Veteran Reilly stars in cross-country test
CROSS-COUNTRY doesn’t get any tougher than the annual Star of the Sea event, but Drogheda & District’s athletes stepped up to the plate - and then some.
Sunday’s race was definitely not for the faint-hearted, but Nuala Reilly, never one to shy away from a challenge, ran hard all the way to win her category against goodclass opposition. Michelle Hughes placed third in her category.
Pat O’Grady was using this race as a yardstick to gauge his fitness, with one eye on the upcoming cross-country trials. He ran well to finish second in his category.
Roger Teggart, Shane Larkin and Jackser Reilly also went well.
A field of more than a thousand runners lined up for Sunday’s 5k road race in Rathfarnham, Dublin.
Run over a super-fast course, this race attracts the top runners in this country, but once the gun went Mary Leech lost no time in making her way to the head of the field, and pushing hard throughout she went on to win the Ladies Over-40 category in 18:25. Next home was Pamela Howard whose time of 19:09 put her well up the placings.
Perhaps the run of the day belonged to Ciara O’Reilly who finished fourth in her category and took a whopping 20 seconds off her PB time in a speedy 19:29.
In the men’s race, Stephen Duggan was D&D’s first home in 17:36, with John Hough not far behind in 18:10, while club chairman Aonghus O’Connor finished strongly in 18:28 and club captain Rob Power clocked 20:05. Others who ran well included Hugh Callan (20:46) and Paul Reilly who finished third in his category in 18:53.
Saturday’s Dublin Half-Marathon, held in the Phoenix Park, attracted more than 40 hardy souls from Drogheda & District AC.
The run of the day belonged to Brian Martin who put in a top-class run to finish 19th in a fabulous 1:15:31. Not far behind was Stephen Kelly (1:16:40).
Club coach Eoin McGinn got the pace right and was rewarded with a fine 1:25:52, and close behind McGinn was the club’s Director of Coaching Declan Monaghan who finished in 1:27:35. Also running well were David Gough 1:34:23 and Enda Martin 1:35:16.
Among the ladies, Nuala Reilly coped well with the conditions and won her category with a fine run of 1:38:36. Aimee Corcoran had a strong run to finish in 1:39:17, Linda Cruise also did well and covered the distance in 1:52:30, while others who impressed included Helga McDonnell (1:51:54) and Jane Glynn (1:54:05).
Closer to home at Saturday’s four mile road race in Blackrock, four Drogheda & District members toed the line. In the men’s race, Johnny Kelly and Robbie Maher had a terrific battle and Kelly just got over the line four seconds ahead of his teammate. Kelly’s time of 23:08 was good enough for 18th place. Sandra Maher put in a good run and finished strongly to record a time of 32:22, with Kasia Reynolds clocking 41:17.
Elsewhere, at the Oldbridge Parkrun first home in the red vest was Robert Caffrey who finished fourth overall in a speedy 19:23.
Jonathan O’Brien ran in the Berlin Marathon and achieved a creditable 3:31:40. Niamh Matthews finished in 4:20:19 and Dara Keeley in 5:04:54.