A strong start to the year continued as the weekend took us to 50 race results for the year.
Event organisers raced against the clock to get their races done and runners dusted ahead of the forecast rain and wind warnings. Wicklow had two events running in short succession a mere 15 minutes apart: IMRA’s Brockagh Burst kicked off at 11 am (early starters a bit before) just as the Leinster XC kicked off with the juvenile relays on the same hour.
BROCKAGH BURST
Rainy conditions hit Laragh first so fair running was not on the cards at Brockagh Burst although neither was the snowy winterland of a few years ago.
This year’s route used the slight variation without the Brockagh South-East summit. Despite this variation normally being faster, the general race conditions meant the course was anything but: times were down significantly on previous years and the race had a near-enough 20-25% no show rate (the Leinsters in Avondale saw similar DNS rates as some competitors clealry opted against making the trip).
Paul Duffy contributed his strong start to the season finishing 10th (3 spots up on 2023) and closer to the winner having sat in 12th position at the summit. He also secured 2nd in the M40 category. Next home was Alan Kennedy in 28th (3rd M55) followed by Eoin Kennedy, Conor Rossiter, Colm Kenna, Keith Mulvey and James Heggie for a total of six competitors from the club.
LEINSTER CROSS-COUNTRY
Having lost Gavin Kennedy and Claire Thompson to injury and with Marcus Murphy and Diarmuid Kavanagh having to literally take a rain-check due to illness, our representation on the Sli Cualann teams were whittled down to Donna Quinn (Master’s Women), Angus Tyner and Anthony Breen (on the M50 team) and René Borg as the lone M35+ representative.
Donna set off first as part of a 10 woman Sli Cualann team consisting of herself and nine Parnell runners. Donna finished 4th – one spot and not far behind team mate Emily Ryan. Crucially both where ahead of the 2nd and 3rd Donore Harriers finishers consigning them to 4th.
In the County teams, Wicklow were being chased hard by Offaly who had a 10 point lead by the time each team’s first and second scorers crossed the line. But as Emily Ryan, then Donna and then another 13 runners arrived before their third scorer, the County Bronze was made safe.
| RESULT |
| 1. Kate Purcell (Raheny Shamrocks) 0:15:32 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- (RUNNING AS SLI CUALANN) |
| 16. Donna Quinn 0:18:17 (F35+ Club Bronze, F35+ County Bronze)* |
MASTER’S MEN
Next up were the men between 35 and 64 years of ago on the 7 km version of the course. Here coach René Borg delivered a battling performance to finish second Sli Cualann finisher behind Parnell’s Ray Kenny with Angus Tyner never far behind. Rene was first scorer for the M35 team and fourth scorer (behind three Kilcoole AC runners) for the Wicklow County team. Sadly both finished last on the day. Yet it was a good outing – the field was the same size as 2023 but Rene finished 15 spots further up in 78th: our club’s highest finish in a Leinster Master’s event.
Angus was only 29 seconds back in 87th and second scorer for the M50+ team. Third was Inbhear Dee’s Paul Kelly, 4th was our own Anthony Breen and 5th Cormac O’Ceallaigh of Parnell. The same team did slightly better in the county competition finishing 4th with Angus 2nd scorer and Anthony 4th – 38 points behind Meath.
The action finished with Intermediate men and women where we had no representation and the Sli Cualann men finished 6th out of 7 lacking one runner for a county team and with Robin Mooney the best placed Wicklow athlete in 8th.
FUNCHAL HALF-MARATHON
In warmer climates Bruce Phillips did his annual ‘warm half-marathon’ at the Funchal Marathon and Half-marathon event that doubled as the Portuguese Marathon Championship. He started strong but faded some on a bumpy course and finished around 4.5 minutes off the M60 PB he had set in Malaga the previous year.
| RESULT |
| 1. Amandio Correia () 1:11:12 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 272. Bruce Phillips 1:59:38 |
Glendalough AC 