Boys take medals at the County Senior Road Championships
The County Senior Road Championships were held last Sunday in Dundrum hosted by Dundrum AC. A 5k loop for the ladies and a double loop accumulating to 10k for the gents greet our crew of 14. We had unbelievable performances, courage and determination by our ladies and gents for this challenging event.
Ben Coughlan finished 6th overall in the senior men’s 10k and Aoife Courtney finished 9th overall in the senior ladies 5k.
Our men’s A team Ben Coughlan, Thomas Mulcahy, Willie O’Donoghue and Damien Holian took the bronze in the A section, while our men’s B team Gerard Hanley, Jason Collins and Dariusz Gazdowicz took the silver medals in the B section.
These men deserve applause because they stood on that start line, some sleep deprived, some injured, more just back from injury and more putting up their hand and answering the call out to make up teams with style. Our ladies also put in great performance with both teams finishing just short of the podium.
Our A team Aoife Courtney, Mary Louise Ryan and Patricia Ryan finished 5th club team and our B team Davena Flynn, Áine Morrissey, Bridget Ryan Kiely and Toni Crowe finished 4th club team. Congratulations to Áine, Bridget and Toni taking part in their first county race today.
MAURICE MULLINS ULTRA
A 9.30am start line in county Wicklow last Saturday morning was where we found clubman Liam O’Donnell to take part in the Maurice Mullins 50k Ultra IMRA race. An event difficulty of extreme and a climb of 2,100 metres in warm weather conditions was what lay ahead for Liam.
A new route kicked off the car park across from the Pier Gates, Liam followed the Wicklow way north bound for approx 1.5km where he then pointed south in the direction of the Ballinastoe car park. Heading backup for 2.5km to rejoin the Wicklow way heading north in the direction of Djouce.
Liam stayed on the Boardwalk following the Wicklow way, carrying on following the yellow markers in the Direction of Crone Wood car park. Leaving Crone wood car park he headed left. A short 400 meters later Liam turned right again following the Wicklow way. At the next junction he turned right and followed the road, the junction was a right again following the route for approx 750m of road.
Liam then headed up Curtlestown and followed the trail for 6km until he got to Glencullen Bridge on Boranaraltry lane where we simply saw Liam turn around and head back the same route for home, which I’m sure wasn’t as easy as I just made it sound. Liam completed this adventure in 6 hours.
IMRA APPRECIATION AWARDS
IMRA celebrated its 40th year anniversary last weekend in Dublin where many long serving members were given appreciation awards for their years of hard work and dedication to the organisation. Announced were our very own club members Tom and Patricia Blackburn and Jane and Gerard Griffin who have poured endless hours of volunteering work into IMRA over the years.
CLUB EVENTS PLANNED FOR 2022
The Michael Curley Cunningham 4 Mile (13th May). The Mooreabbey 10 Mile (10th July). The Mile Dash (31st December). World Masters Mountain Race Clonmel 2022.
Registration is now open at wmmrch2022.ie. All eyes and ears look and listen up because I think you won’t want to miss or pass up an opportunity of a life time to represent your country in an amazing event to be held in our back yard 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 Sep
tember. 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, registration on imra.ie, 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 via our social media page and we will point your running shoes in the right direction.