Best Of Luck
Good luck to everyone running this weekend.The two big ones are Cork to Cobh (15miles) and the Ladies Mini Marathon (almost 4 ml). Safe running everyone.
Report From Andre Brodkorb on his Marathon Win.
Munster Mountain Running Association organised the inaugural Loop De Loop race on Saturday, 20 September around the stunningly beautiful area of the Glen of Aherlow. Three Midleton AC members participated, Maggie Chojan ran a great half-marathon in 2:01, André Brodkorb ran a marathon in 3:37.10h and Matt Chojan finished a serious ultra-marathon in 6:55h; all finished in the top ten. It was a fantastic course with great views of the Galtee mountains to the south and the green planes of county Tipperary to the north, mainly through a sunny autumn forest filled with birdsong. It involved a 430m climb for the half, 860m for the full and 1,300m for the ultra – respect Matt! The climbs were gentle and long but there were some very steep and technical drops – all the training on the steep slopes in Curragh woods with Stan, Declan, Helen, Sheila and all the others paid off! As usual, Matt gave it his all to the very end and was in severe pain after crossing the finish line, not surprising after running a serious mountain marathon a few weeks prior (with Maggie) and a flying Dingle-Half only two weeks ago. However, as serious athletes, the Chojans recovered fast and were all smiles for the rest of the day. As for myself, I cannot hide my excitement to have won my first small but serious race… hence the verbal diarrhoea. I didn’t have a race or pace plan but would have been happy with anything under 4 hours. However, I felt good and went for it. I stuck to my mantras: “Easy boy” uphill, “Smooooooth” on the straights and the occasional loud “Woohoo” that some of you may be familiar with! I passed the leader of the race, who was cramping, just before the half-way mark at 1:46h. I didn’t really believe I was in the lead for the rest of the race as there were always a number of (ulta-)runners ahead of me. I scraped the dreaded wall with my fingernails around mile 23 with the sticky mouth feel from all the gels and couldn’t stop panicking every time somebody passed me, only to notice their blue wristband, a sign for the half-marathon, and pushed as hard as I could for the 2 mile or so. I crossed the finish line with an almighty roar and was in a state of shock and disbelief to have won a “real race”. What followed can only be described as a blur: the adrenalin was pumping, I felt no pain but phoned and texted literally my entire phone book usually ending with the word “unbelievable”. Danny rang me a few minutes later and I gave him a mile-by-mile description of the race. He interrupted me at mile 6… “I think you are breaking up…”. Thank you all for the texts I have received since yesterday.
Altogether a happy day for me, Matt and Maggie.
Andre
