Mr Oil County B Championships.

A lovely summers evening greeted all athletes at the Mr Oil County B Championships at Enniscorthy Sports Hub. The Club was well represented by athletes at Under 10 and Under 12. First event of the night saw Leon Spudic competing in the U12 Long Jump claiming a medal. Benny Lonergan U 10 took part in the 80 metres sprint followed by the Long Jump and Javelin. Conor Donovan competed in the U 10 Javelin. Another U 10 athlete Katie Walsh took part in her first County Championships making it to Sprint final. Katie also competed in Long Jump and Javelin. Estelle Longeran competing at U 12 took part in Long Jump,Sprint, Middle Distance, Javelin and Relay events. Amy Conde competed in U 12 Long Jump, Sprints. Middle Distance, Javelin and Relay events. Abbie Donovan competed in U12 Long Jump,Sprints and took a medal in Mixed Relay event. Sophie Fortune competed in U 12 Long Jump and took a medal in her Sprint final and added another medal in the Mixed Relay event. Ciara Walsh was also competing in her first County Championships and made it to Sprint final at U 12. Ciara also competed in Long Jump, Javelin, Middle Distance and Mixed Relay events.

An enjoyable night was had by all and special thanks to Parents, Coaches and Club officials who also attended on the night.

Ballymurn 5 mile.

The 2nd installment of the Slaney League took place in Ballymurn on Friday evening. A testing 5 mile route on a warm evening as 4 of our ladies travelled up to run.

Paula Gondard 40:32 , Helen Sinnott 46:41, Louise Henderson 49:34 & Sam Donegan 52:59 all ran well and we're all smiles afterwards for the photographer.

Well done ladies.

Viking Half Marathon & Quarter Marathon.

The historic Waterford City was the destination for our members as they hit the road early for the Viking event. 2 distances were of interest: Half marathon & Quarter Marathon.

With a start time of 9am it was surprisingly very warm out on the course.

In the Quarter Marathon Louise Henderson 1:01:42 and Sinead Ryan 1:19:53 both had superb runs.

The Half Marathon distance was covered by Brian Smyth 1:37:52, Dermot Foley 1:43:10, Gavin Hayes 1:46:12, Eamonn Foley 1:48:27, Jesse Kielthy 1:51:48 & Enda O'Sullivan 2:15:05 all running great runs.

Well done to everyone. Brilliant to see so many running this event.

The Metalman Triathlon.

Our club member Tadhg Henderson recently put a huge effort into training for a Half Ironman, read his experience below.....

Who knew that Metal is harder than Iron?

4:10am on a Saturday, great! I'd woken up 5 minutes before the alarm and would be able to get out without disturbing the rest of the house. Nervous excitement rising I took a look out the window. The early predawn light meant I could see that it was not raining if a bit windy. The day was here. A year's training would culminate in the race of my season today: The Metalman Triathlon in Tramore. After a quick breakfast and coffee made in the travel mug, I got kitted out for the day's event. Tri suit on, car already packed the night before I jumped in and pointed the car for Waterford ready to take on a 1.9km swim, followed by a tough but scenic 90km bike and finishing with the infamous 21.1km run in the hills around Tramore. 10 minutes into the drive, the heavens opened with a torrential downpour. Now I don't have a religious bone in me but I found myself praying for no rain on the bike! Nothing would be worse than cycling up hills into driving rain! Anyway a few minutes later and all was dry again. Phew! Arriving at Tramore got the car parked and asked a marshal where registration was, to be told it didn't open until 6am. I'd arrived an hour earlier than I needed to! Anyway not to worry, it gave me time to set up my bike and kit for the two transitions. I decided then to walk towards registration and wait for it to open only to see people with goodie bags coming back already. Great! Or not… I overheard some people talking and it seemed the swim was off due to rough sea conditions! Disaster! I had worked so hard at my swimming and made so much progress, this was a real disappointment. Anyway the Coast Guard made the call and as soon as I saw the sea, it was clearly the right call, it would have been unsafe. So just bike and run then. The bike course followed the main road out of Tramore down to Dungarvan, then back along the undulating Copper Coast Geopark to Tramore. We had a stiff headwind on the ordinarily faster first half of the spin, with some very challenging climbs in the second half. All things considered I was very happy to complete the 90km in just over 3 hours, almost 30 kmh average pace. Delighted to get off the bike and stretch the legs, I took off out of transition like a hare but very quickly realised that this was no sprint! Clocking an elevation gain of 241 metres over the half marathon distance this was the hardest road race I've ever done! To put it in context, that's more elevation than the Dublin Marathon, a race not known for being flat. But worst of all was the heat. Could really have done with that rain shower now! I refused to walk at any point pushing and pushing in fear that if I did stop I'd never get going again! A long long slog and 2 hours 5 minutes later I finally could hear the finish line! At last I'd done it. Someone stuck a medal on me and shoved a banana in my hand. Total time 5 hours 13 minutes, which sounds great for me for a half iron distance race, but no swim remember! Still that swim has to be done. Roll on next year when hopefully I'll get the full event!