Gebrselassie To Chase Radcliffe In Vienna Half-Marathon

This unique Half-Marathon race is coming up in Vienna on Sunday, the 15th of April. The holder of the womens Marathon record, Paula Radcliffe, will race against the great Haile Gebrselassie, the former holder of the mens Marathon record.

In a press release, the organisers said.....
"The British world marathon record holder had been announced earlier as a competitor in the half marathon. She will now start the race with a time advantage and Haile Gebrselassie will chase her. We are absolutely thrilled to be able to present our spectators a race of which you could only dream of. Haile running against Paula – two inspiring personalities and may be the two best runners of all times up against each other – this is something unique in the world of road running."

Haile Gebrselassie won the race in 2011 with a course record of 60:18 minutes. A year ago he received a tremendous reception by the spectators, politicians from the city and even the President of Austria had invited the two time Olympic 10,000 m Champion for a reception. 

The time advantage for Paula Radcliffe will be determined nearer to the race. She will start her race on her own while Haile Gebrselassie and the whole field will be chasing her on the way to the finish.

Can women really compete against men in races???

It's an obvious fact that in general, men have more muscle mass and are stronger than women. As you look through all of the various records and times for different distances, men are always faster. This is especially so in the short sprint events like the 100m and 200m where a lot of power is required.

With the increasing number of people and especially women taking part now in endurance events like Ultra-Marathons, there are some indications to suggest that the difference between the sexes may not be so large. Some may even argue that women may actually have the upper hand when it comes to really long distance endurance events.

The main reason...body fat. As a percentage, women have a higher percentage of body fat than men. In very long distance and endurance events, this body fat acts as a fuel store to keep the body going, especially when the stores of glycogen are running low. It's when the body begins getting low on glycogen and turns increasingly to other energy stores such as fat that Marathon runners hit the famous "wall."

There is an interesting article in the New York Daily News about it HERE

Update on the Mallow 10 entries...

The latest news from Mallow AC is that the entries for the Mallow 10 mile road race next Monday, the 19th of March have gone over the 900 mark! The plan was to have dry fit tops for the first 1,000 entries. The good news is that they have purchased extra t-shirts so that now, all entrants will get a dry fit top. They will be given out at the finish line on the day.

Please note that online entries will close on Thursday night...15th of March. The pre-entry fee is €15 and they are appealing for all runners to please pre-enter rather than entering on the day itself...cost €20. Not only is it cheaper but it allows them to get your details into the computer and it will makes things a lot easier on the day.

Update...Wed 14th Mar...All of the pacer slots have now been filled....one for 60 mins and two for 70, 80 and 90 mins.

You can enter online HERE. More details about the race in an earlier post.

Derval O'Rouke supports Bay Run '12 Half-Marathon...

Press release from the organisers of the Bay Run Half-Marathon...

In this Olympic year in which sports will dominate the agenda this summer, Derval O Rourke is delighted to support Bay Run '12 - Half Marathon in Bantry which will take place on May 6th. The Irish Olympic hopeful believes more and more people should be involved in sports at any level and the idea of challenging yourself to a half marathon which is set amongst some of the best scenery Ireland has to offer is a fantastic opportunity to test yourself at this distance.

Derval added, "we are now lucky in Ireland that the number of events and the level of participation has increased significantly in the last numbers of years. The Bay Run - Half Marathon was recently voted as the best half marathon in Munster in 2011, so this reflects on the level of organisation and management now expected at these events. I'm hoping that this year more people will be encouraged to get out there and challenge themselves and improve their fitness levels and overall health by taking part in such events.'

Follow Derval at the Olympics and prepare yourself for the summer of sport by setting yourself a challenge and registering for the Bay Run '12 - Half Marathon via the website   www.bayrun.ie

Yuki Kawauchi wins Saitama Half-Marathon...

Remember this guy? Yuki Kawauchi, otherwise known as the 'citizen runner' is a self coached runner in Japan who was trying to get on the national Olympic team. He had a 'poor' run in the Tokyo Marathon with a time of 2:12:51 and he shaved his head afterwards as a sign of his shame.

Now just two weeks later, he was back in action again last weekend when he won the Saitama Half-Marathon in a time of 64:26. After the race, he said..."It's a tough, undulating course, so I think a 64 is pretty good here. People were cheering and it got me going.  When they're calling out, 'Do your best!' that's all you can do.  In the sense of helping me focus toward doing my best in achieving my next goal it was a good race.  At Tokyo next year I want to make up for what happened this year."

Hair or no hair, I don't think we've heard the last of Yuki.

Race notice...Run West Cork 10k - Sat 17th March 2012

On Saturday the 17th of March, there is a 10k race in Ballydehob in west Cork. Located just 10 kms or so west of Skibbereen, it might be of interest to runners in that general area....

The race starts at 11am and entries on the day will be taken at the local community centre. If you are coming from Bantry or Skibbereen, you will enter Ballydehob from the east. There will be a small park on your left and you'll see the iconic old 12 arch railway bridge in the distance...

After you cross over the hump backed bridge, take the first left, drive 100 metres and the community hall is on your right. See map...

Notes...

The course starts in Ballydehob, heading out along the coast run to Rossbrin beside Roaringwater Bay with its many islands, and then returning to the village again.
Entry fee is €15
Chip timing.
T-shirts will be awarded to the first 100 finishers.
Transition point at 5k for teams of two.
Separate walkers’ category in the St Patrick’s Day 10km.
Walkers will start at 10.30 , Runners will start at 11.00

You can enter on the morning of the race or you can also enter online HERE


Registration for the Event at Ballydehob Community Hall: Friday 16 March 6-8pm, Saturday 17 March 8.30-10am.

The race website is HERE

Results of the Munster Senior and Novice Road Championships...Sun 11th March 2012

The Munster Senior and Novice road championships were held in Inniscarra on Sunday, the 11th of March 2012. The basic results are shown below...

Senior Men
1 J McCarthy (East Cork) 20:16; 2 B Murphy (Carrick) 20:28; 3 M Herlihy (North Cork) 20:32; 4 K Rodgers (St Johns) 20:47; 5 K Maunsell (Clonmel) 20:50; 6 C Murphy (Iveragh) 21:08.
Team: 1 East Cork AC 63; 2 Leevale AC 118; 3 Clonmel 120. (County) 1 Cork 66; 2 Tipperary 81; 3 Clare 116.

Novice Men
1 B Murphy (Carrick) 20:28; 2 G Waugh (Bandon) 20:35; 3 K Maunsell (Clonmel) 20:50; 4 J Caster (Kilmurry-Ibrick NC) 21:26; 5 W Maunsell (Clonmel) 21:43; 6 C Moore (Leevale) 21:56.
Team: 1 Clonmel AC 96; 2 St Finbarrs AC 110; 3 Youghal AC 163. (County) 1 Tipperary 124; 2 Cork 134; 3 Clare 207.

Senior Women
A McCann (Clonmel) 24:01; 2 N O’Sullivan (Riocht) 24:20; 3 C Crowley (Bandon) 24:29; 4 N Roe (Eagle) 24:49; 5 A-M Costelloe (Gneeveguilla) 25:05; 6 C-B Hehir (Ennis TC) 25:33.
Team: 1 Eagle AC 63; 2 Clonmel 64; 3 Riocht 110. (County) 1 Kerry 29; 2 Cork 42; 3 Tipperary 64.

Novice Women: 1 M Kiely (St Finbarrs) 24:13; 2 A-M Costelloe (Gneeveguilla) 25:05; 3 C-B Hehir (Ennis TC) 25:33; 4 V Vaughan (St Finbarrs) 25:44; 5 K Teahan (St Finbarrs) 26:48; 6 A Wolfe (St Finbarrs) 26:59.
Team: 1 St Finbarrs ‘A’ 33; 2 St Finbarrs ‘B’ 153; 3 Clonmel 153. (County) 1 Cork 35; 2 Kerry 78; 3 Tipperary 153.

The full results can be seen HERE

Photos......

1) John Quigley of Eagle AC has a slideshow of the mens race and the womens race.

2) Joe Murphy of Eagle AC has a slideshow of the mens race and the womens race

Irish athletes at the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Istanbul...March 2012

The major international competition this weekend was the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Istanbul, Turkey this weekend. A small team of just three Irish athletes made the trip with Derval O'Rourke and Ben Reynolds taking part in the 60m hurdles and Ciarán Ó Lionáird in the 1500m.

Despite the fact that it was a major event, some of the sprinting events were marred by poor acoustics. Several athletes complained that the sound coming from the loudspeaker behind the starting blocks was too low and the echo from the gunshot sounded like a second shot to indicate a false start. The American Kristi Castlin was disqualified from her 60-meter hurdles heat after stopping in her tracks as the rest of the pack took off toward the finish line. Sally Pearson, the 100-metre hurdles world champion, won her heat but she also thought there was a problem at the start. "I thought someone had false started. 'Oh crap, that wasn't me, was it?''' Pearson said. "But the girl next to me was starting so I just kept going myself. I don't know what they're going to do about that because it's really confusing.'' The men running the 60 metres also heard the repetitions off the walls, but they had the advantage of running after the women.

From an Irish point of view, it was a mixed bad of performances with just some regret over what might have been.

Derval O'Rourke was in one of the hardest heats of the 60m hurdles running 8.19 for 4th place and qualifying for the semi-finals as one of the fastest losers. In the semi, she finished in a seasons best time of 8.13 and 6th position (see pic) but unfortunately not fast enough to go through to the final.


Audio interview here...


In the 1500m, Ciarán Ó Lionáird had a disappointing run finishing in 11th place in the first heat with a time of 3:50.12 (Ignore the PB next to his time, that was a mistake by the IAAF) . To put that in context, Ciarán ran 3:37 in the final of the World Championships in Daegu, South Korea last year and his personal best outdoors is 3:34.

In an article in the Irish Times, Ian O'Riordan has a piece about his performance and why it was poor. He starts off with "Indeed because I’m not in Istanbul myself I don’t know who he’s blaming, although it’s surely only himself, and the complete breakdown in focus and race execution he so effectively demonstrated at the World Championships last August."....and then goes on to speculate as to what went wrong. You can read it HERE but I'm not sure if you'll be any the wiser as it seems to be mainly conjecture.

Whatever the reason for the poor run, his time of 3:50 says nothing about his current form. As recently as early February, he won a mile race...i.e. 1609 metres...in Boston in 3:56. At that pace, he would have done 1500m in 3:40 which would have easily won the heat in Istanbul on Friday.

It should be remembered that Ciarán is still only 22 years old and still 'learning' the ropes. As he has said in recent interviews, every race is a learning experience and his best years are still ahead. Eamonn Coghlan was 31 years old when he ran 3:49.78 to set a new indoor miles record and won the 5000m in the world championships in 1993.

Ben Reynolds was the third Irish athlete in action in Istanbul. He finished in 5th place in a time of 7.82 in the first heat of the mens 60m hurdles and went into the semi-finals as one of the fastest losers. On Sunday, he ran 7.80 and finished in 7th place and didn't make the finals.

Category results for the Cork BHAA Board Gais 5k...Sun 11th Mar 2012

Men...1. Wyslaw 15.47 (Spot prize, not BHAA registered), 2. Phil Harly 15.51, 3. Tony Kelleher 16.22, 4. Joe Cunningham 16.33
0/40...1 . John Hennessy, 2. Tom O'Brien, 3. Brendan Williams
0/45...1. Mark Bickerdike, 2. Denis Kelleher, 3. Brian Linehan
0/50...1. George Bulman,, 2. Sean Freeman, 3. Pat Dineen
0/55..1. Michael Murphy. 2. Neilus Aherne, 3. Joe Murphy
0/60...1. Maurice Dunne, 2. John O'Halloran
0/65...1. Michael Dunne, 2. Timmy Murray
0/70 ...1. Tony Dunne,
Ladies...1. Margaret Murphy 18.48, 2. Siobhan Murphy, 3. Anne Marie Power, 4. Sheila Buckley, 5. Elaine O'Donnell
0/35...1. Rachel O'Callaghan, 2. Gillian Murphy, 3. Valerie Lynch
0/40...1. Karen Neiland, 2. Shirley Lankford, 3. Margaret Whyte
0/45...1. Helen Gilroy, 2. Mary O'Keeffe, 3. Monica Twohig
0/50...1. Aine Murphy, 2. Ann O'Connor, 3. Sylivia Pearse
0/55... 1. Mary Toher, 2. Kathleen O'Connell,
0/60...1. Maggie Dunne, 2. Aileen O'Keeffe, 3. Mary Linehan
Wheelchair...1. Gerry Forde

Full results are now HERE

Start of the race...(from Ruairi O'Mahony)

Near the finish line...

David McCarthy finishes 9th in indoor mile in Idaho

David McCarthy from Waterford was in action again over the weekend in a mile race in the NCAA Indoor Championships in Nampa, Idaho. Looking at the stats, it seems to have been a relatively slow race with McCarthy in second place for most of it but losing out in the last lap to finish in 9th place.

In the first heat the previous day, McCarthy ran 4:06.66 to finish in 2nd place and qualify for the final.

IAAF adds controversial Chinese athlete to it's new hall of fame...

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has just announced the names of 12 athletes to it's new hall of fame. While there are some obvious choices like Jesse Owens, Emil Zatopek and Ed Moses, they also announced the controversial Chinese athlete Wang Junxia. Back in 1993, she took a huge 42 seconds off the old 10,000 metre record when she ran 29:31.7. That record still stands today, in fact, no-one has come within 22 seconds of it.

Her coach at the time was Ma Junren who later had some of his athletes fail drugs tests. Junren was also the coach of the three Chinese runners that appeared out of nowhere at the 1993 World Championships in Struttgart and pushed Sonia O'Sullivan into 4th place. In an interview last year, O'Sullivan wondered if those Chinese runners were clean at the time.

On hearing that Wang Junxia was nominated to the Hall of Fame, Paula Radcliffe, the Marathon record holder and who had beaten Wang comfortably at the World Junior Cross Country Championships in Boston in 1992, posted a message on Twitter saying it was "a cruel joke".

It would be incredibly naive for anyone to believe that the Chinese performances of that era were clean. The Telegraph has a piece on it HERE

BBC Podcast...The lifecycle of an athlete...Kenya

As part of the Human Race Series, Claudia Hammond of the BBC World Service travels to Kenya to look at the education system and culture behind some of the most successful athletes in the world. She interviews Olympic legend Kip Keino, Br. Colm O'Connell in Iten as well as a Danish researcher who believes that a 1:55 Marathon is possible!

The link to the 34 minute podcast is HERE. (There is a 5 minute segment on swimming from 17:15 to 22:30 if you want to avoid it)

Races in Cork on Sunday 11th March 2012..

There are two races in Cork this weekend.

1) The Munster Novice and Senior Road Championship will be held at Ballyanley in Iniscarra. Both men and women will race over the same 4 mile circuit. The Womens Race starts at 1pm, the Mens Race to follow at ~1:30pm. This race is inter club only.

 Directions......From Cork City.....Take the right at the end of the Straight Road /Carrigrohane Straight. Cross the bridge over the Lee and go past the Angler's Rest pub (Shown as A above). If you are coming out via the Ballincollig Bypass, follow the signs for Kanturk / Blarney and you'll arrive at the same spot. At the junction just after the Angler's Rest, take the Right past the Garage. Stay on this road (R579) for several kms, go past the junction and Church in Cloghroe and look for the turn off left at Blair's Pub about 2 kms later.

From north Cork....Go through Blarney..keep going straight...through Tower and at the T junction in Cloghroe, turn right. Turn off right at Blairs pub.

From Coachford....Once you pass the resevoir for the Inniscarra dam, take the next left R622 signposted for Blarney. Then left at the next T-junction and then look out for the turn off left at Blairs Pub.

Course Description...This is a hilly 4 mile course. You can forget about fast times, there are too many hills for that. However, despite the hills, the course is run on nice quiet country roads and it's a nice spot for a race. The race itself starts down the road from the GAA grounds. Initially, you run downhill but soon, you turn off left and then there is a nasty drag uphill. Soon it eases off and then you are running on nice quiet roads. Around the 2 mile mark, you come to the small village of Berrings. You turn left here at the church and you have another uphill section. After that, you're on flat or downhill sections. Just in case you thought you were getting off lightly, the 3rd hill of note comes at the finish. In the last few hundred metres, you drop downhill and then you have to run about 200m up to the finish line which is just outside the GAA grounds.

I have put a map of the course up on the MapMyRun website in case you want to check out other ways to get there. The link is http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/ireland/cork/1129301821

2) The Cork BHAA have a 5k race in Mahon at 11am. Sign in at the local community centre...€5 reg/€8 non-reg. The race is on a narrow public walkway so it might get a bit congested in places. Otherwise, it's flat except for the pedestrian bridge over the South Ring Road.

Pacers for the Mallow '10' race...

Entries for the Mallow 10 mile road race on Monday, the 19th of March are coming in at a steady rate so if you are doing this then enter asap to make sure that you get one of the dry-fit tops for the first 1,000 entries. More details in an earlier post.

In 2011, the Mallow '10' was one of the first 10 mile races to have pacers and they are going to have them again this year.

There will be 2 pacers at each pace band and the idea is that they will run at a steady pace and finish in 60 mins, 70 mins, 80 mins and 90 mins. All pacers will be wearing a special bib...

....as well as a helium balloon (...with the exception of the 60 min pacers).

Pacers serve a number of functions during a race. Some people will run with them from start to finish to try and achieve their target time. Some will use them to make sure they don't start too fast  and then go and do their own thing. Some will see a pacer way off in the distance and will try and keep them in sight. Others will just want to stay ahead of certain pacers and not be caught. The biggest impact I have seen of pacers is near the end of the race when they catch up with tired runners and you'll find people making that extra effort to try and keep up. Lots of other people may have passed them but the sight of that balloon seems to get people going.

Pacer required...At the moment, they are still looking for someone to do the 60 minute slot. The requirement is that someone must be able to run it reasonably comfortably at a steady pace. This might suit a person who might normally run 57-58 minutes for 10 miles? Needless to say, they will get a free entry and a voucher for their helping out. Contact Dave Lyons of Mallow AC at 086 6082848

Kenyan Marathon runners facing backlash??

Last November, I had a story about the Utrecht Marathon and how the organisers had discriminated against foreign runners. They had offered a €100 prize for the overall winner and €10,000 for the first Dutch runner. Now it seems that a Marathon in the Philippines have excluded Kenyan runners after receiving countless complaints from participants.

The Phoenix Petroleum Philippines, Inc. (PPPI) marketing supervisor Neb Bulaclac said..."The complainants said it will be unfair for locals to race with Kenyans as they have been running as their source of income. Kenyans have the advantage over Davao runners," Bulaclac told members of the Davao Sportswriters Association (DSA) Forum at the Tower Inn on Tuesday. He said management will not open an international category since it will entail additional expense for them.

"If we open another category, we will need another P100,000 and that will be too much on our part. We also received complaints from managers of Kenyan runners but we have apologized to them as well," he said.

Hapalua Half-Marathon....In this race scheduled for Sunday in Honolulu, Hawii, the two elite Kenyan marathoners will have to come from behind if they want to win the event's $5,000 first prize. Hand-picked group of local top athletes will be given a head start with the women starting at 5:42 a.m. and the men at 5:51. Prize money will be distributed based on the rank order of finish regardless of gender.

Is this the start of a trend?