News Update 30 March
Tue 30 March 2010 - Ian Taylor
Wicklow Trail and Ultra Trail Races
Last Saturday 12 northern athletes took part in the Ultra (31.5 miles) and Trail (15.7 mile) Wicklow Races held over part of the Wicklow Way. The routes were extended from previous years to make them over 25 and 50 kilometres.
Top performance was by Karen Alexander in the Trail Race, with 5th place overall in 2:01:12 out of 129 starters. Overall winner was Diarmaid Collins in 1:56: 16. Team Purple, with Rowan McMahon, Barry Tinnelly and Cormac Fitzpatrick were 5th team, while Pete Grant of Newry City just got in ahead of them in 26th place in 2:20:21. In her first longer event Kathleen Monteverde finished strongly in a time of 2:47:48.
Meanwhile in the Ultra Trail event, over an out and back course ultra expert Eoin Keith was first in 4:23:17, with first NIMRA athlete Dale Mathers in 8th place and 5:09:12. Our first female was BARF runners Taryn McCoy in 5:44:48 , second female finisher and 18th place overall. Other finishers included Mrtin Lennon (QUB, 14th, 5:25:16), Fred Hammond (6:02:29), Denise Mathers and Ian Taylor.
Congratulations to IMRA on getting so many athletes out on these challenging courses, on a well marshalled event and having results and 300+ photographs on the web on Saturday evening.
Road Races
In the Rome Marathon Des Woods had a great run to finish in 2:38:26, in 51st place overall and 5th in category. Des was very consistent throughout with each 5 km run at between 3:43 and 3:45 per kilometre and with a split of 1:18:48 for the first half and 1:19:38 in the second, as a consequence of which he moved up through the field. A video of Des finishing is available on the Marathon web site.
Closer to home, at the Omagh half marathon Stephen Duncan was pushed into second place with a time of 1:08:38 with other mountain runners practising their speed/endurance being Don Travers (12th in 1:14:48), Eamon McConvey (Team Purple), Justin Maxwell (Larne), Khris Muldoon, Cathal McGreevey, Billy Orr and Paul Fegan.
Cross Country
At the Cross Country Home International Eoghan Totten (Newcastle) was second NI finisher in the junior male races, just behind Ryan McDermott.
Earlier in March a good number of NIMRA members were at the British & Irish Masters Cross Country at Stormont. Top performances included Neil Carty (4th in MV40), Cathy McCourt (4th FV35), Stephanie Hambling (2nd in FV40) and Anne Sandford (4th FV40).
