To start out the week Lindie Naughton brings us all of the Irish endurance motion and information from the weekend simply gone (Monday twenty fifth November).
For seven days from Thursday November 14 to Wednesday November 20, Dubliners (and lots of others) had been glued to their social media accounts anxiously following the footsteps of one in all their very own —Ger Prendergast, a father of three now aged 44, who up to now had received the Deca Ironman. That’s ten iron distance triathlons in ten days.
On that Thursday, Prendergast a member of Ballymun Athletics Membership since its basis precisely two years in the past, had landed in Antarctica from Cape City on a particular flight. There he would run the primary of seven marathons on seven continents in seven days — a problem known as the Nice World Race.
‘Antarctica needed to come first as a result of the timing of the six others would relies on when it happened and the beginning was closely dependant on the climate.Because it occurred the race was introduced ahead by a day to Thursday November 14 this yr,’ he says.
Time is of the essence for this problem which have to be accomplished in seven days, or 168 hours.
In fact it was difficult at Fang’s Tooth in Antarctica. Not solely was it bitterly chilly, however the solar reflecting off the pristine snow gave many of the 32 race partipants sunburn.
Regardless of that, Prendergast made an ideal begin to the week ending third general in 3 hours 19 minutes 40 secs. His greatest for the space is simply over three hours.
‘ I couldn’t be happier with how the day went’, Prendergast mentioned. ‘Antarctica was how I imagined it and extra! The climate was on our aspect, with calm winds giving us perfect working circumstances. Each step, each breath, and each frozen second was unforgettable.’
Information for Maunsell and Paulson
On day for the Irish, William Maunsell from Clonmel AC, who had accomplished the Dublin Marathon in 2 hrs 14 minutes lower than three weeks earlier, was first house in a course document time of two hrs 38 minutes 42 secs. The time broke the two:53.33 document clocked by observe athlete Sean Tobin in 2022. Tobin, additionally from Clonmel, occurs to be Maunsell’s coach.
Different Irish ending had been Fergal Mullen who was twelfth in 4:13.30 and Patrick O’Toole thirteenth in 4:18.00.
Additionally setting a document was Ashley Paulson of the USA, the Badwater Extremely outright champion (and somebody who served a doping ban in 2016), who was first girl house in 3:18:02. She, together with 4 others, smashed the previous Antarctica document of three:47.41.
No sooner had all of the runners completed, modified and settled into the specifically chartered Boeing jet than they had been on their method again to Cape City in South Africa a five-hour flight.
‘Cape City was very heat and it was a shock to the system after the chilly in Antartics. However the course was good and I completed equal third in 3:15.46,’ says Prendergast. Winner once more was Maunsell in 2:43.01.
An eleven hour flight to Perth on the west coast of Australia adopted, arriving at 3am native time. ‘We went to our residence — the one time we bought to sleep in a correct mattress — by 4am and by 6am had been up once more for the race which began at 7am, when mercifully it was not as sizzling because it might need been later.’
Prendergast, ever constant, was fourth in 3:14.46.
Image: Mark Conlon
The subsequent phases a bit hotter
Subsequent up had been two marathons which might happen on both aspect of the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul, Turkey, the primary one in Europe, the second in Asia. Within the European race, Prendergast completed fifth in 3:14.34 — his quickest time of the week. Throughout the bridge in Asian Istanbul the subsequent day, he clocked a time of three:22.28 for sixth place.
By now everybody concerned within the problem was struggling. ‘You couldn’t describe it as a chilly, though I used to be definitely sniffling. It didn’t cease you working however you didn’t really feel proper. It could have been the air within the aircraft, however everybody was sick and a few had been vomiting.’
On the subsequent flight from Turkey to Cartagena, Columbia on the northern tip of South America, their fifth ‘continent’, the Nice World racers did their greatest to atone for their sleep. The flight took over twelve hours. ‘They stopped to refuel in Madrid however they left us sleeping.’
By now Prendergast was struggling with an Achilles tendon drawback. The brutally sizzling circumstances in Cartegena didn’t assist however he battled on to complete sixteenth in 5:01.25. ‘I used to be strolling numerous the time, however I used to be decided to complete and I did.’
Willie Maunsell, first within the earlier 4 marathons and the one participant to interrupt three hours persistently, was compelled to drag out with warmth stroke.
Lastly got here a brief hop to Miami Seashore in Florida — the American leg of the race —the place Prendergast crossed the road in 4:09.11. ‘I took painkillers simply to get me via it and so they labored’.
Performing as ‘bag man’ for Prendergast on the journey was his spouse Miriam, who managed to finish a seven kilometre run at every of the stops in between taking care of her husband.
His general view of the occasion? ‘The working was the simple half. It’s the logistics that make it robust — getting from place to put, having to sleep and eat on the aircraft.’
When Prendergast arrived house on Sunday morning, he was greeted by a shock welcoming occasion together with a guard of honour organised by his household and Ballymun Athletics Membership.
‘After a mind-blowing journey throughout seven continents, working seven marathons in seven days, all I needed was a correct cup of tea! To see my household, my working membership, and the superb Ballymun group come collectively to welcome me house was overwhelming in one of the best ways.’
Ger Pendergast’s memoir ‘Gotta Preserve it Movin’ is on the market on-line on the ordinary shops. And from the person himself!
Highway working
Martin Hoare (Celbridge AC) proved the category of the sector when profitable the Clane GAA Neighborhood 10km in Co Kildare in a time of 31 minutes 46 secs on Saturday (November 23). First girl in 41:01 was Ciara Regan 9Crusaders AC).
Dmytro Moyseyev (Clonliffe Harriers) received the 5km in 15:29 with Catherine O’Connor (Sli Cualann, W40) first girl in 19:12.
Cross-country
Dymphna Ryan (Dundrum AC, W40) was the runaway winner of the ladies’s race at the Munster Masters Cross-Nation Championships, in Two-Mile Borris, Co Tipperary on Sunday (November 24).
Ryan’s time of 13 minutes 52 secs noticed her end over a minute away from Ann Marie Connellan in 15:15 and Becky Coughlan in 15:19, each of them from Ennnis Observe. Connellan was additionally first W50. Completed sixth and first W60 was Niamh O’Sullivan (An Ríocht AC).
Ryan was additionally main Dundrum to staff victory over St Fimbarr’s AC and Ennis Observe AC.
Brian Murphy (Iveragh AC, M40) was the boys’s winner ending in 22 minutes 26 secs. Donal Coakley (Leevale AC, M35) was second in 22:52 and Nicky O’Doonoghue (East Cork AC) third in 23.00. Sixth and first M50 was Michael Harrington (Durrus AC) in 23:15.
East Cork was the profitable staff forward of Limerick AC and Ennis Observe AC.
Stateside
In the NCAA Division I Cross Nation at Madison, Wisconsin, on Saturdfay (November 23) Anika Thompson (Leevale AC/Oregon) completed better of the Irish within the girls’s 6km, inserting thirty second in 20:00.6,
She was adopted by Laura Mooney (Tullamore Harriers) 56th and fourth placer for Windfall School staff that completed third. Subsequent got here Anna Gardiner (East Down AC/Windfall) 128th, Laura Nicholson (Bandon AC/Toledo) 131st, Sophie O’Sullivan (Ballymore Cobh AC/Washington State) one hundred and thirty fifth, Niamh O’Mahoney (An Ríocht/Windfall) 193rd and Cara Laverty (Finn Valley AC/Windfall) two hundredth.
In the boys’s race, Dean Casey (Ennis TC/Colorado) was thirtieth in 29:21.1; James Dunne (Georgetown)123rd, Shay McEvoy ( Kilkrnny Metropolis Harriers/Tulsa) 130 and Sean Donoghue (DCH/Villanova) 224 with 252 finishers in all.
At the Division 2 championships held in Sacramento, California, Ava O’Connor (Tullamore Harriers) in nineteenth place helped Adams State to staff victory.
