After a busy last weekend, the racing continued unabated as we enter the breathless May/June period and this one offered 2 podiums, 2 personal bests and 1 club record…
PRINCE WILLIAM’S SEAT
Wednesday action kicked us of with six of our runners attacking Prince William’s Seat – the fun and tricky 8.5 km Leinster League classic. Brian Lydon had taken the early start as he had to head home early which was a pity as he would have had an almighty battle with Graeme to be our first man home (three seconds separated them) but had to accept a 147th position as early starters are automatically moved behind the main field. This left Graeme Warren well clear as our first finisher and 2nd in the M50 category.
Laragh-born Martin Cullen had another great run finishing 19th.
| RESULT |
| 1. Peter Roche (Dunbyone AC) 0:40:43 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 31. Graeme Warren 0:51:00 (2nd M50) |
| 92. Ben Lewis 0:59:47 |
| 105. Colm Kenna 1:01:30 |
| 147. Brian Lydon 0:51:03 |
| 158. Mark Willoughby 1:09:15 |
| 192. James Heggie 1:23:28 |
LEINSTER NOVICE AND MASTER’S ROAD RACE (GOWRAN)
In Gowran Donna ran within 8 seconds of her 3 km PB to help the Sli Cualann Master’s women’s team to finish 4th in both the Club competition as the 2nd scorer behind Parnell’s Catherine O’Connor and ahead of Debbie Griffin. In the County medals, the trio were likewise just edged out by Laois and finished 4th.
Donna didn’t romanticise her race report:” I was a few seconds slower than last year, but much tougher competition too. I was way down the field in comparison. Ah well, box ticked!” (ed: she ran her second fastest 3k – 8 seconds slower than her PB).
| RESULT |
| 1. Fiona Kehoe (Kilmore AC) 0:10:32 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 17. Donna Quinn 0:11:35 |
WATERVILLE TRAIL FESTIVAL 3-DAY AND 43K
John Conway was in a war of attrition taking on 3x 43 km trail runs in Waterville together with his wife Laura . Sitting pretty in 3rd after the first day John lost a bit of ground on the second day dropping to 4th a position he held. This was enough to gain 3rd in the men’s category as wife Laura held on to second overall and won the women’s race being pegged back on the last day by Sean Meehan.
| RESULT |
| 1. Sean Meehan () 13:23:26 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 4. John Conway 14:43:34 (3rd man) |
Richard Kieran and Keith Mulvey joined in on the lap for the final day (Sunday) placing 51st and110th respectively It was a welcome return for Keith after recent surgery and he celebrated his 29th marathon/ultra-marathon and gained a sense of completeness after having DNFed in the 3-day WTF at his last attempt in 2022 (but having finished 8th in 2019). Richard Kieran was solidly mid-pack – a nice way to celebrate his 5th anniversary with Olivia Galvin.
| RESULT |
| 1. Nick Hogan () 3:54:35 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 51. Richard Kieran 5:53:18 |
| 110. Keith Mulvey 8:01:48 |
LIMERICK MARATHON
Everything built up to the crescendo at the Limerick Marathon where our club were willing Blaise on to a sub-3 hour finish after a long and punishing marathon build-up. Blaise would be the second runner this month to make a concerted attempt at joining the sub-3 hour club (in his debut!) after Richard Costelloe had fallen slightly short in Rotterdam. Things looked rosy as Blaise came through the first half along with the sub-3 hour pacers in 1:28:32. He never really lost much pace but slowed down just enough to slip above in 3:00:59.
Despite missing out this was a fabulous debut on the distance and just rewards for some very tough work put in by Blaise over the last few months including an injury set-back that nearly scuttled the build-up entirely. He got a personal best and broke Barry O’Neill’s long-standing 3:08 M40 club record.
Blaise’s time was also the second fastest run in the club’s history (after Torben Dahl’s 2:57 in 2016) and put’s Blaise 4th on the ‘all-time best’ marathon list of our current members with only three members having faster life-time bests.
Not to be outdone Eoin Phelan recorded a great 9 minutes personal best of 4:13 one week after doing the Connemarathon (!) .
| RESULT |
| 1. Tudor Moldovan (Clonliffe Harriers) 2:25:16 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 56. Blaise Kinsella 3:00:59 (PB, M40 PB) |
| 571. Eoin Phelan 4:13:12 (PB, M35 PB) |
IRISH ORIENTEERING CHAMPIONSHIP
And whilst we don’t generally report on our members extra-curricular achievements in other sports, we have to make an exception to congratulate Angus Tyner on his triple-haul of gold medals at the Irish Orienteering Championships on home turf in Wicklow.
Glendalough AC 