Since our last report we have 47 (!) more results to report on 30 of which were our massive attendance in EcoTrail Wicklow on the last day of September pushing this year’s racing tally to a stupendous 483 (the previous record being 383 in 2017).
EcoTrail Wicklow
Let’s begin with the 4th edition of the EcoTrail races which had gathered an entry of over 1600 with 1096 starters: the third largest start line in a trail run in Ireland after Gaelforce Bray 2019 (where 6 waves of runs gathered 1238 starters) and Run the Line 2022 (where two races drew 1210). It’ll be great to see one of these events breaking 1500 starters at some stage in the near future.
We had 30 runners in actions plus a further of our 12 members crewing many in core roles with club coach Rene Borg hired as course director, Graham Bush and Diarmuid Kavanagh on marking duties and Keith Mulvey acting as sector leader at Lough Tay not to forget Duncan Barrett – the Djouce marshal – who won ‘Crew of the Year’ for assisting an injured runner off the trail.
80 KM
Graeme Warren had opted to move down to 47k leaving Eoin Phelan as our only 80k representative in his first attempt at the distance. He battled valiantly but had to concede defeat in Kilmacanogue after 67 km of running when it became clear he could not make the Belmont cut-off.
| RESULT |
| 1. Yoann Stuck () 6:34:16 CR |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 126. Eoin Phelan DNF |
47 KM
The 47 km was the most competitive of all races on the day with international superstars like Hillary Allen at the line and Irish international Enda Cloake blasting home to victory ahead of Gavin Byrne. ‘Our lot’ of six men were not in contention for medals but all ran solidly with Philip O’Brien home first in 5:20. There was vindication for James Heggie after conceding DNFs at the Tucker Trail and Skyline 55k as he came through in 236th out of 262.
| RESULT |
| 1. Enda Cloake (Slaney Olympic) 3:58:01 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 28. Philip O’Brien 5:20:11 |
| 55. Graeme Warren 5:40:08 |
| 96. Sergio Mansillo 6:04:23 |
| 147. Ross Thompson 6:29:52 |
| 187. Mick Greene 7:00:57 |
| 193. Gerard O’Rourke 7:06:05 |
| 232. Mark Willoughby 7:47:56 |
| 236. James Heggie 8:00:52 |
30 KM
In the 30 km the women’s field as absolutely stacked with Finland’s Kasia Laapaz obliterating the course record by 8 minutes despite the 2023 course being 1 km longer than the 2022 edition. Catherine Devitt did well to finish 5th woman and 3rd in the F40 category.
The real drama involved John Conway who hit the Bray seafront unaware that Tudor Moldovan’s misfortune in Belmont meant he was in joint-3rd place. When the race announcer shouted out ‘and here’s the sprint for the podium’, John took off like a rocket to secure a chance to hold the trophy and get on that rostrum (a week later he’d finish 8th in the Killarney Quest Adventure race – just for good measure).
Richard Costelloe also ran well in his Tollymore Marathon final prep race finishing 10th whilst at the other end Graham Wheeler conceded our 13th DNF of the season (meaning we are well beyond our all-time high of 5 in 2015!).
| RESULT |
| 1. Luke Weldon (Greystones AC) 2:37:46 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 3. John Conway 2:50:26 (1st M40) |
| 10. Richard Costelloe 2:57:44 |
| 22. Anthony Breen 3:09:03 |
| 29. Catherine Devitt 3:13:49 (3rd F40) |
| 44. Mark Lindsay 3:21:44 |
| 67. Alan Kennedy 3:35:49 |
| 99. Jack Moore 3:48:40 |
| 102. Donal Flanagan 3:50:15 |
| 118. Niall MacCarthy 3:53:27 |
| 174. Rebecca Whineray 4:09:59 |
| 298. Gleb Reys 5:23:49 |
| 327. Graham Wheeler DNF |
19 KM
We only had eight in action in the ‘speedsters’ race over 19 km with four tough climbs and here Diarmuid Kavanagh led home with a 9th place with Dave Lawless next and Nora Butler next (placing 12th woman) dead-heating with Tadgh O’Brien.
| RESULT |
| 1. Des Kennedy (Raheny Shamrocks) 1:37:32 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 9. Diarmuid Kavanagh 1:51:35 |
| 72. Dave Lawless 2:19:40 |
| 84. Nora Butler 2:22:43 |
| 86. Tadgh O’Brien 2:22:43 |
| 129. Simon Lynch 2:32:02 |
| 180. Daniel Puflea 2:41:42 |
| 228. Brian Howard 2:52:58 |
| 326. Jonathan Cody 3:38:27 |
TEAM COMPETITION
Eleven teams had the minimum 2 men and 2 women to contest the team competition and here the combination of John Conway (3rd in 30k), Catherine Devitt (5th woman in 30k), Diarmuid Kavanagh (9th in 19k) and Nora Butler (12th woman in 19k) was enough to take the win with bit of breathing space down to Parnell AC and Simon Connaughton’s Inner Fight crew.
NAV CHALLENGE 1 – CARRICK MOUNTAIN
Having marked the Great Sugarloaf for EcoTrail, Graham Bush was well warmed up for the first IMRA Nav Challenge of the year finishing 9th ut of 28th in the short 15 km course.
| RESULT |
| 1. Robert McEvoy (Cork Orienteers) 1:21:00 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 9. Graham Bushe 3:03:00 |
WASSENAAR 15 KM
Catherine Devitt took a few minutes of her time in the annual Wassenaar 15k (in reality 14.6k!) finishing 10th overall and winning the women’s race (and a big trophy to show for it!).
| RESULT |
| 1. Maikel Stolwijk (Leiden) 0:49:37 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 10. Catherine Devitt 0:58:25 (1st woman) |
KILMAC RUNNING FESTIVAL
The third edition of the Kilmac Running Festival preceded the weekend’s cross-country action: Graham Bush remains a busy man matching up his own running with his marking at EcoTrail and then race directing the five events that are part of the festival.
WOMEN’S NIGHT CHALLENGE
Nora Butler and Rebecca Whineray were our representatives in the women’s only field on Friday evening’s loop of the Great Sugarloaf with Rebecca 4th overall and 2nd F45.
| RESULT |
| 1. Ciara Largey () 0:39:14 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 4. Rebecca Whineray 0:42:36 (2nd F45) |
| 10. Nora Butler 0:46:50 |
LONG HILL
Local men Richard Kieran and Ben Lewis were our only runners in the four races on offer on Saturday going for the shortest (12k) route from Kilmac to Paddock Hill finishing 3rd and 5th and takingsome category podiums.
| RESULT |
| 1. Rob Tobin (Trim AC) 1:08:17 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 3. Richard Kieran 1:14:05 (3rd M55) |
| 5. Ben Lewis 1:16:49 (2nd M45) |
WICKLOW INTERMEDIATE
The various trail running engagements along with a large group focusing on the marathon have depleted our cross-country squads for the early season and only Diarmuid Kavanagh and Anthony Breen toed the line on a glorious sunshine day in Avondale for the Wicklow Intermediate. In the end only Anthony finished as Diarmuid had to pull out – our third club DNF in this busy fortnight. Anthony claimed the 100 pts for the Club Championship but as he wore no watch nor were times recorded, we only know he finished 17th out of 25 in the race!
PARKRUNS GALORE!
Angus Tyner reported in with 7 ParkRun results between May and September with 2 top-3 finishes and 4 sub-20 runs. Claire Thompson meanwhile ran in Mullingar finishing 3rd woman in 22:28 in her first race since the Relay back in June.
| RESULT |
| 1. Susan Glennon () 0:19:24 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 15. Claire Thompson 0:22:48 (3rd F35) |
BEER AND BRATS 5K!
We finish off with a report from our ‘woman in Florida’ : founding member Flora McKnight who battled heat and humidity in the superbly named ‘Beer and Brats 5k’ finishing 251st in a solid field of 829 runners.
| RESULT |
| 1. Jonathan Hulzebos () 0:15:46 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 251. Flora McKNight 0:30:20 |
Glendalough AC 