Leech’s strong defence
DROGHEDA & District athletes featured strongly last Thursday evening in Santry Stadium as the 127th running of Ireland’s oldest road race, the Clonliffe 2, took place.
Running in the Women’s race was defending champion Mary Leech who ran so well to win the event last year, and once again the gutsy runner gave it her all over the two-mile course, run over a mixture of track and road.
At the end she had a sparkling new PB time of 11:28 when finishing fourth overall and first in her W40 category.
Also running was Ciara O’Reilly, who’s coming back to form, and her time of 12:42 shows that things are turning for her after some niggling injuries recently.
Shane Larkin is a remarkably consistent runner who continues to race at a high level practically every week and last Thursday was no exception as he raced round the course in a fast 10:36, finishing 17th overall in the Men’s race. Gerard Fay also ran and was 130th in 14:57.
The recent spell of cold, blustery weather didn’t let up for members who were racing the DkIT 10K in Dundalk last Wednesday evening.
Close on 1,000 runners toed the start line for what has become a very popular race in a short space of time.
Colm Reilly certainly found the course to his liking as he scorched round the local roads in an eye-opening 36:43, finishing sixth overall and taking a whopping 27 seconds off his previous PB time.
Not far behind - and also running a PB - was Colin Leonard who ran well to finish 22nd in 38:02.
Perhaps the run of the night, though, belonged to Martin Russell. Quiet by nature, Russell lets his legs do the talking and his run of 40:04 - 42nd overall - shows what can be achieved with dedication to training.
Stephen Geraghty also gave a glimpse of what he’s capable of when finishing 78th in 42:39, with Gerard Fay running 50:24 for 309th place.
Jacqueline Gill had a solid run to complete the course in 52:40 and Donal Branigan was a happy man with his new PB time of 1:01:33.
There were some fine performances from D&D runners at last Saturday’s Run With Catherina 5K in Cavan.
John Reilly put in a great run to finish sixth overall in a fast 18:21, which ensured he won his category.
Jackser Reilly was 39th in 22:03 and third in category, while Martina O’Connor Dyas won her category with her run of 24:28.
In the 10K road race, run in conjunction with the shorter event, Michelle Hughes made a welcome return to racing when winning her category in a useful 44:31. The ever-present Nuala Reilly also took first in category with her run of 46:21 and Gerard Fay was 164th in 57:47.
A merry band of D&D runners took themselves off to Italy to run in the Padova half and full Marathon recently.
Unfortunately, temperatures rose to an incredible 29 degrees before the race had even started, but Terri Durnin used all her experience to get round the course in 4:04:36 and finished second in her category.
Gerry Mullins had a tough day at the office, but he is a seasoned marathon runner at this stage and he coaxed his body through the pain barrier where others would have thrown in the towel to finish in 4:14:32.
In the half-marathon D&D’s first finisher was Thomas Farrelly in 1:45:28, with Mike Staunton next in 1:57:23. Gillian Farrelly ran a solid 1:58:03, with Pauline Lannon a little further back in 2:05:48.
Last weekend’s Wexford 10K tempted 10 D&D members to take the trip south and conditions on the day were perfect for racing.
Dolores Newman was the club’s first finisher in 56:15, with Gayle Bolger next in 57:03. Paula Floyd ran 57:48 for the course, with Brenda Kirwan not far behind in 59:16.
D&D’s sole male runner was Alan Floyd who finished in 1:09:20, while also running were Pauline Coffey (1:05:25), Sandra Kirwan (1:08:09), Geraldine Reilly (1:12:39), Valerie Campbell (1:15:29) and Carmel Bergin (1:15:59).
Saturday’s Oldbridge Parkrun was bathed in glorious sunshine and cross-country running doesn’t get any better than that.
Niall Donnelly was D&D’s first finisher in 12th place overall in 20:51. Next in was Barney Flannery who ran the course in 26:27, with Edel Smith close behind in 47th spot in 26:55. Linda Bowe was 55th in 28:01 and Michele McCullough 61st in 29:05.
Also running in the sunshine at the Balbriggan Parkrun was Shane Larkin who raced round the course to come home first in 19:16, with Mary Leech fourth overall and first woman across the line in 20:12.
Liam Farrell completed Sunday’s Dusseldorf Marathon in 3:49:15. while making the short trip to Ashbourne for the St Andrew’s AC 5K road race was Louise Irvin Aylward who finished 30th overall in 23:46.
At last Wednesday’s Dublin Athletic Board graded meeting in Santry Stadium, David Quinn finished seventh in his 800m C1 event in 2:16:93.
Finally, running in last week’s KBC Night 10K were Gerard Fay who ran the course in 55:33, Louise Brady who finished in 1:02:53 and Anna Ryan who completed the run in 1:05:05.