After months of training and nervous anticipation, 35 Donore members toed the line for the Dublin marathon, some seasoned regulars, many first timers and from all parts of the club from senior to Fit4life.  Mercifully, the predicted storms didn’t materialise on the day, it was sunny with a stiff headwind on parts of the course.  Fergal Whitty was first home in an excellent 2.34.51 and was 2nd M35 in the national championship.  John  Dunne PB, Niall lynch and Darren Hand finished next close together and this teamwork saw Fergal, John and Niall claim national Masters team gold.  In the 2.50s were Hugh, Graham (despite a misjudgment at the start which put him a different wave), Sean (who ran Berlin a month ago) George and Tony (also ran Berlin).  Philip Hennessy unfortunately pulled out injured. First Lady home was Anne Curley who ran her 8th sub-three hour marathon despite suffering from a cold and was 2nd W40, sister Florrie was next in her marathon debut. Between 3.10 and 3.37 we had Stephen, Tom, Liam, Gerard, Charlie Liam, Ian (another Berliner!)and Lisa.

The 5 woman band of Angela, Kim, Lorraine, Suzanne and Lee who trained diligently together the past few months did fantastically well and helped each other along the way, Angela knocked spots off her PB again as did Kim.  Lorraine and Suzanne did great debuts.   Nicola’s race was hampered by a fall but she finished well as did Elaine and Liagh.  Happily, the ladies also claimed the masters team gold making it a Donore Double with Angela Eustace getting her first national medal as 3rd scorer.  Great runs too from Fit4life members Elaine, Emily, Sandra, Eimear, Andrew , Laura and Ivan many who ran their first marathon.

Again, big thanks to all the many many supporters who popped out everywhere on the course, Jenny and all the gang at the Donore water station who worked so hard to feed the 14,500!.  Full results below

On Sunday, in perfect cross country conditions for the first time this season we sent 4 teams to the Leinster Novice and Masters Cross Country in Dunboyne. On a relatively flat, but technical course the novice ladies were first up in their 4k race. First home for the ladies was Aisling Swaine who is returning to form and ran well on the second lap to make up places, finishing 40th, right behind Aisling finishing in an almost identical time was Eva Campion in 41st , next in was Rhona Duane 45th who was disappointed with her race but is adapting well in her first championship season, following Rhona was was Medbh Peavoy in 51st and Cristina Gonzalez in 67th. Despite the team running well together it wasn’t enough to grab a medal following some strong runs from other teams.

The Masters ladies put in a fantastic team run with 16th, 19th, 21st and 23rd falling just short of a medal. Karen Behan ran a fantastic second lap to move through the field and was first home for the masters ladies in 16th place in a great time of 17:09, next in was Sam Conroy 19th in 17:13, Breda Mahony on her way back from injury was 21st in 17:22 and Janette Strickland rounded off the team with yet another brilliant run finishing 23rd in 17:26.

Eric Keogh and Lee Van Haeften gave indication of good form for the forthcoming Dublin Senior Cross-Country championships when they placed 1^st and 3^rd respectively in the Leinster Novice Cross Country championships at Dunboyne on Sunday. The Donore duo formed a part of a breakaway trio together with Karol Cronin of Sportsworld. Eric had to recover from a fall on the second lap to gain victory in a time of 20 minutes and 18 seconds. Lee covered the 6km race in 21.24s to place 3^rd.  The Men’s Novice team placed 4^th on 81 points with Eoin Hannon 35^th in 22.28s and Luke Boland 42^nd in 23.06s making up the scoring 4 finishers. Crusaders 39 points, Raheny 69 and Dunboyne also on 69 were the first 3 teams. Niall O’Reilly on his Cross-Country debut came 60^th in 24.12s.

The Donore Men’s Masters team placed 3^rd on 93 points in what proved a tight call on team placings. Tullamore were clean winners on 34 points, with Donore sandwiched between Drogheda & District 90 and Raheny 95. John Downes 9^th in 21.37s led the team home, with Fergal Swaine 21^st in 22.02s, Emmet O’Briain 30^th in 22.40s and Fred Kiernan 33^rd in 22.50s making up the scoring 4. Padraig McGreal came 58^th in 24.04s with Terry Mee placing 1^st in the over 70s category after completing the rain-swept 6 kilometres course in 29.35s.