Christmas 5K delivers
MONTHS of planning and fine tuning finally came to fruition for Drogheda and District AC race director Adrian Gogarty and his merry band of helpers as last Sunday’s Christmas 5K road race delivered in spades on all fronts.
Race morning dawned cold and damp but with very little wind and by the time the almost 700 runners had collected their numbers the day had brightened up considerably.
The pre-race atmosphere could only be described as electric as groups of Couch 2 5K runners took last minute selfies and time to wish one another good luck in this their first ever race.
The human dynamo that is Jim Nolan had the crowd in his hand as he interviewed, cajoled and inspired the masses with his crazy antics and there’s no better man to do MC than Nolan.
Once the starter had the runners called to order and lined up, it was plain to see that this year’s race was going to be something special.
Right from the gun, Clonliffe Harrier’s David Flynn took control of the race and quickly stretched out the field as he covered the first 200m run on the track in an incredible 33 seconds with Balbriggan AC’s Valdas Dopolskas hanging on for dear life.
The next three miles were all about sustaining the searing early pace and when Flynn entered the Stadium and turned on to the track he wound up the pace over the last lap to win by 14 seconds from Dopolskas in a course record 14:58.
In no time, the track was awash with quality runners eager to break their PB times on this tough but pretty fast course.
Our first finisher in 6th place was Mark O’Shea who ran a fast 16:05 and picked up a first in category prize for his efforts.
Next in 7th place was Brian Martin in 16:50 with young James Nolan not far behind in 9th spot, Nolan, who’s got immense natural talent won the Junior Men’s race in 17:13.
Two more of the club’s Junior athletes were next across the line with Robbie Caffrey 17th in 18:04 and Oliver Clutterbuck 22nd in 18:35 which won him the U16 category.
Paddy Murphy produced a really solid run to cover the course in a fine 19:05, with Alan Macken also running well to finish 35th in 20:19.
Former Irish Olympian Catherina McKiernan scorched round the course in a superb 17:34 and afterwards delighted many of the admiring runners by posing for photographs and presenting some of the category prizes.
Our very own Mary Leech, who’s running really well at the moment was the second finisher in the ladies race in a fast 18:37 with club mate Erin McHugh only 6 seconds behind when finishing 3rd in 18:43.
Perhaps the real winners on the day were the many brave hearted competitors who took up the challenge of the club’s Couch 2 5K challenge under the watchful eye of coach Colin Cuffe.
Cuffe and his assistants deserve immense credit for taking this group of newbie runners to a degree of fitness that enabled them to complete the course with no visible distress and hopefully if history is anything to go by many of them will go on to join our club and begin a career in athletics.
Drogheda and District would like to thank all the generous sponsors who helped to make this tear’s race happen and to all the people who live on the race route for their cooperation.
Last Sunday also saw two of D&D’s finest Junior runners make the long journey to Wexford for the All Ireland Uneven Age Group Cross Country Championships.
Running in the U17 5K race which was run over an extremely tough course, young Tadgh Donnelly ran hard and fast right from the gun and was rewarded for his tenacious running with a very creditable 38th place against the finest athletes in the Junior ranks.
Sam O’Neill, who was running in the U19 6K event, put in a terrific run to finish 37th and both lads can be well proud of their performances over the last few months in Provincial and National Championships.
This marks the end of the club cross country season for these two talented runners but they’ll get to race over the country once more in the School’s Cross Country Championships in the new year.