Preview of the Lisgoold 5k road race...Sun 13th Nov 2011

This 5k road race in east Cork is coming up on Sunday the 13th of November at 11am. Lisgoold is located on the R626 Midleton to Rathcormack/Fermoy road.

If you are not sure of where Lisgoold is then the easiest way to get there is via Midleton. If you are coming from Cork City then as you leave the dual carrageway (N25) and enter Midleton, you will come to a crossroads almost straight away. Take the left here and follow the relief road to the west of town. You need to follow the signposts for Fermoy. This will bring you on to the R626 road and after a few miles driving north, you will come to Lisgoold.

As you enter the village of Lisgoold, you will see the Community Centre on the right just after a crossroads. Registrations are taken here from 10am.

The Community Centre and the GAA grounds 500 metres up the road are available for changing and showers.

Course...The race is basically on an out and back course. The route follows the rough outline of the Owennacurra River so there are no big hills to contend with. For the first half of the race, you are going uphill to Ballincurrig and a little bit beyond.

Then you reach the turn around point and of course, the second half of the race is largely downhill and very fast.
The total ascent from the start line to the 2.5 km half-way point is about 50 metres. Some sections have a few short pulls while other sections are gentle gradients. Overall, nothing too serious.



Photos of the course......The race starts just up the road from the Community Centre...

The initial few hundred metres are a bit of a pull but once you get around the corner at the top of the road, the road eases off as you pass the GAA grounds. From there, you are on a twisting road and you cross over the Owenacurra River at about 700 metres.....

From there, the road continues to climb until it eases off as you reach the 1 mile mark at the entrance to Ballincurrig village...

The first mile is by far the hardest of the 3 miles so at this stage, the worst is behind you. The 1 mile mark also doubles up as the 2 mile mark so you have an approx 805 metre run out to the turn around point which is roughly here...

From here, the second half of the race is nearly all downhill and very fast. So it's back down to Ballincurrrig...

...past the 2 mile mark, back down to the bridge and back to where the race started....

This is the 3 mile mark. From here, it is 150 metres on a fast dowhill slope to the finish line outside the community hall.

Overall.......Obviously a race of two halves. The trick is to get to the turn around point at 1.5 miles without being completely out of breadth. If you can have something in reserve for the second half then you should be able to exploit it to get a fast time. The course is unlikely to produces times as fast as a flat course but they shouldn't be too far out.

Rome to bid for the 2020 Olympics...

This one reads like an April Fools Joke. On Wednesday (9th Nov 2011), the Rome Olympic bid committee approved a 31 million Euro budget to bid for the 2020 Olympic Games.

Following a meeting between bid Chairman and International Olympic Committee (IOC) Vice President Mario Pescante, Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno, and others, the committee said hosting the Olympics would bring economic and development benefits "for Rome and the entire country". Rome 2020 officials reportedly said they are still working on a parliamentary motion supporting the bid, and have already confirmed that the government will help compile a bid file that must be submitted to the IOC by February 15. Officials now say if Rome is awarded the Games, the Olympic budget would be about five billion euros, down from projections of nine billion euros earlier this year.

You really have to wonder what planet these guys are living on? Italy has trouble borrowing enough money to service the debts they already have and now they want to spend €5 Billion on the Olympics!

By the way, the 2004 Olympic games in Athens cost somewhere between 6 and 10 billion Euro depending on who you believe and was way over budget.

Rome is competing with Madrid, Tokyo, Istanbul, Doha, Qatar and Baku for the 2020 Games.

Paula Radcliffe’s 2:15:25 will remain as the official world record

Back in September, the IAAF said they would reduce Paula Radcliffe’s marathon world record to a ‘world best’ as there were male pacemakers in the race. Following an appeal by Radcliffe and growing opposition, the IAAF have decided to leave her 2:15:25 times as the official womens Marathon record.

Now, the IAAF is expected to work out a system where the records in mixed races could stand side-by-side with records in all-women races once they get the terminology sorted out.

Many in the sport agree that women run marathons faster when paced by men, since keeping up with men can provide a target to aim for. Running in a group of men can also be less tiring if they shield the athlete from incoming wind.

While the Radcliffe issue may have been sorted out, the fact that any records set in future mixed races are likely to be counted separately means that this story has still a bit to go. What happens if at some future date a woman runs 2:15:20 in a mixed race? If she is denied the title of the Marathon record, could she not point to Paula Radcliffe and say you counted her time, why not mine? How can the old record then be valid if someone else breaks it in the same circumstances? Still sounds like a mess.

Barefoot Running...the debate continues

In the magazine section of the New York Times recently, there was an article on barefoot running and the '100-Up' running technique. It was written by Christopher McDougall, the author of the best selling book 'Born to Run' which promotes the minimalist approach to running and advocating that people should run barefoot or close to it. The full article can be seen HERE

However, not everyone agrees with this approach. On the SweatScience website, their take on the article is that McDougall's approach is just a series of anecdotes and he has no scientific facts behind his arguements. The full response can be seen HERE

On another website, a jounalist interviewed the author of the 1976 book The Joy of Running. The author Dr. Thaddeus Kostrubala had also visited and written about the Tarahumara Indians that were the basis for McDougall's Born to Run book. In the interview, Dr.Kostrubala said this about barefoot running..."It’s a fad. Running is full of fads. Food fads, training fads, you name it. And the idea that we were running barefoot on cement is nonsense." The interview can be seen HERE
So is barefoot running good or bad?

There are a lot of vested interests involved here and any claims should be examined in that light. While it's obvious that the vast majority of runners will keep wearing normal running shoes, I have read that the publicity behind the barefoot running phenomenon may well influence the design of future design of running shoes. We'll see.

Guest Article - Too young to run a Marathon?........by David O'Dwyer

The following article appeared in a recent issue of the Irish Runner magazine and is published here with their kind permission...

Guest Article - Too young to run a Marathon?.......by David O'Dwyer
One would have expected greater level acclaim and even furrore leading to debate surrounding the age of the winner of the 2009 Dublin Marathon. At only 19 years old Feyisa Lilesa from Ethiopia became the youngest ever winner of the event in its 30 years existence. Somehow the fact that he was still a teenager seemed to get little media attention.

Conventional wisdom used to believe that that a top class marathoner does not reach their peak until their mid or possibly even late 30’s. The theory being based on years of training and accumulating ‘miles in the legs’ would only bear fruit in later years. There is some evidence to support this theory with Carlos Lopez winning the Olympic Marathon in 1984 at the age of 38, the same age as Tomescu Dita of Romania who won the Womens Olympic Marathon in Beijing in 2008.

However in the past couple of years the winners of some of the major Marathons have been getting younger and younger, not to mention their times getting faster and faster. The 2009 London and Chicago Marathons were won by 22 year old Sammy Wanjiru from Kenya in 2.05.10 and 2.05.41 respectively. The third place finisher in Chicago was 21 year old Vincent Kipruto also from Kenya who won the Paris Marathon earlier that year in a course record of 2:05:47. Finishing second in the Paris Marathon was 20 year old Ethiopian Bazu Worku, making his debut at the distance in a time of 2:06:15.

The times being set by these athletes is quite breathtaking and when their ages are taken into consideration their feats are all the more amazing. If they are capable of running these times in their early 20’s then what can we expect over the next 15 years when they will be expected to reach their prime in terms of Marathon running? The previous world record of 2:03:58 was held by the legendary Haile Gebreselasie who incidentally followed the more conventional route into the Marathon by waiting until his 30’s before tackling the distance. The question we all want answered is when will the 2 hour barrier be broken or are we reaching the limits in terms of human capability? In order to break 2 hours for the marathon, mile splits of 4.34 min./mile will be required. Is this possible? Only time will tell.

As the age of the elite athletes gets younger and younger there could come a point when the cut off point for entering the Marathon may be challenged. The IMMDA(International Marathon Medical Directors Association) has written a paper asking the question ‘How young is too young?’ with regard to running a Marathon. Its advisory statement reads, ‘Marathon running should be reserved only for those individuals who have reached their eighteenth birthday.’ This advice seems to have been universally accepted across the world by the organisers of Marathons and most events now have a minimum age level if 18. 

However there have been many under 18’s that have completed Marathons down through the years. There are quite a few stories doing the rounds about some kids under 18’s getting through the system and completing the distance without any serious repercussions, physical or otherwise and in pretty decent times too.

The ARRS(Association of Road Running Stats) website contains some staggering times for kids as young as 5 for the Marathon. This reputable website states that the youngest recorded male and female marathoners are Bucky Cox aged just 5 years 358 days and Jennifer Amyx aged 5 years 261 days. Bucky Cox’s recorded time was 5:25:09 in the Junction City Marathon in 1978 was followed up with a 4:07:27 in the Glass City Marathon in Toledo, Ohio the following year aged 6 years, 341 days. Jennifer Amyx’s record run of 4:56:36 was in Johnstown PA in 1978. She bettered the time the following year in the same race with a time of 4:00:36.

At the time there was widespread debate about allowing children so young to compete in a Marathon. The running boom in the US was reaching its peak towards the late ‘70’s and to many they became cult heroes but it also raised many questions about the impact it would have on their future physical development. Other more pertinent questions must be asked of organisers and not to mention parents as on the face of it, it could be described as a form of maltreatment.

For the record it is believed that Cox retired in 1983 at the ripe old age of 11 having clocked 12,000 miles. Amyx who used to train up to 100 miles per week by the time she was 12 was forced cut back on her training due to a heart complaint, that she claims was not running related and was discovered in her late teens. Neither suffered any significant ill-effects from their exploits and went on to lead normal lives enjoying running at a more recreational level.

References:
Association of Road Running Stats: http://www.arrs.net/
Athletics Weekly: http://www.exacteditions.com/exact/browse/431/484/3739/3/5/0/bucky%20cox
IMMDA advisory statement as found on the AIMS website (Association of International Marathon and Distances Races)
http://www.aims-association.org/articles/Children&Marathoning.pdf

Children running Marathons...

I came across this article from the New York Times back in 2009. It covered the early years of the New York City Marathon when some children actually took part.

Like 8 year old Wesley Paul while lined up with 4,822 other runners for the 1977 New York Marathon and ran 3:31. He is still the youngest finisher in the marathon’s  history.

Or 9 year old Howie Breinan who ran 3:26 in 1978. By the time he was a teenager, he had run six marathons and six 100-kilometer races. His New York best was 3:18 in 1979 aged just 10.

Or Scott Black who ran the 1979 New York Marathon aged just 9. A few years later when he was 14, he ran his best Marathon time in Philadelphia in 2:53.

The articles states.........."Organizers were uneasy about young runners, but it was not until 1981, records show, that age 16 became the requirement. New York’s official minimum age became 18 in 1988, after an advisory set by the International Marathon Medical Directors Association in the early 1980s, and reasserted in 2001."

Just in case anyone thinks this is a good idea, it's not. It's generally accepted today that children should not run long distances on hard surfaces like roads as their bones are still developing. Hence, that's why you will find juniors concentrating on short track events or cross country.

The full article can be seen HERE

News Round Up...Mon 7th Nov 2011

Just to catch up on a few news items that hit the running websites over the last few days...

Olympic Flame.........The final route of the Olympic flame as it travels around Britain has been revealed. It was thought that perhaps it might have made a quick detour to Dublin but it doesn't seem so if the map is to be believed. News story HERE

London Olympic Posters......Bizzare is probably the best word to descibe the designs. Many of them don't look so much abstract as more like they were done by a 4 year old ;o) The designs can be seen HERE while some of the more iconic posters of previous games can be seen HERE

Running as Therapy.......BBC Sport have this piece on when you need to tune out from the pressures of life......HERE

Appearance Fee's......This article delves into the world of elite Marathon runners annd appearance fee's. While the piece supports them, it gives a good insight into just what it takes to assemble an elite field. For some major Marathons, it's no longer a case of just turning up and the best man wins. Now it's runners and their agents negotiating an appearance fee. It's big business as race directors try to put together exciting races with fields that will draw media and spectator attention; world records, course records, world and Olympic medals. The article can be seen HERE

How much is a Marathon worth?......Appearently, if it's the Los Angeles Marathon then it is worth something under $20 million!! Major city Marathons are big business indeed with entry fee's to match. The LA Marathon attracts some 25,000 runners and it costs $145 to enter......and that's the early fee! Article HERE

Marathon Bandits!......Perhaps it's not suprising that with entry fees in the USA of $145 for the LA and Chicago Marathon and $115 for a Half-Marathon, some people decide to gate-crash. Seemingly, it's an ongoing problem at a lot of events. For the 12k 'Bay to Breakers' race in San Francisco, the number of bandits nearly equaled the official field of 50,000. Last year, they decided to crack down as "Bandits were the No. 1 leading cause of property damage during the race,". The reason?......"They were drinking quite a lot of beer and wine out on the course." ;o) .......The article is HERE

...and finally....The New York Marathon.......Geoffrey Mutai ran 2:05:06 last Sunday to win the New York City Marathon and to take 2m 37s off the ten-year-old course record of 2:07:43
 On a course not known for producing fast times, Mutai’s 2:05:06 performance is one of the top-20 clockings of all time. If you consider that he was only 88 seconds outside the Marathon world record of 2:03:38 and he didn't have the benefit of an army of pacers, it's an incredible time. Even the 2009 winner Meb Keflezighi ran the course yesterday two seconds faster than his winning time in 2009, and came 6th.Reports on the New York Marathon on the IAAF site and Athletics Weekly.

Results of the Cork Cty Senior Cross Country Championships - Sun 6th Nov 2011

The Cork Senior and Junior Cross Country Championships were held in Bandon on Sunday, the 6th of November 2011. The winner of the mens race was Barry Donovan of Leevale AC with East Cork AC taking the 1st team prize.
In the womens event, Lizzie Lee of Leevale AC finished first with the Leevale team also finishing a clear first.

The full results can be seen HERE

Gearoid O'Laoi has a photo gallery HERE

John Quigley has 3 slideshows.....
The Senior Womens race is HERE (59)
The Senior Mens race is HERE (67)
The Junior Mens race is HERE (5)

Bandon AC have a gallery HERE

Video of the mens race...


Video of the womens race...

Category Results of the Cork BHAA 'HSE' 4 mile - Sun 6th Nov 2011

Men
1) 21:03 John Meade, Joyce Wolfe Physio, 2) 21:09 Kevin Wilmot, EMC, 3) 21:10 Danny Smith, Team Adidas, 4) 22:04 Eamon O'Donovan, FAS
M40 1) Kieran O'Sullivan, Cork Garda, 2) John Malone, ?, 3) 24:21 Pat O'Connor, Logitech
M45 1) Conor McMahon, Solvit Food Solutions, 2) Thomas O'Regan, Irish Rail, 3) John Collins, Team Adidas
M50 1) Michael Murphy, Novartis, 2) Liam O'Reilly, Cork Garda, 3) John Collins, Team Adidas
M55 1) Willie Hayes, An Post Eircom, 2) Pat Mahony, ?, 3) Joe Murphy, Cork County Council
M60 1) Pat Twomey, UCC 2) Maurice Tobin, Avondhu Motor Factors,
M65 1) John O'Leary, Bookdeal, 2) John O'Mahony, UCC
Mens Teams
Grade A...1) 58 Team Adidas, 2) 71 Dept of Ed, 3) 92 Cork Garda
Grade B...1) 98 Midleton UDC, 2) 100 EMC, 3) 102 UCC
Grade C...1) 128 Bord Gais, 2) 132 Army, 3) 136 HSE

Close contest at the front with just a few hundred metres to go...

Ladies
1) 25:18 Geraldine O'Shea, Cork County Council 25:18 (F40), 2) 25:41 Joyce Wolfe, 3) 26:26 Ester Murphy, McAfee, 4) 26:54 Irene Hartigan, UCC
F35 1) Rachael O'Callaghan, Cork Shops, 2) Denise Hickey, Janssen, 3) Michelle Leighton
F40 1) Margaret Twohig, Pranic Healer Irl, 2) Niamh Fleming, Avondhu Motor Factors, 3) Yvonne Gough, St Lukes Home
F45 1) Monica Twohig, Eolas, 2) Kitty Harrington, HSE, 3) Mary Mulcahy, Bank of Ireland
F50 1) Frances O'Connor, Dept of Ed,  2) Aine Murphy, UCC,
F55 1) Marion Lyons, Fit 4 Life, 2) Maggie Dunne, Avondhu Motors Factors
Ladies Teams
Grade A...1)  10 UCC, 2)  11 Joyce Wolfe
Grade B...1)  45 Avondhu Motor Factors, 2)  47 HSE

Start of the race...(with No.600...the 'famous' Ned Ramsell!!)

Photos...Denis Kelleher / Video...Marcel Springorum

Photos......A slideshow of 151 photos by Ian Dorgan HERE

Video by Ian O'Sullivan...

Race notice...Cork BHAA HSE 4 mile road race - Sun 6th Nov 2011

The Cork BHAA 4 mile road race  will be held on Sunday, the 6th of November at 11am. Race headquarters is the local Rowing Club on the Marina – entries taken from 9.45am. The race will be held on the usual Marina Road/Monaghan Road Circuit near Pairc Ui Chaoimh in the city.

New York, New York...

Just to follow on from an earlier post about changes to the entry procedure for the New York City Marathon, I came across this video clip from the organisers. I know a lot of runners from Cork and Ireland will be heading there and the video gives a flavour of the occasion and the sheer scale of the event...

Video HERE
During a news conference with marathon officials on Wednesday at the finish line, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the event was a "major boon" to the city's economy and called it the "highest-grossing single-day sporting event in New York." According to marathon organizers, the run is expected to generate $350 million in economic activity; some $10 million in tax revenue will be generated for the city alone.

Bloomberg said the marathon served as a huge opportunity to market the city to the spectators and runners coming from all over the world to watch and participate in it. "An awful lot of these people come to New York, some for the first time, bring their families in many cases, and they stay for the week," he said. "It really has an enormous impact."

If it's a big city Marathon you are looking for then they don't get any bigger than this.

Book : Born to Perform by Ger Hartmann

This book by Ger Hartmann went on relase on the 31st of October. As a physical therapist based in Limerick, he has worked with many of the world's greatest athletes, including Sonia O'Sullivan, Kelly Holmes and Paula Radcliffe, as well as with a number of Irish rugby, athletic and GAA stars.

In a recent preview in the Irish Times, Ian O'Riordan wrote..."Born to Perform is as much about the lives of others as it is about Hartmann’s life. He is our energetic and jaunty tour guide through the pioneering years of triathlon, when Hartmann himself won seven Irish titles between 1984 and 1991, and armed with amazing observation and total recall, he later walks us through the sporting lives not just of our own Sonia O’Sullivan and Eamonn Coghlan, Seán Óg Ó hAilpín and Séamus Moynihan, but the likes of Radcliffe and Kelly Holmes and also many of the great Kenyan runners, such as the mighty Douglas Wakiihuri and Moses Kiptanui."

The Irish Times preview can be seen HERE
 
The book can be purchased via the Running in Cork bookstore
 

Changes to the New York City Marathon...

With the New York City Marathon coming up next weekend on Sunday the 6th of November, there are several news items on online running websites about it. One of the most amazing aspects of the event is the just the sheer scale of it. This year, some 47,000 runners are expected to start the New York Marathon, an increase over the record 45,350 starters in 2010.
The current limit for registered runners is 60,000 and amazingly enough, approx 13,000 are not expected to be at the start line due to injuries and a whole host of other reasons. Fewer than 2,000 people who start the race won't finish.
Even with a limit of 60,000 entrants, there was still a lottery system to get in. They had a system whereby after 3 failed attempts, you got a guaranteed entry the next time. The problem however was that too many people were qualifying for the guaranteed entry.
One proposed radical solution is to hold the event over 2 days! i.e. One Marathon on the Saturday and one Marathon on the Sunday. Mary Wittenberg, race director and president of New York Road Runners said.."The demand is there. When I started (in 1998), there was a feeling that the marathon absolutely can't grow anymore. But I don't think growth is capped. People desperately want to run this race. The Road Runners and city advisors have had initial discussions about this idea, along with other plans for expansion. We can grow until we run out of hotel capacity, there's no rush. We won't ever have more than we can handle. We want to put on the best possible race. This is a joint venture with the city, and it is always a cooperative decision."

While the 2 day option might be some time in the future, the organisers have decided to implement the following changes...

•No more guaranteed entries after being denied in the lottery three times. Now, in theory, you could enter the lottery every year for the rest of your life and possibly never get in. However, if 2011 was your second or third year of being denied, you will be eligible for the 2012 or 2013 (if you're denied next year) races.

•No more guaranteed entries for 15+ time NYC Marathoners, except for those who've run the race 15+ times before the 2016 race. They're discontinuing the policy, but they're grandfathering in all runners who've completed the race 15 times up to and including the 2015 race. In other words, if you've already run the race 15 times, you'll always have guaranteed entry. If this year's race will be your 11th NYC Marathon, and you run in 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015, you'll always have guaranteed entry. If this year's race will be your 10th (or less) NYC Marathon, you're out of luck.

•Standards for guaranteed entry based on previous race times will be stricter.The open marathon qualifying time for men, which had been 2:55, will become 2:45, and for women, the time will drop from 3:23 to 3:00. The complete chart of time changes can be seen below. Since qualifying has already begun for 2012, these changes will take effect in 2013.

•You can only cancel entry and defer to the following year once. Previously, if a person were injured, they could defer to the following year as many times as needed.

A complete breakdown of the new policy can be seen HERE

New Running in Cork Bookstore

Over the last few weeks, I have been making a few small changes and additions to the site. The most recent one is that I have now added the Running in Cork bookstore.

On it, you will find a selection of books which can be purchased via Amazon in the UK. If you buy any of the books there by clicking on the links, Amazon.co.uk pay a small commission to me which helps offset the running costs of this website. It doesn't cost you anything extra. In fact, Amazon pay a commission for any products bought during the session which starts there.....even if they are non-running related items.

So if you are buying anything from Amazon.co.uk then you might consider starting there first.....click on one of the product links......which then starts a session......and then purchase whatever you want.

I have included approximately 40 running related titles which I think most runners will find of interest. If there are any books not there that you think might be of interest then please let me know. To visit the bookstore, click on this LINK or click on the Running in Cork bookstore logo on the right hand side of this page or on the tab at the top of the page.

Please note that if they have the books in stock, they are usually delivered in a matter of days to your house.

Notice for the 'Run for Mark in the Dark' charity run - Wed 16th Nov 2011

This charity race is coming up on Wednesday evening the 16th of November at 7:30pm with similar races in Dublin, Belfast and Galway starting at the same time. The Cork race will be held on the Centre Park Rd / Road circuit with a choice of 2 laps (5 kms) or 4 laps (10 kms).
The purpose of the race is to raise funds for the rehabilitation of Mark Pollock who was injured in an accident in 2010.

This is Mark's story.....
For over a decade Mark Pollock was known as an inspiration, an adventure athlete competing in the world’s harshest environments despite being completely blind.
In mid-2010, Mark’s business was thriving with a full calendar of motivational speaking events ahead. He was in the process of writing his second book and he was due to be married.

On the night of the 2nd of July 2010 everything changed. He fell from a second story window fracturing his skull, some ribs and breaking his back in a number of places. Mark was taken to intensive care where injuries such as bleeds on his brain and a suspected torn aorta one by one healed becoming less and less significant beside the fact that Mark could not feel or move anything below his belly button. An MRI confirmed damage to his spinal cord where two of his vertebrae had burst in the fall. Mark was transferred to the National Spinal Injuries Centre at Stoke Mandeville in England, where spinal surgeons stabilized the bones in his spine with metal rods.

Mark spent 7 months suffering an onslaught of kidney and heart infections, which brought weeks of temperatures and pain and a 3 stone weight loss. Mark’s bones eventually healed but medicine can do nothing to repair a damaged spinal cord and Mark was discharged to The National Rehabilitation Hospital in Ireland in February 2011.

To pre-enter and for more information, you should visit this website....http://www.run4mark.com/

Registration will take place in The Clarion Hotel, Lapps Quay from 5pm -7pm on the night. More details in the pre-race preview.