

Thanks to Brendan and his entourage for a well organised race ? even getting the rain to stop before we started, now that?s impressive!