As we return to something approaching normality, it’s wonderful to have some very exciting news to report on the competition front! Congratulations to Holly Brennan and Aaron Smith, Holly was victorious in the Junior women’s 5000m at The Irish Life Health national senior and U23 T&F Championships and Aaron came second in the men’s junior 5000m. All their hard work and dedication and that of their coaches has paid off. It’s a wonderful accolade for our club and a tribute to the work put in by both the athletes and coaches. We couldn’t be prouder of them.
“The race was a slow pace. I didn’t mind so I decided to tuck in behind the girls as the wind was strong. With 2k to go, I slightly picked up the pace but nothing much. It soon came down to myself, Celine Gavin and Aoife Coffey. In the last 400m, myself and Celine Gavin were neck in neck and I decided to just go for it with 250m to go”
“Pretty much race started of really slow so I just tried sit in 2nd place the whole race, that went to plan with the odd person going ahead for a lap or 2, few surges every once in a while but I stayed calm and covered the moves, with 600m to go a few of the lads boxed me in so I went straight to the back of the group that had broken away from the rest of the field, I worked my way straight to the front and made a strong move with 400m to go I had the lead which I held for about a hundred meters, Michael Morgan kicked ahead and I held on for a while, I glanced back and we both had a gap of the field, I pushed on and held on for 2nd”
The wonderful B-5 race couldn’t go ahead in it’s usual format this year, we did however find a silver lining to this turn of events, we went virtual! 439 runners took up the five mile challenge in their own time during the month of July and ran to raise funds for Cystic Fibrosis Ireland and The Irish Hospice Foundation. We had entries from as far afield as Australia and Germany. Each charity will receive €1,635.33, which is an outstanding figure. Huge thanks must go to our running buddy Graham at NSP who very generously added €500 to the pot.
Moving onto our current status amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. Our youth(older juveniles) and senior groups are back to training. Younger juveniles haven’t restarted yet due to issues securing training facilities, we’re working on this, watch the Facebook page for updates. The waiting list for under 12’s isn’t operational at the moment until we get training going again.
So we are moving towards something approaching normal but still a ways to go. Thank you all for being so patient as we get to grips with a new way of doing things and to each of you for working with us to keep yourselves and others safe while we run. Looking forward to running with you all soon.