JUNE

June 1st – The summer has begun and it started with these wonderful 5 ladies thoroughly enjoying and completing the VHI Women’s Mini Marathon in Dublin. Congratulations to Pauline, Ashling, Deirdre, Louise and Shirley.

June 7th – Congratulations to all our members who took part in the Glenmore Challenge Running Festival, all running a variety of distances, the 5K, 10K, and 10 Miler. A special shoutout to Max, Emma, Joan & Vincent, all obtaining new PBs in the 5K with Max coming 6th overall; David, Kate Roy & Louise with PBs in the 10 Miler and a special mention to Paddy who finished 3rd in the 10K and Bernie who came 3rd in the 5K.

June 14th – The O’Sullivan Boys enjoying Oldbridge park run.

June 19th – A number of our members headed to Oldbridge to Run with Ray and RTE Radio 1 – Looks like everyone enjoyed the evening – Peter, Alice, Tracey, Emma, Joan and Brian.

June 28th – The rain didn’t stop these guys enjoying our local parkruns. Over in Deerpark parkrun Carlanstown Vincent McQuillan completed his 100th parkrun with Joan and Dave and in Oldbridge we had Ronan and son Max and up in Dundalk Leo enjoyed the course at the DKIT sports grounds.

JULY

July 5th – Huge congratulations to our club members who took on the Achill Half Marathon, a tough course in even tougher weather conditions! They showed incredible strength and spirit on one of Ireland’s most challenging routes. While some of our members headed west, Helen Symmons along with friends thoroughly enjoyed the Clontarf Half Marathon. An amazing achievement for Helen, her first ever half marathon. And closer to home our regulars were out enjoying our local parkruns and a special mention and congratulations to Leo Farrell who completed his 200th parkrun in Dundalk, a true testament to Leo’s consistency, passion and love for running. Well done Everyone.

July 12th/13th Weekend – We had the hottest weekend this summer and a few of our members were busy running Half Marathons, 10Ks, 5Ks and Parkruns. On Saturday morning, Michael P. bagged a prize, placing in the Oldcastle 5km with others supporting our local parkruns, introducting Laytown beach parkrun for the first time. On Sunday, in blistering heat Michael K and Benny proudly completed the Termonfeckin Half Marathon and up in Swords, Emma, Aiden, Roy and Andrew helped Barry celebrate his birthday at the Irish Life Fingal 10K. What a lovely weekend of running, well done Everyone.

July 17th – Saw 10 of our members enjoy wonderful success at the Louth Junior, Senior & Masters T&F Championships held in the Lourdes Stadium. A wonderful day of competition and camaraderie, with our club proudly represented across all age categories. In the Juniors we had Aoife Pentony, Luke Kenny and Charlotte O’Shea. In the Seniors we had Hazel McGuinness and in the Masters we had Emma Wiebenga, Bernie Balfe, Deirdre McEneaney, Michael Pentony, Vincent McQuillan and Peter Carolan. Well done Everyone.

• Aoife Pentony (JnrW) – 2nd Javelin
• Charlotte O’Shea (JnrW) – 4th Shot Put
• Luke Kenny (JnrM) – 2nd Long Jump / 4th 400m
• Hazel McGuinness (SnrW) – 1st 1500m / 1st 800m
• Emma Wiebenga (W40) – 1st 800m & 2nd 1500m
• Bernie Balfe (W40) – 1st 1500m / 1st 3000m
• Deirdre McEneaney (W50) – 1st 100m / 1st Shot Put
• Michael Pentony (M50) – 1st Shot Put / 1st Javelin / 1st 3000m / 1st 400m
• Vincent McQuillan (M55) – 1st 1500m
• Peter Carolan (M55) – 1st 100m / 2nd 400m

July 19th – Enjoying Oldbridge parkrun were Ronan and his sons, Max and Alfie while Ben was at the Dundalk parkrun and Brian was enjoying the Newry Greenway parkrun…

July 26th/27th – Well done to Tracey Gillespie and Leo Farrell who ran the Dundalk parkrun and Brian Duff who ran the Newry Greenway parkrun, and the following morning Bernie Balfe competed in the Indaver Duleek 10K, congratulations Bernie.

AUGUST

August 1st/2nd – Lovely running from Dave and Ben on the ‘Streets of Athboy 5K’ and a new PB for Dave and 2 top finishers at the Deerpark parkrun Carlanstown for Emma and Vincent accompanied by Joan and Frank….

August 9th – Congratulations to Vincent McQuillan who won 1st in the o50s category at the Kells Heritage 5K. Supper running Vincent.

August 10th – Some of our members attended Louth Lactate Running…

August 16th – Many of our members headed off in blistering heat to enjoy the challenge of The Frank Duffy 10 Miler in Dublin, the Rathkenny AC 5K in Meath and our local parkrun, Newry Greenway. Well done everyone.

August 23rd/24th – Our adult members had a busy weekend racing all over the country, all enjoying the warm weather! It began on the Saturday morning with Emma, Joan and Vincent at the Deerpark Carlanstown parkrun and congratulations to Joan and Vincent placing top 3. Over in the west saw Teresa representing Ardee at the Sligo parkrun and down at the Dundalk parkrun Michael was smiling, as always. The following day, Barry, Roy, Kate, David, Andrew, Maria, Annmarie & Danny headed north to the Antrim Coast Half Marathon. Running was tough in the warm weather but the route was spectacular along this stunning coastline. Well done Everyone. And down in Longford at the Abbott Longford Marathon Festival (Ultra, Half Marathon & 5K) saw some of our club’s ladies, Ursula, Pauline, Bernie, Shirley, Louise, Alice, Trudi, Ashling, Karen and Deirdre show amazing grit and determination. Congratulations to the Ladies.

August 27th – On Wednesday, August 27th Vincent and Joan headed to the Longford 5K Race Series where Vincent placed an impressive 5th place overall and Joan was impressive running her first 5K following an injury.

August 29th/30th – Kicking off the weekend saw Max in Oldbridge with an impressive 1st place finish at this parkrun, a first for Max in a time of 17:18mins. Super running Max. Brian headed north to the Newry Greenway parkrun and Dave was at the Deerpark parkrun in Carlanstown. The following day, Dave was joined by many of our members in a special training session with one of Ireland’s greatest athletes, Catherina McKiernan. Catherina is one of our country’s greatest ever distance runners, a former World Cross Country Champion and multiple marathon podium finisher. She kindly hosted a running workshop for some of our adult members. The weather wasn’t kind but our athletes soaked up every tip and finished with big smiles. A huge thank you to Catherina and a special thanks to club member Dave for organising this training day and to Roy for the post-session refreshments.