Road and trail racing coincided on both sides of the N11 as one of the main club goals of every season came around with the third running of the 5km course at Jack White’s pub for the Wicklow Road Championship 2023. 15 minutes later the traditional – and popular – Devil’s Glen Trail League race began.
DEVIL’S GLEN
With so many runners in action at the road championship, it was great to see we still had ‘resources’ to be present in old Glanmore at the Devil’s Glen. Derek Cullen continues to show signs of a good comeback season finishing 36th and matching his second best effort for the course (from 2017). He was followed by Alan Kennedy (46th) and James Heggie also having a good run with 51:16 for 119th out of the 160ies finishers.
| RESULT |
| 1. Karol Cronin 0:31:33 (Sportsworld AC) |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 36. Derek Cullen 0:41:31 |
| 46. Alan Kennedy 0:42:56 |
| 119. James Heggie 0:51:16 |
WICKLOW ROAD CHAMPIONSHIP
Where do we even start with this report? We had a great crowd of 13 runners (not unlucky tonight) grouped into a strong M50 team (Graeme, Graham, Angus and Anthony), a six man M35-49 team and the trinity of Donna, Sarah and Aoife making up a senior women’s team.
Brian Lydon led the team out followed by Rene Borg (setting a suicidal pace). Graeme and Paul Duffy slowly worked their way up passing out Rene at the halfway point before Graeme went full tilt past Brian to take the individual M50 gold medal and leading the M50 team to team Silver. Brian wasn’t far behind – both men recorded PBs – the first two of seven personal bests (set by Graeme, Brian, Gavin, Graham, Sarah and Mark).
Donna Quinn did not get a PB but in the 14 months since she first broke the 20 minute barrier, she has broken it five times. The real prize was winning the gold medal in the women’s F40 category – her fifth medal in this event and fourth gold medal (2x F35 titles and now 2x F40).
Gavin Kennedy broke his PB by 1:18 in what was a seminal run for him, Mark Willoughby dropped his best by 1:09, Graeme by 51s (breaking 19 for the first time), Brian Lydon by 35s, Paul Duffy by 31s (also breaking 19 for the first time), Sarah by nearly a minute and Graham Bush – having not run a 5 km we know of – put down a 19:10 marker despite having raced Drumgoff 3 days earlier. He missed out on a bronze medal by less than a second finishing 4th – a fate shared by Angus Tyner who also finished 4th in the M55 category.
Finally we could celebrate three new club records: Graeme’s M50 mark, Angus Tyner’s M55 and Aoife Joyce in the F45.
Apart from the M50 men’s Silver team medal, the M35-49 team won the Bronze medal by the tightest of margins, Kilcoole AC’s first two runners had arrived ahead of our guys but their third man coming in at 19:41 meant we secured the last medal by 7 seconds accumulated.
| RESULT |
| 1. Robin Mooney (Inbhear Dee AC) 0:16:43 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 40. Graeme Warren 0:18:23 (1st M50, PB, Individual Gold, Team Silver, M50 club record) |
| 44. Brian Lydon 0:18:31 (PB, Team Bronze) |
| 54. Paul Duffy 0:18:49 (PB, Team Bronze) |
| 60. René Borg 0:19:05 (Team Bronze) |
| 61. Gavin Kennedy 0:19:06 (PB) |
| 62. Marcus Murphy 0:19:08 |
| 65. Graham Bushe 0:19:10 (PB, Team Silver) |
| 70. Angus Tyner 0:19:24 (M55 club record) |
| 84. Donna Quinn 0:19:49 (1st F40, Individual Gold) |
| 104. Anthony Breen 0:20:36 |
| 121. Sarah Foster 0:20:36 (PB) |
| 136. Mark Willoughby 0:21:35 (PB) |
| 140. Aoife Joyce 0:22:15 (F45 club record) |
| 142. Colm Kenna 0:22:21 |
Glendalough AC 