Justin Rea

29 May, 2009

A different perspective.

Nailed at the Bray Head race by Aisling, I'd forgotten how much goes into directing a Leinster League race, but by the pint after the prize giving I remembered why it's all worthwhile.

First job was booking the pub. Priority ;-)

Route selection was pretty obvious, as it's a well trodden path on most weekends. Learning of the court case over the land at Raven's Rock was a shock, but the landowner was very amenable after we shared our credentials with him. Coillte impressively cleared a wind fall tree within three days of being informed of it too! The rain leading up to the event was a bit unfortunate, but the course held up well, and a good few enjoyed the mud. We had a contingency route planned, but sticking with tradition works best, as a good few are now familiar with this route.

The O'Toole brothers were laid back about use of the field, the only confusing part being the fact that the day before it was full of sheep (before the goats arrived). Chris had been driving up and down the lane for a recce, but couldn't find a place to park. Without support like this, IMRA couldn't run a race on this mountain. St Vincent de Paul got 155 euro from their generosity as well. Thanks a million guys.

The race will only be as good as the team of helpers. 11 people took this on, and everyone had to work solidly for the three hours from 5:30 to 8:30. I was pleasantly surprised to have John volunteer for the laptop duties, as this can be a hard role to fill. We were very lucky to have back-office aficionado Sinead to set things up before the race, and lend a guiding hand through the stickier parts of registration and results. I made the call to Alan early on, as we had worked on the event before, and I knew he was thorough marker. From all reports, the marking was unparalleled and even Emma made it around without any detours :-) Daniela and Eilis had the smelly job of sorting and issuing numbers. The boxes smell like a tom cat's urinal, so this job was not pleasant until we could open all the windows of the van. At least the old camper gave us a sheltered spot for laptop and record keeping.

Next year we will hopefully have some improvements - like digging out the rocks at the entrance to the field. Apologies to the mini driver that just about left the sump of her car behind coming in. A couple of coupe drivers also felt the bump. You had been warned! Actually, the car-pooling worked really well and most cars had 3-4 people in them. Great to see. We will also see if we can run the finish in to the top of the field. The stop-go system on the gate was a bit hairy, especially when Michael found himself halfway in the driver's window of a white van. I got mixed up between waving at cars and runners! Thanks to Brendan and Hugh for helping with this system after their run.

You may have noticed the midget officials in their day-glo vests. These were the Rea and Barron children who thoroughly enjoyed 'helping' and all received spot prizes the next day for their efforts. They made collecting numbers a lot easier, and had taken the charity contributions for parking.

An important lesson was learnt after we wasted half an hour waiting for two finishers. These people had DNF'd by not going through the finish shute, but had still handed in their numbers. You MUST go through the shute, or you hold up the whole finish until you can be tracked down.

Sinead's efficiency had the results in my hand before I drove down for the prize giving. The stalwart marshals Colm and Padraig trudged around half the course each to bring in the markers, so a long night for them. All that remains to be done is banking the takings and writing this report.

Job done.

Gerry Brady

28 May, 2009

COUNTY RESULTS

Even on Champion’s league night and a few days before Carrauntoohill, there were 165 finishers on the long course on Prince William’s Seat. Those present got to avail of a dry warm night for a change and for many it yielded a better placing than usual and valuable improved points in the overall league table! There were 99 finishers (60%) from 14 counties and 74 finishers from 27 clubs in the results. If you have not yet listed your county team, it would be great if you could update your details. You can email it to Gerry.Brady@imra.ie. Preferably use your county of birth.

Eoin Keith (Cork) did not set off to dominate the race from the start and it was left to John MacEnri (Dublin) to use his schooldays hurdling ability to leap into the lead at the forest barrier. A tight group ran in train up the first climb before Eoin began to stretch away. On the second and third climbs the gap from the leaders to the chasers began to open up more. Niall McAlinden (Dublin) managed to dart past four runners into second position halfway up the third climb along the forest edge. At the summit Keith was clear of McAlinden who had a gap on Bernard Fortune (Wexford) while Jason Reid (Dublin) had a small gap on Aidan Woods and McEnri with Hugh McLindon (Wicklow) ominously in around tenth position with the descent to come. Reid took a fall as he circled the summit cairn but it did not slow him up much as he quickly regained his momentum and was in third place before the race rejoined the Wicklow Way. Hugh McLindon also used the descent to his advantage and was up to fourth before the forest roads: with an alpine climbing injury well behind him he is regaining the glory days that saw himself and Eoin Keith win the inaugural Wicklow Way relay team by sharing the eight stages between them!

In the women’s race Caroline Reid (Meath) has effectively won the Leinster league at this stage although she will miss next week’s race. Jacqueline O’Hagan (Dublin) continued her form from Djouce by beating Karen Duggan (Dublin). Mary Dawson (Wicklow) held off an improving Sonja Fuhrmann (Dublin). There was also a good performance from tri-athlete Lorraine Creane (Wicklow). In the club 100 group, John MacEnri (99), Justin Keatinge (98), and Tony Kiernan all moved tantalisingly closer but spare a thought for one poor chap on 95 races whose running shoes were left at home!

Dublin won both county team races from Wicklow. Wexford held off Cork for third spot in the men’s event by 14 points. They were followed by Kerry, Kildare and Mayo.

Women
1. Dublin 10 (2 Jacqueline O’Hagan, 3 Karen Duggan, 5 Sonja Fuhrmann)
2. Wicklow 20 (4 Mary Dawson, 7 Lorraine Creane, 9 Liz Ryan)

Men
1. Dublin 12 (3 Jason Reid, 5 Gerry Brady, 6 John McEnri)
2. Wicklow 19 (4 Hugh McLindon, 7 William Powderly, 8 Ben Mooney)
3. Wexford 54 (2 Bernard Fortune, 20 Colm Kennedy, 32 Eoin Mahon)
4. Cork 68 (1 Eoin Keith, 25 Kevin O’Riordan, 42 Richard Nunan)
5. Kerry 132 (15 Mike Long, 22 Paul Mitchell, 95 Gavin Driscoll)
6. Kildare 185 (27 Joe Flynn, 74 Michael Blighe, 84 Colm Shevlin)
7. Mayo 284 (72 Enda Walsh, 94 John Coleman, 118 James Higgins)

8. Westmeath 123 (46 Alan Collins, 77 Patrick Ryan)
9. Cavan 128 (39 Finbar McGurren, 89 Phil Ward)
10. Meath 205 (97 Kevin Magee, 108 Peter Cooney)

Rene Borg

28 May, 2009

Yours truly had watched Crusaders battle Sli Cualann for 1st, side-lined by a bug as I was, and saw strong runs by Jason Kehoe and Jeffery Healy (the latter bagging his first top-20 finish) put some pressure on a very strong Sli Cualann side led by again by Hugh McLindon who moved further up to finish 4th today.

The night ended in glory for the red-whites, though, as they could discard their low score from Howth and take a 6 point lead at the top of the table over Sli Cualann who are now 2nd.

Rathfarnham's ever reliable trio of John, Mike and Will secured enough points for the Champions to go 3rd in the table, while Boards AC were close behind in 4th and likewise moved past Clonliffe to 4th in the overall table. Sportsworld with three men in the 20-rankings held off Setanta for 5th on the day and pushed the orienteers one step down in the overall standings in the process.

It was tighter in the women's where five of the six scoring runners finished 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th making Mary Dawson's 4th spot decisive. This victory meant Sli Cualann overtake Crusaders holding a tender 2 point lead just before the half-way point. Clonliffe's ladies sit as outsiders with the best averages so far but only three races run...

MEN
1st - Sli Cualann 26 (4 Hugh McLindon, 8 Ben Mooney, 14 Jimmy Synnott)
2nd - Crusaders AC 38 (9 Shane O'Rourke, 12 Jason Kehoe, 17 Jeffery Healy)
3rd - Rathfarnham WSAF 47 (6 John McEnri, 15 Mike Long, 26 William Griffin)
4th - Boards AC 53 (1 Eoin Keith, 13 Mick Hanney, 39 Finbar McGurren)
5th - Sportsworld 71 (20 Colm Kennedy, 22 Paul Mitchell, 29 Jakub Splawski)
6th - Setanta 90 (25 Kevin O'Riordan, 28 Terry Lawless, 37 Shane Enright)
7th - Glenasmole 237 (61 Cillian Stewart, 78 Ercus Stewart, 98 Thomas Galvin)

WOMEN
1st - Sli Cualann 24 (4 Mary Dawson, 9 Liz Ryan, 11 Aisling Renshaw)
2nd - Crusaders AC 30 (8 Niamh O'Ceallaigh, 10 Roisin McDonnell, 12 Sarah Heal)