review of rte race None We are very fortunate to have a constant flow of great races. The latest was the RTE race on Saturday last where our largest field in several years (433 finishers) took part in the 5 mile race. As usual, Niall Mathews and RTE colleagues had a well-organised race as is now expected from a multiple winner of the BHAA race of the year.
Before the race, we gave, in the best theatrical tradition, a long round of applause as a tribute to Gerry Ryan of RTE 2fm, colleague of our race organisers, who died the day before. Our race starter this year was Donncha Ó Dúlaing, fresh from more travelling of the highways and byways. Donncha will be going to Europe later in the year (France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and Italy) on a walk to commemorate the Flight of the Earls in 1607 and in aid of the Irish Wheelchair Association. We wish him well on that.
The men’s competition in the race was dominated by Mick Traynor (An Post) who is running extremely well this year, having joined the already competitive M45 category. Tommy Evans of Kilkenny County Council couldn’t match Mick’s speed but had a bit to spare over Dave Byrne (KIT). First in the women’s competition was Patrycja Wlodarczyk who was delighted with her first BHAA win. She had a small bit to spare over Aoife Talty with Orla Ryan in third.
Full results at https://bhaa.ie/members/app/event/index/year/2010/tag/rte2010
Afterwards, the organisers had a large number of spot prizes – but you had to be there to collect. If you weren’t there, you may have missed out on tickets to Willie Nelson, the Late Late Show as well as other prizes. On that topic, if you have formed a team, you should aim to be present for the prizegiving because there are always lots of team prizes and lots of teams not represented at the prizegiving. Incidentally, it is still possible to form teams and there were posters on the walls looking for people to do so. If you do not have any BHAA colleagues where you work, you can form a composite team covering the general area of activity that your employer is in. You can get more information from the website or, if you have a specific query, from registrar@bhaa.ie.
A big prize on Saturday was the annual BHAA person of the year award. This year’s very deserving recipient was David Brady of McGrath Construction. Dave doesn’t train. He runs races instead. He took up running in 1986 at the invitation of Bob Geldof (“get up off your a**e”) and ran in a race and hasn’t stopped since. He ran at RTE on Saturday, was going to Limerick to run the marathon there on Sunday (3.51) and then on to the Belfast marathon on Monday (just over 4 hours). I think that you may also find that if there was a club race on Tuesday night, Dave was probably there too. Giving the citation, Sean McGoldrick of the Sunday World told us that Dave has run over 100 marathons and is aiming to do 50 Dublin marathons. One remarkable fact about Dave is that he has never had a running injury. Dave believes that this is due to his strong physical condition, helped by hard manual work in the construction industry . We wish him continued injury-free running and good luck in achieving all his running ambitions. I believe that Dave will also join the M60 category later this year.
Incidentally, we had another journalist in our field on Saturday. Frank McNally wrote a witty Irishman’s Diary about his race and the honour of being a “master” runner.
Read it here https://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2010/0505/1224269724121.html and see can you identify who was his “guardian angel”.
And so to our next race. This will be the BHAA ESB 5km Beach race on Sandymount Strand on Tuesday evening next 11 May 2010 at 7.30pm. Registration at Clanna Gael/Fontenoy GAA Club on Sean Moore Road. This starts near the Irishtown end of the beach, goes up around the old swimming pool, back towards the start and then another loop around the pool before finishing near the starting point. The ideal footwear is your oldest pair of runners as there are usually some puddles on the beach. Get there early. Always an enjoyable race.
See you there.
The Editor