KERRY WAY ULTRA AND ULTRA LITE
Brian Lydon started the action running into the hot Kerry weather as he took the new ‘early start’ option at 6 am on Friday – only the 3rd Glendalough AC runner to undertake the full race (after Duncan Barret and Emma Hand).
Over 24 hours later – while Brian was somewhere midway towards the penultimate checkpoint in Kenmare – John Conway set off from Sneem for the 59 km journey to Killarney that is the ‘Kerry Way Ultra Lite’. This was John’s third attempt at the race having been 18th in 2020, and 4th in 2021. 1st in 2023?*
Coming into Templenoe, John sat in 4th overall – behind the eventual winner Sorcha Loughnane and Peter Power and Brendan Joy. Both slightly extended their leads on John by Kenmare but paid the price on the long slog towards Killarney where John first overtook Brendan (who lost nearly an hour on the Laragh man here and dropped to 5th overall) and then got himself into the rare situation of being the first man in the race – yet 2nd overall! It is worth noting that Sorcha Loughnane’s time – apart from being a new women’s record on the course – would have won the Kerry Way Ultra Lite every single year except when John McKeogh set the course record of 5:03 in 2020.
| RESULT |
| 1. Sorcha Loughnane (Donore Harriers) 5:17:51 (women’s CR) |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 2. John Conway 5:54:48 (1st man, 1st M40, 2nd overall) |
Eight minutes before John crossed the finish line to celebrate his trophy, Brian Lydon had completed the full Kerry Way in just under 33 hours – a proud moment in the warm air but over soggy ground (the output of our weird summer).
| RESULT |
| 1. Stephen Mangan () 23:30:41 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 33. Brian Lydon 32:46:02 |
* He thus matched the joint best result in this race for our club: Barry Murray’s 2nd place in 5:53 in 2017. then there was 44 finishers. Now: 157! John’s 5:47 from last year remains the fastest time run by a club runner.
VELUWSE TRAILRUN
Catherine Devitt continued her strong season on both Dutch and Irish shores when she finished 9th in a 187 strong field at Veluwze – a nearly 30 km trail race in the Netherlands. she had about 40 seconds gap to the next woman and took the overall women’s prize as a result.
| RESULT |
| 1. Taco Schaaf (Zwolle) 1:47:40 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 9. Catherine Devitt 2:16:53 (1st woman) |
This was Catherine’s 14th race of the season and with a nice tally: 11 category wins and 2 second places. Only once has she run and not finished on the women’s podium in 2023.
Glendalough AC 