The first of two very busy weekends for our runners began with an eclectic mix of races ranging from the open mountain navigation over Lugnacoille in the Aughavannagh race to one of the fastest marathon courses in the world in Rotterdam as seven of our runners competed across 5 separate races.
SHANGANAGH PARKRUN
Angus Tyner kicked off the action Saturday in the low-key (but well attended) Shanganagh ParkRun recording 20:23 and finishing 2nd M50.
| RESULT |
| 1. Ben Paviour (Reading Roadrunners) 0:16:27 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 17. Angus Tyner 0:20:23 (2nd M50) |
ROTTERDAM MARATHON
Then it was straight to the weekend’s main course: the Rotterdam Marathon where Richard Costelloe was chasing the sub-3 hour marathon (in his road marathon debut) and looked on form to potentially put the club marathon record of 2:57 under threat if all went well. But most of all, he was there to learn about the distance and the dynamics.
Rich passed things well running consistent 5 km splits at pace between 4:11-4:16 min/km and looked safely past the defining 32 km point when he started to slow down after 35 km losing just enough time over the last 7k to finish in 3:04:23.
While missing out on sub-3 is always disappointing when it is within reach, Richard’s time was the 2nd fastest run by a current member of our club and if you take into account the IAAF’s age graded ranking, it is the second best marathon performance by a member eclipsed only by the 2:59 run by Bruce Phillips when he was 51.
| RESULT |
| 1. Bashir Abdi (Belgium) 2:03:47 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 1744. Richard Costelloe 3:04:23 (PB, M45 PB, M45 Club Record) |
| 6877. Niall MacCarthy 3:48:14 (PB) – WW RC |
| 7156. Graham Wheeler 3:49:57 (PB) – WW RC |
It was unfiltered satisfaction from our two WW RC alumni Graham Wheeler and Niall MacCarthy who came in close together (within a minute) and both secured solid PBs.
GAELFORCE KIPPURE 10K
Back in the muck and the dirt of Wicklow, there were feet hitting hills both in the North and the South of the county where Gaelforce held their annual 10 km hill race at Kippure while IMRA opened the Leinster Championship by returning the classical Aughavannagh race to the calendar. Wicklow Wolfer Cameron Soane finished 448th.
| RESULT |
| 1. Edward O’Connor () 0:40:58 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 448. Cameron Soane 1:29:17 – WW RC |
AUGHAVANNAGH LEINSTER CHAMPIONSHIP
Aughavannagh is a classical championship route (having been a counter in both Leinster and Irish championships) but tends to attract small fields (in this case 40) due to the long time spend on open mountain, free route choice and onus on navigation. Graham Bush is no stranger to all this and had a tight battle with Liam Vines throughout to secure top-10. Former club chairman Niall Corrigan was also out and finished 27th.
| RESULT |
| 1. Adrian Hennessy () 2:20:20 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 10. Graham Bushe 2:38:35 (2nd M55) |
GREAT (?) IRELAND RUN (NATIONAL 10K)
While runners navigated themselves skilfully over hills and through valleys, the same could not be said for the 2000 strong field at the Great Ireland Run (the National 10k championship) who were sent astray leading to the race ending up as an 8.5 km event. The only runner we had caught up in this was Sarah Foster who ran 45:54 – equivalent to a 54:32 10 km.
| RESULT |
| 1. Jake O’Regan (St. John’s AC) 0:26:08 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 843. Sarah Foster 0:45:54 |
UP NEXT….
The Leinster League continues at Scalp before Paul Duffy and Eoin Phelan travel to the Connemarathon, Blaise Kinsella goes to the Limerick Marathon, Marcus, Aoife, and Gavin go to the Wexford Half and Diarmuid Kavanagh and coach Rene Borg take on EcoTrail Copenhagen….
Glendalough AC 