Well folks, without waxing too lyrical, Robbie Burns comes to mind “The best laid plans of mice and men often go wrong”,(I’m paraphrasing, so any purists can hush) the mouse plans probably didn’t involve trying to improve their 5k times but ours did! The 10k time improver was next on the bill but we’ll have to wait a little longer to get that one going. Thanks to everyone who came out in all sorts of weather over the last couple of weeks to train, we’ll be out and about soon enough.
Sadly we’re not group training as adults but two of our juvenile groups are training in groups of 15 and this is working out really well. The ‘Little Athletics’ group has started training at the EMU all weather pitch, thanks to all involved in getting that up and running. We’re working on finding alternative training arrangements for the 9-12 age group, we’ll keep parents informed. As you’ll read below, our older juveniles are doing very well indeed. Fair play to all of you and your coaches for keeping the momentum going in these strange times.
Smith Storms to Success in Navan
There was no sign of *Marti Pellow in Navan but it certainly was Wet Wet Wet on Day 2 of the uneven ages Cross Country on October 4th. Cilles athletes competed across 3 races. The U14 Boys trio of Cian Gibbons, Fionn Lannon and Shane Reilly ran 2500m and all had incredible runs, Shane Reilly finished in 5th (9:39)with Cian 15th (10:39) and Fionn 19th (11:15) the boys ran very well and finished strong.
Jack, Aaron, Joe & Daniel u16 silver team 
Fionn, Shane and Cian Eve, Shannon, Emma and Aimee Aaron Smith and Sean Redmond at Navan
Then the Quartet of Eve Lawlor, Shannon Cleary, Emma O’Sullivan and Aimee Kierans tackled 3500m over the hilly wet course, Shannon and Emma stuck together for the race and both finished in 9th and 10th in a time of 15:08, Aimee in her first club race had a very good run, pacing herself very well on the early stages of the race and finishing very strong to finish 19th in 16:47 The very promising Eve Lawlor had her first ever race after only joining the club a few weeks ago had an impressive debut, with conditions being very challenging Eve showed pure grit and determination all of the way around the 3 laps of the course to finish in a very respectable 28th place in 17:55, one to watch for in the future!
The girls narrowly missed on a team bronze medal as they had 38 points that equaled the Trim AC girls team, Trim piped us on a count back to claim the bronze.
The U18/20 race was combined and contested by 2 of Cilles ACs finest young athletes, they faced a grueling 4 Laps of the 1500m course, Aaron Smith led from the start and ran a class race to win comfortably and claim the Meath Junior championship in 20:28 with nearly a full minute to spare on the next athlete. Sean Redmond really had a breakthrough run and put some historical demons to bed on this course, Sean started strong , worked his way through a rough patch in the middle of the race and then came back to finish in style in 10th place 24:28.
A super day of running from all of the athletes, we are all very proud of you
*I gladly bestow credit for the “wet wet wet” joke on Graham Hyland!!
Daly Dominates on Debut
A cracking day of running was had as day one of the Meath cross country championship were held in Navan Adventure Centre. Lucy Cleary was first up in the U14s 2500m the course with lots of hills and turns and really challenged the athletes and Lucy finished in 19th place in 11:04.
The Boys U16 team consisted of Aaron O’Brien, Jack & Joe Daly and Daniel Black.
The boys started easy and relaxed into the run, it was Jack & Joe’s club cross country debut and they did not fail to impress. Aaron and Daniel slotted into the pack and had a solid opening lap. Jack stayed in touch with the lead pack of 4 boys and looked very comfortable so did Daniel in the next group as did Aaron and Joe as they began to pick off competitors, Jack really showed his class in the last lap, a 1500m lap where he led for long periods and on the final uphill straight Jack put in an impressive finishing kick to finish the 3500m course in a time of 12:51 claiming a Meath Championship title in his first club cross country race. Daniel wasclose behind in 7th place with a time of 13:48 Aaron 14th and Joe 15th in 14:50 and 14:58 respectively. The icing on the cake was that the boys won silver in the team competition.
Then both Evelyn Mullen and Ellie Hanley Rice took to the U18 ladies 4000m race. Both girls started comfortably and paced their runs to perfection, building into the race as each lap passed while they passed the competition throughout the race Ellie finished in 13th place in 19:25 and Evelyn in 17th in a class time of 19:56 keeping under the magic 20min mark.
Well done everyone, fantastic running
Sharon completes the Boston (virtual) marathon
Our club pal Sharon likes a marathon or two and has been travelling the world collecting medals from the biggest marathons on the planet. This year should have seen her complete the ‘big six’ when she ran the Tokyo and Boston marathons, things haven’t gone to plan, with travel restrictions and events being moved to a virtual format. Sharon donned her runners on a fine September Saturday and completed her Boston marathon(virtually) accompanied in various sections by her fellow club members, all being socially distant and obeying the restrictions of the day. Well done Sharon and crew!
Dublin Marathon goes virtual
The Cilles AC gang are devoted marathoners and this year was no exception. New restrictions just before the gang were to run their virtual marathon did take the wind out of their sails but only temporarily! On Saturday 24th Oct they all did separate marathons in loops near their homes, in what is a serious test of mental stamina. A huge well done to …
- Fiona Kerbey
- Donal Harrington
- Olivia Bennett
- Nicole Ludden
- Ian Casey
- Sharon Agnew Rothwell
- Susan Kielty
- Claire Gaffney Purtil
- Louise Mulligan
- Caroline Conroy
- Fiona Mullen
You’re all inspirational, well done and we hope the legs are enjoying a well deserved rest!!