Wednesday last was the final time trial run and even though the rain teemed down 12 hardy athletes (six from each pod) turned up to see if they could improve their times in the last run- off. Conditions underfoot were very slippery and not conducive to fast times nonetheless one athlete in John’s group did improve her time with Rosie Berryman knocking another 19secs off her best time and finishing on 8m11secs. Best of the girls was Isabelle Gaffney who ran under 7mins for four of the six weeks and had a best of 6.44 recorded on week four. Conor Keane was the fastest boy with a time of 7.07 improving by 47secs over the six weeks. Sean Nyhan made the biggest improvement knocking 55secs off his time to finish with a best of 7.26. Keelan Barry improved by 50secs and hit 8mins on week five and Sarah O’Riordan went under the 8mins for the first time recording 7.58 on week four. Well done to all twelve athletes who took part during the six weeks.
Mary’s pod was also in action on Wed and again we had six athletes turning up to brave the rain. Jennifer Mooney was the only one to better her time this week. Jennifer started off on nine mins and has consistently improved to finish with a time of 8.30. There was a great battle for fastest girl between Sarah Gaffney and Aoife O’Donovan. On day one they had a three second difference 7.36 for Sarah and 7.39 for Aoife . Both improved their times by 13 secs over the six weeks and again finished 3secs apart on the last night. Ben Qualter was the best of the boys recording a time of 7.28 on week 2. Ami Flavin made the biggest improvement chopping seconds off her time each week to finish on 7.41 an improvement of 41 secs. Fiona O’Riordan also made significant improvement over the six weeks and is close to the 8 min barrier.
Both groups have now taken a break for Christmas and only Tony’s pod is training this week. It was a strange cross country season with no races held but our fifty plus athletes who turned up each week complied with the new regulation and trained in a new way staying safe and healthy and benefitted physically socially and mentally from their running.
We wish all our athletes, coaches, committee members and their families a safe and Happy Christmas and look forward to seeing you all back training in the New Year.
