Winning in the woods of Bansha
Bansha Woods, a short stone’s throw from us here in Galbally, was the scene for the latest race in the IMRA Munster calander last Sunday morning.
The area was originally part of the Moore Estate and contains the site of a penal church west of Slievenamuck, Ballagh fort and the ruin of Aherlow Castle. It is an especially pleasant woodland that has an extensive forest road network. Starting west of the car park, 70 runners took the start line for this 9.5 kilometre race.
We had a crew of nine ladies and gents take to the trails for this one. Willie O’Donoghue finished 10th overall and 1st in category, Damien Holian was 14th and also took a category win, Dariusz Gazdowicz back from injury was 17th, Mary Louise Ryan finished 2nd lady, followed by Ray Murray, Mary Pyke, Davena Flynn, Paddy Bourke and Mandy Parslow.
We had 2 juniors run in the junior 4k race, Neasa Moloney who finished 1st and Ruairi Cunningham who finished 2nd and in the kiddies race we had Kitty and Tessa O’Dwyer.
We had an outstanding volunteer crew also out making sure the morning’s event ran smoothly. Robert Cunningham was in the race RD role and his club helpers were Marie O’Shea, Mary Louise Ryan, Stuart and Martina Moloney, Damien Holian, Lynda O’Donoghue and Patricia Ryan. On the day, IMRA Munster sold surplus gear, hats, tees and mugs to runners with the proceeds donated to the Ukraine appeal.
CLUB EVENTS PLANNED FOR 2022
The Michael Curley Cunningham 4 Mile (13th May), the Mooreabbey 10 Mile (10th July) and the Mile Dash (31st December).
WORLD MASTERS MOUNTAIN RACE CLONMEL 2022 REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN
All eyes and ears look and listen up! I think you won’t want to miss or pass up an opportunity of a lifetime to represent your country in an amazing event to be held in our backyard per say.
As many of you will know by now, Ireland were successful in the bid to host the World Masters Mountain Race this coming September. There will be a great opportunity for all to take the course on a test drive on June 19th to be known as the Great Irish Run before committing and signing up for the big event itself on September 3rd. To participate in the event there are no qualifications and the only restriction lies is that you must be over the age of 35 and under 80 be familiar with mountain running, competitive over 10k and very fit.
So if you’re willing to back yourself we are ready to back you and we would only love to see a flood of green jerseys on the trail. Event details can be found on the website wmmrch2022.ie.
ADULT TRAINING
Adult training takes place on Tuesday and Thursday nights in the community field Galbally from 7pm to 8pm. Newbies are always welcome, so should you have an interest in joining us at our training sessions please message us online and we will point your running shoes in the right direction.