National Novice Cross Country & Uneven Age

Tramore hosted the National event on the well known Tramore Racecourse. A muddy loop on a mild day and good weather for the time of year with some nice climbs to test the leg strength. The club had 2 members in action today. Helen Wallace was our 1st lady to ever run National Novice and Fiachra Mehigan was only our 2nd underage boy to qualify for National.

Fiachra was running in U15 age category in a hugely competitive field. He ran his own race and settled into a good pace finishing 103rd in a large field of 138 athletes. A very creditable result for this young man.

Helen was 1st Wexford lady home finishing 93rd in a field of 120 ladies, no mean feat and a run to be proud of for the unassuming athlete who just gets on with the job in hand.

A huge round of applause for you both, great to see athletes performing well and seeing training work.

Also we had Padraig Kelly as part of the large crew of minions who ensure large events like this can take place. Padraig can always be found volunteering at these big race events, well done.

Waterford AC Half Marathon.

The final race of the year for so many as they grow their collection of different woolly hats. An excellently organised event by Waterford Athletic Club who have now settled on a scenic and fair route after a few changes over the years. The section on the Greenway takes athletes away from any traffic and tracks the river as the latter stages of the race hit the legs

Well done to our crew of 8 who completed the distance

• Brian Smyth 1:33:06

• Tadhg Henderson 1:42:58

• Eamonn Foley 1:41:47

• Jesse Kielthy 1:45:46

• Paul Harpur 1:53:42

• Ger Mulhall 2:11:16

• Enda O'Sullivan 2:23:57

• Jamie Jordan 2:32:35

The Christmas Cracker

Slaney Olympic held their Christmas Cracker event on Sunday. A unique and fun event where runners are told to put away their tracking devices, watches and phones and just run and everyone gets a prize.

They tell everyone the race distance on registration which this year was 4.71km and you have to predict your time. Winner is not the first over the line but instead the person whose prediction is closest to their actual time.

John Dier was only 18 seconds out and Bridie McGuire 23 seconds out which is good going when unable to track your progress

Well done to you both.