It continues to be one of our busiest and craziest racing season with our runners participating in everything from the Wicklow Way Relay to the tough and rugged Glacier Lakes and Seven Sisters Skyline races to our very own Lap of the Gap Marathon and Glen to Glen Half – and that’s before we celebrate Aran Lynham’s first win in the Tralee 10 km road race!
WICKLOW WAY RELAY
Our club had 14 runners competing as part of three different teams in the Wicklow Way Relay on 14th of May. Like in many previous years we had teamed up with runners from Parnell and the team ‘Parnelldalough’ finished 4th out of 35 (our highest finish yet) and continued our streak of ‘never being out of the top-10’.
Blazing Yellow – featuring 8 Glendalough AC runners – finished 11th and Graham Bushe competed for Mountain Swifts who finished 3rd. It was a day of high drama with 11 teams made non-competitive due to deviations from the Wicklow Way including unfortunately our ‘mother club’ Sli Cualann who were set to take 3rd (as TT Racers – occupying the final podium position midway through) were made non-competitive early in the race.
The other Glendalough AC runners in action where: Brian Lydon, Torben Dahl, Rene Borg, Aran Lynham, Rachel Wisdom, Sarah Foster, Paul Duffy, Blaise Kinsella, Diarmuid Kavanagh, Graham Bushe, Johnny Conway, Anthony Breen, Duncan Barrett and Aoife Joyce.
GLACIER LAKES
The previous week Graham Bushe had finished 8th in the long and rough Wicklow Glacier Lakes Race.
RESULT
1. Andrew Tees () 4:39:30
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
8. Graham Bushe 5:46:40
LAP OF THE GAP MARATHON / GLEN TO GLEN HALF-MARATHON
In our annual club fund-raiser Duncan Barrett and Graeme Warren finished neck on neck in 22nd and 23rd position with Blaise Kinsella our only representative in the half-marathon. Blaise ran very well and nearly got himself under the 90-minute barrier.
RESULT – full
1. Darren Foley () 3:07:08
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
22. Duncan Barrett 3:46:20
23. Graeme Warren 3:46:44
RESULTS – HALF
RESULT 1. Tudor Mircea (Clonliffe Harriers) 1:10:39 (CR)
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
14. Blaise Kinsella 1:30:44
SEVEN SISTERS SKYLINE
On the same day in County Donegal Brian Lydon took part in the first round of the WMRA World Cup in Ireland’s toughest mountain race: the 55 km Seven Sisters Skyline and over the unrelenting course he took nearly 40 minutes off his time from last year to finish 60th.
RESULT
1. Ricky Wynne () 7:07:47 (CR)
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
60. Brian Lydon 10:47:53
BORN TO RUN TRALEE 10K
Continuing our tour of the country, Aran Lynham secured the first men’s road race victory for our club in his maiden outing over the 10 km distance in Tralee and set a first mark of 40:03. He said he took advantage of many local top runners being at a half-marathon in Castleisland – but a win is a win!
RESULT
1. Aran Lynham (Glendalough AC) 0:40:03 (PB)
CAPE WRATH 400K
As we speak club member John Conway has completed day 3 of the gruelling 8-day expedition race ‘Cape Wrath’ in Scotland – taking runners the 400 km from Fort William to Cape Wrath. Johnny currently sits solidly in 15th position and can be tracked below:
Glendalough AC 