Weekend Round-up 10th March 2013

This was an astounding weekend for the club with fantastic performances in races across Ulster and further afield! The club is really going from strength to strength at the moment.

In the All Ireland schools cross-country in Jordanstown young Edel Monaghan had the race of her life placing 10th in the Junior Girls race. She was the first girl from Ulster across the line and has now been selected for the Northern Ireland team for the junior race at the London Marathon. A fantastic achievement and well deserved!

Donal Lynam also had an excellent race in the Junior Boys, placing 13th and leading St Michaels to a an All Ireland team gold medal. His training had been seriously interrupted due to illness in the weeks before the race so to place so high was an outstanding and very brave effort. The other St Michael's boys Jack Scallion, Oisin Morissey and Shane McGullion all impressed finishing in the top 22 to win the team gold.

Massive credit to junior coach Tommy Farrell for his invaluable coaching and support of the club's junior athletes. Also to Francie Shaw for his dedication to athletics in St Michaels.

The All Ireland Universities cross country championships were also held the same day in Jordanstown. Stephen Prentice running for Queen's University had a fine race placing in the top 40 in a classy field featuring several Irish internationals.

Closer to home the club was well represented in the Bundoran 10 mile race in very windy conditions. Adam Cooke showed he is back in top form after a winter break finishing an impressive 11th overall in a time of 58:57 whilst Tara Malone just missed out on a podium place finishing 4th in the ladies race in an excellent time of 66:37. Brian Johnston was the next club finisher in a time of 70:53 just holding off Karen Dolan who was only 2 seconds behind!

Not too far behind were Julie Wood (80:23) Denise Mc Elroy (83:56) and Oonagh Fitzpatrick (84:34) excellent running! (pbs?) Shows how their dedication to training is paying off and wouldn't be surprised if all three ladies get under 75 minutes next year way things are going!

Also in action on Saturday was Fergus McGirr and myself (Conan McCaughey) in the Carmen 10k in gale force conditions. I was happy to come 3rd in 33.02( a slight pb) whilst Fergus placed 5th in a time of 34.38 continuing his excellent run of form.

If all that wasn't enough Glenn RPhair ran in the renowned Trafford 10k this morning in Manchester placing 42th in an outstanding time of 32:49. This was not only a pb but a new club record for 10k (men) to boot!

Great to see everyone out and running so well already in the year, apologies to anyone I've left out, (or if you ran a pb and I didn't mention it).

ERC Club Championship - February

ERC Club Championship.
The first ever club championship event took place last night when 24 runners took to the track for the 800m time trial. The conditions were almost perfect which resulted in great times being posted by everyone. Paul Carron has laid down the gauntlet in the male open section with a fantastic early season time of 2mins 12 secs and scoring 50 pts. Other top scorers in their categories were Albert Little, Martin Carey, Tara Malone and Karen Dolan. We wish a speedy recovery to Aaron Higgins who shed blood in his heroic surge for the finish line. Well done and thankyou to all who took part and helped with the organisation. 

Its still not too late to register so please send your details to championship@enniskillenrunningclub.co.uk

RESULTS
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5vQFg7jVW-iT200SUtuMmIzRzg/edit?usp=sharing

NI/Ulster Intermediate XC - All Ireland Derry XC

Thanks to everyone who came along to the cross country in Lurgan. Everyone gave it their best and did Enniskillen proud! The course was tough underfoot and extremely muddy which made it hard going for everyone. The ladies team of Karen Dolan, Linzi Davidson, Oonagh Fitzpatrick, Denise McElroy and Julie Wood all ran brilliantly to place 7th in the ladies intermediate category. First to finish was Karen in a fine 33rd place. Not far behind was Linzi(83rd), Oonagh(86th), Denise(92nd) and Julie(97) who worked as a team together throughout the race, all finishing within a minute of each other,  A fine achievement especially considering that this was the first ever cross-country race for some of the ladies!

A full  Enniskillen RC men's team started the race but unfortunately due to a calf injury flaring up Paul Carron was unable to finish. Fergus McGirr was also unfortunate been well placed before falling and subsequently losing a spiked shoe which left him unable to continue. The four remaining members all ran well with myself coming 5th, Adam Cooke just back training after a break 78th. Craig Phair who is also new to cross country came 103rd as well as David Somerville who despite having problems with his spikes placing 112th.

Both the ladies and men's races were of an exceptionally high standard with most of the province's top clubs competing(there were 136 finishers in the ladies and 119 in the mens) so congratulations to all for performing so well.

SEELEY CUP - Saturday 17th November

The Podium 4 Sport Seeley Cup 10k Road Race, organised in conjunction with Willowfield Harriers, took place on Saturday 17th November 2012. Along with a top class field of nearly 1000 other runners, five Enniskillen Running Club members took part in this event which incorporated the Athletics Northern Ireland 10k Championships. ERC Men’s Captain, Conan McCaughey finished in a brilliant 12th place overall with a new personal best time of 33:04. Next ERC runner home was David Somerville in 40:18 which was also a new personal best, followed by Karen Dolan in 42:26, Linzi Davidson in 47:49 and completing a trio of personal bests achieved on the day was Julie Wood in 48:45.

NI and Ulster Juvenile & Novice Cross Country Championship

This Sunday Enniskillen Running Club will be well represented in Killybegs at the NI and Ulster Juvenile and Novice Cross Country Championships. Both junior and senior club members will be competing for honours on the course situated beside the scenic Killybegs strand and hopes are high that this could be a monumental day for the club.

First off will be Edel Monaghan in the Girls Under 15 race. Under Junior Coach Tommy Farrell's tutelage, she has gone from strength to strength and recently won the Donegal juvenile cross country spectacularly by a massive margin. The competition at Ulster level will undoubtedly provide a sterner test but the 3000m distance should suit Edel who is particularly strong over the longer distances giving her an excellent chance of winning an Ulster medal. Another athlete who has improved greatly in recent months following Tommy's coaching is Domhnall Lynam. He will run in the boy's under 15 race and has a great opportunity to finish in the top 10 and qualify for the All Ireland juvenile championships where he will only be stronger.

The final race of the day will be the Ulster Novice Cross Country. The name is misleading, as this race attracts a top class calibre of athletes and teams, as only those who have won senior medals at Ulster/Ireland level are excluded from entering. For the first time ever Enniskillen RC will field a senior team in an Northern Ireland/Ulster championship race. A men's team consisting of club chairman Stephen Clawson, Adam Cooke, Eamonn Monaghan, Conán McCaughey, Richard Mason, Niall McGandy, new member Stephen Prentice and hopefully Michael Walsh will take on the 6km course over the dunes. Unfortunately Eustace Tierney was also due to compete but has had to withdraw.

The team will be competing against 7 different clubs - Derry, Foyle Valley, Finn Valley, Letterkenny, Inishowen, Tir Choniall and Lifford. However, as several of these clubs have entered 'B' teams Enniskillen will actually be battling against 11 teams! The race this year has attracted a very high calibre of athletes and is arguably the strongest field in years, so winning any team medal would be a phenomenal achievement for the club. However whatever happens having a senior Enniskillen RC team at an Ulster championship is a great step forward and hopefully this will be the first of many.

Spooktacular 5k 2012

Another "SPOOKTACULAR" success!
It was another great night with just a few short of 300 runners. Mark Hoy retained his title and ran 31 seconds quicker than last year in a fantastic time of 15:50. This was in no small part to faster course but mainly due to our ERC's emerging talent Conan Mc McCaughey who not only ran over a minute faster than last year and pushed Mark to the limit with only a 4 second gap at the end. This will surely be a rivalry that will be continued in the future.The 3rd male home was another local man, Stephen Prentice in a fine time of 16.33 with Romanian runner Minerah Constantin finishing 2 secs behind him. In the Women's race the winner Patricia O'Hagan finished in an excellent time of 18.06 with Denise Toner hot on her shoulder coming in just behind her in 18.15. Another excellent run by Helen Stockdale saw her take a well deserved 3rd spot. The male and female O40 categories were won by a rejuvenated Eamonn Monaghan coming back from a long layoff due to injury and by Canadian woman Wanda Clarke who clearly wasn't suffering from jet lag.
Special mention must go the U16 winners Ryan Ballentine 18.52 and 12 year old, Sasha Funston who finished in a wonderful time of 24.55.
The M50 Section was won by Graham Allen from Leitrim and by Marie Therese Speight in the women's section, finishing in 18.14 and 22.23 respectively.

Photos of the event will be posted here shortly.

 

Clink the link below for full results.

 

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B5vQFg7jVW-iMEl4TDdnX1lybnM
 

Sooktacular 5k Registration & Race Pack Collection

We would be grateful if all runners could come along to our early registration and race pack collection on Thursday 25th October from 7pm to 8pm upstairs in Pat's Bar. As you are aware registration on race night can be very busy so registering the evening before will ease the pressure on the registration team and it will also make things easier for yourelves as you can pick up your goody bag, timing chip and race number. You will only have to turn up at race time on Friday night.  Please pass this information on to anyone you know who who is intending to run.

Thankyou.

ERC