W‘hen’ will I be famous?
by Rooster Roadrunner
Queen’s Cross Country
Newcastle AC was represented by Brendan Quail, Eugene McCann and Ryan Quigley at the first Cross Country Race of the season at the Queens’ University ‘Dub’ playing fields in Belfast on Saturday 13th October. All gave sound performances over the 4 lap 5 mile course with Brendan finishing 36th in a time of 29:32, Eugene was just over the 30 minute mark (30:08), finishing in 42nd place while Ryan, like the others in his second successive Saturday outing gave a commendable performance. Not bad for a lad who dragged himself out of bed 10 minutes before the Donnelly Mirth-mobile was arriving to pick him up! To make matters worse he committed the cardinal sin of not packing his club vest and ran in unspecified colours – there could be an internal disciplinary hearing called!!!
It will be Gr8 in Dundrum
All three will be in action again next week at the Murlough AC Gr8 Dundrum race over 8.2 miles. They will be joined by many of their clubmates who stand tall among the 650+ entries to date. Brendan Teer will once again start as the favourite, but will be challenged by many of Newcastle’s finest. Everyone will be out for a PB and chasing the club record of 48:34 set by Deon McNeilly in winning the inaugural race in 2010, a year when the first 8 athletes broke 52 minutes. Last year, despite unfavourable conditions on the beach Brendan Teer was the runaway winner in a time of 47:43 with the versatile McNeilly second two minutes behind as only the top 5 broke the 52 minute barrier. Best placed of the Newcastle athletes to challenge this year is undoubtedly John Kelly. In 2011, in the colours of Castlewellan AC he listened well to the experienced coaching over the first two miles and went on to record a very credible 54:51, a time good enough for 19th place. A year and a new club later he is in imperious form, leaving all trailing in his wake, most noticeably the 15 clubmates who turned up to run with him on Sunday morning. John was away like a flash and recorded a highly impressive sub: 53 minutes in a training run, yet not good enough to scalp his running-mate for the day, who went close to 51 minutes. Surely all bets are now off in the V45 category as the potential for an overall top 5 is well within ‘Hen’s’ radar. The club just hopes that he remembers his vest for the podium! We wish him well, confident that it will take a 5* performance from the best of the rest of Newcastle to topple him. Having said that David O’Flaherty and Brendan Quail are also in fine form and Newcastle should provide a number of the top 10 finishers. Alan Strachan is also taking to the line and he has recorded 50:13 when finishing third in 2010. The disappointment of not going to Amsterdam will undoubtedly spur him on. McGreevy has also mastered the use of the Interweb and online payments to pre-enter (how, I will never know!) and should be a firm favourite for his category (V55-but looks an awful lot older!). It will be green tay all round if he achieves the predictable outcome, though his wallet may never recover from the stress of being opened for the first time since 1972! Full report on the fortunes of the Newcastle AC posse next week.
Off to the ‘Dam’
Newcastle AC’s Mark Kendall will add the next chapter to his increasingly impressive tome on marathon running when he competes in the red and yellow on Sunday 21st October in the Amsterdam marathon. Mark, as regular observers of this column will know, was mighty impressive in clocking 2:43 in London in April. Older and wiser from that experience Mark has been putting in the hard miles over the last number of months, usually accompanied by Newcastle’s most consistent non-starter Damien Brannigan. Following their final pre-marathon gallop on Sunday, Brannigan commented that he was confident in Kendall’s ability to improve his previous mark (no pun intended!). In addition Damien claimed that he would love to be going with him to savour the atmosphere of a big city marathon. When asked if he was considering a marathon soon he quickly replied ‘No’. There are rumours that in an attempt to lure Brannigan to competition the International World Marathon Association of Marathon Runners are organising a Shimna Wood 26.2 for 2013. As he tapers for the ‘Dam’ Mark reports that preparations have gone according to plan since completing the Jungfrau Marathon 6 weeks ago. It took a few weeks to get the Jungfrau marathon out of his legs but has trained hard for last three weeks. He added that the re commencement of the Tuesday sessions have also helped greatly with getting leg speed improved again.
In a dramatic downturn of events, Deon McNeilly has been pouring out advice on his experience from when he completed Amsterdam (albeit in a pedestrian time for the Big Fella): so Mark feels he knows every nook and cranny and if stuck he knows where to source a decent pint of milk!
Unfortunately Alan Strachan, Newcastle’s most consistent marathon runner in the last 30 months has been forced to withdraw due to the sustained recurrence of a foot injury (he will compete. Mark will be joined by a good friend of the club, Norman Smyth from Banbridge AC, as he bids to give another good account of himself in this bruising and unforgiving test of endurance. We wish both Mark and Norman well and will have a report and pictures next week.
Junior Delight
Finally, well done to all the junior athletes from Newcastle, East Down and Burren Athletic Clubs who competed at the second race in the McGrady Financial Services Junior Cross Country at Kilbroney.