parkrun makes a difference

parkrun makes a difference to St Brendan's AC athletes
The Small p That Spells Saturday
By David Kissane, St Brendan's AC
“On the Road Again” Willie Nelson sings this Sunday morning as I head out. Yesterday’s glorious blue sky has passed on. Today is overcast. Ideal morning for a run. It’s (not)parkrun morning for me. Why not do a (not)parkrun! It’s the virtual version of the parkrun during these restricted times and there is a hilly 5K ahead. Bob and Shelly-Lynn Florence Glover spoke in their runners’ book of association and dissociation of the mind during runs. I say good morning to my sore knees and dodgy hammers and dissociate immediately. I explosively exhale and wander off laterally in the mind…
Why parkrun? The small p that spells Saturday and Sunday for hordes of runners, walkers and joggers of all ages and abilities each weekend on five continents. I never heard of the parkrun till 2017. Moira Horgan first mentioned it to me in St Brendan’s AC and Coach Artur Nowak advised me to participate. It would help to get back to regular running, he said, after a twenty year lay-off. “It will help you stop living in the past!” he wisely added with his knowing smile.
So off I went to Tralee’s town park and warmed up around the roses and did the stretching. “You’ve come on the wrong day, Dave!” Pat Sheehy told me. I turned up for my first parkrun on a Sunday, which is of course children’s 2K day. Right intention. Wrong day. He added “anyway, you wouldn’t last the pace with some of these guys!” The following Saturday I made my debut in parkrun. “Right day this time, Dave!” Pat Sheehy affirmed. Overwhelming was the first impression as around 300 people assembled from all parts for the welcoming words and presentations and advice. The bunch of volunteers organising the event was impressive and the gender balance would be the envy of any world organisation. This was different. This could make a difference. This has made a difference. We started on a 3-2-1-whistle and then frantic joy and I don’t think I will ever stop.
The parkrun concept has changed the health and fitness of countless numbers of people of all ages since it was launched in 2004. The person who initiated the movement was Paul Sinton Hewitt who was born in 1960 in Zimbabwe. He was educated in South Africa and was a promising marathoner with a pb of 2-36 until injury ended all his developmental hopes. He had lost his job in marketing and needed a new beginning and so he gathered thirteen people for a run in Bushy Park in London in 2004 with the aim of creating a healthier and happier world. Yes, just thirteen people! Now six million people in twenty two countries have taken to the parks every weekend with Paul Sinton Hewitt’s philosophy in mind. It is possibly the most life-changing 5K trip that anyone can undertake.
I have been fortunate to have experienced 63 parkruns to now. The 48 runs done in Tralee have been a staple diet of participation, motivation and satisfaction. Siobhán Kearney worked her magic bringing the parkrun to Tralee originally and her vision has led to golden harvests. Look at any parkrun Saturday or Sunday. People gather to chat before and regather to chat after. Special events are celebrated there. My son and his now wife got engaged after a parkrun in Tralee. She wanted to run in Tralee again the day of their wedding but her mother wouldn’t let her in case the hairdresser’s appointment might run late. The comments and craic at Billy’s Corner is an experience to be savoured. St Brendan’s AC adult athletes are regulars on Saturdays and the juveniles are especially prominent for their Sundays when Caroline Lynch takes charge. It’s a great place to volunteer as photographer as the participants beam at the camera. There is a spirit in Tralee parkrun and the dividend of its initiative can be collected every weekend.
The St Anne’s parkrun in Dublin holds a special affection as it’s the park where I first practised coaching back in 1976 with my St Paul’s College athletics groups. It’s also the place where I ran the morning after our first child was born. And the second. And the third. It’s two lap parkrun with that fantastic long wide road for the finish stretch. There was a special moment there in my first parkrun in 2018 when our little grandson came to support unannounced. St Anne’s also provided my 23-14 pb last year on the morning of the All Ireland replay. That was to be the best part of that sunny day!
I was a parkrun tourist in Wildflower Park in Sydney in 2018 through bush and hills where Bryan Freer was introduced to the parkrun and is hooked since. Poolsbrook near Chesterfield where my brother is buried in the UK was another special experience, three laps around a gorgeous lake off the M1 where the other O65s sorted me out! And of course there is Listowel which is the most testing parkrun of all. That hill in what we used to call “The Cow’s Lawn” was always a killer, even when we ran it as students in St Michael’s College more than half a century ago for cross country. Jimmy Deenihan has a warm welcome for everyone, although he notes that he is the top O65iver in Listowel until this writer appears.
One feature is common to all these parkruns and to all others…the highly structured organisation, efficiency and sense of inclusiveness. No matter where you finish, no matter in what condition you are at the start or the finish, you are made to feel welcome. Part of this goodwill comes from the fact that the volunteers and participants trade places regularly. It’s a hot-desking situation. Many other sporting organisations are hierarchical and a chasm sometimes develops between participant and officials, leading to an “us and them” scenario. Not so with parkrun. This is why parkrun is spelled with a small p to highlight the egalitarianism or the equality that is central to it. No fees, no medals, no podiums, no numbers. Register once and run, jog or walk. You have the choice to go for a pb every week or slow down and chat all the way through. You can help other runners around or push your baby in the go-car. The parkrun can put the jigsaw of your journey together.
And the efficiency of the parkrun is awesome. You get your result a few hours after the event: time, position, age-graded performance and then a day later photographs on Facebook to relive the moments. And the get-together and the cuppa for all at the end of each parkrun with its filled minutes is fundamental.
For competitive club athletes the parkrun has meant a weekly opportunity to flex the muscles and check progress. Not so long ago a runner would get only the rare championship race or fun run to experience competition. And the parkrun has attracted new athletes into clubs over the years and will continue to do so.
The part played by other supporting bodies is creditable in supporting parkrun. Town councils have risen to the challenge of providing the parks and some have upgraded the parks as a result of the success of the phenomenon.
So now, as I come near the end of the (not)parkrun for this July morning, I eagerly await the announcement of the return of parkrun proper when the time is right. It will be a Saturday morning soon. Where’s my barcode? Don’t tell me I left my runners out in the rain last night? Is that my 50 parkrun top still on the line? Off to town listening to CountryWide on radio. Park the van. Jog slowly to the town park past Castlecountess. Lap of the park to warm up. Stretch. Note how close to the start that Pádraig and Ger will arrive. An irresistible uprising of expectation. A rolling eloquence. The liberation of one foot in front of the other. A new narrative for Saturdays. Beethoven’s third. 3-2-1-whistle, and we will never stop.
Oh what a beautiful day.

Down Relay Road

Down Relay Road

By David Kissane, St Brendan’s AC

I am plodding up Station Road. It’s another Saturday morning virtual run. We have been commanded by Coach Ursula to do a 3K run on Strava this week. I woke up last night thinking about it. It was the cramps in my left hamstring that woke me…a reminder that we did fourteen speed runs last Thursday and now it’s the notorious 48 hour lactic low. I am doing the run early so that it will be over before I fully wake up. My mind drifts back thirty years…
Ole, olé, olé! The whole of the Irish world was enthralled with Italia 90 and another big game was coming up in an hour. What were some members of a St Brendan’s AC 4 x 100m relay team doing? Searching for a Munster medal won some hours earlier and lost in the long grass at the entrance to Kerry General Hospital.
On the way back from the Munsters in Waterford the team and the manager had to pay a quick visit to a mother in the hospital. The athletes decided to play hunts as a cool-down in the hospital lawn and the medal was lost. There were temporary tears, as most tears are. Serious searching took place. Time was of the essence but the team manager was the hero as he found the medal quite a distance away and represented it to the owner. Celebrations for the second time that day and into the car and home to watch another Ireland game. Orla Fitzgerald, do you still have that relay medal?
The week after, the same girls were to watch Ireland beat Romania on penalties – the nation held its breath – before going to play Community Games rounders in Oakpark in a friendly with Sandy Erb’s excellent team. Another week later, this weekend thirty years ago, that St Brendan’s team were to come 4th in the All Irelands in The Morton Stadium in Santry where snowballs as big as marbles fell on the tartan during the action. Of course I had transported all the team in my Cortina to Dublin. Then we watched the Ireland v Italy world cup quarter final in a pub in Monasterevin on the way home. We had Taytos and Cidona. Ireland beaten but heroic, the relay team with no medals…what time was training on Tuesday!
Two years previously, that same relay team were the first St Brendan’s AC team to win Munster gold relay medals in Templemore shortly after the club was formed. They were to medal in the Munsters every year till they completed their juvenile odyssey at U18 level. The stories that surround that string of victories are many, as are the stories that surround all the other club relay successes over the years…other athletes, other stories. It’s not just the race, it’s the befores and afters. It’s the thing around the thing that is the thing.
The 4 x 100m relays have been central to athletics since the Olympic Games introduced the event in 1912 in Stockholm for men, where no bronze medals were awarded and in 1928 for women in Amsterdam, where full sets of medals were presented. The US dominated the Olympic 4 x 100 until recent times while the women’s honours were more disparate. The Penn Relays and the Drake Relays in the US were huge occasions. Relays are still rare enough events internationally, which is to the detriment of athletics. In a relay race you can run but you can’t hide.
I was lucky as an athletics coach to have been fully exposed to the relay bug in Tarbert Comprehensive School from 1984 when I joined the staff there and became athletics coach with John O’Connor. For four consecutive incredible years our relay teams medalled in the All Ireland schools, harvesting two gold and two bronze.
When we founded St Brendan’s AC in 1987, relays were fundamental to building a strong club. In fact, the club foundation may have been partially inspired by the holding of an intra-parish fun relay for a field evening in the summer of 1987. Relay teams from a few areas in the parish were organised and such was the response that training was done and seeds were sown. When the club was born, Tom Kelly and others would say “ If we had another runner we could have a relay team there!” or even “If we had another three runners we could build a relay team around that sprinter!” And it was true. A club can be built around relays. A shot-putter would run if needed in a relay team; a speedy footballer would be summoned if a team lacked one; a runner who has no other event may be taught how to walk or throw the javelin to pass away the time before the relay comes around at the end of the day; one relay team of juveniles will generate another one as friends want to be involved; a team of boys may attract along a team of girls or vice versa and so suddenly the club has a buzz going. And the techniques were easily taught: the fastest runner goes last, the second fastest goes first, discover a bend runner for third and put in someone else, and go right hand to left hand and see what happens!
Getting relay batons were not easy in the 1980s. John Kelly and Bill Kelly were always proficient in improvising in an emergency. Timmy McCarthy would always have an idea or two as he and Delia brought their three children to training from Ballinprior. The whitethorn branches of the trees in Walnut Grove field were accessible as long as the thorns were removed before the relay. Wood from McCowen’s in Tralee was sweet. One evening a mother was heard complaining that her yard brush handle had got much shorter! One ambitious athlete arrived on an April evening with the handle of a wheelbarrow. Wavin piping was very handy (Séamus McCarthy of Clounalour AC made lovely ones), although they were a bit light. A length of nettle was even introduced by one of our boys on a memorable occasion. But the Thursday evening we brought a packet of shining new aluminium batons, red, yellow, blue and gold, to a training session, the relays took on a new aura. After all these were the same type of baton used in the Olympics. I can still see the light in the eyes of the athletes. It was the one evening Miriam O’Hara didn’t say “David, do I have to run!”
Training for the relays took many forms, but from the earliest indoor sessions in Ardfert Community Centre and outdoor in Banna car park (where there were always over 100 athletes twice a week), the out-and-back relay was the highlight. This was usually all the boys in a line behind each other versus all the girls, arranged in the various age-groups by Mary Sinnott, Mary Kelly, Peggy O’Sullivan, Ann Marie McCarthy, Terry Higgins and more. The whistle went and there was atomic-volume support until everyone had run. Sometimes there was a second and third round. Luckily we still have videos of a few of these sessions. When training moved to Walnut Grove, we introduced a rugby ball on some occasions instead of a baton and the athletes loved it. Balloons were used on other occasions, as were wellies and a host of other simple equipment. The joy of those sessions was boundless, and the cheering could be heard a mile away. Neighbours were saying “you have those children driven mad!” Parents often confirmed to us that their children always slept soundly after the bi-weekly sessions. Even when the technicalities were perfected in other sessions coming up to championships, we would still bring each session to a finale with the old out-and-back relay. The relay is a team effort and the end-of-session relays brought the whole club together. Relays were the full stops in our athletic sentences.
When one generation of coaches and officials passed on the metaphorical baton to the next group in the club and Community Games in the late 1990s, Ger O’Mahony, Ann Crowley and others kept the tradition going and passed on to yet another team later. And so the relay went on. Each generation will have their own tales to tell of relay fun and success.
Of course there are other relays beside the 4 x 100m. The 4 x 400m was important on championship days for points and was central to St Brendan’s AC coming in as runner-up for the men’s Quill Cup at the county senior championships in the 1990s and ultimately winning it some years later. The relays were key to the club’s ladies winning the senior cup for the first time in the 1990s. There were medley relays in Tralee in the 1990s and cross country relays are now a big day out in the winter. Community Games had a massive part in promoting cross country relays in the 1990s with the inter counties relays in Mosney in May. John Bunyan and Eamon Whelan were excellent managers of some of the Kerry teams that shone there and many Ardfert Kilmoyley athletes were part of that excitement. Indeed one can say that football and hurling and all ball games are relays in their own way. The running of organisations is indeed a relay process also, with some participants expertly passing the baton on time and others holding on too long! The late Dermot Morgan as Fr Trendy would no doubt have said all of life is a relay, with all of us dropping the baton at some stage.
There are multitudes of relay memories to traverse. Some are history and some will be forever legend. The winning of the first ever club Munster title, the first ever (and still only) gold medal win in the national Community Games in Mosney by the Ardfert Kilmoyley mixed relay team and many other events will be recorded in history but the anecdotes are the ones that bring a smile. Tina O’Sullivan walked into a lamp-post in Mosney the evening before a national finals (but recovered to run to a podium finish); Caroline Wallace remembers a dropped baton which grows in the re-telling; a 3rd runner on a St Brendan’s relay team was advised to “keep going” during a relay at Knockanure sports when the fourth runner was not visible, thereby running two legs unknown to the judges; Cathal O’Riordan broke his hand the week before a national finals but the sub played his part in the final; Shaz Malik running in a tight jeans in the masters’ county championships a few years ago; family relays at the St Brendan’s AC open sports where someone looked around while twenty yards in the lead and waved to the crowd only to be overtaken ten metres from the line; the presence of no fewer than three St Brendan’s AC masters’ men’s relay teams in the 2019 county championships with John Clifford making a return to the big time; the Born to Run relays in Tralee where a team celebrated on the podium only to be told that they had lost; and a similar celebration in the Munster championships when a team celebrated an assumed win only to discover that they had run in a heat and not a final!
There was a particular county masters championships held in Ardfert sportsfield in the 1990s and the relay would decide the destination of the best club award. A member of the strongest opposing team was seen to remove a plaster-cast so that he could compete in the relay. I always admired his bravery but the St Brendan’s AC team won that evening after a titanic battle. The sub for the home team that evening was Fr Johnny Healy and he proudly took his county relay medal back to the US where he still serves his parish.
There is one particular relay that is remembered by my left hamstring. A form of muscle memory that still pulls me back! Christy Murray is on his marks in the Munster masters’ intercounty 4 x 100m in Cork IT track. I await in zone one to take the baton. I have pulled my upper hamstring in the 100m an hour earlier but there only four runners and I can’t let down the county! Bang goes the gun and bang goes Christy and I watch him power up the track towards me like a bullet. I hear “hand” and I feel the baton drop in my palm. Off I go and bang goes the upper hamstring. Pain barrier here we come as I roar in anguish till I hand over to Patrick O’Riordan who rounds the bend and passes on to Donal Crowley who powers home to win the Munster title. I couldn’t run again for a month but I was reminded by a colleague that sure I couldn’t run very well anyway! I thought of that relay as Christy was laid to rest some time ago.
Relays ensure that an athletics meet is brought to a proper conclusion. The crowd will stay on till the last relay is over. A meet without relays is a day without an evening.
I would like to think that just before days’ end I would number among the treasured memories of life a hot summer’s day of open sports or championships. The end of the meet would be graced by the relays. The runners would be standing with hungry hands poised and eager for action at their starting points around the track. The commentator would ask for hush. Parents, grandparents, relations, supporters, coaches, athletes would focus on the shiny batons flashing at the start line. A charged silence would follow: zone one, white flag; zone two, white flag; zone three, white flag. Over to you Mr Starter. On your marks… set…
There are a thousand stories down relay road.
Think deeply. You have a relay story too.

The St Brendan's AC relay team who won honours in the Munster relay championships every year from the late 1980s th the mid 1990s
Ceara Devane, Sinéad Kissane, Paula McCarthy and Natalie O'Connor.

"The battle of the Villages" - Virtual Run

"The battle of the Villages"

Results are in, with some great times and Pb's.
Fastest male age graded was John Culloty (Kilmoyley) 16:57. Fastest age graded female Margaret Carlin 18:33. Overall village winners Kilmoyley (69.96%), second Tralee and third Ardfert. We had 4 competitors from Ardfert and Kilmoyley, 2 from Ballyheigue and Causeway and one from Tralee. 

Top 3 men John, Moises, David K. 

Top 3 women Margaret, Ursula, Áine. 

Well done everyone great community efforts. 👏👏

Training:

For the next few weeks the Fit4Life group will meet at Banna Boat House/Banna Sea Rescue on Thursdays at 8pm, members only.

Club notes - 27 May 2020

St.Brendan's AC Committee under the guidelines from Athletics Ireland, are in the process of planning to return to restricted training as part of the Phase 1 of the Government Roadmap.

In accordance to the very strict guidelines that we must adhere to at the moment, this restricted training can only apply to children 13 years and over and to adults under 70 years of age. All athletes who classify must live within the 5km radius of the club. As the plans progress, we will update you on further details. We as a club are looking forward to slowly return to training with you all, but keeping within the guidelines now and the safety of all our members is our priority.

Latest recommendations from AAI HERE.

Club notes - 10 March 2020

A very busy week for our athletes this week which finished off in style with great success across the board. On Tuesday (3 March) we had Aaron Malik (Mercy Mounthawk) placing 3rd in the Long Jump at the Munster Schools Indoor Games. Continuing on in success was Eoin O Flaherty (CBS Tralee) and his teammates (minor boys) who won Silver in the All-Ireland Schools Cross Country Championships in Santry Dublin. Well done also to Eimear O Sullivan (Presentation Tralee) who also took part with her school in senior girls category.

Sunday was a very busy day all round for our athletes, both masters and juveniles. The Master athletes, David Kissane, Ursula Barrett and Derek McCarthy represented the club at the Irish Health Life National Indoor Master Championships in Athlone, winning a total of 8 National medals between them. First off is our National Champion David Kissane who came first place in the O65 Masters men 3000m walk. David didn’t stop there, he continued on to win bronze medal in both 200m and 400m distance.

Congratulations to Ursula Barrett (O40) joined David and also became a National Champion, winning the master women’s long Jump, came 5th in the 60m sprint and 4th in the 400m sprint.

Derek McCarthy had a Great day also excelling in all his events, while collecting a number of medals. Derek placed 2nd in the High Jump(1.60m) 2nd place in Weight for Distance(4.63) 2nd 60m Hurdles, 3rd Shot Putt(8.68). Full results: http://live.athleticsireland.ie/menu.html

Our juveniles also had a busy day today with fantastic achievements from the Kerry Athletics Juvenile Development Sports hall games in Miltown. Congratulations to everyone participating as St. Brendan’s AC won the OVERALL BEST CLUB on the day.

Thanks to Katie, Kelly, Sarah, Chloe, Allie, Cori, Caoimhe, Maddison, Avy, Rachael, Jessica, Conor, John F, Dylan, Josh, Evan, Conor, Seanie, Charlie, and Robert on a great day competing. Relay teams on the day also came away with great success.
U9 boys relay came 2nd in the final.
U10 girls relay placed 4th in the final.
U10 boys relay came 1st in final.
U11 girls relay came 2nd in final.

U11 boys relay came 1st in the final

U12 girls relay came 3rd in the final

U12 boys relay came 3rd in the final 

All results HERE.

Well done also to Cathy Flynn and Margaret Carlin who took part in Newmarket 10miler.

Congratulations to athletes, coaches, parents and supporters for making this weekend a great success. All the hard work at training payed off.

Training continues:

Wed: 6.30-8pm u9-u11 €2 Ardfert Community Centre
6.45-7.45pm €2 u12-u19 Ardfert Sportsfield

Thurs: 7pm Fit4Life John Mitchell’s

New members always welcome .

Club notes - 2 March 2020

While St. Brendan’s AC juveniles were taking a rest this weekend, the Master Athletes were taking part in road races in Tralee and Ballina, Co.Mayo.

First of all Well done to Cathy Flynn who brought the club colours to Ballina, Co.Mayo in spite of Storm Jorge (Hor Hay )🌪and ran the half Marathon there. 

The Tralee 10miler and 5k was well represented with Padraig Regan, John O’Sullivan, Gerald Carroll, Maggie Carlin, Linda O’Sullivan and Aine Quane who all ran the 10 miler and Declan Sheehan who ran the 5k. Well done to all. The training is paying off 😊

We got 3 new club records in 2019 and we updated some other results from the past. Check out our list HERE.

Full results from recent Kerry Road 5K Championships HERE.

Training:
Mon:
6.45-8pm u9-u19 €2 Tralee Harriers Grounds

Tues: Strength & Conditioning 2 weeks left!
7-8pm u12+ €2 Ardfert Community Centre
8-9pm Fit4Life €3 members €5 non members

Wed: 6.30-8pm u9-u11 €2 Ardfert Community Centre
6.45-7.45pm €2 u12-u19 Ardfert Sportsfield

Thurs: 7pm Fit4Life John Mitchell’s

All new members welcome

Events:
Sun 8th 11am Kerry Sportshall Games (U9-U12), Milltown
Sun 8th Irish Health Life National Indoors Masters, AIT Athlone

Entries for the Kerry Games to club secretary Irene ASAP 087 7985557

Some statistics from Athletics Ireland for 2019