Peter O'Farrell

27 November, 2009

A cracker of a new route greeted us near the swollen shores of Lough Derg. Barbara Clancy and team had put an amazing amount of work into organising this race in an area perhaps better known as a mountain bike course in recent years. The race marker, A.K.A. Eoin Fitzgerald, had utilised about 2km of prime offcamber singletrack in a valiant and successful effort to bring MTB to the masses. The last time I saw so much tape I think the guards were cordoning off a crime scene. As Eoin pointed out in his pre-race briefing you'd have to try really hard to get lost and sure enough one unfortunate took that to be a challenge, there's always one :)
Apart from him the rest of us enjoyd a fine varied route on surprisingly dry underfoot conditions considering Lough Derg beneath us was 3 foot higher then it should be.
Mike Cunningham, fresh from a fine marathon time, set a steady pace up the first and main climb of the day. Tucked in like good little cyclists in his windshadow lurked myself and the bould Tom Blackburn who was awaiting his moment - more of which later..
A wee kicker of a climb appeared in front of us and I set off in pursuit of glory and pain only to find I had merely become the windbreaker at the front of the train. This continued through the supurb singletrack section (it would be interesting to see could you go quicker on a bike) and then the aforementioned Tom roused himself from the zenlike calm of his holding position and made a brave surge to the front which only Mike could match. My little leggies refused to quicken their pattern and it was holding pattern for moi to the finish.
The thrusting pair receded into the distance in a fine display of reckless downhilling prowess which I could only admire and sure enough wily Tom had done enough to come first, a fitting result for the 2009 Munster Champion!
Barbara had done great work in attracting punters to this out of season race and many seemed to come from rowing or triathlon backrounds, hopefully the mound of sandwiches, hot showers and ration of 1 prize to every 2 persons will encourage them to come back again in the new year although this high level of organisation might leave them with inflated expectations at the other more traditional weekend races.
Thanks again!

Gerry Brady

26 November, 2009

Results from Tom Blackburn

Place, times, numbers, names, club
1, 39.06, 1352, Tom Blackburn, bilboa ac
2, 39.13, 167, Michael Cunningham, bilboa ac
3, 39.29, 1359, Peter O Farrell,
4, 42.17, 166, Aidren Lenihan, Duhollow ac
5, 42.18, 1392, Mike O Brian,
6, 42.50, 1353, Ger Griffan,
7, 43.49, 1375, Niall Enright,
8, 44.05, 1385, Damian Roache,
9, 44.24, 1376, Sean Brodrick,
10, 45.13, 1380, John O Shea,
11, 45.14, 1383, Joe Ahern, Bilboa ac
12, 46.47, 1394, Niall O Calaghan,
13, 47.09, 1356, Niall O Riardon, West Limerick A.C
14, 47.14, 1386, Eamon Morgan,
15, 47.28, 1388, Joe O Conner,
16, 48.02, 158, Gary Madden, West Limerick A.C.
17, 48.11, 1377, Liam Liddy,
18, 48.25, 1387, Aiden Hogan,
19, 48.59, 1393, Laoise Griffan,
20, 49.17, 1357, Pat O Riardon, West Limerick A.C
21, 50.03, 1354, Kevin Wilkinson,
22, 51.00, 1378, Maria Carey,
23, 51.19, 1372, loretta Duggan, st marys
24, 51.20, 1381, Lynne Algar,
25, 51.21, 168, Deirdre Finn,
26, 52.43, 1382, Oonagh Markey,
27, 53.15, 1397, Sarah Mitchell,
28, 53.54, 1389, John Power,
29, 54.04, 1396, verena Tarpey, West Limerick A.C
30, 54.08, 1398, Donal Mansel, West Limerick A.C
31, 54.12, 1355, John Power,
32, 54.13, 1199, Paul Mallon,
33, 54.54, 1358, Orla Mc Evoy ,
34, 56.22, 1374, Dani Murphy ,
35, 59.21, 1373, Chris Carroll,
36, 59.25, 1351, Jennifer Lynch,
37, 60.44, 1344, Sarah Breen,
38, 63.44, 1384, Ray Hickey,
39, 64.08, 157, Dermot Moran,
40, 66.02, 1379, Kathleen Ahern,
41, 66.31, 159, Eimear Kelly,
42, 70.00, 155, Aoife O Niell ,
43, 73.07, 160, Fiona Ryan ,
44, 73.35, 1390, Linda Curtin ,
45, 73.55, 1391, Luerine Curton,
46, 76.15, 1395, Conor Lovett,
47, 85.00, na, Paul Benson,