First PARKRUN Tralee 2015

St.Brendan's AC had a  part in making history when the Female winner of the first ever PARKRUN in Tralee was our club member Ursula Barrett. She also has the honour of being the female record holder (at least for one week).
Inaugural Parkrun Tralee took place on Saturday, 24 January.  
Tralee is the 5th location for this type of event in Munster. 

Quick instruction how this works:
1. register on-line (need DOB & email address) HERE, it's free
2. print your barcode (best if you can laminate after printing), keep with you at the run
3. come to the starting line (few minutes earlier if you a first timer to get briefing) - you don't need to register or show your barcode
4. start running/jogging/walking when you hear whistle - 3 laps of Tralee park, clockwise.
5. at the finish line you will get small token/badge with barcode (this is linked to time)
6. hand over token and your own barcode for scanning - this will get your name attached to time. If you don't have your own barcode, your name will not appear on official results page.

150 people made an effort in the first week and it was a broad mixture of runners and walkers in all ages and abilities.
Well done to all St.Brendan's AC members who took part in first event and we will keep monitoring progress over the next week and months with monthly updates:  Ursula Barrett, Joe O'Brien, Catherine Burke, Chris O'Shea, Cathy Quilter, Caroline Harrington-Stack, Shannon Quill, Yvonne Quill, Artur Nowak

Full results from Parkrun 1 in Tralee HERE.

Tralee Musical Society 5K 2015

A new running event on 2015 calendar was the inaugural fundraising 5K run for Tralee Musical Society on 18 January 2015.
This run with a musical theme was also the first event in Run The Kingdom Championships series which incorporates all events organised by Run The Kingdom in 2015. Very simple formula of allocating points based on finishing in top 10 with Men and Women categories. Nice initiative adding a bit of more competitiveness and long term focus although scoring in 5K gets you the same amount of points as scoring in half or full marathon. 

Route for this 5K was a loop from Tralee Bay Wetlands to Blennerville and back to Wetlands via Ballyard. Over 150 participants took part in this event, running, jogging and walking, some with very fancy costumes and outfits. 

St.Brendan's AC had good representation with some very noticeable results from Ursula Barrett (4th) and Ann McGlynn (9th) making top 10 in Women category. It was good to see Bernice O'Sullivan (9th in age category) getting another race under the belt. Cathy Quilter (4th in age category) & Pat Sheehy (1st in age category) also diverted from marathon training for a bit of speed work over 5K distance. Well done guys!

Full results HERE.

MUNSTER INDOOR MASTERS 2015

Munster Junior, U23, Senior & Masters Indoor Championships took place on Sunday, 18 January 2015 in Nenagh.
Artur Nowak was the only athlete from St.Brendan's AC participating in O40 category in 4 events: Shot Putt, Long Jump, High Jump and 200m.
He finished the day of competition with a total of 3 medals in Shot Putt (silver & new PB), High Jump (silver), Long Jump (bronze) and 4th in 200m.



Well done to all KERRY athletes from Lios Tuathail AC, Farranfore Maine Valley AC, Gneveeguilla AC and An Riocht AC who travelled to Tipperary for this competition.  
Full results HERE.

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NATIONAL INDOOR COMBINED EVENTS CHAMPIONSHIPS 2015

On a very chilly Saturday 17^th January 2015 Darragh Courtney U15 was the only St. Brendan’s AC competitor at the combined events indoor championships held in Athlone.

The pentathlon for the U15 category consisted of the High Jump, Shot Putt, Long Jump, 60mH, 800m.  In what was to be a repeat of the Munster finals the same four athletes were down to the wire competing for the medal positions, Darragh was unlucky & placed fourth.

 However yet again Darragh managed to surpass his previous one pb at the Munster finals by achieving three pb’s in the high jump, 800m & the hurdles.  He had a much improved time for his hurdles with a pb of 9.64s, Darragh completed the 800m in a new pb of 2.30m & finally his pb in the high jump soared as he cleared 1.72m.

Well done Darragh!

Full results HERE.

Munster Indoor Combined Events Championships 2015

Nenagh was the venue for Munster Indoor Junior, U23 and Juveniles CE Championships 2015.
St.Brendan's AC had 8 juvenile members competing in pentathlon in three different age categories. Apart from Darragh Courtney competing in U15, for all the others it was their first encounter with multievents and it was a long but great day of competition.

Our young members performed very well and got points in every single event.

In U12 Boys (High Jump, Shot Putt, Long Jump, 60m, 600m) we had:
Robert Monahan (995pts) with best results in High Jump & Shot Putt,
Jack Shanahan (974pts) doing very well in Long Jump & 60m,
Ronan Pearce (837pts) with new PB in High Jump,
Donal O'Sullivan (601pts) also with new PB in High Jump.

In U13 Girls (High Jump, Shot Putt, Long Jump, 60mH, 800m) we had:
Rebecca Falvey (813pts) very consistent over all 5 events, including PB in High Jump,
Eimear O'Sullivan (691pts) with her best performance coming at 800m, finishing 2nd in her heat and fifth fastest time on the day. Running cross country in the autumn paid off for Eimear.

In U13 Boys (High Jump, Shot Putt, Long Jump, 60mH, 800m) we were represented by:
Breanndan Walsh (958pts) getting another PB in High Jump and very good result in Shot Putt.

In U15 Boys (High Jump, Shot Putt, Long Jump, 60mH, 800m) we had Darragh Courtney, who finished on 2220pts and missing out on bronze medal by only 4pts!
Darragh's results were very consistent with highlight being a battle in High Jump with Joseph McEvoy (Nenagh Olympics AC). Both boys were head to head all the way to 1.67m with this result being new PB for Darragh. 

This was very successful trip to Nenagh to gather experience and to try new events in competition. Well done to all juveniles athletes who participated and performed very well taking into consideration that some of them had only a few specific training sessions before this competition. We know now where we are with the training and what events we need to improve on before Munster CE Championships on 26 April. 
Thank you to all the parents who made the trip to support and encourage our athletes for over 8 hrs of competition - very long day in chilly surroundings!
Full results for boys HERE.
Full results for girls HERE.
More photos HERE.
Next Combined Events is the National Championships in Athlone on 17 January.

Beaufort 10K - 2015

First road race of 2015 in Kerry took place in Beaufort at the annual Charles O'Shea Memorial 10K. Weather conditions were far from ideal with some patchy rain and head wind in the first half of the course but it was still a well attended event with over 140 runners and walkers taking part. 
As always,  host club Star of the Laune AC did a great job to organise and run not only 10K race but also shorter races on grass for kids with trophies to show for at the end. 

Top 3 Men:

1. Tim O'Connor         (An Riocht AC)         32:57
2. Donal O'Callaghan  (An Riocht AC)         33:50
3. Cian Murphy          (Iveragh AC)             33:55

Top 3 Women:

1. Karina Teahan      (St.Finbars AC)          38:20

2. Deidre Nagle        (Eagle AC)                 40:20

3. Catriona Barry      (FFMV AC)                 40:33

St.Brendan's AC had 5 runners in this race with special mention to Margaret Carlin (3rd) and Pat Sheehy (2nd) picking up prices in their respective age categories. Great start to new year.

St.Brendan's AC finishers:

Artur Nowak  44:05                          Margaret Carlin 46:37

Pat Sheehy 50:28                             Cathy Quilter 52:30

                                                       Kirstie Nowak 60:56

Full Results HERE.

Photos HERE.

December 2014 updates

6 December 2014 - Clonakilty Waterfront Marathon.
It was Artur Nowak's 4th marathon of 2014 It was a new route for this year and proved to be very challenging in places (hilly), run over 3 1/2 laps around Clonakilty. 
Finish time 4:20hrs. 
Full results HERE.

14 December 2014 - Tralee Santa Fun Run 5K
This annual charity event in Tralee attracted new record of participants with over 1000 people assembled in The Wetlands to run, jog or walk from Tralee to Blenerville and back to Tralee.
St.Brendan's AC was out in force with many juvenile members enjoying a fun jog and walk and for many this was a good practice run.
Well done to Derek Griffin, Shannon & Yvonne Quill, Brian Lucid, Artur Nowak, Ursula Barrett, Bernice & Rachael O'Sullivan, Keith O'Mahony, Brendan O'Sullivan, Daisy & Lilly Nowak, Rory Murphy, Rachel, Meaghan & Shane O'Connor.

21 December 2014 - Santa Dash Kerry, Inch Beach.
Another charity event taking place in December was "Santa Dash" run on Inch Beach with 5K & 10K distances to choose from. 
Santa suit was a part of registration fee and all the runners did very well to run in full or partial suit, including some of St.Brendan's AC members: Brendan O'Sullivan, Cathy Quilter, Maggi Carlin & Pat Sheehy.

26 December 2014 - Farranfore 5K
Traditional St.Stephen's day run in Farranfore as always got good support from Kerry, Cork & Limerick athletic clubs and non club members looking to keep healthy and fit over the holiday period. This year the route got an additional bonus of just over 600m added to traditional 5K distance.
St.Brendan's AC had Artur & Kirstie Nowak, Bernice O'Sullivan, Shannon & Yvonne Quill.
Full results HERE.
Photos HERE.

Blog site visitors 2010 - 2014

We finished 2014 on a high note with our blog site reaching over quarter of a million page views, with "Road Races in KERRY...." being the most popular with visitors in just over 4 years of existence.

Calendar of the races, link to registration page and link to results (if available) proving a useful combination.