Ballymore Cobh AC News

Joining Ben Smith on his “401 Challenge” on Fri. 30 Sep. in Basingstoke, England, were club members Lynne Doherty and Tom O’Riordan.

Ben Smith’s challenge is to run 401 marathon distances over 401 consecutive days, all in order to raise his target of £250k for 2 anti-bullying charities. At the time of writing he had completed 10,406 miles, (or 397 marathons), over the past 397 days – phenomenal!

Lynne and Tom ran alongside Ben on his 397th marathon and Lynne’s first! Well done to you both for travelling all the way there for a worthy cause, from the B.C.A.C. family. And huge credit to Lynne, less than 2 years of first lacing up a pair of runners under the tutorage of our Ballymore Cobh Fit4Life team.

A large posse of B.C.A.C. competitors took part in the recent VHI A Lust For Life Cork Airport 5k held at the ungodly hour of 2 a.m. on Sat. 1st of Oct. – and on the airport runway, no less!

Congrats to all who took part. Standing out amongst the gigantic crowd of 1,003 runners were Lucas Keating (19:58) and Niall Kavanagh (18:52), who both placed brilliantly in 13th and 4th overall respectively.

At the more sane hour of 9 a.m. on the same morning, way out west at the Run Galway Bay Marathon, fresh from a marathon in Berlin only a number of weeks before, Heike Von Heyne popped up here rather ravenous to try another. And so she did.

Consisting of 4 loops around beautiful Galway Bay, our popular German frau was well impressed with her surroundings – “a stunning view and great weather. The Irish competitors said it was too hot, especially the half-marathoners struggling as they started shortly before lunch, but it was right up my alley.
I had an amazing day and met some wonderful people.” Isn’t that just what it’s all about, folks?
Auf Deutsch: Glückwünsche Heike! And as AC/DC say, We Salute You!

The annual Cork BHAA Cork to Cobh 15 Mile Race took place under cold but brilliant sunshine on Sunday morning 2nd of Oct.

There was yet another large showing of B.C.A.C. athletes for this ever-popular event. Many competitors choose this race a warm-up “feeler”-type run prior to competing in the Dublin City Marathon that takes place 4 weeks subsequent to it, others decide to go all out and race it flat out, whilst more again are first-timers who have never before ran a distance of this magnitude and are more than happy to just complete the distance.
Four of our athletes who took part deserve a special mention for their endeavours:

· Claire Holland clocking up the highest mileage she’s ever ran – superb stuff, Claire, we knew you had it in you.

· Orla O’Rourke going from strength to strength. A 1st place category finish and coming home in a very strong 4th place overall – her trophy-laden mantlepiece is currently being surveyed by Cork County Council civil engineers due to family concerns over its safe working load.

· Fergal Quinlan (Carey Tools) landing a coveted team prize in the Men’s C category – great to see you back from injury, Fergal.

· Brendan Ryan, first clubman over the line in a fabulous time of 1:40:54 – that’s a blistering 6:44 minute per mile. Wowzers!

Later that same morning a mixture of our juniors, juveniles, senior males and females all made their way to a long-grassed hilly field out in the wilds of Conna for the Cork Athletics County Cross-Country Championships 2016.

A great day was had by all of our participants and well done to all for taking part in what many consider to be” true” running. Not least our Novice Women’s Team who ran out of their skin to land a podium position for themselves in a well-earned 3rd place.

Stand up and take a bow Fiona Downey, Alma Worrall, Ruth Phelan and Ann McKeown. Great running, ladies.

And that’s a wrap!