Report on Race No 6    (8^th December 2010)

The 4k Series resumed last week with 46 athletes participating. While it was cold the underfoot conditions were OK and for many of them it was their only run since a fortnight ago and they were pleased to have got a run in, many of them were suffering from cabin fever.

The race format was Lucky Dip with athletes given different starting times and the results were based on their actual time rather than their finishing position. During the race 5 finishing positions were drawn and the five Lucky finishing positions were 7^th, 15^th, 26^th, 33^rd and 40^th. The Luck winners were: Barry Horgan, Kevin Condon, Adrian Lonergan, Joe Grinsell and Sareen Walsh - Congrats.

We also presented athletes who had competed in at least 4 of the races with their warm hats and they were deeply appreciated by everyone. We will give out the rest of these hats at this week’s race. Once again thanks to all the stewards for all the help tonight, always appreciated.

About Race no 7  15^th December 2010

Race 7 of the Clonmel AC series will take place this Wednesday night at 7 pm. This is the final race of this year’s series. This year’s series has been a brilliant success despite the bad weather, so well done to everyone for making it such a success. The race format for this race is Countdown to Zero. In this race every athlete predicts their finishing time and runs the distance without a watch. The winner(s) are those athletes that finish after the clock hits zero seconds. Here the athletes when entering the race predicts their finishing time and when the clock hits that time the athletes starts and if they run the correct pace they should finish when the clock hits zero seconds. So if Niall O Sullivan predicts 30 minutes for the 4K, he will start running when the time is called out. In this race the slowest person goes first and the fastest person goes last but the winner is not the person who crosses the line first but the person who crosses the finishing line after the clock hits zero seconds, so it is all about running the right pace, a hard thing to do with athletes passing you and you are passing athletes, that is the Challenge.

Again you have all made a tremendous effort over the past couple of months, let’s keep up the training and what better than to run in the Clonmel AC 4 Mile road race on St Stephen’s Day at 12 noon. You are all well able to run 4K and this is just another 2.4k. There will also be a “Meet and Train” Group for Ladies starting up on Monday nights in the New Year, more details to follow.

By Niall O’Sullivan

14th December 2010