Please note this blog is open to all members and all members are welcome to submit photos and reports of their races and events. mdtacinfo@gmail.com If you don't send it in don't blame the blog. as we cannot cover every event.
Waterford 5Km
Mike Dolphin, who finished 11th in a time of 17:38 at the WIT 5km on Friday night, pictured with recently-crowned world M60 800m indoor champion Joe Gough. Great to see Mike back on form and running such great times.
Sunday morning saw a fine crowd turn up for the first Gael Scoil Fun Run. It turned out to be a great event with even the sun shining. We had a great crew there from the club both male and female. We had the honour of having the first lady home with Catherine Carroll winning the ladies section and Fionan OhAodain and Aidan O'Herlihy both finishing very high up in the male section with great runs. The event was very well stewarded and organised especially considering it was the first one,
Doneraile Park 5Km
This morning Sat. we had two runners competing here and they both did remarkably well in that both had very high finishing places. Paul Spiteri finished a superb third place in 18.44 and Mike Cremin an excellent 8th place ( his highest so far) in 19.26. A great mornings work by both athletes Well done guys.
Leevale AC Open Sports
Today saw the running of Leevale Open Sports on the CIT Track. Our man Daniel Colbert did very well finishing 3rd in the 400 Mtr hurdles a fine run considering he was bound to be sluggish being the first race of the season and considering the weather today played a factor.
Hopefully it will improve tomorrow when we have some of our juveniles competing there.
Don't forget the event is streamed live on the web. tomorrow,
Leevale Open Sports
This is a great event and well worth attending just to watch.We have a least one athlete going here and that is Daniel Colbert. Daniel will be competing against some of the top athletes in the country in the 400 Mtr Hurldles but I have no doubt he will as always do his best. This is the first event in the National Ranking of the year.
For those of you interested and not able to make it you can watch it streamed live on the Leevale website. Daniel's event should be on between 3- 3.30. As always Daniel we wish you the best of luck.
Gael Scoil 5Km Fun Run
This is on Sunday morning at 11am and is a very worthy cause. See previous post for details.
Ballintotis 4 mile
All Midleton AC runners are invited to join Ballintotis Fit4Life Group on Thursday next April 10th for a pre run around Ballintotis course.
Please assemble at Hall at 7pm - can leave phones/keys there as hall will be locked.
We will do a brief warm up, then do the 4 mile course and then all invited for a cuppa' in Hall afterwards.
Regards
John Cashman
There will also be a group (Development Squad) doing it as a training run on Wed at 6pm if anyone want to join us but we will also be doing the Thur run.
Pre Reg. for Ballintotis
Members have been asking me about pre reg. for Ballintotis. You can reg. on Tue 15th from
5-7 pm at the hall in Ballintotis or from 1pm onwards on the race day 16th. You are strongly advised to pre reg. as huge crowds are expected on the night.
If you are getting a friend to reg. you be sure and give them your date of birth.
Entry fee 10 euro.
Membership
As stated in a previous post membership is always open and new members are welcome at any time. The advantages of running with a club (any club) are huge especially in that you are covered by insurance whilst on official club training and whilst racing.
The advice ,encouragement and friendships you make are invaluable and all for a small price. Membership is for twelve months and only 70 euro and official training is at least two nights a week.
I have seen recently an 8 week course in Midleton advertised for 40 euro.
Ours is for 52 weeks and twice a week at that. Value for money definitely.
http://www.irishexaminer.com/
Selfless club coaches really running the show
I always notice people out running.
It’s probably because I’m a runner and I’m more tuned in to running than most but whatever the reason I always spot them.
Whether it’s an elite runner putting in the miles or a recreational runner, it’s always a pleasant sight. If I’m driving, I even get tempted to give them an encouraging beep! I walk my dogs near home and on certain days, at certain times, I see the same group sessions week in week out, taking place under the watchful eye of club coaches. The pure simplicity of running is one of the sport’s greatest attributes. People turn up, run together and go home, happy after their training.
At the moment in Ireland, there are over 320 clubs in villages, towns and cities across the country. The biggest club in Ireland is Galway City Harriers, closely followed by Kilkenny City Harriers. All Irish elite athletes must be grateful for the club athletics scene in our country.
As a child, I was fast and a teacher advised my parents to let me join a club when I was six. For a few years, I ran for the local club in Douglas, St Columba’s AC. While running for Douglas, my parents drove me all over Cork city and county to race. I tried all the disciplines and I settled on running the 100m and 200m sprints, the long jump and racing with my friends in the relays. I never played any GAA but I have trophies for running on GAA pitches all over Cork!
There was such a family aspect to all these Sunday afternoons, everyone with their picnics and rugs to mark their patch. Parents and supporters equipped with radios tuned to “the match” and everyone getting to know the regulars from other clubs. It could have been the setting for an Irish sitcom, there were always the entertaining pushy parents and some public wailing from the losers!
At my wedding, my dad even told a story about one of these races I ran as a child. I was leading the race but when all the other runners turned left to go around the bend I kept running straight. I ran to the end of the pitch and waited there. When my dad walked down he realised that I had ran straight to where they were giving out the trophies, I didn’t have much time for the actual race, I wanted a shiny trophy! St Columba’s closed and my parents let me join Leevale AC — the start of a new experience. I went from training and racing on GAA pitches to training and racing on a real track. Leevale was a much bigger club and based in town.
The move to Leevale was great and my time there gave me the basis of a career in track. When I first went there I’d never jumped hurdles. I got the opportunity to try the event with hurdles coach Seamus Power, who is still coaching in Leevale. Alongside the hurdles, I trained as a sprinter with John Sheehan. From both of their coaching, I became a really good athlete.
When I was starting out in athletics, being a member of a great club was a huge asset to me. I never raced any distance further than 200m. John Sheehan could identify I was purely a short sprinter and even though the club had a tradition of distance runners, he never pushed me towards that. He had the ability to see where my talents were and focused on developing those.
I may not have had the opportunity to learn to hurdle if Seamus Power wasn’t a coach at Leevale. I wasn’t great when I started but with coaching, I learned how to hurdle really well. I worked on my speed and technique all through my teens, though at the time I never thought of it like that. I went training to the Mardyke because it was so much fun and I went to the competitions, as I loved to compete, even if there were less shiny trophies and more medals.
Club athletics is key for high performance athletics. Clubs are the breeding grounds for future athletics stars and co-ordinating these clubs are dedicated volunteers. Whenever I’m home in Cork and go to the track I see so many people who are coaching or helping out. People give up a huge amount of their time as volunteers in athletics and they keep the sport alive. It’s important to pay tribute to all of these volunteers without whom club athletics couldn’t function.
Sometimes I train in brutal conditions but every now and then I try to remember there are lots of coaches out in the same conditions holding a stopwatch, shouting out splits, purely for their love of the sport. When I was younger John and Seamus were out in all sorts of weather, helping me to become a better athlete. In recent years, it’s been Sean and Terrie Cahill.
Every athlete on the Irish team has come through a club structure. They have gone from being a kid who joined a club, to someone who has worked their way up to national and international level.
This weekend Leevale will host it’s annual outdoor competition.
It’s the first opportunity athletes have to put down markers for the upcoming track season.
There will be events on all weekend with the senior athletes racing on Saturday and the juvenile athletes on Sunday at the Cork IT track. In the past few seasons, the club has grown this meet into a great event. People travel from all over the country to race at it.
As the days start to get longer and the outdoor season starts to come around, hopefully there will be even more out running.
There is a saying that sometimes it takes a village to raise a child but I believe it takes a club with great people to raise an elite athlete.
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