< Previous© November 2020 The Meath Coaster 50© November 2020 The Meath Coaster 51© November 2020 The Meath Coaster 52 Local Heroes I t was probably the most awful Sunday morning that we have experienced for ages. Storm Alex didn’t disappoint, the rain came down in sheets and the wind howled as a group from A&S Fitness in Laytown assembled themselves on the beach, complying with social distancing guidelines, at 7am on Sunday 4 th October to complete the ‘Burpee Mile’ challenge in aid of Acquired Brain Injury Ireland. A burpee consists of moving from a stand- ing position to balancing on hands and toes, completing a push up before jump- ing back up to the starting standing posi- tion. Imagine doing approximately 800 of them in that weather. It was a morning that represented friend- ship, solidarity, community and most of all grit and determination as twenty hardy folks made their way through the marked out 100m intervals until they reached the end at the 1600m mark. Not only was there the unfavourable weather condi- tions to deal with, there were puddles of sea water, sea streams to get through and sand collecting in places that just couldn’t be mentioned. Every body encouraged the next and we were delighted to be joined by some of the A&S members and fam- ily members who braved the inclem- ent weather to cheer us on and hand out refreshments at different stages. Every precaution was taken to ensure social dis- tancing was adhered to, the team helping out were in full PPE gear with masks and gloves and nothing got left behind except foot and body imprints in the sand. It took 1 hour 39 minutes to complete the chal-© November 2020 The Meath Coaster 53 lenge which was a phenomenal time go- ing on previous records. The team pushed hard to get to the end and there was lots of laughter along the way however the real joy was raising €3,635 for the charity. Thanks to Pats Centra in Bettystown who supported the event by providing water and Lucozade for the event. This wasn’t the first fundraising effort undertaken by the A&S team this year. Despite the heavy restrictions the country was under earlier this year, the guys came up with a virtual 24 hour challenge to raise much needed funds for Pieta House. A 2020 Burpee challenge. Every hour on the hour for 24 hours, from their homes, folks completed 85 burpees until their tar- get was reached and the sun started to rise. In total the team raised €8,500. Throughout the earlier lockdown the two guys provided daily workouts and demon- stration videos for all members complete- ly free of charge as a way of encouraging people to stay healthy apart. They invest- ed massively to make the hall a safe place to return to when the restrictions lifted. They say that not all Superheroes wear capes. I think we definitely have a few of these walking and living amongst us here in our community. Andrew and Scott Hageman have been running A&S Fitness from the Parochial Hall in Laytown for almost ten years. Their classes make fitness fun, offer peo- ple a safe training environment and have seen many friendships extend far beyond the doors of the hall. Their contribution to our community is massive in terms of physical and mental health and well-being and social connection. §© November 2020 The Meath Coaster 54 W ell folks, without waxing too lyri- cal, Robbie Burns comes to mind “The best laid plans of mice and men of- ten go wrong”,(I’m paraphrasing, so any purists can hush) the mouse plans prob- ably didn’t involve trying to improve their 5k times but ours did! The 10k time im- prover was next on the bill but we’ll have to wait a little longer to get that one go- ing. 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 train- ing in groups of 15 and this is working out really well. The ‘Little Athletics’ group has started training at the EMU all weath- er 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 Coun- try on October 4 th . Cilles athletes compet- ed 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 5 th (9:39) with Cian 15 th (10:39) and Fionn 19 th (11:15) the boys ran very well and finished strong. Then the Quartet of Eve Lawlor, Shan- non Cleary, Emma O'Sullivan and Aimee Kierans tackled 3500m over the hilly wet course, Shannon and Emma stuck togeth- er for the race and both finished in 9 th and 10 th in a time of 15:08, Aimee in her first club race had a very good run, pacing her- self very well on the early stages of the race and finishing very strong to finish 19 th in 16:47 The very promising Eve Lawlor had her first ever race after only joining the club a few weeks ago had an impres- sive 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 re- spectable 28 th place in 17:55, one to watch for in the future! Cilles Athletic Club www.cillesac.ie www.facebook.com/CillesAC Aaron Smith and Sean Redmond at Navan© November 2020 The Meath Coaster 55 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 con- tested by 2 of Cilles ACs finest young ath- letes, they faced a grueling 4 Laps of the 1500m course, Aaron Smith led from the start and ran a class race to win comfort- ably and claim the Meath Junior champi- onship in 20:28 with nearly a full minute to spare on the next athlete. Sean Red- mond 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 10 th place 24:28. A super day of running from all of the ath- letes, 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 champion- ship were held in Navan Adventure Cen- Eve, Shannon, Emma and Aimee Fionn, Shane and Cian Continued over....© November 2020 The Meath Coaster 56 tre. 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 19 th 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 coun- try 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 claim- ing a Meath Championship title in his first club cross country race. Daniel wasclose behind in 7 th place with a time of 13:48 Aaron 14 th and Joe 15 th in 14:50 and 14:58 respectively. The icing on the cake was that the boys won silver in the team com- petition. Then both Evelyn Mullen and Ellie Han- ley 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 13 th place in 19:25 and Evelyn in 17 th 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 col- lecting 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 restric- tions and events being moved to a virtual format. Sharon donned her runners on a fine September Saturday and completed her Boston marathon(virtually) accompa- nied 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 maratho- ners 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 temporar- ily! On Saturday 24 th Oct they all did sep- arate marathons in loops near their homes, in what is a serious test of mental stamina. A huge well done to ... Jack, Aaron, Joe & Daniel u16 silver team© November 2020 The Meath Coaster 57 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!! A sunrise swim on Bank Holiday Monday to give us a lockdown lift! Photo by Lindsey Ilona Brady © November 2020 The Meath Coaster 58 Naomh Colmcille C.L.G. www.cilles.com D ark days these may be but we are working hard trying to keep the spir- its up and activities going on. Here’s a run down of all the activities in late Sep- tember through to October Sanitisation Stations – Thank You Bud- get Signs A huge thanks to Audrey and Val Darcy at Budget Signs for their sponsorship of our new sanitisation stations. The team can be contacted at www.budgetsigns.ie or 087 633 9467 and their artwork and skills can be seen all over the work and we are so grateful for all their hard work and sup- port. We ask all our members to please support our sponsors Congrats to the U16 Division 3 girls who won their league in a thrilling fashion last month A huge thanks to Audrey and Val Darcy of Budget Signs for their kind support of presenting Sanitisation Stations to the club. Our community and everyone at the club is indebted to you for your support in the battle against COVID19© November 2020 The Meath Coaster 59 Christmas Shop And 50 th Anniversary Range As many of you will have heard club will celebrate 50 years of service to its com- munity in 2021. A new range of special anniversary gear is now available from our Christmas shop. To celebrate the wonderful occasion are returning to our original Yellow and Green crest which will be available on the new gear. Coach- es have been in touch with shop details. Orders will be physically taken at the Shane Black Property Advisors Cul Cilles Academy this Sunday 1 st November and on www.cilles.com We want to say a huge thank you to our good friends Shane Black Property Ad- visers who are once again partnering with us on this event The u13 Group G boys also had a super month reaching their final v Syddan. Bright days ahead for these lads A big Conrats to the U12 girls winning their league v Seneschalstown last month Continued over....Next >