We celebrated 3 PBs, one Master’s PB, 1 Leinster and 1 National gold medal and a new club record in a busy 5 days of racing from Wednesday to Sunday last week.
MOUNTAIN RESCUE BENEFIT RUN
The racing kicked off a mere 4 days after most of runners had bloodied themselves in the Wicklow Off-Road. Of the four runners who ran only one (Aoife) hadn’t raced the previous weekend – yet Paul Duffy secured himself a ‘surprising’ (to use his own words) top-10 finish while Loraine Creane and Aoife Joyce took 2nd and 3rd on the women’s podium with Aoife winning the F45 for good measure while Angus Tyner took the M55 once again.
| RESULT |
| 1. Liam Mooney (Lakeshore Striders) 0:33:52 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 10. Paul Duffy 0:37:21 |
| 27. Angus Tyner 0:40:25 (1st M55) |
| 32. Loraine Creane 0:41:19 (2nd woman, 2nd F40) |
| 40. Aoife Joyce 0:43:05 (1st F45, 3rd woman) |
| 42. Eoin Phelan 0:44:19 |
| 58. Colm Kenna 0:49:16 |
NATIONAL HALF-MARATHON (TULLAMORE)
Donna Quinn was the third scorer for the successful Sli Cualann ladies team who won the Female Open teams six minutes ahead of Mullingar Harriers. The top trio of Sarah Baryga, Catherine O’Connor and Donna also took the Leinster team gold medals once again ahead of Mullingar.
In doing so she lowered her PB from 1:32:36 (her 2022 mark) to 1:29:56 – the fourth fastest time run by current female members of the club. Gavin Kennedy also reduced his PB from earlier in the year by 2.5 minutes – a positive result on his road to Dublin. Donna also increased her lead in our club medal table – now having 31 medals to Claire Thompson’s 21.
| RESULT |
| 1. Ryan Creech (Leevale AC) 1:05:47 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 290. Donna Quinn 1:29:56 (PB, Leinster Team Gold, National Team Gold) |
| 313. Gavin Kennedy 1:31:07 (PB, M45 PB) |
ANTRIM COAST HALF-MARATHON
Eoin Phelan had a breakthrough performance at the Antrim Coast half-marathon. Only 6 months ago his PB stood at 1:52 for the distance: he lowered that to 1:37:16 in Northern Ireland. Clearly doubling up with a mid-week hill run did him no harm!
| RESULT |
| 1. Daniel Mateiko (Kenya) 0:58:36 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 382. Eoin Phelan 1:37:21 (PB) |
OYLEGATE HALF-MARATHON
On Sunday, Aoife Joyce also completed the ‘mid-week hill run/weekend half-marathon double’ when racing in Oylegate near her childhood home and followed the sub-1:45 around for a 1:43:17: an improvent of 2 minutes on her last run there in 2021 and her fastest time since her 2014 PB of 1:29:41. As a bonus a nice cash prize was on offer for her third place in the over-40s category for women.
| RESULT |
| 1. Sean Hehir (Croghan AC) 1:12:10 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 46. Aoife Joyce 1:43:13 (3rd F40, F45 PB, F45 club record) |
Glendalough AC 