CONGRATULATIONS

Well done to all of our club athletes who competed at the Leinster XC Championships and congratulations to all the medal winners. Sadly, numbers were well down this year, but those who did run produced some great performances, with several athletes qualifying for Nationals.

Some great runs at the first of the Nationals in Abbottstown also and great to see the Junior Girls take the bronze medals. Best of Luck to all those heading for Waterford for the Uneven ages next weekend.

 

 

TRAINING OVER THE XMAS PERIOD

We will train as usual next week and all groups will have training on Tues 19^th Dec. with the 7-8.30 pm group also training on Wed 20^th. The track closes at 6pm on Fri 22^nd Dec. so any training on Fri. will be by arrangement with coaches, if they are available. As the track also closes at 6pm during Xmas week, any training sessions will be by arrangement with coaches, or athletes should complete the sessions on their training programmes, during opening hours. The 7-8.30pm groups will return to normal training on Tues 2^nd Jan, with all younger groups returning on Tues 9^th Jan.

 

REGISTRATION FOR 2018

Registration for next year will take place from 4.45-5.15pm and 6.30-7.30pm on Tues.16^th Jan & from 6.30-7.30pm on Fri 19^th Jan. 2018 and all club athletes must register at this time. No un-registered athletes will be allowed on to the track from Tues 23^rd Jan.

 

 

CLUB SHOP

The club shop will be open this coming Tues.12^th Dec. From 4.40 - 5pm & from 7 - 8 pm only, for singlets, shorts, leggings, T-shirts, hoodies, rainjackets, showerproof bottoms etc. We also have a good number of 2^nd hand spikes and hoodies available. Please note that all athletes competing at Leinster & National events must wear a club singlet or T-shirt and red, white or black shorts! The new order of hoodies has arrived for that night, in case Santa needs any.

 

 

COUNTY ENDURANCE SQUAD

We had a better attendance from GAC athletes for the last two Endurance Group sessions where great work was done by all the athletes present and friendships were formed with athletes from all over the county. We saw the benefits when 6 County Teams qualified for the National XC’s.

The next session, which will be held in Greystones on Tues 2^nd Jan, looks like being a very exciting day indeed. This one will be invitation only, as it is confined to athletes who have attended previous sessions. There will be further opportunities for new members to join the squad at sessions arranged in 2018!

 

 

SUNDAY RUN

Nice to see more GAC athletes attending the organised Sunday Run, which takes 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 schoolers 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 40-80 minutes, age related, at an easy (not jogging) conversational pace.............another chance to catch up with the new friends! Hope to see you there, as it’s a very important part of the week’s training !!! Venues are posted on our website & FB page each week.

 

 

UPCOMING EVENTS

 

Solstice Mile: Sli Cualann AC will host a series of graded 1 ml races (4 laps of the track), to mark the winter solstice on Wed. 20^th Dec. at 7pm. Entry donation 5euro for Adults, 3euro for U12’s – U16’s. Refreshments afterwards. Open to everyone!

 

 

National XC Championships Sun.17th Dec. Novice and Uneven Ages, Waterford

 

 

Streets of Wicklow 5K Tues 26^th Dec in Wicklow Town @ 11am

 

 

Roundwood Biathlon: Charity Biathlon on Tues 27^th Dec. Starting at 2pm, walkers 1.45pm.

 

Endurance Squad Training Tues 2^nd Jan, Greystones Track (Invitation only)

 

 

County Masters XC Sun. 7^th Jan, Shanganagh Park, Bray

 

 

National Indoor League R1, Sat 13^th Jan, Abbottstown

 

 

Leinster Juv XC Relay, Inter/Master Champs, Sun 14th Jan, Dunboyne

 

National Combined Events Sat 20^th Jan, Athlone

 

 

National Indoor League R2, Sat 27^th Jan, Athlone

 

 

National Junior/U23’s, Sun28^th Jan, Athlone

 

 

HELPERS STILL NEEDED

A reminder to all members that GAC is a voluntary organisation, where all coaches, helpers & committee members give their time freely and without financial reward. Most are trying to fit this in to their already busy lives with work & family commitments, like everyone else. The present group are overstretched trying to cover all the training hours and while we want to offer a big ‘Thank You’ to those who have joined our coaching team in the past couple of months and are delighted to welcome them on board, we are still very much in need of more helpers as we have to maintain the correct ratio of coaches to athletes at all sessions. In future, we may have to send athletes home on occasion if we don’t have enough coaches on a given night. Consequently, we are asking parents dropping children off to wait for coaches to arrive before leaving the track, as otherwise you may have to return to pick them up if we don’t have enough coaches to cover the session.

 

We hope all our members and friends have a very Happy Christmas!

 

“Stronger! Higher! Faster” for 2018!