Three mountain races to report on beginning with the weekend double-header featuring two new routes: the 2nd instalment of the IMRA Half-marathon league at the Trooperstown and Clara Vale route (replacing the cancelled Slieve Bloom Half) followed by a new route out of Glenmalure (Stranahely Woods) in the Leinster Championships.
While some were racing others were pacing Aran Lynham in his successful Lap of the Gap 100 km attempt (read about it here).
TROOPERSTOWN AND CLARA VALE
On the new route at Trooperstown and Clara Vale, Torben Dahl kept showing signs of returning to his form of old crossing the line in 18th after gaining two spots late on. Aoife O’Brien was next finishing 2nd in the women’s race and 1st in her O35 category (her third category top-3 and second overall top-3 in the women’s races in her three IMRA outings so far this year).
Chris Willoughby finished a few minutes later with Colm Kenna securing a spot well within the top-half of the field as well.
| RESULT |
| 1. Daire Finn () 1:30:54 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 18. Torben Dahl 2:01:35 |
| 28. Aoife O’Brien 2:06:17 (2nd woman, 1st F35) |
| 29. Chris willoughby 2:08:38 |
| 46. Colm Kenna 2:17:58 |
ZUIDERPARKRUN
Meanwhile in Holland, Richard Costelloe ran a Season Best 5 km for our club winning his local Zuiderparkrun in 17:48 – only 10 seconds off his best.
| RESULT |
| 1. Richard Costelloe (Glendalough AC) 0:17:48 (Season Best) |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
STRANAHELY WOODS
A valley down and a day later, orienteers Angus Tyner and Joe Lalor represented us at the Leinster Championship in Stranahely Woods on an unmarked course over roughly 14.5 km.
In a small field of 23 intrepid souls, Angus and Joe took the wins in the M55 and M70 categories.
| RESULT |
| 1. Enda Cloake (Slaney Olympic) 1:18:12 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 10. Angus Tyner 1:34:26 (1st M55) |
| 22. Joe Lalor 2:22:28 (1st M70) |
THE AYLING ABYSS
Known as one of the most gruesome of the Leinster League summer series, the ‘Ayling Abyss’ had been lengthened from 10 km to 11.3 km this year. Despite this the winning time was the same as previous year’s courtesy of the double star dust of Ireland’s leading mountain runner (Zak Hannah) coming down from the North to race at the same time as fellow seasoned international Paddy O’Leary was home from California.
This led to an explosive start where Zak took the field through the first km in 2:40! Torben Dahl was having a great race when he and a number of other runners stopped to attend to a female runner who had cut herself up fairly badly after a fall. Richard Allan thus was first man home once again and 2nd M50 with John Conway (down from Louth) next ahead of Kevin Ferguson. Eoin and Niall arrived ensuring we had 5 out of our ten runners in the top-half of the field with Angus being followed by Torben, Keith and James.
| RESULT |
| 1. Zak Hannah (Newcastle AC) 0:51:36 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 25. Richard Allan 1:07:31 (2nd M50) |
| 43. John Conway 1:12:17 |
| 51. Kevin Ferguson 1:14:15 |
| 87. Eoin Phelan 1:23:45 |
| 95. Niall MacCarthy 1:26:17 |
| 117. Angus Tyner 1:34:04 |
| 132. Torben Dahl 1:46:39 |
| 146. Keith Mulvey 1:35:29 |
| 154. James Heggie 1:38:29 |
CORKAGH 5 MILE
In the well-attended Irish Life Corkagh 5 mile (nearly 1400 in the field), Mark Willoughby took it steady enough to cruise home in 538th and 42:24 chip time.
| RESULT |
| 1. Hugh Armstrong (Ballina AC) 0:24:01 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 538. Mark Willoughby 0:42:24 |
Glendalough AC 