Midleton Athletic Club Senior Section Mon 19th September 2011-09-18

By Peter Gunning
Having taken silver in the National Half Marathon O-55 category it was somewhat inevitable that a gold in the Cork event in Blarney on the 4th September would follow for arguably, pound for pound, our best 13.1 miler, Neilus Aherne. Neilus hardly broke a sweat in finishing in 1:25:32 to the delight of all his fellow team members. Neilus is surely on course to cap a magnificent season with an improvement on his 2:59 2010 Dublin Marathon. No pressure there, Neilus!
It was indeed a great day in Blarney for Midleton AC with numerous pbs recorded. Brian McGuire and Owen O’Connell finished strongly in 1:33 and 1:25 respectively. Breda Cahill 1:36, Claire Fitzgerald, 1:41:and Deirdre Aherne, 1:43 continued their marathon preparations with fine runs. We had twenty five runners taking part including both Mark Walsh and John Carey with respective 1: 37 and 1:41 pbs. Also running well on this demandingly hilly course were Barry Aherne, Paul Kierans, Simon Thompson, Vincent O’Neill, Danny McCarthy, Vincent Connolly, Marie Murphy, Helen Gilroy, Margaret Rohan. Mary O’Mahony and Sinead Buckley. Seasoned marathoners Denis Kelleher and Mary Toher also enjoyed their runs in Blarney in the good company of Marion Carroll and Rosari Griffin.
Yesterday in Charleville our half-marathoners continued their autumn tour at the final event in the Ballyhoura series. Kevin Smith broke the magic 80 minute mark to finish 13th overall in a hugely impressive 1:19:06. That headline-grabbing, master half-marathoner, Neilus Aherne completed a fine three in a row in as many weeks to finish as a category winner in 1:26. Adam Duchnicz in 1:28 and Seán O’Sullivan in 1:30 made sure that we had top performances at the business end of things. Denis Kelleher preferred the company here too and his very impressive 1:32 ensured another Midleton AC vest hit the finish line amongst the front-runners. Anna Doris and John Carey knocked four minutes off their Blarney times with positive performances too from Marie Murphy, Trish Murphy, Chris Murphy, Margaret Rohan, Elaine Hennessy, Colette Barry, Sinéad Ivers, Claire O’Leary, Danny McCarthy and Francis Maunsell. Meanwhile at the Kilkenny Half-Marathon, Margaret Jones was the only Midleton AC entrant. Her impressive 1:50 augers well for her sub 4 hour aspirations in Dublin next month. (SEE FULL CHARLEVILLE RESULTS ATTACHED)
On Saturday last Olympian, Caitriona McKernan was our guest as she gave an outstanding Chi-running workshop to thirteen club members. The former London marathon champion passed on invaluable words of advice on technique and running posture. This is the second time Caitriona has visited our club to work with members and we hope to have her back to host another workshop in the coming season. Many thanks to Sally Drennan for organising the workshop.
Well done to Maggie Chojan on winning the East Cork Cross Country Championship and to John Carey on winning a category prize at the North Mon 5k. Full results were not available before this publication deadline but both events will be covered in the next column.
Next up on the calendar is the Cork to Cobh 15 mile road race on Sunday 2nd October. This BHAA event has a 9.30am start.
Other dates to look out for:
Thursday 22nd September at 8pm. Committee meeting in O’Meara’s, Ballinacurra.
Wednesday 28th 7pm Open Night in Midleton Community Centre
Monday 3rd October @ 6pm Training Midleton College all-weather pitch
Wednesday 5th October @7pm (beginners @6pm) Indoor training Midleton Community Centre
Until the next time... keep on running!