Most 5k parkruns in Cork return on Sat 11th Sept 2021

After an absence of roughly 18 months, most of the 5k parkruns in Cork and Kerry will be restarting on Saturday the 11th of September.

In Cork City, there is one in the Glen River park and in Ballincollig Regional park.

Outside the city, there are ones in the ground of Mallow Castle, Macroom Demesne and in the Clonakilty Showgrounds.

In West Cork, there is one in Glengarriff Woods. The parkrun on Bere Island won't be restarting but they hope to be up and running soon.

The parkrun in Castlehaven is restarting. (updated)

In Kerry, the parkruns in Tralee Park, Inch Beach, Listowel and Killarney House are all returning.

You'll find links to all of the sites for the parkruns in Cork HERE

Friday Jigsaw: Pre-race at the 2017 Ballintotis 4-mile

For this weeks jigsaw, we go back to before the start of the 2017 Ballintotis 4-mile road race. Photo by Mick Dooley.

You can find the 130-piece jigsaw HERE

Cork runners complete the 170km UTMB ultra around Mont Blanc

The UTMB is one of the most famous ultra races in Europe and it was held this year at the end of August. The 170km race starts and finishes in the magnificent Chamonix in the French Alps and contestants do a loop around the base of Mont Blanc taking in Italy and Switzerland along the way. Entry to he race is only possible if contestants have built up enough points from completing other qualifying ultra races.

As far as I know, four runners from Cork took part this year.

Eoin Keith from Cobh finished the race in 28 hours 04 minutes and 11 seconds and was placed second in his age category.

Cork runners Brian Buckley and Remi Delille

Remi Delille who is a US citizen living in Rochestown finished in 65th position in 28:13:06 while Brian Buckley finished in 69th in 28:19:20. Brian is a former winner of the 200km Kerry Way Ultra.

The fourth Cork finisher was Tom Downes who completed the course in 42:50:54 in 905th place.

No doubt there are several runners from Cork and Ireland already planning the 2022 edition.

Big numbers turn out for the Wibblies return on Cork City's northside

The Wibbly Wobbly Wonders Running Club got the show back on the road on Tuesday the 7th of September with a big turnout for their renewed training sessions. The photo above shows their group photo before they split up into the various training groups which are also shown.

They meet up on Tuesday and Thursday evenings at 7pm in Dunnes Stores car park in Ballyvolane on the northside of Cork City. The sessions are free and you just need to bring a high viz vest to take part.

Look for them on Facebook if you want more info.

Ryan Creech from Cork is the best of the Irish at the 2021 Antrim Coast Half-Marathon

In the recent Antrim Coast Half-Marathon, Ryan Creech of Leevale AC in Cork was the best of the Irish when he finished in a time of 1h 03m 26s.

As can be seen from the extracted results below, Ryan was the first Irish athlete home.

1 Jemal YIMER ETH Male 1:00:30  
2 Tesfahun AKALNEW ETH Male 1:00:31  
3 Shadrack KIMINING KEN Male 1:00:32  
4 Marc SCOTT GB & NI Male 1:00:35  
5 Nigel MARTIN ENG Male 1:03:22  
6 Ryan CREECH IRE Male 1:03:26  
7 Paul O'DONNELL IRE Male 1:03:37  
8 Ross SKELTON ENG Male 1:03:40  
9 Yalemzerf YEHUALAW ETH Female 1:03:44  
10 Stephen SCULLION IRE Male 1:03:54  
13 Jake O'REEGAN IRE Male 1:04:16  
32 Kyle DOHERTY IRE Male 1:08:41  
38 Eoin HUGHES IRE Male 1:10:47  
41 Alexander WALLACE IRE Male 1:12:05  
42 Tommy HUGHES IRE Male 1:12:27  
43 Declan POWER IRE Male 1:12:51

Ryan's splits are shown below which shows he was running at roughly 3:00/km pace which is around 4:50 per mile.

Splits
Time of Gun Time    Speed/Pace 
Start 0:00:01.2 
5km 0:15:05.3 03:00 min/km
10km 0:30:22.7 03:03 min/km
15km 0:45:22.6 03:00 min/km
Finish 1:03:25.7 02:57 min/km

As you can see from the splits, Ryan went through the 5k mark in 15m 03s and the 10k mark in 30m 22s. He put in a really fast last 6kms to drag the overall average pace down to 2m 57/km.

The screen grab above shows Ryan in the home strait and just ahead of follow Irish team mate Paul O'Donnell who finish 11 seconds behind.

The results of the elite field can be seen HERE

It's a bit surprising that Athletics Ireland have nothing up on their website about the results of this race despite the fact they submitted an Irish team!

Notice: Charleville Half-Marathon - Sun 26th September 2021

The 2021 Charleville Half-Marathon is coming up on the Sunday the 26th of September with a 10am start.

It is now open to ALL runners thanks to an easing of the restrictions.

Enter HERE

From the organisers... " This race is the 11th edition of the Charleville International Half-Marathon. It will follow the same course and format as previous years with a couple of modifications to allow for Covid-19 recommendations. It is organised as a fundraiser for North Cork AC who are a very inclusive juvenile and senior athletics club and to fundraise for a donation to St. Josephs Foundation for people with special needs. 

For more info. about the event… See the main race website - www.CharlevilleHalf.com

Entry Fees : Standard Entry Fee of €40 for entry to the race only.

For safety reasons, especially in relation to Covid-19 recommendations, the event organisers have had to modify the event in a small number of ways. We hope that participants will understand and will co-operate with these arrangements so that we may move forward in a safe way towards returning to normality. The core race and course will remain the same, so we hope that people will still get the enjoyment of participating in the 11th edition of our flat, fast half-marathon."

The Charleville Half-Marathon has a well deserved reputation for being a fast course and would suit anyone trying for a fast time.

Obviously this year, things won't be quite the same with no cuppa afterwards but the course remains the same.

Course Preview......You can see a preview of the course HERE

Proceeds from the race go towards the development of North Cork Athletic Club and St.Josephs Foundation where the race is hosted. 

Couch to 5k programme starting in Tracton / Minane Bridge - Starts 13th Sept 2021

There will be starting up a Couch to 5k programme on Monday the 13th of September 2021 at the Tracton AC track which is just to the south of Minane Bridge near Carrigaline.

As the adverts says, it's €59 for 8 weeks and it will be on Mondays and Thursdays at 6:30pm.

The course is run by Ian Dorgan who has been holding numerous Couch to 5k programmes over the years.

This would suit someone who would like to do a Couch to 5k programme aas part of a group and is living in the Carrigaline area who can travel to the sessions every week.

Guest Post: Mayfield Goes Racing in 1971... by Richard Forrest

Up until the year 2000, there were two national athletics associations in Ireland... BLE and NACA. Back in 1971, NACA held their 10-mile Championships in Mayfield in Cork City. Thanks to Richard  Forrest for the following piece.

Mayfield Goes Racing in 1971

Sunday, October 17th 1971 (all of 50 years ago) saw a large gathering at Mayfield when the local athletics club, Clannn Éireann hosted the All-Ireland 10-mile Road Racing Championship. The event was run over three laps of the Mayfield – Banduff - Fox and Hounds - Dillon’s Cross -Mayfield course.

 Among the entries were two former national marathon champions in Jimmy Hughes and Noel Ramsbottom. While Cork’s hopes rested on John O’Brien (Ballymore AC), the former national 15-mile champion and Williie Webb (Rising Sun AC). There were dark horses among the runners from Éire Óg AC and Geraldines AC (London) who had preformed so well in the All-Ireland Senior Cross-Country.

Mayfield in the 1970's

As well as individual medals, there were three team prizes also, guaranteed to make it an interesting race. In conjunction to the main event, a boys under-17 race covered one lap of a course starting at Mayfield, going through the Sisk building site and joining the 10-mile course at O’Callaghan’s Garage on the Banduff Road. Boys and girls under-15 raced over the Lower Mayfield – Iona Park course but the event with biggest draw and, perhaps, the most excitement were the boys and girls under-12 and under-14 races confined to local schools.

Heats in those events were run on Saturday with the finals on Sunday. Twenty-five athletes competed in the national championship at Mayfield that day and a ”superbly fit John O’Brien ran the opposition into the ground”. He finished the ten miles 2 mins 45 secs ahead of his clubmate Mick Kinsella in a time of 54 mins 3 secs on, it has to be said, a tough course and in rough weather. 

Willie Webb took the bronze edging out John Fox (Brothers Pearse, Dublin). A special word of praise went to 56-year old Bill McAvoy (Timahoe AC, Portlaoise) who came in 16 th . Millstreet and Ballymore (near Cobh) dominated the underage categories but in the confined boys under-12s the first three were T. Clarke, M. Mulroy and D. Crowley and in the girls, N. Nagle, S. Brett ad G. Hurley.

Addendum: Additional info from Jimmy Murray... "Clann Eireann AC active in the Mayfield area, late 60s to mid 70s., main men there were Bill and Jack Keniry and Eoin Dorney, all now deceased, this was an annual fixture as a non championship event for some years while the club was active, a number of the runners are still with us inc. the first and second on that day, the starter was Paddy Desmond RIP., later President NACAI."

Addendum #2: Additional info from Richard Forrest... "James (Jim) Hughes was NACA All-Ireland marathon champion in 1968 and 1969. The race in 1969 was in Killarney and he won in a time of 2:40.

Hughes was a secondary school teacher from Carrickmacross, Co. Monaghan and ran with the Brothers Pearse Club in Dublin. Ramsbottom was with Tinahoe A.C. in Co. Laois."

Guest Post: Veni Vidi Vici... by Pat Walsh

 ** Veni Vidi Vici **

🏃🏃‍♀️

It is lovely to write a report on a run / race for the first time in 18months. On Saturday, a few of us went to Waterford or more specifically the Copper Coast Crawl in Annestown in aid of the Eoghan Keating fund.

Beautiful run, lovely welcoming people and great to be back running the roads with a crowd. 

Starting from the beach car park we set of through the village and a quiet meandering road for the first mile.

That was the end of the fun🥺🤓

From there on it can only be described as running on a roller coaster. We went up hills that goats would refuse.🐐🐐 Some were so steep I was looking for a ski-lift to the top. To be fair what goes up, goes down and we went down hills that if there was snow on them, then they could feature on Ski Sunday. 🤣🤣 ⛷🏂

I finished the Half Marathon and never walked, so that I can be proud of at least.  It was some of the most spectacular scenery you could ask for between Bunmahon and Annestown, but every runner knows scenic also means suffering. There were options on a 7mile and a 10mile as well and they were very tempting at times to take a shorter route home.  Thanks to my running partners Mary and Helen for the chats. Well done Liam on a super time on that course. 

It was a charity run and to pass the Keating home and see his family outside to cheer and support us was fantastic. There was no stopping any of us after that.

👏👏

Back to old fashioned running. No chip timing, no prizes or categories just a challenge of a good run in aid of a good cause with some of the nicest people you could share the road with. Well done to the Saturday road Runners and to Ian and Trevor in particular for organizing the event. We will be back.

🏊‍♀️🏊🏊

Afterwards we went for a dip in the sea to help recovery. “It will be good for the legs”, they said. “The water is warm” was another one. Sweet Mother of Divine it was Baltic temperatures in there. No Global warming in Waterford I can tell you. Yes it was good for the legs as when I came out I couldn’t feel them for 30 minutes they were so cold and numb.🤣

😍

Now that we have rediscovered travelling and racing again we look forward to the next race.

#PWR Saturday Road Runners

Winner breaks course record in the 2021 Kerry Way 200km Ultra

The annual Kerry Way Ultra was held over the weekend with the 200k event starting at 6am on Friday morning.

In the men's race, the first man home broke the old course record of 22h 36m 27s set by Barry Hartnett in 2017.

Top 3 finishers in 
The Kerry Way Ultra, Men’s Race 
1.John McKeogh 22:25:44*
2.Ricki Wynne 22:53:55
3.Keith Lane 23:06:53

Winner outright...👏👏🥇John McKeogh, Winner of the The Kerry Way Ultra Marathon, in an incredible time of 22:25:44. in a 200km non stop endurance race - The Kerry Way Ultra Marathon, a daunting 40 hour, 200km, non stop race, which traverses the MacGillycuddy's Reeks and Iveragh Peninsula, on Ireland’s longest trail route in Ireland a daunting 40 hour, 200km, non stop race, which traverses the MacGillycuddy's Reeks and Iveragh Peninsula, on Ireland’s longest trail route in Ireland. Photo: Valerie O'Sullivan

First 9 finishers

Top 5 finishers in the Kerry Way Ultra, Women’s  Race 

1. Lianne van Dijk 28:39:05
2.Joanna Edwards 33:10:34
3.Simone Durry 33:35:04
4. Kasia Skowron 34:57:45
5. Claire McCann 35:46:16

AMAZING🥇🥇👏👏👏....Lianne Van Dijk,  First Lady Home, in a time of  28:39:05, competing in the The Kerry Way Ultra Marathon, a 200km non stop endurance race - The Kerry Way Ultra Marathon, a daunting 40 hour, 200km, non stop race, which traverses the MacGillycuddy's Reeks and Iveragh Peninsula, on Ireland’s longest trail route in Ireland a daunting 40 hour, 200km, non stop race, which traverses the MacGillycuddy's Reeks and Iveragh Peninsula, on Ireland’s longest trail route in Ireland. Photo: Valerie O'Sullivan

At the time of writing, the full results aren't up yet but keep an eye on the organisers Facebook page for results and photos... https://www.facebook.com/TheKerryWayUltra

Results of the Castleisland 5k - Fri 3rd Sept 2021

This 5k race organised by An Ríocht AC was held in Castleisland, Kerry on Friday the 3rd of September 2021. This was the 2nd of 3 in an Autumn series of 5k race with a modest entry fee of €10.

A number of runners from Cork made the trip west including Sharon Woods of Mallow AC who was the 2nd woman home this time around.

Full results HERE

Popular Cork City running club resumes sessions on the 7th of September

The Wibbly Wobbly Wobbly Wonders Running Club are the largest running group in Cork City and do most of their sessions from Dunne Stores car park in Ballyvolane.

As you can see from the message below, they're back in action on the 7th of September 2021...

The Wibbly Wobbly Wonders Running Club will be reopening Tuesday 7th September @ 7pm.
We are rusty but we will start from the start and go from there .  We have done it once and we can do it again 🙏🏻
We will start with the Following : 
✅Walkers group 
✅2 min walking and 2 min running group 
✅11 min mile group 
✅A Runners groups - 

** Couch to 5K Will start in January 2022 

🚨 HIGH VIS JACKETS COMPULSORY 🚨
spread the word .. The Wibblies are back 💙💙💙

Results of the Glengarriff 5-mile road race - Sat 4th Sept 2021

A smallish crowd of 129 runners turned out for this 5-mile race in Glenarriff in West Cork on Sat 4th Sept 2021.

1 Eoghan Mc Elhinney Bantry A.C. M 0:29:28 
2 James Grufferty Leevale A.C. M 0:29:42 
3 Edward Casey Clonakilty Road Runners M 0:30:05 
5 Hannah Steeds Clonmel A.C. F 0:31:29 
11 Rosaleen Mackeown Leevale A.C. F40 0:33:44 
5 Andrea Bickerdike Leevale A.C. F 0:34:46 

Full results HERE

Guest Post: What lies ahead... by Pat Walsh

 ** What lies ahead **

The announcement this week that many restrictions are being lifted over the next few weeks is to be welcomed and brings some kind of closure to the last 18 months of our lives. Very little running inspiration here this week only some observations.
🏃

We should be back to classes, training, racing soon and maybe that will restore some normality to our lives. Digital Certs, washing our hands and face masks will be with us for some time yet, but a small price to pay for some improvement in the quality of our lives.

The Government line is moving from dictating and regulating towards a situation where we take personal responsibility for our actions. That is not easy for some.

Not everyone will welcome this freedom and will be slow, almost reluctant to fully engage again. That is entirely understandable and we must all move on now at a rate that suits ourselves. Small events will be fine but start line of a big city marathon is another matter entirely. 

While running was a life-saver for many of us, then others have been lost due to support from clubs, groups, gangs of friends and these people will need time and encouragement to get going again.

Domestic circumstances made it very difficult for some to train and that must be respected.
Now is a time for tolerance and patience with those around us.
🏃

The last race I ran in was the Dunhill / Fenor (Co Waterford) 10mile, March 8th 2020 and in a lovely twist of fate I am heading to the Copper Coast Crawl today in Annestown which is much the same area and organised again by the wonderful Saturday Road Runners   . I am looking forward to sharing the road again with others for laughs, smiles and chats. Performance is well down the list of priorities.
👏👏

I thank each and every one of you who have engaged with this page in the last Year and a Half. Most of the time I hadn’t a clue what I was writing but I felt I had to do it for my own head, to get on paper what I was feeling. Personally it did serve a useful and badly needed purpose. Knowing we were in this together, that I wasn’t the only one having worries, doubts and cranky spells is comforting. I think that period of our lives is now over and we can get on with it.
🤔🤔

This is not a goodbye or anything but time for me to start thinking and planning again for the future without restrictions . No doubt there are still a few twists and turns in this but I would like to think 2022 will be time for us all to meet again. 

There is a big life change event ahead for me soon 😲 and I need to get my head around it and what is personally happening after that. (More info later) I might not post every week but just some ideas, pics and articles as they happen until we can get specific goals and targets.

It is time to spread our wings and fly again.
2022 has endless possibilities 
🦋

“You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes…. Winnie the Pooh”😍

#pwr #thankyou

Results of the Cloyne 5k - Fri 3rd Sept 2021

175 runners took part in this 5k in Cloyne in East Cork.

 1 Tim O'DONOGHUE 00:14:43 5079 M MS East Cork AC
2 John MEADE 00:15:31 9859 M M40 St Finbarrs AC
3 Bernard O'HANLON 00:15:31 5210 M MS Leevale AC
14 Jessica COYNE 00:16:43 5195 F FS Leevale AC
16 Ciara O'NEILL 00:17:05 5002 F FS Clonmel AC
21 Niamh MOORE 00:17:21 5176 F FS Leevale AC

The full results are HERE