AUTUMN RUNNING – September & October 2025

SEPTEMBER

SEPTEMBER 6TH – The Autumn season began with a bang. On September 6th we held our 10th annual Seamie Weldon Memorial 5K and our 3rd 10K but before we go any further, a special mention goes out to Ronan O’Sullivan. On the morning of our race event, with quite dedication, Ronan headed to his favoured parkrun in Oldbridge and then popped out to us in Ardee that evening. Good man Ronan.

Fantastic numbers turned up for this year’s races with 468 competitors crossing the finish line. 306 completed the 5K and 162 ran the 10K. The weather held out, no rain and cool enough for comfortable running. As the numbers swelled in and around the Community School the atmosphere grew electric. Checkout our full report on the day – Seamie’s 2025 5K & 10K.

The Seamie Weldon Memorial Run is our biggest fundraiser and shows our club at its best. It’s the day when so many of our members, young and older come together to create this special event. Some help with the preparations, months in advance. Some help on the day or with the cleanup or both and run in either the 5K or 10K. Our Committee is deeply grateful for our members’ support and thank all our volunteers and congratulations to those of you who ran.

Members’ Results…

• The Seamie Weldon Memorial Cup – Our club came 2nd – Max O’Sullivan, Liam Giggins, Padraig O’Mahony, Barry Weldon.
• The Jimmy Bradley Memorial Cup – Our club came 2nd – Hazel McGuinness, Ava McNally, Bernie Balfe, Emma Wiebenga.
• Junior 5K Trophies 
  • Men – 1st Max O’Sullivan.
  • Ladies – 2nd Lucy Whelan – 3rd Evie Corcoran.
• 5K Masters Men o60 – 1st Leo Farrell.
• 5K Masters Ladies o50 – 1st Tracey Gillespie.
• The PJ Callan Club Awards
  • 5K – 1st Max O’Sullivan & 1st Hazel McGuinness.
  • 10K – 1st Kevin Carroll & 1st Susan Rountree.

The Seamie Weldon 5K is also an Athletics Louth 5K Masters Road Race Championship – for registered members of County Louth clubs only. These are the preliminary results for our club’s members – they have yet to be verified by Athletics Louth before medals are distributed…

• Louth Masters 5K Road Race Championship
• Men
  • O35 – 2nd Barry Weldon – 3rd Edgars Maculevics.
  • O45 – 1st Padraig O’Mahoney – 2nd Dave Symmons – 3rd Ronan O’Sullivan.
  • O50 – 2nd Peter Carolan.
  • O55 – 1st Roy Crawley – 2nd Frank Meade.
  • O60 – 1st Leo Farrell.
• Ladies
  • O35 – 2nd Emma McElroy – 3rd Niamh Clerkin.
  • O40 – 1st Bernie Balfe – 2nd Emma Wiebenga.
  • O50 – 2nd Tracey Gillespie – 3rd Teresa Ludden.
  • O60 – 2nd Helen Weldon.

Before the races began…

Capturing our committee and some of our volunteers…

Our members, all winners…

On the podium…

SEPTEMBER 13TH/14TH – Lots of racing this day and it began with Leo enjoying the Deerpark parkrun in Carlanstown followed by a trip to Fairyhouse where Liam Giggons and John McEneaney competed in the Ratoath Half Marathon (no pics). Later that evening a posse of our adult members (Vincent, Dave, Kevin, Bernie, Michael, Emma W, Connor, Emma McE, Ben, Tracey, Aileen, Gerard, Brian, Pat, Deirdre, Teresa & Joan) took on the very flat and very fast Dromiskin 5K. Fantastic times from everyone and a 1st place o50 prize win for Vincent McQuillan. And the following day enjoying warmer and dryer weather, Susan Rowntree took part in the Hyundai Porto Half Marathon in Portugal. Congratulations to you all.

SEPTEMBER 20TH/21ST – Boy oh boy were our members busy this weekend and a mixed bag of competitions too, parkruns, cross country and half marathons… While some of our members headed to the Deerpark parkrun in Carlanstown on Saturday morning, others attended a second hugely successful running workshop with Ireland’s Catherina McKiernan. And the following day saw the first of Louth’s Cross Country Championships – The Louth Masters, and representing the club were Michael Pentony, Mark Durnin, Leo Farrell and Vincent McQuillan. Also, on this day we had Benny O’Kane competing up in Belfast at the Moy Park Belfast Half Marathon and in Dublin, Kate, Gerry, Roy, Peter, Barry, Andrew, Danny and Aidan ran the Irish Life Dublin City Half Marathon at the Phoenix Park. Fantastic running and so wonderful to see so many or our members out and about.

SEPTEMBER 27TH/28TH – Parkrun fun this weekend and in heavy rain too. Leo and Roy headed to Deerpark in Carlanstown, Ronan was over in Oldbridge, Tracey headed north to the Newry Greenway parkrun and Dave and friends enjoyed Falcarragh parkrun in Co. Donegal. The following day, enjoying some specialised training, Ronan completed his first solo Hyrox Simulation in Navan in preparation for the Valencia Hyrox event in October.

OCTOBER

OCTOBER 4TH/5TH – Sadly this weekend, the Senior Cross Country Championships were cancelled along with most parkruns due to Storm Amy. The only local exception was Deepark parkrun in Carlanstown where Ronan and Max ventured and Max was the first man home. Good on ya Max.

OCTOBER 11TH/12TH – International running this weekend but before some of our members headed off in many directions around the world Vincent, Brian, John and Sarah attended a special parkrun at Dundalk DKIT in memory of fellow Louth athlete from North East Runners AC, Mark O’Connor, his wife Louise and son Evan. To quote the Chairman of North East Runners in memory of Mark “It’s not the kilometers that make running special, it’s the people beside you along the way.”

The following day saw a merry bunch head to Europe to compete at the ASML Eindhoven Marathon Event in the Netherlands. The boys, Paddy O’Mahony, Peter Carolan and Dave Tyhuis ran the Marathon while the girlis, Aisling O’Malley, Shirly McKenny, Pauline Breslin, Alice Turley, Ursula Mothiram and Louise Tyhuis competed in the Half Marathon and returning from injury to their first competiton of the season both Bernie O’Mahony and Deirdre McEneaney ran the Quarter Marathon. Meanwhile, stateside, Michael Pentony competed in the Bank of America Chicago Marathon in the USA and at home, Dave Symmons and Conor Higgins were in Dundalk enjoying the FASN 5K. A fantastic weekend, well done Everyone.

Just some of the amazing pictures that can be found on the ASML Eindhoven Marathon Results Website – ASLM Eindhoven Marathon 2025 Results & Photographs

OCTOBER 18TH/19TH – Parkrun fun this weekend for Emma, Joan and Vincent enjoying Deerpark parkrun in Carlanstown and a first place finish for Vincent. Meanwhile, over in Spain, Ronan competed in his first Hyrox competition at the Hyrox Valencia. Hyrox is a combination of both running and workout stations where participants run 1km followed by 1 functional workout station which is repeated eight times. Hyrox is a new indoor running & fitness combined competition for both professional athletes and fitness enthusiasts looking to take their training to a new level, it’s a sport for everyone and you can enter individually, as a pair or a team. Well done Ronan.

OCTOBER 25TH/26TH – Getting into to the spirit of Halloween saw Brian Duff enjoying the Newry Greenway parkrun while Ronan was over in Oldbridge. The following day after months of training Liam Giggins, Paddy Meade, Danny Cirdei, Kate Moonan, John Turbit, Ashling O’Malley, Louise Tyhuis, Aidan Mooney and Barry Rogers with is nephew Andrew & friend Eoin thoroughly enjoyed the Irish Life Dublin City Marathon supported by Deirdre McEneaney, Pauline Breslin & Tracey Gillespie. A fantastic experience, well done everyone.