Twelve of our runners were in action once or more over nine very challenging and/or interesting races since our last report.
We begin with the confusing ‘Lakes 10k’ double: the ‘Run for Lakers’ 10 km trail run around Roundwood Reservoir followed 7 days later by ‘The Lakes 10k’: the scenic and beloved 10 km road race in Blessington.
‘RUN FOR LAKERS 10K’
Paul Duffy, Ben Lewis and Colm Kenna were our only representatives in a large front-loaded field at the Roundwood Reservoir with Paul securing back-to-back top 10s in this event taking fifth spot.
| RESULT |
| 1. Killian Mooney (DSD AC) 0:34:40 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 5. Paul Duffy 0:40:24 |
| 20. Ben Lewis 0:47:21 |
| 24. Colm Kenna 0:47:58 |
LUGGALA
While the larger field was busy on the good trails of Roundwood a select field of 31 IMRA enthusiasts congregated for the super-steep Luggala race with 8 km covering Cloghoge and Luggala mountains. Eoin Kennedy was our lone representative and came home in 11th.
| RESULT |
| 1. Brian Furey (Brothers Pearse AC) 0:56:00 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 11. Eoin Kennedy 1:19:24 |
THE LAKES 10K
A sligthly smaller than normal contingent from our club travelled to the scenic ‘The Lakes 10k’ organised by our friends in Lakeshore Striders AC but it’s not always about quantity: Marcus Murphy secured a PB by nearly a minute as part of his Dublin marathon preparations while Colm kenna ran his fastest 10k since the Wicklow Hospice 10k in February 2022.
| RESULT |
| 1. Brian Maher (Kilkenny City Harriers AC) 0:31:16 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 11. Marcus Murphy 0:38:33 (PB) |
| 46. Colm Kenna 0:46:08 |
TRANS-ALPINE RUN
While Paul and Colm ran in Roundwood, John Conway began his 7 day journey in the Trans-Alpine stage race: 268 km through the alps in seven stages. Despite having only 7 days rest after his 2nd place in the Kerry Way Ultra Lite John finished 29th and 6th in his category while his wife Laura was a comprehensive winner of the women’s race – times shown are the cumulative for the 7 stages in 7 days.
| RESULT |
| 1. Fabien Gering (ASICS Frontrunner) 23:08:06 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 33. John Conway 33:40:45 |
WORLD MASTERS MOUNTAIN RUNNING – MADEIRA (UPHILL ONLY/ 31 KM LONG)
As John’s journey neared the end Graham Bush and Richard Kieran embarked on their own foreign adventure on the trail-running mad island of Madeira where the World Masters Mountain Running Championship hosted a large Irish contingent (including fellow Sli Cualann runners like Ronan King and Ann-Marie Kenny).
| RESULT – uphill 9k |
| 1. Eric Blake (USA) 0:43:11 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 101. Graham Bushe 1:00:37 (Team Silver m50) |
| 141. Richard Kieran 1:09:16 |
Both our runners were signed up for both the 9 km uphill only race and the 31 km long trail race (which Kieran eventually opted not to do). It was a huge success with Graham Bush contributing to the Irish team’s Silver team medal – the first international medal won by a member of our club. He did lament that had he been a split second faster, then Ireland would have taken the gold!
| RESULT |
| 1. Shaban Mustafa (Bulgaria) 2:11:52 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 75. Graham Bushe 3:00:55 |
STONE CROSS TO LUG RELAY
While the boys in green were in action internationally, Alan Kennedy and Eoin Syron had a run-out in the cult classic ‘Stone Cross to Lug’ which has suffered from declining numbers in recent years (perhaps not helped by poor weather possibly contributing to 4 non-starters in a 14 person field in the solo).
| RESULT – LEG 1 |
| 1. Gerry McGuinness () 2:49:00 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 2. Alan Kennedy 1:57:12 |
Both Alan and Eoin ran in the Relay version of the race with Alan running the 14 km leg 1 and Eoin the 21k leg 3 on a separate team. With 4 teams in competition and 1 non-competitive, a podium was assured and Alan’s team took 2nd with Eoin’s 3rd.
| RESULT – LEG 3 |
| 1. Eoin Syron (Glendalough AC) 1:57:00 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
CAUSEWAY COAST ULTRA
Not quite as far outside the country – at the Causeway in Northern Ireland – Eoin Kennedy did his second race in 7 days completing the 64 km Causeway Ultra over a mixture of terrains ranging from path to beach to road and finished 36th out of 60 runners.
| RESULT |
| 1. Nick Weston () 5:18:27 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 36. Eoin Kennedy 8:12:16 |
BEEKSE 31 KM
Richard Costelloe continued his productive racing season on Sunday 17th in the Netherlands with a brilliant podium finish in the Beekse 31 km road race in a fine time of 2:06 leaving 53 runners behind him in a race that was part of a the Beekse marathon event where multiple distances were on offer.
| RESULT |
| 1. Martijn de Kok () 1:58:10 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 3. Richard Costelloe 2:06:24 (3rd M45Club Record) |
Glendalough AC 