Rene Borg

14 May, 2009

A truly magnificent club turn-out, particularly on the men's side, made for a captivating spectacle at Ticknock.

Sli Cualann had 9, Sportsworld 8, Clonliffe, with World Trophy-man Brian McMahon, 7, Rathfarnham mustered 6, including defending champion Barry Minnock and Peter O'Farrell,Crusaders, without many familiar faces, had 6, Setanta had 5, and new boys on the block Boards AC topped with 11 runners in the fray.

Clonliffe looked like they could take the honours when Brian McMahon got lost leaving last week's winner Kevin English, Greg Byrne and Ronan Hartnett to try and outscore Rathfarnham. It was not to be, the defending team champions took 1st, 2nd and 4th (with "new man" John McEnri third scorer), and their 7 points was the lowest tally achieved this season by any team.

After Clonliffe Sli Cualann, led by Cormac Conroy, had daylight to the to pursuers Sportsworld and Crusaders and this time the Bushy Park outfit were victorious. Further back were Boards AC and Setanta in 6th and 7th who comfortably held off UCD, Tumbleweeds and Glenasmole.

The rough course meant 6 DNFs, mostly due to injury, notably Rathfarnham lost Aaron O'Donohue who was seen with an icepack at the finish which made their win all the more impressive.

1st - Rathfarnham WSAF 7 (1 Barry Minnock, 2 Peter O'Farrell, 4 John McEnri)
2nd - Clonliffe Harriers 19 (3 Kevin English, 6 Greg Byrne, 10 Ronan Hartnett)
3rd - Sli Cualann 30 (5 Cormac Conroy, 8 Hugh McLindon, 17 Martin Francis)
4th - Sportsworld 84 (24 Paul Mitchell, 28 Colm Kennedy, 42 Jakub Splawski)
5th - Crusaders AC 87 (26 Gavan Doherty, 30 Jeffery Healy, 31 Rene Borg)
6th - Boards AC 112 (19 Mick Hanney, 43 John Ahern, 50 Richard Nunan)
7th - Setanta 133 (25 Kevin O'Riordan, 37 Terry Lawless, 71 Andreas Kusch)
8th - UCD 231 (29 Zoran Skrba, 47 Ben Dromey, 155 Paul Morrissey)
9th - Tumbleweeds 262 (41 Ben Moore, 59 Donough O'Keefe, 162 Stephen Letch)
10th - Glenasmole 346 (77 Cillian Stewart, 111 Ercus Stewart, 158 Thomas Galvin)

On the ladies' side Sli Cualann followed up on their Bray victory "out of Wicklow" despite the best efforts of Clonliffe: They arrived one spot ahead of the Wicklow women with their first but their last finisher was 2 spots behind in a closely matched contest.

Crusaders beat off Setanta with a well-placed Hazel Thompson to finish 3rd confining the orienteers to 4th, but once again good to see 4 clubs contesting the women's team competition.

WOMEN
1st - Sli Cualann 20 (3 Mary Dawson, 6 Martina O'Kearney, 11 Liz Ryan)
2nd - Clonliffe 23 (2 Karen Duggan, 8 Cliona Kelly, 13 Krissy Gormley)
3rd - Crusaders AC 62 (18 Niamh O'Ceallaigh, 19 Roisin McDonnell, 25 Eva Fairmaner)
4th - Setanta 85 (7 Hazel Thompson, 38 Melanie Walsh, 40 Caitlin Bent)

Gerry Brady

14 May, 2009

COUNTY RESULTS

There were 206 finishers on the long course on Three Rock on a murky night. A high quality men’s field meant that there was a large breakaway group from the start with Brian McMahon (Clonliffe) and Barry Minnock (Rathfarnham) soon detaching themselves at the front. McMahon led all the way to Two Rock before running the wrong side of the summit in the mist and continuing on for a kilometre before admitting to himself he was off course. Meanwhile Barry Minnock was powering away to a very convincing win. Down the field other notables made navigation errors in the low visibility on an excellently marked course while others had ankle misadventures. There were 123 finishers (60%) from 21 counties and 102 finishers from 32 clubs in the results. If you have not yet recorded your county team in the database, you can email it to Gerry.Brady@imra.ie. Preferably use your county of birth.

Dublin won the men’s county team assisted by a great run from Greg Byrne in 6th place. Wicklow were runners-up with Hugh McLindon continuing his comeback in 8th position. Cork were third just ahead of Kildare and Meath. Wexford, Kerry and Mayo were next in order. A further seven counties had two finishers. In the women’s event Dublin won with Sonja Fuhrmann and Emer Brangan running well. Wicklow were second team led home by Mary Dawson and Cork third.

Men
1. Dublin 12 (2 Peter O’Farrell, 4 John McEnri, 6 Greg Byrne)
2. Wicklow 30 (5 Cormac Conroy, 8 Hugh McLindon, 17 Martin Francis)
3. Cork 96 (23 Brian MacMahon, 25 Kevin O’Riordan, 48 Kevin O’Reilly)
4. Kildare 103 (20 Daniel Morrogh, 38 Markus Roessel, 45 Eoghan Carton)
5. Meath 104 (7 Fechin Heery, 36 Ambrose Flynn, 61 Eamonn Hodge)
6. Wexford 131 (13 Bernard Fortune, 49 Eoin Mahon, 69 James Benson)
7. Kerry 171 (21 Mike Long, 24 Paul Mitchell, 126 Gavin Driscoll)
8. Mayo 365 (84 Enda Walsh, 132 John Coleman, 149 James Higgins)

9. Westmeath 87 (12 Anthony Malone, 75 Alan Collins)
10. Carlow 115 (9 Keith Heary, 106 Adrian Oprea)
11. Offaly 116 (1 Barry Minnock, 115 Niall Weldon)
12. Cavan 164 (66 Finbar McGurren, 98 Phil Ward)
13. Donegal 183 (65 Shay Foody, 118 Paul Trayers)
14. Longford 184 (91 Darren Flynn, 93 Paul Concannon)
15. Louth 198 (64 Padraig O’Dwyer, 134 Pol O’Murchu)

Women
1. Dublin 11 (2 Karen Duggan, 4 Sonja Fuhrmann, 5 Emer Brangan)
2. Wicklow 28 (3 Mary Dawson, 11 Liz Ryan, 14 Aisling Renshaw)

3. Cork 65 (29 Aisling Corkery, 36 Clare Lawson)

Peter O'Farrell

14 May, 2009

A misty evening overhead and slippery conditions underfoot led to many a twist and turn in this week’s edition of the ever popular Leinster Evening League. My pedantically pointless occasional crusade to have it renamed the “Mostly Dublin South and some of North Wicklow Evening League” lacks focus, maybe a facebook group is required :)
The exemplary volunteers led by the unflappable Brendan O’Connor completed sign-in with large doses of efficiency and a small campervan before the off.
The two B’s promptly disappeared in the mist, hopefully more gazelle then gorilla like, and a shoe choice debate commenced in earnest. Brian McMahon’s roadshoes had him at the top with a slender advantage on Barry Minnock with the latter’s trailshoes about to kick into gear on the more technical contouring of the flank of Fairy. Alas for the field testing we’ll have to wait for the next race to find out how Nike v. Inov8 pans out. Brian failed to heed the sporting Barry calling him back, his ears were pinned back and he was bombing straight down, sadly a left was required….

A few folk emulated Brian, mere barrier tape cannot contain these individualists in their search for brave new frontiers but Caroline Reid coolly kept half an eye on the fluttering red and white to achieve victory in the ladies race and the aforementioned Barry continued on his lonesome to a fine win, over two minutes clear of the field.

A few rolled their ankles in their road shoes for a different take on the shoe debate and Eoin Keith expanded the shoe test to include bike shoes, they don't work so well without the bike accessory....

Barry Minnock

14 May, 2009

With Gerry's influence I've decided to write a few words on the race, but also on where I've been since my last IMRA race back in Oct 09. As it says on the IMRA banner, it's all about me, me, me : )

The end of 08 was all about cross country - 5 CC races in 7 weeks left me drained mentally & physically. Was still running well (not well enough to take the national novice cc unfortunately), but over the Christmas I took a well earned break - 4 weeks almost completely off apart from a couple of light jogs and an xmas fun race.

I felt refreshed (but also fat:) at the beginning of Jan. I knew I had 6 weeks before intermediate CC and so I got the head down to endurance training, running higher mileage that I've ever done before (typically 120k per week with 1 tempo & 1 interval session). It didn't work out in intermediate CC as don't think I was race ready, but since then I've been racing well. I peaked a little too soon with Dunboyne 4 mile and Bupa 10k races - I should have known from training as I was running intervals with the Rathfarnham crew in times I never thought possible before. Since Bupa I've been on a slow downward spiral and unfortunatly couldn't turn peak into plateau towards national 10k. Was completely drained after the national 10k (partly due to work) and felt like I needed another break from running at a time my plan was saying I should be getting ready for the speedy track season.

So I've put track on hold and got back to basics to find out again why I run - for fun! A local Tullamore race, duathlon and most recently an IMRA race and now I feel all new again :) The IMRA LL is where it is at for me! Don't get me wrong - I love AAI championship racing for pressure and well organised road/track races for getting PBs, but there nothing like running in the hills for a natural high.

Ticknock almost feels like home - can't believe I hardly knew the place only 3 years ago, despite being much longer in Dublin. Every Dub should be forced up that hill :) Was late arriving to race and was thankful to make registration on time - didn't have much time for warm-up, but I had the heater on the car ;)

Peter O'Farrell led up the first hill, but myself and Brian MacMahon managed to break away from field on the flat section over to the Boneshaker. I tucked in behind Brian up boneshaker and he tucked in behind me down the fireroad and up to the masts again - nip&tuck all the way - neither giving an inch. I had to direct Brian at a few junctions as visibility was poor. I felt once I had Brian in my sights at Fairy I had the edge due to route knowledge, downhill experience and shoe choice (as explained by Peter). Brian had a slight lead coming off fairy, but this proved to be his downfall as unfortunately Brian went wrong at the next junction. I did call him back at the top of my voice, honest :) But I didn't hang around to make sure he heard me - turns out he didn't ...

So it was a nice enjoyable run home - fast, but not breakneck pace as I couldn't hear or see anyone. The chasing group were Peter O'Farrell & Kevin English, with Peter having the edge on the downhill (experience counts). After them it should have been Aaron, Eoin & Keith (I think), but this was the unlucky bunch with 2 getting injured & Keith getting lost.

Some great runs - particularly nice to see Caroline Reid get her maiden LL victory - many more to come I'm sure ...

The after race banter was only mighty - how can one resist, so I'm sure I'll be back next week :)