Week ending Saturday 17th April
Big 10k PB for Jack O’Leary
Competing in the Iona College colours, Jack O’Leary got his outdoor track season off to the best possible start with a fantastic 45 second personal best for 10,000m at the Stanford Invitational in California on Good Friday evening. Jack ran the opening 5,000m very consistently with an average of 69 seconds per lap but when the pressure came at the front midway through the race, he responded with an increase in pace to an average of 67 seconds per lap, and with a fast 65 second final lap, finished sixth in 28:37.03, the third fastest all-time in Iona history and it puts him currently inside the top-10 in the Northeast of the USA. Coming on the back of a hugely successful run three weeks earlier at the rescheduled NCAA Cross Country Championship, this performance will give him huge confidence for the track season ahead.
Medley Road League heading to a conclusion
Round five of the Virtual Medley Road League took place over the Easter week-end and the results were compiled and the age-grading adjustments made and released last week. Fewer took part this time, 55 submitting a result, but that didn’t detract from the quality of the performances. Eddie Newman, Maurice Looby and Alan Crowley led the men home and Mary Stuart, Brigid McCabe and Sinead Whitelaw led the women. There were a number of massive improvements and some very fast times too, and we also saw nearly double figures in the amount of personal bests that were recorded. There were standout performances by James Keegan who impressed with a fine unadjusted 16:08, as did Sinead Whitelaw who ran a very swift 18:07, also unadjusted.
The final round takes place in two weeks time and the success of the league so far is without doubt. The previous five rounds have proven to be an excellent motivation for our adult members to keep training on their own, which can be difficult but looking at the results so far show that they have risen to the challenge with gusto. The plan for the final round was a 6k group run in Belvedere at the end of April but with Belvedere closed until then and adults still unable to meet up for group training or runs, it has been decided to change round six to a 3k solo run on the last week-end in April. This way everyone can compare their times to round one eleven weeks ago and see how much they have progressed since the league started. If a change to Covid restrictions allows adult group training before round six happens, a seventh round will be added, which will be a 6k race over two laps of Belvedere on the first Sunday morning after the changes come into force.
Countdown to a return to group training
So far so good for a reopening of the Club at the end of the month and plans are being put in place to welcome back our underage athletes from 8 years to under 18 years of age. We should be very well used to hand hygiene and social distancing by now but as we’ve been closed since just after Christmas, we’ll all to have re-learn the rules and processes around group training session again, not least pre-registering for every session and recording attendance at every session too. On the matter of pre-registering, it’s important that anyone who wishes to return to training must have paid their membership for this year or you won’t receive the link to pre-register for training.
Check the Club’s website at www.mullingarharriers.com or its Facebook page for all the latest news.
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