Celtic DCH

Heavy rain accompanied our team all the way to this excellent venue on the Carlingford Road, Dundalk, within sight of the Cooley Mountains. In days gone by much white smoke could be visible in this area, nothing to do with Papal elections, but reference Christy Moore singing Mcllhatton for full information.

The local organising committee presented a well organised event with a switchback spectator friendly course well marked out. Nothing however could have prevented the underfoot conditions there. The earlier rain gave way to bright sunshine immediately after the underage events had completed but the course at this stage represented a quagmire. Our team approached the race in a positive frame of mind, accepting the difficult muddy conditions and getting on with the job at hand. The course involved a lap of 1000m followed by two laps of 1500m each, very hilly with little or no true running to be found on the day.

Claire imposed herself in a strong position from the start in 4th place with Aislinn and Sinead just outside the top ten. Aoife Ni and Aoife C were 15 places back from this, while Aoife D and Sarah worked hard in mid race positions. With the exception of Sinead who gained a few places, these positions were more or less maintained on the first long lap. The final lap saw Claire maintain her 4th position with Sinead improving all the time and Aislinn fighting off those who attempted to pass. Aoife Ni also maintained her position and Aoife Corr passed a few in an attempt to get closer to her club mate. Aoife D and Sarah continued to work hard through the clinging mud. On the last lap Claire maintained her 4th position and in fact gained some ground, Sinead having a super race gained more places to finish 5th, Aislinn held on to 11th place under pressure while Ellen took a few more places to close in 17th. Aoife Ni 26th, Aoife C 29th, Aoife D 47th and Sarah 69th completed our finishers. Claire, Sinead Aislinn and Ellen completed our scoring four, while all but Ellen also scored on the winning Dublin Team.

A really pleasing day of cross country and our team continues to rack up championships. Two down with plenty to come.

So far so good.

Sat 22nd Oct HITW 10.15 sprints group and older middle distance group

Sun 23rd Oct HITW at 11am everyone
Tue 25th Oct Bogies at 4 for anyone who’s free. Everyone else 7pm Grangegorman.

Thur 27th Oct HITW group 5pm, everyone else Grangegorman at 7

Winter is rolling in so we need to add some layers, long sleeve t shirt under a short sleeve and a hat if it’s very cold. We do train when it’s raining but we might cut session a bit short.

Top left on Tuesday 11th Oct in Grange Gorman after training.

(Looks like a faint j on the name tag)

Contact Mary if any ideas who might be missing it!

Tue 18th Oct Bogies at 4 for anyone who’s free. Grangegorman at 7 for anyone else.

Thur 20th Oct 5 pm group at HITW. Everyone else Grangegorman at 7.

We had athletes across the age groups competing in Abbottstown today. Cliodhna Ryan had a great run in the under 18 race getting stuck in from the gun and hanging on well to finish a fine 6th over the 4K distance. Hugh ran in the under 14 boys 3k and ran his best in a tough race.
Our under 11 girls and boys ran in thd 4x 500m relays which was new event on the calendar. With teams from all over the country competing this was a great experience for the young athletes. Senan, Canice and Edward are still under 10 and even so give a good account of themselves with Matthew also having a good run. The team finished 18th overall. The under 11 girls team of Rion, Aoife, Ellen and Juliette ran well too finishing 14th overall.

Pearl got the under 13 team off to a strong start, Maggie ran a storming leg getting the team right into the mix, Saoirse and Jessica ran their legs off and the team finished 10th overall.
Nina got the under 15 team off to a great start, Aimee ran a strong leg to keep the team in touch, Ella was running up an age group but held on really well to hand over to Goda in 5th place which Goda managed to hold . Great running by all the teams and definitely an event we will consider in future. Thank you to Saoirse and Abigail who were on standby if needed.
Thank you to Hilary , Catherine, Loretta and Emer for looking after the teams today.

The senior races were held in the afternoon and we had a good turnout from the senior crew. Well done to Edel, Jodie, Faye, Cliona, Deirdre, Celine and Averil. That didn’t look easy! Pierre had a great run finishing 6th in the senior race.
Thank you to Annraoi, Edel, Evan, Declan and Dermot who helped us to dismantle the course after the event.