13.06.11Midleton Ac Senior Section(by Peter Gunning)

Marathon fever hit Cork weekend and several of our members succumbed to the bug as they lined up for the full, half and relay events. Among the more noteworthy were the performances of Trish Murphy and Margaret Jones. In their first attempt at the 26 mile distance, Trish crossed the line in 3:56 with Margaret just two minutes behind her in 3:38. Mary O’Mahony smashed her pb by an incredible 40 minutes with Mary B Walsh cruising across the line to sub 4:30 yet again. Shirley Garde was just over the five hour mark rubbing shoulders with Olympic legend Sonia O’Sullivan as she sauntered into Patrick Street. Marathon specialist Mary Toher was also pleased with her solid showing in the day’s main event. Peter Gunning improved on his Rotterdam performance in April finishing in 3:43 while his colleague, Ned Ramsell was pleased to cross the line in 4:27 having hit the dreaded wall at 16 miles.



Triathlete, Colm Egan chalked up yet another pb in the half marathon as did Dublin bound Claire Fitzgerald, Sandra Bohan and Deirdre Aherne. Fiona Cashman, Elaine and Yvonne Kennedy all performed well in this event for which the organisers are to be congratulated. Both the timing and the routing ensured that there was a streamlined finish in the city centre. With a limited entry of 1000 this will surely prove an attractive proposition for distance runners in June 2012.

Mick Murphy, Tom Cody, John Hennessy, Darragh Canavan and Kevin Smith finished sixth out of the 750 teams entered in the relay event with a 2:42 finishing time. Stan Byczek, Sean O’Sullivan, Matt and Maggie Chojan made up a team that was well placed at the top end of the leader board. On a day where conditions were almost perfect for long distance running it was great to see so many Midleton AC vests running into Patrick Street to the sound of John Cashman’s voice booming across the second city. To all who competed your club salutes you.

Less gruelling yet still challenging was the John Buckley 5km road race held in the Marina recently. It is a sure sign of summer when Captain O’Sullivan issues the boarding passes and loads up the bus en route to this long distance sprint. Indeed Captain O’Sullivan led by example with a two year best of 18:56. Far ahead of him and the rest of the Midleton Ac contingent however was this year’s athlete of the year Marc Dalton who broke 17mins to record a 16:58 pb at this distance. Darragh Canavan, Adam Duchnicz, Matt Chojan, Fergal O’Meara all subbed 19min with Flan again scoring a personal best at 18:51. Rumour has it the man is learning to fly. Tom Cody continues to defy medical science with a category-prize winning 19:03 while John Cashman and Owen O’Connell and Maggie Chojan all comfortably finished under 20 mins. John Carey, Ned Ramsell, Barry Aherne, Donie O’Connell and Danny McCarthy were all well-satisfied with their sold night’s running. Among the too many too mention ladies Breda Cahill’s 20.28 was yet another pb. Helen Geary had a great run along with Margaret Jones, Yvonne Kennedy and Kathleen O’Connell.

The season is now truly hotting up with new races vying with traditional events for room on the calendar. We look forward most to seeing as many members as possible in Shanagarry on Thursday 23rd at 8pm for the second in the Ballycotton 5 mile series and at other events listed below.


Upcoming Races
Tues 14th June @ 8pm Grandons 4mile Road Race. BHAA

Friday 17th June @8pm Clashmore 5m

Friday 17th June @8pm Bilboa 10k

Friday 17th June @8pm Inniscarra 4mile

Daturday 18th June Ballyclough 5km @ 8pm

Sunday 19th June @11am Dunmanway 10k

Thursday 23rd @ 8pm Shanagarry 5m

Friday 24th @ 8pm Dromana 5m

Friday 1st July @ 8pm Ballinascarthy 10k