Cross Country Report from Sallly Drennan

On a busy day for MAC athletes at various locations, a small group of cross country runners headed to Dundalk to compete in the All-Ireland Masters Cross Country Championships.

It was a great achievement for the club to have five runners selected to run for the county - Neilus Aherne, Edmond O'Sullivan, Mike Hallahan, Joan Hough and Sally Drennan.  Neilus opted for Dungarvan, a decision that paid off!  Well done Neilus!  

Joan, busy as always with her juveniles headed up to Dublin the day before.  Edmond, Mike and Sally drove up on the morning. Great company to travel with - thanks lads for all the driving!

When we arrived at  Dundalk IT it was drizzly and chilly, but actually pretty good conditions for running.  The condition of the course was excellent.  It was a fast course with lovely smooth grass, but quite a few very sharp, short hills and one much longer one.  As Mike said, it looked like Tellytubby land! As we walked the course we enjoyed watching the Midlleton AC under 13 boys' relay team winning gold in the 4 x 500m relay! Great inspiration for us! In the masters races there were big fields of 154 women and 244 men, so it was hard sometimes to get past people, but I think we all ran well and did club and county proud.

Sally was third to score on the Cork team which took the silver medal position behind Derry.

We then headed for home.  Tired and hungry, we stopped to get some much needed food at Junction 14 and who did we meet there but the Trim crew!  This chance meeting really added to the day and shortened the journey home.  It was great chatting to Fionán, Ber, Gillan and Mags where we exchanged stories of our races!

Another enjoyable and successful cross country season over!