Our club had it’s single busiest weekend so far with 20 runners racing over Saturday and Sunday in the Maurice Mullins 50k, the Wicklow Gaol Break 10k and Half and two events in the Hague. it was fruitful as well with 7 PBs, 1 club record, 2 category wins, 3 category podiums and four top-10 results.
The big event on the hills was the Maurice Mullins 50k and 80k double-headers both featuring class fields chasing World Championship qualification.
MAURICE MULLINS 50K
Graham Bush was our first man home despite nursing a broken wrist suffered on his record-setting run on the Glendalough Circuit mountain challenge last weekend (where he set the clockwise best of 1:39:22 on Saturday and the counter clockwise best of 1:32:01 on Sunday). He took 2nd in the M55 category having won the M50 category in 2022.
Eoin Kennedy also returned for a second consecutive go at the new 50 km course finishing slightly slower but higher up in his category than 2022. James Heggie – scheduled as our lone competitor in the 80k unfortunately was a DNS due to injury.
| RESULT |
| 1. Enda Cloake (Slaney Olympic) 4:08:12 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 50. Graham Bushe 5:55:35 (2nd M55) |
| 88. Eoin Kennedy 6:23:29 |
WICKLOW GAOL BREAK 10K AND HALF-MARATHON
We had a total sixteen runners going at it on the hilly courses in Wicklow Town with the finish at the old Wicklow Gaol. The races were nominated as the first Club Championship counter of the year to add needle to it
Graeme Warren and Paul Duffy would set off first in the half-marathon and both got caught out when the top-20 runners in the field took a 400m detour. Back on course both recovered – Graeme not only set a 2 minute PB (improving his 2018 mark) but also a new Club M50 record. Paul Duffy was managing himself after recent injury but still nearly broke the 90 minute mark and shattered his previous best. Behind them we had six Wicklow Wolfers also running with an 8 minute PB for Mark Willoughby and a 13 minute PB for Conor Diamond.
| RESULT |
| 1. David Lewis () 1:19:41 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 22. Graeme Warren 1:27:12 (3rd M50, PB, M50 PB, M50 Club record) |
| 54. Paul Duffy 1:31:03 (PB, M40 PB) |
| 273. Jack Moore 1:44:47 – WW RC |
| 329. Mark Willoughby 1:47:25 (PB, M40 PB) – WW RC |
| 539. Martin Cullen 1:55:26 – WW RC |
| 655. Conor Diamond 1:58:58 – WW RC (PB) |
| 933. James McCarthy 2:12:56 – WW RC |
| 935. Maria Forsyth 2:14:16 – WW RC |
10 KM
The 10 km started shortly after with 8 of our runners in it. Marcus took the early lead shadowed from a short distance by Diarmuid and coach Rene Borg. By the early hill the trio were together but Diarmuid was distanced by about 20 seconds leaving Marcus and Rene to battle it out for the club win. The lead exchanged several more times until late in the 6th km where Rene got a gap that he held to the finish. This was a sweet moment for the coach in his return to the distance after a 10 year ‘absence’.
Marcus fourteen seconds later 10th followed and while his time was slightly slower than his PB from Enniscorthy in February, his 40:09 is a better performance considering the course.
Diarmuid was next (16th) making it two men in the top-10 and three in the top-20 then Gavin setting a 1 minute PB and a category PB for m45 followed by Colm (squeezing under 50) and Sile Keane in her debut on the distance.
| RESULT |
| 1. Cian O’Reilly (Annalee AC) 0:37:58 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 6. René Borg 0:39:55 (2nd M40, M40 PB) |
| 10. Marcus Murphy 0:40:09 |
| 16. Diarmuid Kavanagh 0:41:28 (PB) |
| 30. Gavin Kennedy 0:43:55 (PB, M45 PB) |
| 101. Colm Kenna 0:49:47 |
| 119. Nora Butler 0:49:20 – WW RC |
| 794. Sile Keane 1:10:32 (PB) |
ZUIDERPARKUN AND HAGUE ROAD RUNNERS 10K
Meanwhile in our near-weekly bulletin from The Hague, Catherine Devitt was first lady at Zuiderpark for the sixth time in sixth attempts
| RESULT |
| 1. Joey Fishbeen () 0:17:28 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 5. Catherine Devitt 0:19:35 (1st F40) |
Husband Richard Costelloe continued to polish off his (impromptu) Rotterdam Marathon preparations at the Hague Road Runners 10k. At a course that was about 400m short, he sat in with the leaders for 2 km before dropping off and running home in 37:21 to win the M45 category for the race and for the series overall.
| RESULT |
| 1. Maikel van Gemert (Haag Atletik) 0:00:00 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 4. Richard Costelloe 0:37:21 (1st M45) |
Glendalough AC 