Norah wins Cork City Women’s Half Marathon

Norah battling to victory through the wind and rain (photo credit Gearoid O’Laoi)

It was a busy time over the Bank Holiday as our runners competed at various locations in tough conditions. May went out like March, and June came in like January. Following the resounding success of our Baxter Streets of Castlebar 5k, the other highlight of the weekend was a great win for delighted Norah Newcombe in the Cork City Half Marathon in 82:00 (chip 81:12) – it’s always good to win in Cork. Conditions were extreme with gusty wind and rain making it a hard task for the participants in the full, half and relay. Well done too to our other runner in Cork, Thomas Jennings from Breaffy who ran a very creditable even paced 3:33.59 in the marathon – he was 1:44 at halfway and finished 10th in the M50 category.
Another week-end winner was Sinéad Diver who continued her preparation for the IAAF World Championships marathon in Beijing. She competed on Saturday in Victoria in the XCR series at a windy Ballarat, 105 kilometres from Melbourne – the name derived from local Wathaurong Aboriginal words for the area, balla arat, thought to mean “resting place”. Not a lot of people know that. Lake Wendouree provided the backdrop for this fast-paced event, with seniors completing 15k. Sinéad won the women’s race coming through strongly in the final 2k to win by over 20 seconds in 52:04, averaging 3:28k. Next XCR race is on the gruelling slopes of Bundoora Park, in the women’s race over 8k.

It looks like local and national media are ‘catching up’ on our reports of Sinéad Diver’s selection to run for Australia in World Championships: see

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/accidental-irish-athlete-selected-to-represent-australia-1.2232525

and this week’s Western People ‘Game On’ section pages 2/3 “The Runner Down Under”.

Paula Prendergast has been testing her endurance at various events recently.  She completed the Tri Athy Olympic triathlon on Saturday finishing the swim, bike, run in 2:51.48 and 29th of 122 women. Paula was first woman home in the tough Clare Burren Half Marathon on 23rd May in 1:40.25. And today in the Vhi Women’s 10k amid Dublin wind and rain, she ran 40:38 to finish in 25th place. Paula says “way down on last year but very happy with it considering the last few 10ks. The cycle home was harder than the race!” Well done, Paula. The race was won by Maria McCambridge (DSD)  in 34:03.

John Geraghty continued his 2015 quest for a decent marathon finish time after 3:55 in Rome in March, and 4:05 in Belfast a few weeks back. He ran in the Walled City Derry Marathon on Sunday on a tough hilly course and with the odd hail shower. It went ok to 20 – he was halfway in 1:54 and on course for target 3:48 – but his pace dropped  from there on – finished in 4:10.57 chip and 4:11.50 gun.

On Sunday Brendan Hession finished second in the Robeen 10k in 37:38

There are 30+ photos from Mayo AC Baxter Streets of Castlebar 5k at https://www.facebook.com/mayoathleticsclub