St Finbarrs AC's Cork 800 8km Recalled

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St Finbarr’s AC Cork 800 Road Race 1985

Ballyphehane, Cork

Sunday March 3rd 1985

The Lough, Cork

St Finbarr's AC Logo

Article by John Walshe, with additional commentary by John Quigley

St Finbarr's AC Website

St Finbarr's AC Facebook Page

Back in the summer of 1986, St Finbarr’s AC staged a series of five four-mile road races around the city, at locations such venues as the Marina, Farranree and Ballyvolane. This was almost certainly to celebrate the club’s 35th anniversary, having been formed in 1951.

The previous year, 1985, on Sunday March 3rd, the club held a one-off race over an advertised distance of 8km. It may have been an unusual distance at the time, but was a tie-in with the Cork 800 celebrations of that year of 1985. Cork 800 was a year-long celebration of the 800th of the granting of the City's Charter, in 1185.

Race HQ was on Bandon Road, and the route was around the Ballyphehane area, finishing in Leafdale, opposite the Hawthorn Bar.

Two ‘Barr’s athletes, Joe Hartnett and Ricky Burke, dominated the race up front, with Joe prevailing by just one second, in a time if 23:41.

Given that the first 12 finishers were all under 25 minutes, the actual distance of 8km is have been a little ‘suspect’, due to stewarding issues torawds then end of the race – and, of course,this was long before the Jones Counter became the acceptable method of measurement!

Held a week before the Ballycotton ‘10’, the total of 216 finishers was impressive and as can be seen there are a lot of familiar names among the attached results.

 
Commentary by John Quigley:
Unfortunately I don't have my old records to hand - They're deep in the 'black hole', in the rear of my garage! This was something like my 5th or 6th competitive race. I remember little of the conditions on the day, except that it was overcast, but dry, and temperature was fine...whatever that was <grin>

The race went pretty ok, until the late stages. I don't remember (must be getting old!) most of the route Afaicr, we came up Pearse Road, and turned left, onto Togher Road, and immediate right, into Brookfield Park....and then the fun started.  At the next junction...No Steward!, so I turned right, onto Brookfield Park, towards what appeared to be the finishing line...Only to be flagged back by the finish line personnel. We were approaching the finish from the wrong side. We should have gone straight thro the previous junction and on to St Joseph's Park and then right into Leafdale and on to the finish. The 'detour' cost me an estimated 45 secs. 

Coming up towards the Lough, I had broken away from a large, loose pack, so when the stewards at the finish line waved us back, we all turned and I found myself at the back of the pack that I had previously left in my wake! 

A couple of years ago, I was talking to a prominent Barr's figure about the event, and he chuckled at the memory of the event, saying that the steward at the final turn, in St Joseph's Park, was meant to send people the long way around the Park, but instead had directed runners along the short leg.  However, he hadn't realised that the steward at the previous turn had gone awol.  We both had a good laugh over the 'trials and tribulations' of trying to organise road races - There's always a problem, and, afterwards, you resolve to never let that particular one happen again....but the next year always brings new problems! LOL

After reminiscing about the race, we agreed that everyone went home safely...always the number aim of any event!

I never saw the results until John Walshe mailed them to me in the past few days....some 35 years later! ..and I'm not even in the results!   In the absence of my notes, I reckon I must be in 111th or 112th place - 32:13/32:14. Still I enjoyed the race. It will probably come as something of a shock to many these days, but, back in the 80's, and even into the early 90's, it wasn't unusual for a race not to produce any results at all. With the exception of a few events, like the Ballycotton Series and 10 Mile, along with BHAA races, if you were lucky, you might have got, several weeks later, a many-times-photocopied set of handwritten results. Nowdays, people complain if the results aren't available within a couple of hours - Remember ...I had to wait 35 years for the results of this race ...only to find my name is missing! LOL

Results of St Finbarr's AC's Cork 800 8k 1985

Results Page 1 - St Finbarr's AC's Cork 800 8k 1985

Results Page 2 - St Finbarr's AC's Cork 800 8k 1985

Results Page 3 - St Finbarr's AC's Cork 800 8k 1985

Results Page 4 - St Finbarr's AC's Cork 800 8k 1985

Results Page 5 - St Finbarr's AC's Cork 800 8k 1985

Results Page 6 - St Finbarr's AC's Cork 800 8k 1985

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