A closer look at the Grant Thornton series of 5k races...

Following on from the recent Grant Thornton 5k in Cork and the follow up comments, I decided to have a closer look so that runners can get a better overview of the event and what it's all about.

The first Grant Thornton 5k started in the Dublin docklands back in 2012 and grew to over 4,500 finishers in 2015. Since then, the numbers have eased back a bit but it still gets over 4000 finishers. The 2018 edition will be in September of this year.

Grant Thornton 5k in Dublin

With an entry fee of €100 to €120 for a team of four, at least €100,000 is taken in race fees so it's not an insignificant amount of money.

Contrary to what some people might think, this isn't a charity event. A lot of events like this have what is termed a 'charity partner' and some of the proceeds go towards that charity. The Grant Thornton event is organised by Athletics Ireland and is their way of raising funds from the running boom. While there are hundreds of club races around the country, very little of the money generated finds its way back to Athletics Ireland in Dublin.

Traditionally, inter club races have been organised by Athletics Ireland registered clubs while inter firm road races have been organised by the Business Houses Athletic Association... the BHAA in Dublin and the Cork BHAA locally. The Grant Thornton 5k series is Athletics Ireland's version of inter-firm road races.

The purpose and ethos of their respective races are different and this can be seen in the entry fees.

The BHAA events are designed to have a reasonable entry fee (€5 reg / €10 non-reg), refreshments afterwards and a full prize structure with categories and teams. The Grant Thornton races cost around €20 to €25 per runner and are designed to raise as much money as possible.

In the BHAA events, it's the individual who is paying the entry fee where as with the Grant Thornton events, the company will probably be footing the bill in a lot of cases.

Following on from the success of the Dublin event, other  Grant Thornton 5k races have popped up as shown below...

A 5k was tried at the National Sports Centre in Dublin 2015 & 2016 but the numbers were poor. Probably good enough for a general race but not big enough to raise funds.

The Cork version began in 2015 and had 834 finishers that year. It has dipped a bit since and got 784 this year.

The Belfast version started in 2017 and got 562 runners. The 2018 race is coming up at the end of June.

A new Grant Thornton race was started in Galway this year and had 348 finishers.

Taken all together, the Grant Thornton series of 5k races in 2018 will probably generate in the region of €120,000 - €130,000 in entry fees. Once the costs of organising the event and the charity contribution are accounted for, the funds generated for Athletics Ireland will obviously be just a percentage of this.

It's probably fair to say that a lot of the entry fees paid by the corporate sector is 'new money' as such and would not have made its way into the running scene otherwise. These type of events won't appeal to everyone but they are now part of the overall running scene.

Aoife Cooke of Youghal AC wins National Intermediate Cross Country title

The National Intermediate Cross Country Championships were held in Galway last weekend and Aoife Cooke of Youghal AC won the women's title. This adds to the National Novice title that she won in December of 2015 in Dungarvan.

Aoife Cooke's victory came almost 39 years after her aunt, Mary Dempsey (now Sweeney), won the same race over a snow-covered course at Rockwell College in February of 1978.

Aoife also led the Cork team to Gold with a score of 27 points, two points ahead of Dublin on 29.

As you can see below, East Cork AC and Youghal AC turned out in numbers for this race and Youghal managed to take a team Silver.

ID Time PositionName Club Name Club Team County Team
274 20:01 1 Aoife Cooke Youghal A.C. Youghal A.C. Cork

207 21:10 5 Fiona Santry East Cork A.C. Cork
276 21:43 9 Ruth Millerick Youghal A.C. Youghal A.C. Cork
273 22:33 12 Evelyn Cashman Youghal A.C. Youghal A.C. Cork

272 22:50 15 Deirdre Ansbro Youghal A.C. Youghal A.C. Cork
206 22:57 16 Eadaoin O'Neill East Cork A.C. Cork
278 23:18 18 Louise O'Brien Youghal A.C. Youghal A.C. Cork

275 23:50 23 Julie Keneally Youghal A.C. Youghal A.C. Cork

211 24:20 26 Michelle Ahern East Cork A.C.

279 25:18 33 Margaret O'Mahony Youghal A.C. Youghal A.C

Club Team Points
Place Club Positions Points
2 Youghal A.C. 1, 9, 12, 15 37

County Team ...Points
1 Cork 1, 5, 9, 12 ...27

In the men's race, East Cork AC were in action and managed to field a full team to take a very respectable 5th place.

43 29:41 14 Kenneth Kelleher East Cork A.C. East Cork A.C.
59 31:17 26 Andrew Sheehan Leevale A.C.
38 31:19 27 Shane Harrington East Cork A.C. East Cork A.C
39 31:39 33 Brian Harty East Cork A.C. East Cork A.C
44 32:26 44 Kevin O'Leary East Cork A.C. East Cork A.C.

5 East Cork A.C. 14, 27, 33, 44 ...118

As you can see above, there were 5 men from Cork taking part. As six were required for a county team, Cork were not presented in the inter county competition.

Full results as always on the Athletics Ireland website.

Poor turnout for the National Inter County Cross Country Championships in Galway

The National Inter County Cross Country Championships were held in Tuam, Co.Galway on Sunday the 14th of February 2016. The numbers attending however were pretty poor and were in marked contrast to the National Inter Clubs Cross Country Championships held in Santry last November.

Here is a comparison...
Inter County (Feb 2016) in Green // Inter Club (Nov 2015) in Orange
37 Senior Men...2 County Teams // 160 Senior Men...20 Club teams
18 Senior Women...2 County Teams // 80 Senior Women...9 club teams
13 Junior Men...2 County Teams // 81 Junior Men...10 club teams
11 Junior Women...2 County Teams // 50 Junior Women...7 club teams

As you can see, there were no Bronze team medals awarded in the County competition because there wasn't any third teams........and this was a national competition. There is probably a very good case to just have the inter county and inter clubs all rolled up into one race in November and hold it somewhere near Dublin.

Cork....From a Cork point of view, there was hardly anyone there representing the second largest county in terms of club membership. Donal Coakley of Leevale AC who goes to nearly every cross country race was there and Brian McMahon who is running with a Dublin club but representing Cork was there. That was it...two men from Cork....and six were needed to make up a county team.

There were no representatives from Cork in the Senior Women, Junior Men or Junior Women's races.

County Results...
Senior Men1 Galway 2, 11, 13, 14, 15, 19...74 pts
2 Donegal 7, 16, 18, 22, 30, 37...130 pts

Senior Women
1 Galway 2, 4, 8, 11...25 pts
2 Kerry 1, 5, 7, 14...27 pts
Results....Senior Men......Senior Women.....Junior Men....Junior Women

The highlight was the Championships from a 'local' point of view was the performance of the Kerry team. Shona Heaslip of An Ríocht AC won the senior women's race leading the Kerry team to a Silver medal. 
 

Shona Heaslip of An Ríocjt AC winning the senior womens race. ...Photo: Andrew Talbot

The other members of the Kerry team were...
5th Karina Tehan St.Finbarrs AC
7th Niamh O'Sullivan An Riocht A.C.
14th Niamh Clifford Star of the Laune A.C.
16th Mary O'Connor An Riocht A.C

Looking at some of the photos, it's obvious that the Galway Athletics County Board went to a lot of effort staging this championships. It's just a pity that most of the other counties couldn't be bothered sending teams. 

Video clip of the mens race from Padraic Burke...
 

Nicola Duncan from Galway runs 5th fastest time for an Irish woman at the London Marathon

While most of the media was focused on Mo Farah last weekend and his performance at the London Marathon, there were of course plenty of Irish runners taking part. The star performance has to be that of Nicola Duncan aged 30 from Galway who ran an impressive 2:33:28. This was the 5th fastest time ever for a woman on the Irish all time list! Not only was she was first female club runner but she was over 6 minutes ahead of the next female club runner home. In comparison to the elite field, she actually finished ahead of the two fastest British women.

These were Nicola's impressive splits...
Split    Time    Diff    min/km    km/h
5K    17:45    17:45    03:33    16.91
10K    35:39    17:54    03:35    16.75
15K    53:40    18:01    03:37    16.66
20K    1:11:43    18:03    03:37    16.62
HALF    1:15:39    03:56    03:35    16.76
25K    1:29:45    14:06    03:37    16.60
30K    1:48:09    18:24    03:41    16.31
35K    2:06:42    18:33    03:43    16.16
40K    2:25:18    18:36    03:44    16.13
Finish    2:33:28    08:10    03:44    16.13

As a runner, Nicola Duncan seems to have come to the sport in her late 20's. Originally from Galway, Nicola has lived and worked as an actuary in Edinburgh for the last 8 years and now runs with the local Portobello Running Club. She obviously is a natural athlete as her transformation in the last few years has been remarkable.

2008.....Great Edinburgh Run 10k...40:58

2009.....Great Edinburgh Run 10k...39:58

2010.....Edinburgh Half-Marathon...83:27 and Edinburgh Marathon...2:58:46

2011.....Edinburgh Marathon...2:49:53

2012....In May of that year, Nicola ran the Edinburgh Marathon in 3:01:29 in a 'smurfette' t-shirt ;o) . She is interviewed later by a local paper and they write..."What training does she do ? "Not very much – I play tennis and only run once a week." But Duncan did admit to doing quite a bit of cross training – "I swim and do spin and body attack in the gym". And she did test her ability to complete the gruelling 26-plus miles with three separate outings over 16, 18 and 20 miles and "felt very comfortable".
Later in 2012, she ran half-marathons in 83:37 and 81:13 and the Munich Marathon in 2:53:13.

2013....Things really start to take off. At the end of the year, she runs a 10k  race in 33:48. Note that Fionnuala Britton ran the Great Ireland run recently in 33:54 albeit over a hilly Phoenix Park course. Over the half-marathon distance, Nicola ran four races in 76:29, 76:40, 76:50 and 77:59. In October of 2013, she ran 2:36:51 in the Amsterdam Marathon, inside the qualifying time of 2:38 for the European Championships.

And in 2014, the races results have been even more impressive although in truth, she is probably racing a bit too much ;o)

2nd Feb 2014...Watford Half-Marathon...74:46
16th Feb 2014...Barcelona Half-Marathon...72:15
2nd Mar 2014...Rosewell Lasswade 10 mile...56:58
9th Mar 2014...Inverness Half-Marathon...73:28
16th Mar 2014...Limassol Half-Marathon, Cyprus...74:09
.....and finally the London Marathon on the 13th of April 2014...2:33:34...5th fastest time ever by an Irish woman.

After looking at all of those times, I can't help wondering why she wasn't on the Irish team at the European Cross Country Championships last December? What a talent she is and she obviously has great endurance. Hopefully we'll see her making regular appearances in an Irish singlet in the near future.

National Half-Marathon in Athenry...Too far to travel??

The Athletics Ireland National Half-Marathon was held in Athenry, Co.Galway on Sunday, the 2nd of September.

The results can be seen HERE

Scrolling down through the results, it becomes very clear that there seems to be almost a complete lack of runners from Cork clubs taking part. And it's not only Cork clubs, there is an absence of runners from Kerry, Waterford, Limerick and Tipperary as well.

Was it just too far away? The drive from Cork to Athenry is around 2h 50m. Last year, the event was in Waterford City and there were plenty of runners from Cork there......(1h 50m drive). Is it that people won't travel so far for a Half-Marathon? Plenty of people seemed to have come across from Dublin but that is a two hour drive on a motorway.

Was it the fact that there are so many Half-Marathons in Munster? Between mid August and late September, there is a Half-Marathon in Clonmel, Blarney, Dingle and Charleville. Are runners just opting for the local events instead?

Was it a lack of publicity? For example, 400 runners turned out in Athenry last Sunday. 690 turned out in Waterford last year.........and it's not like there is a shortage of runners in Galway.

Is it a combination of all the reasons above? Comments?

Gerry Forde completes 100km Ultra-Marathon in Portumna...

Last Saturday the 16th of June, wheelchair athlete Gerry Forde from Cork completed the 100km Ultra-Marathon in Portumna Forest, Co.Galway. To the best of my knowledge, this was the longest race ever completed by a wheelchair athlete in Ireland.

This Ultra-Marathon was Gerry's 212th Marathon and as a wheelchair athlete, he has completed more than anyone else in the UK or Ireland. It may well be possible that he has completed more than anyone else in the Europe or even the USA?

Gerry's time for the 100k was 13:02:11. In essence, that means he started the race at 6am on Saturday morning and didn't finish until just after 7pm that evening. In terms of physical effort and endurance, it's just huge. I myself took part in the 50k race with a small group of club members from Eagle AC who traveled up from Cork for the event. By the time we started the 50k race at 8am, Gerry was already two hours into the 100k. We had finished our 50k race and were back home in Cork at 4pm while Gerry was still out on the course with another 3 hours to go!

Just to put the distance into perspective, 100 kms is roughly the equivalent of starting a race on Patrick's Street in Cork City and finishing on O'Connell Street in Limerick City! When put in those terms, it's amazing that anyone could go that far.

Gerry's race wasn't without it's drama though as it looked as if just 10 kms short of the finish line, he would have to pull out due to a slow puncture. However, the organisers managed to find a bicycle pump somewhere and kept Gerry going for the last 2 laps.

Needless to say, you might have thought that Gerry would have tapered especially for this race? Not a bit of it! While a group of us were having a pre-race meal in Portumna at 8pm last Friday, Gerry was taking part in the 4 mile race in Inniscarra in Cork! The mind boggles as to how he could do a race on Friday evening and somehow appear at the start line in Portumna (2.5 hour drive) at 6am the following morning for the 100k!

What's his next adventure? We'll have to wait and see ;o)

Photo Credit...Iain Shaw of Athenry AC

Cork Runner wins the Portumna Marathon - Sat 26th June 2010

From time to time, I put up a post if I hear about any Cork based runner winning races elsewhere in the country.


Well this time, it's going to be a very strange post indeed because I happen to be that Cork based runner!! ;o)


About 2 months ago, I heard about this new event in Portumna comprising 3 races.....a 100 km race, a 50 km race and a full Marathon. About 2 weeks ago just after running in the Cork Marathon as a pacer, I got a notion to give this one a try. My intention was to use it as a long training run and see what it was like rather than try for any special time.

First of all however, there was the Shanagarry 5 mile race on Thursday evening to get out of the way.......well, it is one of the Ballycotton Summer Series.....it's a 'must do' race! :o) 
So I ran the race, 'sorted out' a few club mates ;o) , tried to hydrate as best I could on Friday evening and headed for Portumna in Galway at 6:30am on Saturday morning.


I arrived around 8:45am and the 50 km and 100 km race were well underway at that stage having both started at 6am. The course consisted of a 5 km loop within the confines of Portumna forest and the Marathon would be just over 8 full loops. Looking around, it was obvious that the Marathon field would be modest and that most of the runners had completed several Marathons before. No fun runners here!


My first problem was trying to decide what pace to run? All of the markers were in kms and I didn't have a GPS watch. The best solution I could think of before the start was that a 3:30 Marathon is roughly 8 minute/mile pace..........which is roughly 5 minutes per km. Stick to those 5 minute splits as best I could and I'll see how I'll go.......Plan A.....a Master plan!


At the start line, I met up with another Cork Marathon pacer, Frank McDermott from Dublin. He was planning 3:20 and he had tapered for a full week! Excellent....that sounds a lot better than my 36 hours ;o)
So, plan B was hatched.........run with Frank, see how I get on and let him off when I get tired.


10am and the Marathon started. Frank took off like he trying to catch the last bus home and he was leading the Marathon after about 100 metres. Mmmmm....maybe I should forget about Frank and plan B......back to plan A ;o) 
Soon, I settled into 5th position, the pace felt ok and it stayed like that for the first few miles. After about a lap, some of those in front settled down into a more relaxed pace and I found myself in 3rd place behind 2 runners from Galway.

The kms were now passing with times in the low 4 minutes. Not exactly the 5 minutes according to plan A but I thought....'what harm, I'll build up a bit of a cushion before the fatigue sets in'.


Another lap and I went through the 10 km mark in 43:45. I had no idea of what pace that was. I knew the pace seemed a bit fast but I felt ok for the moment. Keep going........stay with the Galway lads.......build that cushion!


About an hour into the race, the cloud cover broke up and the sunshine appeared. The temperature was now around 20-22 deg C...not great conditions for running a Marathon but in fairness to the organisers, the water stations were excellent. They had small 250 ml bottles of water on offer as well as coke in plastic cups. I remembered that a fellow club mate had told me about drinking coke during a Marathon and found that the sugar and caffeine gave him a boost. So every lap, I stopped at the water station for about 5 seconds, drank all of the coke, took a bottle of water while the runners in front opened up a gap.


Another lap and a bit and soon I was at the half-way mark........92 minutes! That's 3:04 Marathon pace.........way too fast!! I had no intention of running this pace........this was supposed to be a training run. Yet, there didn't seem any point in slowing down. I was in 3rd place and I thought that maybe if I could keep up a reasonable pace, I could hold 3rd?


One km later, one of the 2 front runners pulled out and by roughly the 15 mile mark, I had caught the leader and I was in front. For the next 11 miles, I was essentially on my own. No-one out ahead to concentrate on. I was running on my own and it was just a matter of trying to keep up the pace as best I could. I kept waiting for the fatigue to hit, for my pace to drop dramatically....but it never did.


The remaining few laps were all about counting down the kms and lapping some of the slower Marathon runners. The last lap was just one long push!...get to the finish....don't get caught!


I finally finished in a time of roughly 3:06 having run the 2nd half in about 94 minutes, just 2 minutes slower than my first half. Not the fastest of Marathon times but fast enough on the day to win this particular Marathon.

As an event, it is certainly different from other long distance races. I was expecting to find the laps really boring and difficult to keep track of. However, that didn't turn out to be the case. The race was very well organised and the km markers were well signposted. The course is roughly in the shape of a spoon.........a loop on the western end with an out and back section on the eastern end. In a way, you almost ended up as a spectator in the race as you could see who was running well and who was suffering in the 3 races.

Perhaps running loops in a forest might not appeal to everyone but the trees certainly made things a lot more comfortable once the sun came out. At times along the course, there were open sections where we had no shade and we got a reminder of just how difficult the race would have been without shelter.  

In the 100 km race, Niall O'Crualaoich from Cobh (shown above) completed the course. Niall, who is a fireman in Cork recently ran the Cork City Marathon for charity.........in his fireman's outfit complete with jacket and boots in a time of 4:45!

In the 50 km race, Gerry Forde from Blarney took part with his wheelchair.

Also in the Marathon, Michael Haydon of UCC who completed his 100th Marathon recently in Cork added one more to make it 101!