DDAC crew brave the elements
CONDITIONS were miserable to say the least for Saturday morning’s BHAA Cross-Country races in Cherrywood Park, Firhouse, but Drogheda & District athletes braved the elements and picked up a number of prizes.
A biting wind and driving rain made even the warm-up difficult, and yet the event still attracted a large number of quality athletes eager to test themselves against a challenging course.
Much of the pre-race talk involved deciding how to tie one’s running spikes in an effort to prevent them from disappearing into the sticky mud at the gaps between the fields.
However, once the gun went D&D’s Stephen Kelly, who’s having a terrific season, quickly settled into a good tempo and was soon up to third place in the leading pack as they made their way out onto the back section of the course.
Kelly used every bit of his experience as he tried to pick a good running line through what was a bit of a quagmire in this five-mile race.
With less than a lap to go, Kelly was still in the mix for individual honours and it was only in the closing stages that former Dublin City Marathon winner Sean Heir opened up a decisive gap which he maintained all the way to the finish.
Despite coming under pressure in the home straight, Kelly stuck to his task and crossed the line in third place overall, tired but happy. He also picked up a first-in-category prize in his Over-40 section.
Conor Cooney, one of the cleverest runners in Irish Masters athletics, has been rejuvenated since recovering from injury and moving into a new age category and he too settled in quickly and set about picking off his opponents one by one.
While many less experienced runners tend to run too hard at the start, Cooney didn’t panic and worked his way steadily through the field and coming into the home straight he had his first-in-category prize in the bag with his run of 38:24.
Clubmate and newly-elected club captain Jim Nolan was only five seconds behind Cooney at the finish and these strong performances - aided by Gerry Mullins who ran a solid race to finish well up the field - meant that D&D took home the second team prize in their event.
Running in the Ladies two-mile race was prolific racer Nuala Reilly. Small in stature but huge in heart, Reilly consistently shows most of her younger opponents a clean pair of heels and copes with the muddy conditions better than most.
Reilly made sure that every step of her race was going to be run at a tough pace and she was rewarded for her aggressive front running with a second-in-category prize.
Elsewhere, the recent rain has certainly done its best to soften up an already soggy Oldbridge Parkrun course. Nevertheless, six of D&D’s finest turned up for Saturday’s race and this was a real test of endurance, with heavy going right from the start.
Tony Corcoran used his course knowledge to good effect and ran a controlled race to finish seventh overall in 23:12.
D&D’s next finisher was Joe Rooney, who was 13th in a slower than usual time of 24:30, with David Thornton next in 15th New member Leva Ofmane was the club’s first woman across the line when finishing 16th in 25:07 and she has the makings of being a decent runner.
Also running were Seamus Roe, who was 24th in 27:49, and Ruth Dunne who finished in 39th place in 34:00.
Taking part in last Wednesday’s Raheny AC Winter League two-mile road race was Gerard Fay. The marathon specialist ran 15:13 on a night when weather conditions were far from favourable for fast running.