Team Geared Up » athletics

Irish Ultrarunner Tony Mangan to Compete Again in 48 Hour Race

Aisling Coppinger — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 14:13:32 +0000

DUBLIN, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) Irish Ultra Runner Tony Mangan flies out to Brno in the Czech Republic today to compete in the 48 hour race where last year he broke the 48 hour indoor record, as reported by Athletics Ireland.

The event is likely to feature â€˜liveâ€™ on the race website which has real time updates and webcams! Starts 28th March 10am local.

Check it out here. There’s a brilliant account by Tony of last year’s event here, which he won by running over 426km (or 264 miles). Good luck Tony, we’ll be thinking about ya!

-Aisling-

Irish Running: Ballycotton 10 Mile

Aisling Coppinger — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 07:00:34 +0000

DUBLIN, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) It’s one of the biggest races on the Irish running calender and I’ve never ran it; the Ballycotton 10 Mile, being held this Sunday. It has always been too close to the Connemarathon for me. Men’s favourite this year is Vinnie Mulvey from Raheny who came third in Belfast last Saturday. The women’s favourite is Rosemary Ryan who’s running the San Diego marathon in June to attempt to qualify for Bejing. Wouldn’t it be great to see a few Irish in an Olympic marathon this time around?!

Best of luck to all my Clonliffe clubmates heading to Cork for this and to blogger Thomas!
:-)
If you’re looking ahead there’s a BHAA cross country on March 15th and the St. Patrick’s Festival 5km on Sunday 16th both in Dublin. See you there!

-Aisling-

Irish Mountain Running Carrick Race and National Cross Country

Aisling Coppinger — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 07:00:27 +0000

DUBLIN, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) Seems things are all upside down and mixed up in the world of running. Someone really upset the running God’s this weekend. Firstly in Wicklow it seems a lot of people went wrong on the new Carrick route (round 4 of IMRA Winter league). Bit harsh of someone on the forum to blame it on people’s “stupidity”??!! As Mick, one of the organisers said:

Great race in Glenealy today. People going astray on the course made it interesting. :-)

Then you had the National Senior Cross Country in the grounds of Queens University, Belfast where Alistair Cragg (second fastest white man on the planet apparently) gets beaten by Cathal Lombard. I know he’s not used to cross country but I still would have reckoned he should have won it if they tied concrete blocks to his feet…..I couldn’t stick around to watch him finish, I had to chase back to Dublin for the blog awards. Great result in the Best Technology Blog…… :-) Congrats Robin!!!

Brilliant night, full list of the winning blogs here.

-Aisling-

Photo from Athletics Ireland website.

This Weekend - Irish Mountain Running and National Inter- Club Cross Country

Aisling Coppinger — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 09:00:54 +0000

DUBLIN, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) Tomorrow sees an unfortunate clash between the 4th race in the IMRA winter league and the National Senior Cross Country. The mountain race is being held in Carrick mountain in Wicklow and the race distance has just recently been lengthened to 11k (bit of a long one for the Winter league?) and with the forecast being for wet and windy weather, people would want to come prepared for the worst!!

The Woodies DIY Senior and Junior Inter Club Cross Country Champs takes place in Queenâ€™s Dub playing fields and Barnetts Demense, Belfast on the same day. Event website here. Clonliffe Harriers squad will include Ireland’s top middle distance international Alistair Cragg.

I’m not saying where I’ll be but it’s enough to say I’m disappointed with the clash of these two events. I’ll have to write a strongly worded letter to some members of the IMRA committee….where to start?…….. ;-)

-Aisling-

Image from Queens5k.co.uk.

Irish Athletics: James Nolan Narrowly Misses 1000m Indoor Record

Aisling Coppinger — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 01:00:18 +0000

DUBLIN, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) News just in that James Nolan has just missed out on breaking the current Irish indoor record for 1000m in Stockholm this evening. His time of 2:20:33 left him just outside the current record held by Marcus O’ Sullivan of 2:20:2, set in New York in 1985.

I’m sure he’s thrilled with it as a personal best! Well done James! The South African training must be doing him the world of good!

News via Clonliffe Harriers website, of which he is a member!.
Me too! :-) Well done James!

-Aisling-

Image from Athletcis Ireland.

Irish Mountain Running and that dirty word……athletics!

Aisling Coppinger — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 22:17:08 +0000

DUBLIN, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) I saw this debate happening over at the Irish Mountain Running Assoc. website and chose to say nothing as it developed into a debate about other issues like the calender and who won what championship and what appeared on results etc. etc. But what really got me going was the attitude to mainstream athletics or just “running” as I like to call it. It’s the one thing that has always bugged me about mountain running is the people who think that mainstream running is boring and bureaucratic and dull and only mountain or hill running gives you thrills. I personally find this attitude, and it’s VERY prevalent, really annoying and so elitist. The utter contempt with which these people seem to have for another sport, I find pretty despicable. In plain English it bugs the crap out of me and today as I set out on my 17 miler (on the roads!!) and the endorphins got going, I felt like a rant!

We’re all runners. I’d respectfully suggest if you find running dull you’re just not doing it properly (or with the right people). There’s very little compares to the rush of a PB (personal best) in a 5k or breaking 40 minutes for 10k. I defy anyone who has ever ran a track race to say they hadn’t imagined they were in an Olympic final! My favourite race ever is Connemara and that’s 40 miles on road and it’s been the best 3 races of my life!

A similar debate began again recently when the venue was set for the University Championships and it happens to be on trail!! Oh my God you mean they’re not scrambling up a boggy, heathery mountain in the wind, rain and hailstones? Well then it can’t possibly be worthy of the attention or respect of true mountain runners can it?

It’s no wonder we haven’t been doing well internationally on the hills with these attitudes to running and “mainstream” running. Anyway now you know where I stand let’s hear your thoughts.

-Aisling-

Image from my Flickr set at start of Sugar Loaf race this year (oh no, it’s a piece of road in a mountain race!)

Irish Athletics: Raheny 5 Mile Road Race

Aisling Coppinger — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 20:43:27 +0000

DUBLIN, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) I know for sure there’s athletics on Irish TV tomorrow but for the life of me I can’t find it in the TV listings……anyway if you’re looking for it you’ll find it. But if you’re a runner and you’re in Dublin there’s a good chance you’re heading to Raheny for the annual Raheny 5 mile road race. It’s one of the biggest events in the Irish running calender. The goody bags alone are worth the entry fee and the prizes are great! I’m going to give it a miss as we’re heading to Belfast to check out some outdoorsy shops up there…will let you know how I get on……

-Aisling-

Image from St. Francis Hospice website.

Athletics Ireland National Athletic Awards 2007 - TGU was there!

Aisling Coppinger — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 21:24:54 +0000

DUBLIN, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) Woohoo! Big black tie event in the Crowne Plaza last night as the first ever Athletics Ireland National Athletic Awards took place. (And no, before you ask the mountain runners didn’t attend with mud on their faces!) Really great night, lots of well known faces from Irish Athletics, past and present, were there. (Photo of me and Karen with Eamonn Coughlan!) But the event was clearly not just about medal winners with the the first two categories being Official of the Year, which went to the inimitable Harry Gorman, (known to just about anyone who ever toed the line in a road race in this country) and Coach of the Year which went to Adam Jones of Rathfarnham WSAF.
In the other categories:
Junior Athlete of the Year: Long Jumper Kelly Proper
Master Athlete of the Year: Niamh O’ Sullivan
Performance of the Year: David Gillick
Track Athlete of the Year: Paul Hession
and Athlete of the Year: Hammer Thrower Eileen O’ Keefe

Lifetime Achievement Award went to Sean and Maeve Kyle and there was a special Hall of Fame award for Olympic Champion Ronnie Delaney. Of course Club of the year went to my own club Clonliffe Harriers (Bronagh with trophy here)! The event was genuinely great fun, full of positive atmosphere about the future and I think having categories like Official of the Year made it an awards ceremony that wasn’t just about the big names in track athletics.
The most difficult thing about this post was choosing a photo: not sure that me in a dress is very “Geared Up” eh? But anyway that’s me with Frank Greally, Editor of the Irish Runner Magazine and part of the organizing committee for last night! Being up that late is my excuse for a bad Duathlon but more about that tomorrow…..

-Aisling-

More photos from my flickr set here.

Ireland Host European Cross Country Athletics Championships 2009

Robin Blandford — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 07:08:51 +0000

LONDON, UK (Team Geared Up) - Ireland has been awarded the right to host the 2009 European Cross Country Athletics Championships by the European Athletics Council. The event will be held at the Santry Demesne course in north Dublin on 13 December 2009. Thanks Darran via RTE.

Also, the 15th British and Irish Juniors mountain running races are being held in Wales this weekend.

Under 18 Boys
Eoin Pierce, DIT
Eoin Rowan, DCU
Kian Jennings, Oatlands College, Dublin
Jason Oâ€™Byrne, DCU

Under 18 Girls
Michelle Finn, University of Limerick
Michelle Twohig, University of Limerick
Becky Hand, Dooneen AC
Elma Nugent, Ard Scoil na nDeise

U16 & U14 team available here.

Good luck to all!

-Robin-

Watch out for… Irish Athletes on TV

Aisling Coppinger — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 07:00:59 +0000

DUBLIN, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) A couple of things to watch out for on the box this week. On Wednesday at 3:30pm, RTE2 are covering the Cycling Tour of Ireland (we posted about this a while back). As the Times put it:

a handy palate cleanser a few weeks after the travelling pharmacy that masquerades as the Tour de France.

Coverage daily at 3:30pm and Saturday at 2pm. To find out where they are passing through and when, see their website.

And on Friday and Saturday both RTE and BBC are covering the Athletics World Championships from Osaka, Japan. Click here for info. I’ll be watching out for the marathons! To see what Irish are involved see Athletics Ireland news.

The above photo is of Derval O’Rourke from RTE Website.

-Aisling-