Welcome to the Running in Cork blog, home of the Cork running community. This is the largest website in Cork & Munster for news on road races and general running news. Included are a current race calendar, race previews, photos, results as well as some local, national and international news items.
Fionnuala McCormack (nee Britton) was in action today in the Chicago Marathon and finished in 13th place in a time of 2h 33m 15s. This was about 90 seconds slower than the 2h 31m 46s which she ran in her first marathon in the European Athletics Championships in Zurich in 2014.
Perhaps more crucially, it is well within the 2h 42m required to
qualify for the 2016 Olympics in Rio. Fionnuala is now the second
fastest qualifier behind Lizzie Lee from Cork who ran a personal best of
2:32:51 in the Berlin marathon last month. With just three athletes
being able to be selected, it's hard to imagine Lizzie or Fionnuala not
going at this stage.
The third person to qualify so far is
Breege Connolly of North Belfast Harriers who ran 2h 37m 29s in the
London marathon last April. That time may well be bettered by another
Irish athlete yet with Maria McCambridge (DSD) running in the Frankfurt
marathon on the 25th of October.
It was announced yesterday that one of the top Kenyan marathon runners Rita Jeptoo had failed a doping test. In a statement, Athletics Kenya said..."The result of the 'A' sample for the athlete has indicated the presence of prohibited substances."
33 year old Jeptoo won the Boston Marathon last April in a course record time of 2:18:57 and also won the Chicago Marathon in October in 2:24:35. She has previously won the Boston and Chicago marathons and also won marathons in Stockholm, Paris, Milan and Lisbon.
She was due this weekend to be awarded $500,000 for winning the yearlong World Marathon Major Series. In a statement, the organisers of that award said......."World Marathon Majors is disappointed to learn that Rita Jeptoo has apparently had an A test that proved positive for a banned substance under IAAF rules. World Marathon Majors has been at the forefront of the fight against doping in our sport and has a rule that no athlete can win the World Marathon Majors Series title, who has been in breach of IAAF anti-doping rules. WMM events were the first major events to confirm that all elite athletes taking part in their events would be blood tested and have consistently called for wider testing by others. Additionally, WWM has previously agreed that any athlete found guilty of a doping offense will not be invited back to its races. As part of that fight against doping, WMM has been giving support and financial help to the IAAF anti doping drive and helped fund a wider programme of out of competition testing…At present there has been no decision in this case by the IAAF, including in relation to sanctions, and as a result WMM is unable to comment further until that determination has been made although in the circumstances it has been decided to postpone the WMM Awards Ceremony that was due to take place on November 2, 2014."
All this of course puts the spotlight on countres like Kenya and the level of drug testing they do on their national athletes. In 2013, former top Kenyan athlete Moses Kiptanui claimed that doping was rife amongst Kenyan athletes. In total, 36 Kenyans have been confirmed as failing tests in the past two years.
Ciarán O Lionáird from Cork was in action again on Saturday in a 800m race at the Alex Wilson Invitational at Notre Dame University in the USA. He finished in second place and ran 1:48.4 to set a new personal best for the distance. (The Irish indoor record is 1:47.21).
Alex Wilson Invitational - 3/3/2012 - Loftus Sports Center
Event 14 Men 800 Meter Run
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Name Year School Finals
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Finals
1 Burkstrand, Travis Minnesota 1:48.16
2 O'Lionaird, Ciaran Nike Oregon Project 1:48.40
3 Murray, Declan Loyola (Ill.) 1:48.46
4 Sigilai, Peter Eastern Kentucky 1:48.58
5 Butler, Drew Arkansas 1:48.65
In 2011, it took 31 days to fill the 45,000 available slots for the Chicago Marathon. Entries for the 2012 event opened on Wednesday last week (Feb 1st) and it took only six days, a new record. Local radio station WBEZ has a podcast available where they talk to coach Bill Leach about the boom in running in Chicago and running overall. Anyone planning to do this event or has just an interest in Marathon running might find this of interest.
I meant to put up a post a few days ago about the 2012 Chicago Marathon and how entries were just open. Fast forward a few days and now, it looks as if it will be full very soon.
This is one of the major Marathons in the USA, one of the five World Marathon Majors and attracts runners from all over the world. The Chicago Marathon celebrates it's 35th Anniversary this year and the race is on Sunday, October 7 2012.
Entries opened to the race on Wednesday, February 1, at www.chicagomarathon.com. Registration is open to the first 45,000 entrants.
The cost of entry is $150 for U.S. participants and $175 for participants outside of the U.S. Registration will close when the participant capacity of 45,000 is reached.
The Chicago Marathon annually attracts 45,000 participants, including a world-class elite runner and wheelchair field, an estimated 1.7 million spectators and it generates $170 million in economic impact to its host city.
Update Mon 6th Feb.....CHICAGO - Registration for the 2012 Bank of America Chicago Marathon closed in record time today as the maximum 45,000 participants signed up in six days for the 35th anniversary event. Demand to run the iconic race has increased significantly in recent years, closing 25 days faster than the previous record established last year. A decade ago, the 2003 event closed in 35 weeks.
Here are a few news international news items from last weekend...
1) Woman gives birth hours after Chicago Marathon.......This was a story that was picked up by a lot of the mainstream media. This report from the Chicago Tribune......27 year old Amber Miller was nearly 39 weeks pregnant -- expecting her second child any day -- when she set off from the starting line of the Chicago Marathon Sunday. She ran and walked even as contractions started kicking in toward the end of the race. But she managed to cross the finish line -- and grab a bite to eat -- before giving birth to baby girl June Sunday night.
She finished the marathon in 6 hours, 25 minutes and 50 seconds. Not her personal best, but she did beat her husband. “Without training for it, he actually got a little bit behind,” Miller said. “But he was out there with me.”
Miller said the contractions started out "just randomly” during the race. “But I think just from running throughout the pregnancy, I’d usually get a contraction here or there anyway,” she said. “But then, a few minutes after I finished, I started feeling the contractions and they were coming every five minutes. So I think we waited an hour or so just to kind of make sure it was real labor. They were pretty consistent at that point.”
After grabbing a sandwich, she headed for the hospital and June was born at 10:29 p.m. Seven pounds, 13 ounces. Asked if she was going back to work today, Miller laughed and said, "No, I will not. I'm taking it easy today."
2) Soccer Manager runs Half-Marathon by mistake..........this is one for the soccer buffs. Former West Ham player and current manager of Swindon Town Paolo di Canio unwittingly completed the town's half marathon after losing his bearings on the fun run course.
The 43-year-old Di Canio was supposed to sound the horn to start Sunday's main race before completing the two-mile short course. But the Italian took a wrong turn and ended up finishing the full 13.1 miles in one hour 49 minutes - 36 minutes behind race winner Dave Roper. "There were three options, I thought I should start with the fun [run] marathon but unfortunately we changed direction, kept going and followed the first group. Unfortunately I ended up doing a full half marathon plus 800 metres. Audio interview HERE
3) Runner hops on bus to finish 3rd in Marathon.......In the Kielder Marathon in Northumberland, England, Rob Sloan of Sunderland Hariers hopped onto a spectator bus at the 20 mile mark and was driven the six miles to the race’s closing stages. Then he jumped off, hid behind a tree until other competitors came into view and rejoined the race, crossing the finishing line in two hours, 51 minutes and one second to secure third place. He went on to tell a TV crew that he had given the race everything he could.
Except for a few small details.........like the guy coming 4th complaining about Sloan not passing him, the people that saw him on the bus and the people that saw him hiding in the trees! Eventually, he was disqualified. The Daily Mail have the full story with pictures and maps HERE
4) .........and finally back to the Chicago Marathon again. The winner of the 2011 Chicago Marthon was Moses Mosop in a time of 2:05:37. Not only did he break the course record and claim the $50,000 course-record bonus, he also got the $100,000 winner's purse.
In the womens race, Russia's Liliya Shobukhova finished first for her third straight victory in the Chicago Marathon in a personal best time of 2:18:20, the second fastest time in event history and the fastest time in the world this year. The win and sub-2:20 time bonus were worth $140,000 in prize money, she’s now the second fastest woman in history.
So what does the start of a big city Marathon look like with 45,000 runners? See the video clip below....45,000 runners in under 1 minute (after advert)
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Video Clip......Finish of the Ladies Marathon Race in Chicago, 2007...... No doubt there are a good few of you tapering down at the moment getting ready for the Dublin Marathon on the 27th. With this in mind, it seemed a good time to put up this video clip from the finish of the Ladies race in the 2007 Chicago Marathon. This however is no ordinary finish as you will see. As long as the race isn't over, there is always hope ;o)
Enjoy.........
(....with thanks to Tadhg Lynch and Siobhan Murphy of Eagle AC for the tip off on this one)
Comments....??? "Don't think it is on youtube, but there was an even closer finish to the 2006 Dublin City Marathon for first Irish woman. Pauline Curley was clearly ahead, but picked up a bad injury with about a mile to go. She hobbled [literally] on but was reeled in about 10 yards from the line by Belfast's Jill Shannon.............AlanJoesphBurke"
