An Ríocht AC finish 2nd at National Inter-Clubs Cross Country Championships

At the National Inter-Clubs Cross Country Championships in Santry last weekend, the womens team of An Ríocht AC from Castleisland in Kerry finished in the Silver medal position. This is a notable achievement for the club and represents this highest finish ever.

Front from left: Majella Diskin, Shona Heaslip and Niamh O’Sullivan. Back row: Sharon Cahill, Catherine O’Sullivan, Mary O’Connor, Laura Crowe and Denny McSweeney, An Riocht AC secretary.

Place Club Positions
1 Leevale A.C. (A) 2, 6, 21, 22 ... 51 pts
2 An Riocht A.C. (B) 7, 8, 39, 54 ... 108 pts
3 Dundrum South Dublin A.C. (A) 14, 17, 28, 53... 112 pts
4 Raheny Shamrock A.C. (A) 15, 34, 38, 59 ... 146 pts
5 North Down A.C. (B) 29, 33, 44, 67 ... 173 pts
6 Liffey Valley A.C. (A) 24, 35, 57, 69 ... 185 pts
7 Dublin City Harriers A.C. (A) ...30, 46, 52, 62 ... 190 pts
8 Tullamore Harriers A.C. (B) ...25, 48, 61, 65 ... 199 pts
9 Kilcoole A.C. (B) ... 1, 77, 78, 80 ... 236 pts

The four scoring members of the An Ríocht AC team were...Laura Crowe 7th, Shona Heaslip 8th, Niamh O'Sullivan 39th & Sharon Cahill 54th.

More about this on the An Ríocht AC website... and on the Maine Valley Post

Kerry...Results of the Puck Warrioirs 5k & 10k in Killorglin - Sat 21st Nov 2015

The annual Puck Warriors 5k & 10k race in Killorglin was held on Saturday the 21st of November 2015. The numbers this year were way down with only 44 in the 10k and 21 in the 5k. You can see how this compares to previous years below.

As you can see, the peak was in 2013 and it has been on the way down since then. The drop this year has been pretty dramatic with the lowest number ever being recorded.

1. 74 Mr Tony Harty m 0:00:35.1
2. 97 Mr Damien Foley m 0:00:37.0
3. 82 Mr George McCarthy m 0:00:37.0
1. 85 Ms Siobhan Daly w 0:00:40.4
2. 94 Ms Alison Kirwan w 0:00:42.4
3. 63 Ms Mary O'Shea w 0:00:43.5

The full results can be seen HERE

As for why the big drop? One obvious reason was the entry fee. €20 for a 10k and €15 for a 5k is expensive, especially when there is a free 5k parkrun in Killarney. The quality of the results also leave a lot to be desired with times accurate only to the nearest 10 seconds. What time time did the winner do? 35:10? 35:19? For €20, it's not good enough. 

Clare...Results of the Fergus AC 5k race in Lisseycasey - Sun 15th Nov 2015

A small crowd of 72 runners turned out for this 5k race in Lissycasey, Co.Clare.

1 16:43    JULIO CESAR CASTRO,     Kilmurry Ibrickane/North Clare M
2 16:57    WILLIE DEVITT,     Kilmurry Ibrickane/North Clare M
3 17:02    LARRY ARTHUR NOV,     Derg AC    M O/40
13 18:43    CUSHLA HEHIR,     Ennis Track AC    F
25 20:23    SELENIA CULLIGAN,     Fergus AC    F O/40
35 20:55    LAURA EGAN,     Kilmihil    F 

The full results can be seen HERE

Photos...
1) There is a gallery of photos HERE

Notice...Waterford Half-Marathon - Sat 5th Dec 2015

The annual Waterford Half-Marathon is coming up on Saturday the 5th of December 2015. Last year, this race attracted over 1500 runners so it's hugely popular. The race is organised by Waterford Athletic Club and costs €25 to enter.

Medal
Famous WAC Hat
Goodie Bag including banana, water, chocolate milk/protein and more
AAI Permit Approved and fully insured
Post Race Refreshments (sample the Waterford Blaa)
Race pack posted every participant
Accurate Officially Measured Course
Friendly Atmosphere
Free Elite and Sub Elite Entry

You can enter and find more info on the race website... http://www.waterfordachalf.com/

UPDATE....THIS RACE IS NOW SOLD OUT

Waterford...Results of the Brickey 4 mile race - Sun 8th Nov 2015

A total of 85 hardy souls braved the elements for this 4 mile road race organised by West Waterford AC.

1 Brian Murphy, Carrick-on-Suir AC S/M 0:20:44 05:10.9 13
2 Niall Sheil, St. Killians S/M 0:21:07 05:16.7 88
3 Raivis Zakis, West Waterford A.C S/M 0:21:32 05:22.9 74
4Kevin Kenneally, West Waterford A.C S/M 0:22:56 05:43.9 69
5 Mossie Keogh, West Waterford A.C S/M 0:23:53 05:58.1 92
6 Tom Leahy, West Waterford A.C S/M 0:23:55 05:58.6 3
1st Kate Veale West Waterford AC 26.21
2nd Sandra Prendergast West Waterford AC 26.59
3rd Leonora Kiely West Waterford AC 28.26
4th Karen Ryan West Waterford AC 29.31
5th Diana Chizhikova West Waterford AC 29.34
6th Ann Dunford West Waterford AC 29.54 

The full results can be seen HERE

The prize winners can be seen HERE

There is a small selection of photos HERE

Former Irish International Race Walker Kate Veale was the first woman home

 

Waterford...Results of the WIT Trick or Trot 5k - Sat 31st Oct 2015

This 5k organised by Waterford IT AC was held on Saturday the 31st of October 2015 and a total of 98 runners took part.

1    CONNICK    ANDREW        15:11    4:54/M    Top Fin    Ferrybank AC
2    TUOHY    NIALL    15:30    5:00/M    Top Fin    Ferrybank AC
3    MURPHY    BRIAN        15:43    5:04/M    Top Fin   
16    WALSH    ADELE    18:54    6:05/M    Top Fin   
17    STORY    AUBREY    19:01    6:08/M    Top Fin   
19    GILSHINAN    ANNE    19:13    6:12/M    Top Fin    Menapians

The full results can be seen HERE

Notice...Ger Daly Fundrasing 5k in Killarney - Sun 6th Dec 2015

To buy a new purpose built sports wheelchair, the runners of Kerry, hosts Killarney Valley AC and members of the track project at the schools in Killarney are holding a 5k run to help Ger Daly, one of the few wheelchair athletes in the Kingdom.

The target is to purchase the chair and donate surplus money to the schools track project. The South/East Kerry community track ltd (non profit) is for persons who are able bodied and persons of disability.

Here are the details of the event.
Event: Ger Daly fundraiser predict your time 5k run
Venue:killarney national park(knockreer)
Date: December 6th
Time: 2pm
Entries: on the day
Fee: €10
Race director:Jo Harty
Contact:Jo Harty or Jerh Griffin 0876879186
Killarney Valley AC have obtained an Athletics Ireland permit for this event.

From Ger Daly.....They say that the longest journey starts with a single step. Well, as a wheelchair-user, my journey to achieving a degree of fitness that I was happy with didn’t start literally with a single step, but with a VERY short push on the road near my home.

It was July of 2012. I was thirty years old, and the closest I had come for many years to being physically active was watching a game of soccer on the television or attending a Kerry football game. Sure, I had thrown the odd basketball at a ring at the back of my house as a youngster, or played my own brand of soccer with friends (using my fists to control the ball and “shoot”). I had even broken my wrist around the age of eleven or twelve when I fulfilled the role of goalkeeper while my older brother and a friend of his took pot shots at me at home. But, as local children of my age began to drift away as the years passed, I found that, due to a lack of independence, I became increasingly isolated in the remote community where I lived. No physical activity, little or no regular interaction with the outside world. There were times when, as I look back on it now, I know depression set in.

I was living at home with my parents, where virtually everything was done for me, and I had never really taken any notice of, or pride in, my physical appearance. When I reflect on it now and see photographs of myself from those days, I can see that it would have been obvious to others that I was making little or no effort to consciously keep myself healthy. I just didn’t really concern myself with such things, for whatever reason. Looking at those photographs now, it is embarrassing to see the state I was in. I didn’t know it at the time but I weighed at least eighteen stone, if not more, and was only going in one direction – the wrong way. In some ways, in terms of maintaining my general health and in particular my weight, I was up against it on two fronts. Not only did my disability and lack of an opportunity to engage in physical activity deprive me of an outlet to maintain some degree of physical fitness, but my parents also owned a small country shop, where I basically had free rein to plunder all manner of sweet treats whenever I wanted, as often as I wanted. It was a “perfect storm” of circumstances that was never likely to yield positive results.

Had events turned out differently, I would probably still be in that rut. In fact, had events turned out differently I could easily have found myself in a very precarious situation. But, as the saying goes: “It’s an ill wind that doesn’t blow some good.” My memory would not be the best, so in terms of tying down the exact sequence of events I couldn’t swear that this is exactly how my journey to fitness started, but it is generally accurate. In the late spring/early summer of 2012 my mother, on whom I was heavily reliant went to hospital in Cork to have a procedure carried out in connection with a medical condition she has lived with for many years. While my mother was in hospital I suffered from a fungal infection on my toes which required a visit to my GP. During my visit, the subject of my weight and fitness came up, and my GP described me as being borderline diabetic. When you hear a medical professional referring to your physical state in those terms, you would have to be an idiot not to at least make an effort to do something about it. So I did. 

In July of 2012 my Dad helped me to weigh myself using an industrial weighing scales that he had kept since his days of running the country shop, when it would have been used to weigh bags of animal food stuffs. I had to sit on this weighing scales, and from where I was I couldn’t see the gauges where he was calculating my weight, so I had to take his word when he told me what it was (and this would become an issue in the ensuing months when I sometimes wondered if he was telling me my actual weight or leading me to believe that I might have been a couple of pounds over my actual weight in order to keep me working hard). On that first day I weighed exactly eighteen stone, at least according to my Dad!

I had asked my GP and also a dietitian he had referred me to, who I admittedly only attended once because I wouldn’t be great for following the advice of someone like that, what my ideal weight should be but unfortunately neither seemed able to do so. At least, that is how I remember it. So I set myself a target of getting down to fourteen stone. Why fourteen? I have no idea. It was just something to aim for. Completely unrealistic, but a target nonetheless.

So it was that around this time I embarked on that VERY short push that I mentioned at the beginning. I planned to push myself to a neighbour’s house and back, a round trip of about 400 metres. I didn’t make it. I got home after about fifteen minutes with my tail between my legs. As I was unemployed at the time I was able to dedicate a lot of time to trying to get fit and persistence eventually paid off and I got to a point where I was pushing myself to the nearest town land and home again, a distance of about 8 or 9 kilometres, maybe two or three days a week. I was lucky in that I lived right on a four-cross roads and each road offered varying degrees of difficulty so I was able to try one road for a few months until I started to find it too easy and then move on to traveling on another road. All of this was done using my regular everyday wheelchair, which at that time I had already owned for nine years.

I weighed myself weekly, usually on a Thursday, and in early August 2013 I took a major step in my evolution. I traveled the forty-four kilometres to Annascaul to participate in my first ever 5km road race, using my everyday wheelchair. I completed it in approximately fifty-seven minutes and followed it up with the best-tasting lunch ever in Tom Crean’s pub, The South Pole Inn. Celebrating the beginning of my adventure in the home of another adventurer! I even had dessert, my reward for the effort I had put in!

I reached my goal of fourteen stone in May 2013, having lost four stone in nine-and-a-half months. I then reassessed my target and decided to aim for twelve stone, simply because if I reached that point I would have lost one-third of my body weight, which I thought would be a pretty cool thing to be able to say! I achieved this is May 2014, after twenty-one months of hard graft.

I had been using the athletics track at the An Riocht Athletics Club in Castleisland on-and-off for exercise and through my use of their facilities I started to become aware of other fun-run and road race events around the county. I have competed in road races held by An Riocht over the last two years, as well as the Feet First and Gneeveguilla Athletic Club’s 5k series. At the beginning of 2015 I had completed twenty-three races in seventeen months and as the year progressed I set myself a goal of doubling this tally and having forty-six races completed by the end of the year. Unfortunately it looks like I may just fail to achieve this as some of the events I had planned to compete in have recently been postponed.

At the time of writing, I have now completed forty races, including four 10ks, and I completed my first 10-miler in Killarney in late September in just over two hours. My exercise regime has tailed off significantly since I went through the process of trying to lose six stone and, as I am now working and don’t have as much free time for exercise as I used to, I am now doing one 5km push per week, as well as any races that I take part in. However, my hope is that a wheelchair that is designed for racing will encourage me to put more effort into it again, as it will make it far easier than using a twelve year old chair that was not designed to be used for exercising.

Considering that I have completed a 10-miler in the chair I am currently using I would be hoping that using a specialist racing chair will broaden my options in terms of the length of races I could compete in.

Notice - Run inthe Dark, Limerick...Wed 11th Nov 2015

As well as the Run in the Dark event in Cork City, there is also one in Limerick on the same evening....Wed 11th November.

Registration for this event will close on Tuesday November 10th at 6pm sharp.

We are delighted to announce the return of the Limerick Life Style Sports POP UP Run in the Dark in 2015. This year’s pop-up run will again be championed by the Life Style Sports Limerick team.

This informal event is both a 5km and 10km event with those choosing the 10km option completing two laps of the route.

The race will take place at Kilmurry Student Village in the University of Limerick.

Whether you are completing the 5km run or 10km run, please aim to arrive at 19.30 (7.30pm) so that we can ensure everyone will receive their flashing armband and buff and have a group photo before we go running!

More info HERE

Notice...Eddie Murphy Memorial Half-Marathon, Marathon & Ultra-Marathon, Sximilebridge, Co.Clare - Sun 15th Nov 2015

The annual Eddie Murphy Memorial Marathon is coming up in Sixmilebridge, Co.Clare on Sunday the 15th of November 2015.

There are a number of events on offer...
a) Half-Marathon...13.1 miles
b) Marathon...26.2 miles
c) Ultra-Marathon...30 miles
d) Double Marathon...52.4 miles.
e) Back to Back marathons...One on Saturday and one on Sunday.

From BMOH AC, the organisers of the event...Eddie Murphy Memorial...Entry fee will be €20 for Half Marathon, €30 Marathon, €35 for 30 Mile, €40 for Double Marathon and €50 for the back to back marathon. All money raised will be given to Charity (Milford Hospice in Limerick)

4 races, Half Marathon, Marathon, 30 mile and Double Marathon, all run on same 1 mile lap of village

Double Marathon start will be 07:00, headlights and hi viz vest will be compulsory
30 mile start will be 11:00
Marathon start will be 12:00
Half Marathon start will be 14.00

BMOH are proud hosts of the one of the most unique marathons in Europe which also includes Half marathon ,Marathon, 30 miles & Double marathon options all on the one mile loop with the infamous heart break hill to be tackled on each lap.

Due to tragic and ultimately passing of Eddie Murphy , BMOH AC hold a multi marathon event each November in Sixmilebridge in honour of Eddie which takes place on a unique one mile loop.

About Eddie Murphy: For those of us lucky enough to have known Eddie, he represented what endurance running is all about for many of us, Pushing towards new personal running goals while enjoying & making new friendships along the way.  Eddie, before his untimely Death in April, 2011, had completed over 45 marathons.The proceeds of the event are donated to Milford hospice in Limerick at the request of the Murphy family.

Entries.......You can enter online HERE

Preview........A full preview of the course with maps, directions, photos, etc can be seen HERE 

Clare...Results of the Halloween 5k Dash, Ennis - Sat 31st Oct 2015

A total of 134 people took part in this Halloween 5k at Lee's Road in Ennis.

1    0:17:49    MARTIN COTTER,     South Galway AC    M
2    0:18:34    MARTIN CAREY,     Go Tri    M
3    0:19:24    KEVIN SYNOTT,     Ennis Track AC    M
11    0:21:46    KAREN HARTIGAN,     Team Jason    F
12    0:21:59    BRENDA BREATHNACH,     Ennis Tri Club    F
19    0:24:12    CLAIRE GRIFFIN,     Love 2 Run Running Club    F 

The full results can be seen HERE