Midleton Athletic Club Senior Section by PETER GUNNING

The last race in the Ballycotton 5 Summer series took place in the picturesque fishing village last Thursday night with 494 athletes going to post. Amongst them were 72 from Midleton AC. Iron Man AJ Murphy continues his remarkable life beginning at 45 ascent into the higher echelons of the local racing circuit with an outstanding 28:29 finishing in 13^th place overall and first in his vet category. Darragh Canavan was a hot nine seconds behind AJ’s still-smouldering heels. It was great also to see Noel O’Regan breaking the 30 minutes mark as his recuperation  continues. Our ladies too performed heroically with Sheila Buckley, Helen Gilroy and Breda Cahill again to the fore at the female business end of things. Congratulations to the those been there, done that and now proudly wearing the T-Shirt finishers who have now joined those elite bands  ofTop-50 men and Top -20 women. Take a twirl Darragh 9^th, Adam Duchnicz 17^th, Mike Dolphin 22^nd , Kieran Mulcahy 23^rd, Tom Cody 26^th, Emmett Ronan 33^rd, Fergal O’Meara 41^st , Francis Maunsell  43^rd, Sheila Buckley 9^th , Helen Gilroy 10^th , Susan Delaney 12^th Breda Cahill 16^th and Mary O’Keeffe 17^th.  Well done to all our athletes who collected trophies for completing the challenge of this four-race series which signals the advent of autumnal longer distances.

Indeed the calendar for the next few weeks is loaded with opportunity for those athletes preparing for or considering to participate in the Dublin City Marathon on Monday 29^th October.

Wed     Aug 29 -          Leisureworld 5 Mile – Ballincollig – 7.30pm

Fri        Aug 31 -           Liscarroll 10km, 7pm  

Fri        Aug 31 -           Inch 5K Fun Run 

Wed     Sept 05 -          Greenville House 5K, Carrigtwohill – 7.30pm

Sun       Sep 09 -           Cork Half Marathon – Blarney – 11am

Sun       Sep 16 -           Ladies Mini Marathon, Cork City  – 1pm

Sun        Sep 23 -          Charleville Half Marathon – 10am

Sat         Sep 29             Doneraile 5K (to be confirmed)

Sun        Sep 30             Skibbereen 10K (to be confirmed)

Sun        Oct 07 -           Cork to Cobh 15 Mile – 9.30am

For the more adventurous of you who would like to take your running off the roads, onto mountains and through bogs, rivers and streams you might want to follow the lead of Maggie and Matt Chojan who recently competed in the Mangeton Munster Mountain Running Race. In conditions that could only be described as gruelling Matt came home in 14^th with Maggie ten places behind him. At least we think it was them, hard to tell caked in clay.

Training continues on Mondays 6.30 CBS and Tuesdays at 7pm at the Community Centre. Anyone wishing to organise marathon long ones send an email to John. Until then keep on running.