Marine Climb

Friday April 23rd, Marine Climb, Ger Wyley Spring Summer Series off to a great start!
Friday night’s Marine Climb in Dungarvan saw a massive turnout by the Road Runners for the first race of the Ger Wyley/Nike Summer Series.
A total of 24 Road Runners toed the line to face the arduous climb to the Marine Bar. Amongst them was European Championship medal winner Gillian O’Sullivan, a nice treat! Not to many of us can say we raced against her likes…especially considering she walked the course faster than a lot of us could hoped to have run it!

Fastest, and highest up the prize winning list for the Road Runners (beeb beep) was Mark Langford (WWAC), showing fantastic form to finish second behind a resurrected Peter Duggan of St.Josephs. Mark’s time of 34.25 was over 2 minutes faster than last year and surely sets him up for a good Series. Following closely behind was Michael Halley (Waterford AC), again improved by over a minute and a half from last year. Those track sessions at the RSC are certainly paying dividends for the Waterford AC men, as Aaron Colbert also slashed his time by 2 minutes, coming in just over 36m.

One of our tallest and speediest Vets, John Dalton (WAC), was third in the Mens O/40. Hot on John’s heels was Des Colbert (WAC), having improved by a massive 6 minutes from last year. Another stalwart of the WAC team, Michael McGrath proved that he had the legs for the shorter races as well as the longer Dublin marathons, to finish just over the 39m mark. David Drohan (WAC & WIT!) must have had a sprint to the line to stay ahead of the dogged Brendan Aspel (WAC) as they finished within 3 seconds of each other, both well under 40m.

Next home for the Road Runners, and the first of the ladies, was Joanne Jackman (WWAC) in a time of 40.32. Though improved by over 3 mins from last year, Joanne played second fiddle to an ever improving Jakie Carthy of Kilmore AC. Joanne and Mark can look forward to many wonderful years of stereo sounds thanks to their 2^nd place prizes. Escorting Joanne to the line was Darryl Hale (WAC), who had a good run to hold off our best dressed athlete, Pat Giles (WAC). Pat was closely followed by John Walshe of Ballycotton fame, giving him 3rd position in the O/50s.
Another famous Vet, Connie Kelleher (WWAC) showed few, if any, ill effects from his terrific run in the Flora London Marathon last Sunday, to finish just under 42mins. Hot on his heels was Brian Swaby, unattached, according to the results sheet from the night, but we know better don’t we, “Oh Captain, my Captain”?

Keeping the Kilkenny flag flying was former race walker, PJ Dwyer of St.Senan’s. PJ’s average of just over 7min miles bodes well for the remainder of the Series. Colm Cheevers (WAC) showed an electric return to the roads to finish in just over 44mins.
3 minutes behind Colm was another Kilkenny stalwart, John Wallis (St.Senan’s), who knocked a full minute off last year’s time. Just in under the 50m mark was one of our Winter League vets winner, Michael Leechmere (WAC).

On the other side of 50 (minutes!) was another of our unattached runners (only running wise of course!), birthday girl, Maura O’Doherty. Accompanying her to the line was Shelly Brennan who showed that her secret training on the beach in Tramore is paying off!
Winner of our Ladies and Men’s 3mile Winter League, Deirdre and Andy Chapman, respectively, were separated by a mere minute and a half at the finish. The longer haired half having finished first! Well done Dee!! Separating the winning couple was Alec Cross, who continues to show great determination each Wednesday night and could be an improver to watch over the summer.

Well done all round to all finishers, of whom there were twice as many Road Runners this year as last. See you at the Waterford to Tramore run next weekend, May 1st! Keep on running!
Back to News

site designed and maintained by adele walsh