Sunday 6 May 2018

Ballyhours Trail Half Marathon

A few of our members did the Ballyhoura Trail Half Marathon last Saturday. Bally Williams, Mike Hallahan and Neilus Aherne all took part.






Report From Captain Claire Fitzgerald




First Thursday in May is now firmly owned by Midleton AC in the running calendar. Despite many emerging races, the ‘Midleton 5 mile’ has managed not only to maintain numbers but to achieve record numbers year on year.
 
And why wouldn’t this happen, isn’t it known as the best ‘5 mile race’ on the Cork circuit as voted by Cork runners. Delivery of a great running experience doesn’t just happen on the night. It takes six months of planning under race director Eugene Mc McCarthy and the lead race team of Maire Walsh, Louise Barry, Siobhan Murphy, Barry O Dwyer, Christine Murphy, Helen Gilroy, Mark Walsh, Andre Brodkorb, Dan Twohig, Derek Aherne and Claire Fitzgerald and ALL club members. 
Final preparations last week culminated in over 30 members, family and friends down on the waterworks road with shovels, spades and bags the night before the race to ensure it was in perfect condition for any course records. Midleton AC collectively made it happen, synergy.
 Thank you to all those friends of the club who also helped out.
 
The dry cool evening brought over 600 hundred runners to Midleton. Runners came from as far as Seattle, Spain, Tipp, and Waterford and of course Cork. Adding to the atmosphere amongst the crowd was our own Cork Olympian Lizzie Lee and a top quality range of other runners too many to mention. Thank you all for coming.
 
Jim Mc Murtry, our esteemed Club president in his own time kicked off proceedings at 8.00pm and three seconds sharp!
Twenty five minutes later, East Cork’s Sean Mc Grath emerged from the cattle grid on the pristine Waterwork’s road to emerge for the second year running as ‘Midleton 5’ winner. Olympian, Lizzie Lee followed as leading lady and smashed the course record. Lizzie Lee has been a long time friend of our race and we couldn’t be happier for this talented lady. Midleton AC athletes were led by Morgan O Regan for the second year in a row as first male Midleton athlete home with Sinead Keaveney following closely as first Midleton AC female athlete.
Over the next 25 minutes, the remaining runners crossed the finish line and the water, protein milk and doughnuts never tasted as good.
What made the race so special was the array of Cork athletic clubs supporting our race. We welcomed all our own Midleton non-club attached runners. We hope you enjoyed the experience as much as we did.
 
Well done to all our own athletes who raced and in particular, to category winners Sinead Keaveney, Marian Ahern, Ann Geary and Joan Mc Carthy.
But to Eugene Mc Carthy, thank you on behalf of the Midleton AC for delivering a top quality race. We are lucky to have such a calm talented race director and we know it.































 















 















 









 






 
 
 
 
 



 

It was a night but what a night. The Joe Hourigan Memorial Midleton 5 Mile Race was another rip roaring success. With around six hundred runners it was no easy task but our gallant crew ( far too many to mention individuals as I would surely offend someone by omitting them) under to great stewardship of Eugene McCarthy Race Director stepped up to the mark once again and carried off the whole show brilliantly. One of the most memorable times for me was when the crew of over thirty members undertook the cleaning of the Service Road the sense of camaraderie and community was palpable. Those of you who know the state the road was before will appreciate the way it looked for the race.

The food and catering was once again simply brilliant a big thanks to Louise and Siobhan who led the whole team.

The race itself was simply stunning with Sean McGrath once again winning the men’s (he also won last year)  and Lizzie Lee once again winning but not only that she also broke the course record after doing the same in Cobh last Sunday. One must say that despite all her success she still remains one of the nicest ladies on the circuit and we were honoured to have her participate.

Our own members also did very well with Sinead Keavney coming 4th Lady and also got the prize for 1st Midleton Lady. Ann Geary came 5th lady. Marian Aherne came 1st O/50 and Joan McCarthy came 1st O/60.

Morgan O’Regan took 1st Midleton man home and most of our runners had great runs and a special prize must go to all those who willingly gave up their own races to help make this a success. The prize giving went off very smoothly (an example to other races) with the presentations being done by Captain Claire Fitzgerald, Eugene McCarthy and Mark Walsh being backed up by Christine Murphy there was not a hitch.

Finally a big thank you to all the runners without them there would be no race also all the local and city clubs who came out in such numbers to support as Captain Claire Fitzgerald said in her opening speech “ clubs must and should support each other by attending each others races”. A thank you also to the local community who gave up their streets and roads for the duration of the race and who came out in huge numbers to support and cheer the runners on. Danny