Kelly’s show of strength
STEPHEN Kelly’s great form in the colours of Drogheda & District AC continued in Dublin’s Phoenix Park on Saturday as he bagged a first-in-category prize in the BHAA Garda Cross-Country Races.
Although the underfoot conditions were rather soft, surprisingly the ground held up well and there were some good performances from the D&D contingent.
Kelly powered up the steep snake-like hills and used his immense strength to finish a magnificent fourth overall against some very good opposition thanks to a very good time of 22:06 for what is a difficult four-mile course.
Clubmate Paul Smith, who’s really gotten strong over the last few months, raced well and finished well up in 15th place overall in 24:04.
Conor Cooney, Jim Nolan and Gerry Mullins - affectionately known as The Three Amigos - combined well to bag the second team prize in their category.
Mullins was the first scoring member in 105th place in 29:46, with Nolan finishing like a train to overtake Cooney on the runin to finish 109th, with Cooney hanging on for dear life to finish 111th (30:22).
It wouldn’t be a race without Nuala Reilly in it and she took to the hills like a duck to water, showing most of her younger opponents a clean pair of heels when finishing second in her category in 16:16.
The running boom is certainly back in spades as 1,500 runners lined up for Sunday’s 10-Mile Road Race promoted by Trim AC.
Conditions on the day were perfect for distance running, with no wind, and this race - run round the back roads of County Meath - was impeccably well organised.
Colm Reilly certainly liked the conditions as he sped round the course in a fast 1:02:39 and he shows great promise at this distance.
D&D’s next finisher - in 1:07:46 - was Bryan Harvey who’s targeting this year’s Boston Marathon.
Harvey is a quality triathlete who’s decided to concentrate on running for the moment and he ran a clever race to cover the more difficult second half of the course in a faster time than the first five miles.
Paddy Murphy, who’s never raced beyond 10K, got the pace right and finished well in a fine time of 1:08:08.
Despite having a heavy head cold, Stephen Geraghty ran a solid 1:13:48, with Brian Guilfoyle not far behind in 1:16:02.
Edel Smith was the club’s first woman across the line in 1:13:37 and she showed no sign of visible distress despite having run so well.
Nuala Reilly, running her second race in two days, was well up the field when finishing in 1:16:13,