A/R Awards 2015 - Most Improved

RacoonQueen

Voting will stay open until Friday December 18th

Chivito550

Pacing Mule deserves mention, and has made great strides of late, and is unrecognisable in his attitude to this sport from the runner of 2 years ago. But it has to be KU. Knocking 10 seconds off an already high level 1500m time trumps the lot.

Firedance

Anna's DCM 2015 victory does it for me, I think I was more excited than she was though having been through the horrors of DCM 14 with her to see the improvements throughout the year, first in Cork at the HM then through the race series and on to DCM, inspirational. An honorary mention to Bungygirl too for the sheer amount of work, commitment and dedication she puts in to reach each of her goals.

Neady83

Firedance wrote: »

Anna's DCM 2015 victory does it for me, I think I was more excited than she was though having been through the horrors of DCM 14 with her to see the improvements throughout the year, first in Cork at the HM then through the race series and on to DCM, inspirational. An honorary mention to Bungygirl too for the sheer amount of work, commitment and dedication she puts in to reach each of her goals.

++++++++1 Unbelievable training and performance this year

menoscemo

Overpronator has made serious leaps and bounds this year.
This time last year I had faster times than him and now he is a 36 minute 10k man and a sub 3 marathoner. What's most impressive is that he has been running for years already so this is not down to early gains Shows the value of joining a club I suppose, I hear he is in Donore now?

dublin runner

menoscemo wrote:

Overpronator has made serious leaps and bounds this year. This time last year I had faster times than him and now he is a 36 minute 10k man and a sub 3 marathoner. What's most impressive is that he has been running for years already so this is not down to early gains Shows the value of joining a club I suppose, I hear he is in Donore now?

Agreed. Yeah, he is a member. A good example of a harder worker, smart trainer. Loads more to come.

IvoryTower

He joined the club after his sub 3 but yeah it will bring him on heaps again! Op for my vote

Clearlier

I don't suppose the nominators want to offer a quick precis of they nominated someone?

I suspect that I'm not the only one who hasn't a clue how to vote on this one.

yaboya1

I nominated Duanington here.

His log is an excellent example of just how much improvement can be gained with incredible consistency & hard work. This is backed up by his race results across all distances in the past year, which have yielded big pbs. I've no doubt his times will continue to tumble for the foreseeable future.

Like most other categories, it's a difficult one with many other worthy nominees, but he'll be getting my vote.

aquinn

I nominated BG here.

Why? Because she focused on the Ladies round numbers and even after sickeningly missing out by seconds in Terenure on the sub 35 5 mile she went back and got her target soon after.

She was suffering ill effects of over racing, took time out to base build and focus on the Dublin HM. She stuck with the plan and ran the route frequently so her focus and then willingness to share thoughts with others resulted in a super HM.

hillsiderunner

Ok ... so Anna has made some great improvements, and BG has had some great performances (but she was always brilliant ), and I have to check out some of those other logs now .... but I have to put in a note for my nomination who was Laois_Man.

He was the black sheep of the 2014 Novices thread, reeling from one injury to the next, (consequently) not getting the long runs in, and was advised not to toe the start line for DCM2014 (he came in a bit below 5hrs that year) ... anyway, over 2015 he has been training more consistently, and also joined a club, and had made some big improvements. His 2014 vs 2015 comparison table is on his log here, and he has made big improvements for 5k up to Marathon. For me I think the most impressive is the HM, just 5 seconds over 1:40. His DCM 2015 wasn't quite as good as he had been aiming for, but still he brought it in at 4:06:39, a massive PB.

hillsiderunner

aquinn wrote: »

She was suffering ill effects of over racing, took time out to base build and focus on the Dublin HM. She stuck with the plan and ran the route frequently so her focus and then wiliness to share thoughts with others resulted in a super HM.

Ah no!!! That's not fair!

(http://www.thefreedictionary.com/wiliness)

pconn062

yaboya1 wrote: »

I nominated Duanington here.

His log is an excellent example of just how much improvement can be gained with incredible consistency & hard work. This is backed up by his race results across all distances in the past year, which have yielded big pbs. I've no doubt his times will continue to tumble for the foreseeable future.

Like most other categories, it's a difficult one with many other worthy nominees, but he'll be getting my vote.

Duanington was a very close 2nd for me, but I had to go for the track/XC runner. Wolf.ie has made some massive strides this year, especially this years cross country season, now mixing it with some fine athletes at County and National level.

Chivito550

pconn062 wrote: »

Duanington was a very close 2nd for me, but I had to go for the track/XC runner. Wolf.ie has made some massive strides this year, especially this years cross country season, now mixing it with some fine athletes at County and National level.

+1 on that. He'd be up there IMO. I'm still not sure he is racing his most optimal distance though. He sounds more like a 400/800 guy, or an 800 guy to be honest from the things I have read on his log.

kit3

While we're in campaigning mode, I might as well tell ye that I nominated Pacing Mule. PBs this year from 5k to marathon:

5k - 23.55 to 21.21
5 mile - 39.47 to 37.14
10k - 53.20 to 46.41
Half marathon - 2.18.30 to 1.47.53
Marathon - 4.58.43 to 4.11.12

That's a massive improvement across a range of distances and a huge turnaround from the days of his previous incarnation. This has my vote

Murph_D

kit3 wrote: »

While we're in campaigning mode, I might as well tell ye that I nominated Pacing Mule. PBs this year from 5k to marathon:

5k - 23.55 to 21.21
5 mile - 39.47 to 37.14
10k - 53.20 to 46.41
Half marathon - 2.18.30 to 1.47.53
Marathon - 4.58.43 to 4.11.12

That's a massive improvement across a range of distances and a huge turnaround from the days of his previous incarnation. This has my vote

That's an impressive HM - when did he do that?

aquinn

Donadea with the lads I think?

Pacing Mule

kit3 wrote: »

While we're in campaigning mode, I might as well tell ye that I nominated Pacing Mule. PBs this year from 5k to marathon:

5k - 23.55 to 21.21
5 mile - 39.47 to 37.14
10k - 53.20 to 46.41
Half marathon - 2.18.30 to 1.47.53
Marathon - 4.58.43 to 4.11.12

That's a massive improvement across a range of distances and a huge turnaround from the days of his previous incarnation. This has my vote

Thanks kit - a little embarrassing to be up there compared with some of the other nominations but very much appreciate the progress being noticed.

Murph_D wrote: »

That's an impressive HM - when did he do that?

aquinn wrote: »

Donadea with the lads I think?

Yeah - ultraman1 was kind enough to officially measure out a half marathon course based on the Donadea 5k loop with some extra distance. Not chip timed but it's a proper PB.

Murph_D

Pacing Mule wrote: »

Thanks kit - a little embarrassing to be up there compared with some of the other nominations but very much appreciate the progress being noticed.





Yeah - ultraman1 was kind enough to officially measure out a half marathon course based on the Donadea 5k loop with some extra distance. Not chip timed but it's a proper PB.

Ah right, but I'd count that as a training run. Sure if it was a race you'd have gone even faster! :pac:

Pacing Mule

Murph_D wrote: »

Ah right, but I'd count that as a training run. Sure if it was a race you'd have gone even faster! :pac:

You may well be right ! Had eyed up 1:45 at the time but was hanging on big time. Ended up being just myself and UM for the last lap and truth be known if he wasn't there I'd have struggled to go under 1:50. Still some soft PBs in there to improve on next year.

thewolf_ie

Chivito550 wrote: »

+1 on that. He'd be up there IMO. I'm still not sure he is racing his most optimal distance though. He sounds more like a 400/800 guy, or an 800 guy to be honest from the things I have read on his log.

Thanks folks I must start logging again with all the interest. I'm a big boards fan.

Cheers chivito, I tell you what the day I break 15 min for the 5k I will break both your 800 and 400 pbs in the closing laps!

I ran 2:08 fairly easy before the 1600 leg of DMR at the graded.

I have brought it up with many of the experienced guys they all say different from 5 up the 42k. As it stands I like the track and XC cycles. My distance will pick me I'm not ruling out the 800 but 400 is a no go.

PS I made a muck angel in the mud after the national novice!

Chivito550

thewolf_ie wrote: »

Thanks folks I must start logging again with all the interest. I'm a big boards fan.

Cheers chivito, I tell you what the day I break 15 min for the 5k I will break both your 800 and 400 pbs in the closing laps!

I ran 2:08 fairly easy before the 1600 leg of DMR at the graded.

I have brought it up with many of the experienced guys they all say different from 5 up the 42k. As it stands I like the track and XC cycles. My distance will pick me I'm not ruling out the 800 but 400 is a no go.

PS I made a muck angel in the mud after the national novice!

Haha, if you close in 54 off 15 minute pace then you are definitely in the wrong event! That's Mo Farah finishing speed.

I reckon you'd be a very good 800m runner alright. Run one or two properly this season, even if you are training for 1500-5000. Running a race "easy" proves little by the way. I'm making a prediction now: 2:03 within 3 races.

thewolf_ie

Chivito550 wrote: »

Haha, if you close in 54 off 15 minute pace then you are definitely in the wrong event! That's Mo Farah finishing speed.

I reckon you'd be a very good 800m runner alright. Run one or two properly this season, even if you are training for 1500-5000. Running a race "easy" proves little by the way. I'm making a prediction now: 2:03 within 3 races.

Deal!

annapr

thanks for the nomination, but I wouldn't consider myself worthy of mention here at all, especially coming off such a (s)low base. Despite what someone suggested on another thread, I will definitely not be voting for myself .

I would see PM and Laois Man as similar to myself, early gains as Meno says. My vote is torn between Duanington and Bungy Girl for their commitment and hardwon improvements (and because I'm more familiar with their progress than others mentioned...). Don't want to be accused of local voting so I think I will go for Duanington (slightly less local).

kit3

annapr wrote: »

thanks for the nomination, but I wouldn't consider myself worthy of mention here at all, especially coming off such a (s)low base. Despite what someone suggested on another thread, I will definitely not be voting for myself .

I would see PM and Laois Man as similar to myself, early gains as Meno says. My vote is torn between Duanington and Bungy Girl for their commitment and hardwon improvements (and because I'm more familiar with their progress than others mentioned...). Don't want to be accused of local voting so I think I will go for Duanington (slightly less local).

I wouldn't dismiss gains because someone is coming from a low base. That's the beauty of this category - you can make a case for someone from any end of the spectrum who has made a significant improvement.

Myles Splitz

There have been some great performances this year but, and it might be because I have been pretty close to this progression but I nominated the wolf.ie

I remember being in an indoor race at the start of the year seeing him go out hard and faulter to 4.41 for 1500m before going on to see big chunks taken off his PB at both 5 and 10k (17.0x and 35.3x). These were good chunks of his PB's despite having a break through year already last year.

In the summer again saw him a good bit in races and him beat me in a dip in a 3k for another PB when I was coming back from illness.

Since the summer though he has kicked it up another notch and has be scoring member on a few dublin team medal winning teams and scalped me at inter XC when he left a couple of low 34 10k runners trailing him home.

The likes of him and OP are great examples of just getting into a solid club, getting the head down working hard and letting the results speak for themselves.

Duanington

Like others, I feel a little out of place being nominated in the category ! I had a good read over some logs before casting my vote, it came down to wolf, Anna and OP really....3 very different athletes but all have made fantastic progress, wolf seemed to start training smarter, Anna trained harder and OP found a balance somewhere in between.

In the end, I went for OP - lots of reasons for any of the above really though !

Dubgal72

Am borrowing Duanington's criteria here: smarter, harder and balanced. Gotta be BG. Anna, PM and Laois Man have indeed made huge inroads and with 12 months of consistent training, we'll probably see them on this thread in 12 months time. Oh yeah, consistency, I'll add that to BG's recipe for improvement...and determination...and dedication. Did I mention wit? Although that's to be found on her log, not in her running style
KU, wolf, OP and Duaninton made it to the shortlist but BG has the edge, her half marathon was the summit of a meticulously planned and executed race, 1:3x :(sorry, what was it exactly? ) down from 2 hours?