Road
A major highlight of recent weeks for the club was the success of our athletes at the recent Dublin City Marathon. After months of hard training and sacrifices, Sinead Cronin, Aislinn Moorhouse, Lily Casey, Liam Naughton, Mark Gilligan, and Michael Ryan. After succumbing to injury a few weeks out from the big day in 2023, and overcoming some last-minute niggles this year, Liam Naughton ran a fantastic debut marathon to lead our men’s team home in just under 2:31. Meanwhile, Mark Gilligan (2:44) and Michael Ryan (2:47), both knocked more than five minutes off their times from the previous year to place our men’s team in a very respectable 9th place out of over 90 teams in the Senior Club competition. While our women’s team couldn’t contest the club championship on paper, this did not dissuade our athletes from showcasing some memorable performances. Much like the previous few months of training, Sinead and Aislinn were tied at the hip for much of the 26.2 mile distance. Both had fantastic runs in what was their debut over the distance with Sinead crossing the line in 3:08 and Aislinn following closely behind in 3:09. Recently joined athlete Lily Casey also set a personal best over the distance with a time of 3:26. These performances will no doubt lay a foundation for competitive DCH teams at the Dublin City Marathon for year’s to come.
Over a somewhat shorter distance, Niamh Carr, Edel Monaghan, and Lauren Tinkler made the trip down to Longford for the Ray Flynn Road Mile with Niamh placing 2nd, Edel 3rd and Lauren 5th. Excellent runs leading into the cross country season.
Cross Country
The cross country season has gotten well underway in recent weeks with a number of championships already being contested by the club’s athletes. The DCH ladies had a strong team of 12 athletes at the Leinster Novice Championships that were held in Cow Park, Dunboyne. Bonnie-May McFeat was first of the DCH team across the line in a fabulous 6th place and was followed in by Cliodhna Ryan (12th), Aoife Corr (19th) and Grace Culhane (20th) to round out the scoring team which placed 2nd on the day. The team’s incredible depth was demonstrated once again with outstanding finishes by Katie Greene (21st), Ellen Byrne (36th), Clare Murphy (39th), Abbie Dowdall (46th), Aoife Donaghy (65th), and Lorna Walsh (66th). This performance will no doubt give the team ample confidence going into the National Novice Championships in early December where both our Men’s and Women’s teams will be looking to defend their podium positions from last year.
The Dublin Senior Cross Country Championships were up next with the DCH ladies aiming to take their fourth title in as many years. The team asserted their dominance from early on in the race with Edel Monaghan, Orla Duffy, Cliona Murphy and Sorcha McAllister all placing themselves at the front of the pack, while Bonnie-May and Aoife Corr followed closely behind. It was a fabulous display of team running with Orla crossing the line in 2nd place followed promptly by Edel (3rd), Sorcha (4th), and Cliona (5th) to round out a fantastic score of 14 points and once again claim the team title. Bonnie-May and Aoife Corr had fantastic runs finishing in 11th and 19th respectively. Meanwhile, Cliodhna Ryan had a great run in the U20 race to finish an excellent 7th place.
The ever-popular Autumn Open XC took place in Abbottstown in mid-October with DCH athletes represented in both the men’s and women’s race. The ladies were first off with Lauren Tinkler placing herself at the fore of the pack from early on. Lauren had a great run to finish 9th in a highly competitive field and was followed in by Edel Monaghan (12th), Orla Duffy (18th), and Cliona Murphy (25th). Later that day, our cross country relay team improved on their second place performance from last year’s National Cross Country Relay Championships to take the title this year. The team consisting of Niamh Carr, Pierre Murchan, Jodie McCann, and Philip Marron controlled the race from the beginning and put in a stellar performance to finish over 10 seconds clear of DSD in second place. This result sees the team qualified once again for the European Clubs Cross Country Championships which take place in Portugal in early February. Also over the cross country relay format, Aoife Carr ran the second fastest leg of the day at the Scottish National Cross Country Relay Championships helping her team to clinch silver. Aoife followed up this great run with a 9th place finish at the Scottish National Short Course Championships in a field of over 300 athletes.
Competing for their respective universities at the IUAA Cross Country Championships were Faye Dervan, Sarah Byrne, Christopher McGloughlin, Micheal Ryan, and Pierre Murchan, where Pierre took the men’s individual title covering the 8km distance in 23:31. As the NCAA season approaches its regional championship stages Sean Donoghue and Ronan McMahon Staggs have shown tremendous form over the cross country courses in the US in recent weeks. Sean was on the scoring Villanova team at the Princeton Fall cross country meet and followed up this run with a fantastic performance two weeks later at the Big East Cross Country Championships with his Villanova team taking the title on the day. Meanwhile, Ronan was first across the line for his University of Washington team at the Wisconsin Pre-National meet covering the 8km distance in 23:38. Also in the US, Ailish Hawkins opened her
cross country season with fantastic runs at the Bill Dellinger XC meet in Oregon and Big 10 Conference Championship in Illinois where she was an integral part UCLA team. Also at the Big 10 Conference Championships, Ronan raced 23:28 over the 8km distance to help his University of Washington team to second place behind Wisconsin.
A number of the club’s athletes continued their cross country season preparations by taking part in the Sport Ireland Campus Park Run. Christopher McGloughlin lead the way home covering the 5k distance in 17:50 with his father Paul finishing closely behind in 20:59. Christopher and Paul were followed in by Katie Greene (21:06), (Edel McNamara (22:12), Clare O’Connor (22:30), Aoife Donaghy (22:38,) Abbie Dowdall (23:07), Lorna Walsh (23:48), and Abbey Corr (23:52).
Dublin City Harriers 