CONGRATULATIONS

Well done to all who competed in the recent County XC Championships in Roundwood & Avondale. The Club appreciates your support and participation. We have found over the years that athletes who take part in competitions get so much more out of their participation and enjoy being part of their teams. These athletes acquire long term health and social benefits, and are less likely to drop their fitness as young adults. We were disappointed with the very poor attendance both days and failed to make up teams in many age groups, but we were impressed with the performances of those who did compete at these events.

 We had lots of medal winners, Individual Gold medals: Luca O’Shea Breen U14, Andrew Brennan U17, Abbie Tyrrell U18, Individual Silver: Joe Dowd U18, Megan O’Brien U18, Abbie Tyrrell Junior Women, Joe Dowd Junior Men, Individual Bronze: Ava Foley U14, Team Gold for Junior Women: Abbie Tyrrell, Megan O’Brien & Isobel Radford Dodd. The girls also won the U18 team Gold, Team Gold also for the U14 Girls : Ava Foley, Charlotte Hudson, Rosanna Hickey, Amy D'Arcy, Ailbhe Kelly, Gaelle Cherry Kinito, Chloe Hanley. Team silver for U13 Girls Rosanna Hickey, Charlotte Hudson, Ailbhe Kelly, Keeva Brennan, Lizzie McIllroy Team Bronze for the U10 Girls, Kate Patchell, Rachael Kennedy, Laura Stanley, Eve Smyth, Katie O'Neill and Ellie O'Neill. Team Bronze for the Boys U11: Daniel Anderson Luke Lennon, Luke Joyce, Jack Deegan, Hugh Woodley, Bronze also for Boys U10, Harry Coghlan, Luke Joyce, Hector Marrinan and Timur Barkevic. Well done to all! Hopefully we will get lots more out running the League XC Races & the Leinster XC & will be able to field lots of teams!

More runners..... makes more teams..... makes more medal winners!

XC LEAGUE

The Wicklow Juvenile League consists of 5 races, 2 Track & 3 Cross Country. The distances are far shorter than the Championship ones, so very suitable to all levels of fitness. Athletes who complete all 5 races receive a gold medal, 4 races a silver medal and 3 races a bronze medal and there is an overall Shield for the Best Club each year.. A good number of our athletes have already taken part in the track races, so get your entries in and complete the full League. For new members or those who missed the track races, you can still earn yourself a bronze medal if you complete the 3 XC races and you can also help your club build up points and hopefully win the Overall Shield for 2019.

The first of the 3 XC League races is this coming Friday 18^th Oct. in Rathdrum Rugby Club. Check-in at 6.30pm, 1^st race 7pm, all over in less than an hour. Entry form is on our website and athletes need to get their entries in right away.

Round 4 is in Roundwood GAA on Fri Nov.15^th and Round 5 is at Bray Emmets grounds on Fri Dec.6^th. Entry forms for all 3 rounds are on our website!

 LEINSTER XC

 The Leinster XC Championships are coming up fast also, with the Even Ages on Sat Oct.27th & the Uneven Ages on Sat Nov 9^th. Hopefully we will see a big improvement in numbers running for our club at these events and remember that you will also be running for Wicklow County, so please sign up and help make teams for Club and County. Entry forms for these are also on our website!

 SUNDAY RUN

Nice to see some GAC athletes attending the organised Sunday Run and we are hoping to see many more over the coming weeks. These long easy runs take place each Sunday we don’t have a competition, in a variety of beautiful locations around the County. All of you are welcome to join in our Sunday run. Primary school athletes should have an accompanying adult ( who doesn't have to run ), however all ages participate....... up to very old !! Many parents bring younger kids and walk, cycle or run. We meet at 9-20 for a quick warm up & start running at 9-30am sharp. This is our long easy run, where athletes run from 30-80 minutes, age related, at an easy ( not jogging ) conversational pace.............a great chance to catch up with friends from other clubs, or make new friends! Hope to see you there, as it’s one of the most important session of the week for fitness!!! Venues are posted on our website & FB page each week.

Next Sunday’s run is round the reservoir in Roundwood. Meet by the filter beds at 9.20 for short warm-up and ready to run by 9.30am. Alternatively as some of our older athletes are running in Abbottstown on Sunday a few others are going up to support them and will do their run up there if anyone would like to join that instead.

REGISTRATION OF NEW ATHLETES

We welcome all our new athletes and hope they are settling in well. We would appreciate it if those who have been doing trials for the last couple of weeks would get their registrations in this coming week please. Registration forms will be available at check-in or can be downloaded from our website, under ‘Training Times & Club Info’. You can put the form & fee in an envelope and drop it into our club letterbox in the reception area at the track.

 ADULT TRAINING GROUP

Our new adult training group is building slowly and is going very well so far. This involves regular club training sessions for senior and masters athletes on the track at Shoreline every Tuesday and Friday night, from 7 - 8:30pm. We have had a great variety of sessions so far and the group is working very hard and really enjoying the challenges. If you are 18+, fit-ish, and harbour even the smallest bit of curiosity about getting back on the track, you are welcome to come along and give it a go. For those who think this might be a step too far the Fit4Life & Beginner2Winner sessions are still going ahead at the usual times.

 NEW CLASSES AT SPORTS PARK

If running is not for you, Shoreline Sports Park have new classes on Tues. evenings which may be of interest to parents dropping off children to athletics. There’s ‘Work it Out’ on Tues 6.15-7pm, which is a full body workout and the timing is perfect for parents of the 6-7pm training groups. At 7.15pm there’s ‘Step to Fitness’ also a full body workout which should suit those dropping off for the 7-8.30pm session. Both classes are ‘Pay as you Go’ and are just €7 each.