Born to Run...Video from Sligo

An nice video from athletics coach Dermott McDermott in Sligo highlighting the benefits of running...

Results of the Ballincollig 5k parkrun...Sat 9th Dec 2017

1 Rory O' SULLIVAN    16:50    VM40-44    M1    St Finbarrs AC
2 Denis BUCKLEY    18:54    JM15-17    M2
3 Tobi GRAB    20:02    VM40-44    M3
15 Kate MARTIN    21:43    SW30-34    F1    Raheny Shamrock AC
20 Mary SWEENEY    22:09    VW55-59    F2    St Finbarrs AC
22 Rachel ORMROD    22:14    VW40-44    F3    Raheny Shamrock AC

http://www.parkrun.ie/ballincollig/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=77

Results of the Clonakilty Marathon, Half-Marathon & 10k...Sat 9th Dec 2017

Marathon...
1 Chris GRAYSON    02:54:59    M (1)    MS (1)    Kerry Crusaders
2 Cathal O'REILLY    02:55:58    M (2)    MS (2)    Loughrea AC
3 Denis KEANE    02:57:59    M (3)    MS (3)    MCI
25 Dolores DUFFY    03:14:35    F (1)    F50 (1)    Watergrasshill AC/ MCI
30 Jean LUCEY    03:18:18    F (2)    FS (1)  
32 Annabelle STEARNS    03:18:43    F (3)    FS (2)

Half-Marathon...
2 Niall SHEIL    01:15:04    M (1)    M40 (1)   
3 Garrett LORDAN    01:18:54    M (2)    MS (1)    Clonakilty Road Runners AC
4 Liam RYAN    01:19:38    M (3)    M40 (2)   
30 Ellen HANLEY    01:31:35    F (2)    F40 (1)   
44 Kana AKIMOTO    01:34:57    F (3)    FS (2)    North East Runners
51 Elaine DEASY    01:35:22    F (4)    FS (3)   

10km...
1 Cathal O'DONNABHAIN    00:34:35    M (1)    (1)   
2 Declan GUINA    00:34:58    M (2)    MS (1)    West Limerick AC
3 Iain WYCHERLEY    00:35:54    M (3)    MS (2)   
9 Carmel CROWLEY    00:39:32    F (1)    F40 (1)   
20 Ronnie BARRY    00:42:54    F (2)    (6)    Bandon AC
26 Anna O'NEILL    00:43:54    F (3)    (7)

The full results can be seen on the MyRunResults website.

Guest Post...An Irish One-Two Over The Country - by John Walshe

AN IRISH ONE-TWO OVER THE COUNTRY (John Walshe)

With the European championships dominating the weekend’s activities, this might be an opportune moment to recall a memorable Irish cross-country one-two that took place exactly 39 years ago, on Saturday December 9th, 1978.

Before the arrival of the Euro Cross, a number of invitational cross-country events highlighted the pre-Christmas period. Two of the most prestigious took place in England, at Gateshead in November and the IAC (International Athletes’ Club) promotion at Crystal Palace in December.

Although the fields were mainly of a domestic nature apart from a sprinkling of Europeans, such was the dominance of British runners at the time that the standard was always of the highest. For the 1978 event, the IAC had secured the appearance of the reigning World Champion, Ireland’s John Treacy who was somewhat of a surprise winner of the title the previous March at Bellahouston Park in Glasgow. But on that fine December afternoon Treacy had to settle for second best, not alone to a fellow Irishman but to one from his very own county of Waterford.

Gerry Deegan’s athletics career was somewhat understandably overshadowed by his more famous Deise colleague but it too was of the highest quality. In 1977, at the age of 20, he won the first of his five Irish C-C titles and he followed the route of Treacy by taking up an athletics scholarship at Providence College, although he only spent two years in the US.

While there, he had a number of outstanding performances including a third place finish at the 1977 NCAA C-C in Spokane. On that day, Treacy took the silver medal behind multi-world-record holder Henry Rono from Kenya. Deegan also won the NCAA indoor two-mile title the following spring before claiming a credible 14th place finish at Glasgow in the wake of Treacy’s victory.

Six twisting laps made up the 8580m of firm going around the Crystal Palace venue on that December Saturday and a large group were in contention for the early circuits. It wasn’t until the fourth lap that the first decisive move was made when Deegan, Treacy and Steve Jones opened up a 15m gap on the chasing pack which included Mike McLeod, Tony Simmons, Dave Black, Steve Kenyon and the Belgium Grillaert.

A tremendous scrap ensued among the three leaders before Jones seized the initiative at the start of the final circuit. The Irish pair passed Jones on an uphill stretch but the Welshman wasn’t finished yet and retook the lead. With Deegan losing a few metres, the race looked to be between Jones and Treacy with the latter judging it to perfection by taking Jones at the last turn prior to the run-in.

But he reckoned without Deegan who produced a storming finish to cross the line, arms aloft in delight, ten metres to the good. The closeness of the finish can be seen from the times: Deegan 26:16, Treacy 26:17, Jones 26:18 while Simmons made up considerable ground to take fourth in 26:20.

The significance of that victory can be seen from the pedigree of those left in Deegan’s wake. Steve Jones was already a formidable competitor on all surfaces but his greatest days lay ahead. Six years later he set a world marathon best of 2:08:05 in Chicago, won London the following spring and then reduced his time to 2:07:13 in Chicago which, 32 years later, still remains the British record.

Tony Simmons was after finishing fourth two years before in the 1976 Olympic 10,000m, had a best of 27:43.59 for the distance and that year of 1978 could also claim a marathon time of 2:12:33.

Dave Black was ranked sixth in the world in the 10,000m for 1978 with a time of 27:36.3 while Mike McLeod – who had won the Gateshead cross-country – would go on to be a medallist at the 1984 Olympics in the same event.

Rounding off the top dozen that day at Crystal Palace was another Irishman, one Eamonn Coghlan. Showing that cross-country is no detriment to track success, two months later Coghlan set a world indoor mile record of 3:52.6 at San Diego (which he would later improve to 3:49.78) along with winning the European indoor 1500m title.

Of course that spring of 1979 will forever be associated with John Treacy’s second World C-C victory at a rain soaked Limerick Racecourse before an ecstatic home following. But, while Gerry Deegan had been a second ahead of Treacy at Crystal Palace, this time he was all of a minute-and-a-half in arrears. However, he did have the consolation of being the third scorer on the Irish team who memorably took the silver medals behind England.

For the record, the following are the Irish placings on that never-to-be-forgotten March day in Limerick: John Treacy, 1st; Danny McDaid, 11th; Gerry Deegan, 43rd; Mick O’Shea, 46th; Donie Walsh, 47th; Tony O’Brien, 50th.

Video on the IAU 24HR World Championships in Belfast

The 2017 24 Hour World Championships were held last July in Belfast with teams from all over the world competing.

It also doubled up as the Irish 24 hour championships with Eoin Keith from Cobh setting a new national record to take Gold.

A new video of the event is now available. See below....

Donie Walsh Receives European Athletics Coaching Award

Leevale AC coach Donie Walsh was presented with an European Athletics Coaching Award recently at the Athletics Ireland Annual Awards.

Donie is one of the top endurance coaches in the country and has been coaching some of the top Irish international athletes for years. At present, he coaches Cork athletes Lizzie Lee and Claire McCarthy amongst others at Leevale AC.

Athletics Ireland release club membership stats for the end of Nov 2017

Athletics Ireland have just released the membership stats as of the end of November 2017. As we approach the end of the year, growth in club membership really slows down as most people just wait until January and join for a complete year.

In terms of adult membership in clubs in Cork, Leevale AC are now the largest club in Cork with 244 members jumping ahead of Mallow AC (235) who were the largest club in 2016.

The chart below shows the 15 Cork athletic clubs with 100 or more members, up from 12 at the end of 2016.

The chart below shows the smaller clubs with between 20 and 100 adult members...

As always, numbers aren't everything. Some clubs like East Cork AC are more involved in the serious side of running and their numbers are small as a result. The charts above just show the relative sizes of each club, not how good or bad they are.

The charts also don't show non-AAI clubs like Happy Feet and the Wibbly Wobbly Wonders who are very successful with their own programmes. There are also plenty of other running groups with no affiliation.

While the overall view of adult membership in clubs is positive, there are some areas of concern when you dig into the stats. For example, the number of adults in Cork athletic clubs is up 5% on this time last year. However, the number of Senior members (i.e. adults aged 34 and below) is down 3.1%.

And this isn't a new phenomenon. Every year for the last few years, adult membership has been getting older and older.


The full figures for all the clubs in the country can be seen on the Athletics Ireland website.

Mallow 10 mile race next year will be on Sun 25th March 2018

Mallow AC have just announced that their annual Mallow 10 mile road race will be held on Sunday the 25th of March 2018.

With the ending of the Ballycotton '10', a lot of race organisers will be looking to attract runners to their event instead. Currently, the top 10 mile race in Munster is without doubt the Dungarvan 10 which sold out in just 4 hours a few weeks back.

In terms of an established race with a reasonable course for times, the Mallow 10 mile is probably next. It shouldn't sell out as fast as Dungarvan but you need to keep an eye out for the entries when they do open.

Details to be announced soon.

The race website is https://mallowtenmile.wordpress.com/

Advert : Food Trial for anyone with Osteoarthritis of the Knee

A few months back, I had a post up about a probiotic study from a local company in Cork. The same company Atlantia Food Clinical Trials are now looking for anyone who suffers from Osteoarthritis of the Knee. See the details below.....

My name is Niamh Bateman and I am one of the project managers in Atlantia. If you have not heard of us before, Atlantia Food Clinical Trials Ltd is an Independent clinical research organisation that spun out of the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre (APC) in University College Cork, (http://www.atlantiafoodclinicaltrials.com). All of our studies have been approved by the Cork Research Ethics Committee (UCC) and subjects taking part are reimbursed for their time.

Currently, we are conducting a food trial under Consultant Rheumatologist Michael Molloy. We are focused on patients with osteoarthritis of the knee, diagnosed at least one year ago. The product being tested is a raspberry leaf extract, consumed over a 12-week period.

As this health condition is somewhat under-diagnosed, we are finding recruitment challenging. The reason I am writing to you today is to ask if you would consider sharing this information with your club/friends/family. 

The study would involve consuming the raspberry leaf extract over 12 weeks, where each subject would have 3 visits with us in Atlantia. Each visit would involve a health check on each visit, blood tests, questionnaires and exercises to evaluate the degree of pain, stiffness and effect the Osteoarthritis has on daily living. Each subject will receive 200euro plus a Lenovo tablet as compensation for their time and any travel expenses incurred and hopefully the relief symptoms of osteoarthritis.

My number is 0871648153 if you have any more questions or know of someone with Osteoarthritis to pass my number to.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Irish athlete Paul Robinson runs 4:17 mile in Antarctica

Paul Robinson is one of the fastest Irish runners over the mile distance with a personal best of 3min 54.77sec. Recently, he was part of a project to set a new mile record on the continent of Antarctica which he did in 4min 17.9sec in minus 20 deg C!

Irishman Paul Robinson has broken the record for the fastest time running a mile in Antarctica pic.twitter.com/2kX990M8iy

— Sky News (@SkyNews) December 3, 2017

After the run, he said...“I definitely think I could go faster but it would need a very groomed, hard surface that just didn’t absorb your energy. On the snow, that’s going to be very hard to do.
In perfect conditions, running a sub-four minute mile is still a great achievement. There are very few athletes who have actually done it on a track. I know how hard it is when conditions are ideal so I knew there was no chance running [a sub-four minute mile] on snow. But I gave it my best effort, and I’m proud of getting anywhere close to four minutes, especially as I was slipping and sliding and even thought I was going to fall over at one stage.”

Additional Info...
1) The 42 Article 

Results & Photos of the Waterford Half-Marathon...Sat 2nd Dec 2017

The big race in Munster this weekend was of course the Waterford Half-Marathon. This was held on Saturday the 2nd of December and attracted a huge field of 2,172 runners.

This race seems to get more popular every year and is now a target race for many runners at the end of the year. What it perhaps surprising is just how many runners from Cork make the journey down to Waterford City.

In terms of local and non-Cork clubs, West Waterford seemed to have been the largest with 56 members. The host club Waterford AC had 47, Slaney Olympic AC in Wexford had 35, Clonmel AC had 37, Kilkenny City Harriers had 27, Carrick on Suir AC had 14 and Ferrybank AC had 12.

If you look at those numbers and then compare them to the one below, you'll see how important it is to attract runners from Cork for any event.

Youghal AC 38, Ballintotis Fit4Life 36, Watergrasshill AC 33, Midleton AC 32, Mallow AC 31, Grange/Fermoy AC 29, Eagle AC 29, Aghada AC 29, Bweeng Trail Blazers 26, Ballymore Cobh AC 26, Carrigtwohill AC 16, St.Nicholas AC 14, Togher AC 12, Galtee Runners AC 12, Wibbly Wobbly Wonders 11, Rosscarbery Steam Runners 8, St.Catherine's AC 8, St.Finbarr's AC 8, Dromahane Road Runners 5,  Leevale AC 5, East Cork AC 2, Bantry AC 1, Cork Mental Health 1, Dulhallow AC 1!

And for every club runner from Cork, there are probably another few Cork runners who aren't members of a club. According to the organisers, nearly 30% of all entrants were from Cork.

Winners...
1 Hamilton     Paddy     1:06:27 5:04/M     Slieve Gullion Runners       
2 Ciobanu     Sergiu     1:06:34 5:05/M     Clonliffe Harriers A.C.       
3 Hayes     Thomas     1:06:43 5:05/M     Kilkenny City Harriers A.C.
31 McCambridge     Maria     1:17:45 5:56/M     Dundrum South Dublin A.C.       
60 Kehoe     Fiona     1:21:16 6:12/M     Kilmore A.C.       
65 Carthy     Jackie     1:21:41 6:14/M     Kilmore A.C.

Full results

Category Results

Teams...Men Raheny Shamrock AC, Women Kilmore AC.

Photos...(Updated 5th Dec)
1) Race Face has 1000+ pics HERE
2) John Troy has a gallery HERE
3) Joe Murphy has a gallery HERE
4) Ger Broderick has a gallery HERE 

Results of the Ballinacurra 4 mile run...Sun 3rd Dec 2017

This 4 miler got a small turnout of just 69 people on Sun 3rd Dec 2017. Unusually for such a small event, it was chip timed as well.

1 Kevin O'BRIEN    20:36  M (1)    MS (1)    East Cork AC
2 Nigel SHEEHAN   22:45 M (2)    MS (2)    Youghal AC
4 Denis KELLEHER    25:07  M (3)    M50 (1)   
3 Fiona SANTRY   23:30 F (1)    FS (1)    East Cork AC
9 Andrea MCNAMARA  27:11   F (2)    FS (2)    Sport World
11 Sheila BUCKLEY  28:05  F (3)    FS (3)    Midleton AC

Full results

Mark Hanrahan from Cork wins 5k race in Phoenix Park in Dublin

The annual Jingle Bells 5k race organised by Donore Harriers in the Phoenix Park in Dublin was held on Saturday the 2nd of Dec 2017 and attracted a large field of 1062 runners. The race was also unusual in that it had a pretty high quality field with 23% of the field running sub 20 minutes and 72 runners under 17 minutes.

The first man home was Mark Hanrahan of Leevale AC in Cork with a time of 14m 13s...that's 4:34 per mile!

The first woman home was Fionnuala McCormack who was 11 seconds ahead of Laura Crowe of An Ríocht AC in 2nd place.

1.Mark Hanrahan Senior Male Leevale AC 0:14:13
2. Danny Mooney Senior Male Letterkenny AC 0:14:30
3. Garry Campbell Male U20 Dunleer AC 0:14:31
36. Fionnula McCormack Senior Female Kilcoole AC 0:16:00
40. Laura Crowe Senior Female An Riocht AC 0:16:11
67. Siobhan O'Doherty Senior Female Borrisokane 0:16:52

The full results are HERE

Another performance to note was that of Mark Buckley of North Cork AC who finished in 16th place in a time of 15:24.

Results & Photos of the Ballincollig 5k parkrun...Sat 2nd Dec 2017

A total of 268 turned out for this weeks 5k parkrun in Ballincollig, more or less in line with recent numbers.

1    Eoin O KEEFFE    17:14    SM30-34    M1    St Finbarrs AC
2    Shane COONEY    18:04    VM35-39    M2    Brothers Pearse AC
3    Éanna CREEDON    18:29    SM25-29    M3
53    Olga O'SULLIVAN    23:17    VW40-44    F1    Dell EMC Running Club
55    Eilis MANNION    23:20    VW40-44    F2
56    Louise Lynch O'KEEFFE    23:22    VW50-54    F3

Full results

Photos...
1) The organisers have a small gallery of photos HERE

Cork Council Council to put plans for new East Cork Greenway on display soon

In a recent article in the Evening Echo, it was announced that proposed plans for the new Greenway on the former railway line from Youghal to Midleton.

Clare Cronin, project manager for Cork County Council said...“The drawings will go on display in the coming weeks. Anecdotally, we have been getting a lot of support but quite often we don’t hear the positives as part of the consultation process. So we would encourage people in support of the process to make sure their voices are heard. We want this to be a flagship project for east Cork. The greenways have proved very successful and they open up areas along the way that aren’t open now. Villages like Castlemartyr and Mogeely would benefit, the spin-off would be massive for tourism in the area. The Youghal track is owned by Irish Rail and they are agreeable for us to make the application. If we are successful, the intention will be to take a long-term lease or licence from them to develop and manage the greenway. Cork County council are very keen to secure a large-scale greenway project for the county, having seen how successful they have been elsewhere. Initially, a number of options were looked at, including the one to Kinsale but that old railway line is predominantly in private ownership. For that reason, the council has decided to focus on projects where the land is in public ownership.”

The new Greenway in Waterford which opened earlier this year has been a huge success with large numbers of people walking, running and cycling on it. It has also given a welcome boost to existing businesses like hotels and cafes as well as enabling the establishment of some new cycle hire firms.

The one big difference with the new proposed Greenway in East Cork is that the Greater Cork Metropolitan area is on its doorstep with a population of 400,000 people. If the Waterford one is popular, just imagine what the East Cork one will be like.

As you might imagine, the whole process is likely to take some time. Public consultations, planning, getting funding and then eventual construction....it all takes time but at least the ball is rolling.


The Evening Echo article is HERE