REPORT: Flagstaff, Wobbly Bridge, Minnesota and Holland!

Three trail/hill races and two road races to report on including a fine PB in the Netherlands for Richard Costelloe while Gavin Kennedy secured our joint highest IMRA finish of the year on the men’s side matching Paul Duffy’s 10th place from Brockagh Burst and Angus Tyner’s 10th from Stranahelly Woods (the latter albeit in a very small field).

BIKE LOW CARBON RACE TICKNOCK

Phelan joined 43 others at the slightly unusual time of 6 pm on a Saturday for the ‘Bike low carbon race Ticknock’ utilising bits of the old Blue Light course and finished 16^th and 3^rd in the M35 category. Eoin would run at Wobbly Bridge too (below) to extend his lead in the ‘Most prolific’ competition with 23 races to James Heggie’s 17.

Winner was Slaney’s Enda Cloake doing his fourth race in ten days since travelling back from the Europeans in France.

RESULT

1. Enda Cloake (Slaney Olympic) 0:35:17

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

16. Eoin Phelan 0:50:45 (3rd M35)

FLAGSTAFF

Meanwhile in the North, John Conway attended the always competitive NIMRA event at Flagstaff (to Carlingford) finishing 22nd out of 78 runners on a course with an average gradient modifier of 30% over it’s nearly 17 km.

RESULT

1. Keith Johnston  (Armagh AC) 1:47:38

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

22. John Conway 2:11:20

FOLEY’S FUN RUN – MINNESOTA

Having relocated from warm Florida to the cooler climate of Minnesota, Flora was back in action on the American roads finishing 2^nd in the F45 category at the Foley’s Fun Run in 28:54.

RESULT

1. Preston Holewa () 0:17:21

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

59. Flora McKNight 0:28:54 (2nd F45)

WOBBLY BRIDGE

Wobbly Bridge trail race saw it’s largest crowd yet with over 250 runners registered of which 187 turned up to race the long course. The course was slightly shortened from the 7.8 km of the last few years to 7.6 km this year robbing racers of a bit of downhill but also providing a surprise relief on the day…

The field is strung out quite wide on the downhill start meaning the back of the field will run nearly 100m extra in any case!

We had eight runners competing, and banking Club Championship points, with Gavin Kennedy showing for the second time that he’s really moved up a level when he led us home in 10^th and a fine time of 32:53 (winning the M45 category) as he outsprinted Irish international Sarah Flanagan (who won the women’s) on the line. Second home was club coach René Borg, opening his trail running season in 2024 with a 23^rd placed finish and finishing 3^rd M45 in his first outing in that category. Chris Willoughby was next followed by Eoin Phelan and Colm (all dipping under 40 minutes) with Chris taking 3^rd in the M50 category. Donall Flanagan and Andy Walker came in next with Mark Willoughby, struggling through stomach issues, our final finisher.

RESULT

1. Daire Finn () 0:28:26

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

10. Gavin Kennedy 0:32:53 (1ST M45)

23. René Borg 0:35:09 (3rd M45)

36. Chris willoughby 0:37:09 (3rd M50)

48. Eoin Phelan 0:38:51

64. Colm Kenna 0:39:43

86. Donall Flanagan 0:41:26

96. Andy Walker 0:42:38

150. Mark Willoughby 0:48:30

Midzomeravondwedstrijd 5000m

Last in action – at nearly 10 pm Irish time, at the Midsummer track meet in the Netherlands, Richard Costelloe lowered this overall 5 km PB of 17:38 (from 2020) to 17:34.25 to win the Master’s men race and finish 9^th overall.

While this is the fastest 5 km run on track for our club, Angus Tyner’s 17:18 M45 club record still stands as an indomitable challenge for our Master’s athletes.

RESULT

1. Stefan Buck (Rotterdam Atletik) 0:15:40

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

8. Richard Costelloe 0:17:34.25 (2nd M45, PB)

CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP UPDATE – ROUND 9 OF 16

With only men competing at Wobbly Bridge only the overall ranking was affected by today’s counter with Gavin Kennedy moving up to 2nd place with his second win yielding 100 pts.

Name	Round 9 – Hill/Trail counter
Gavin Kennedy	100.0
René Borg	93.1
Chris Willoughby	87.0
Eoin Phelan	81.9
Colm Kenna	79.2
Donall Flanagan	74.0
Andy Walker	70.3
Mark Willoughby	52.5

One more win and he’ll draw level with Paul Duffy and it will go down to ‘head to head’. Eoin Phelan and Rene Borg climbed to 4th and 5th respectively. Currently only 6 runners out of 44 have the minimum 5 races for a full score – so expect plenty of upsets later in the season….

Rank	Name	Races#	Best 5	Wins	Behind
1	Paul Duffy	5	500.0	5	0.0
2	Gavin Kennedy	5	481.6	2	18.4
3	Kevin Ferguson	5	448.9	0	51.1
4	Eoin Phelan	6	411.1	0	88.9
5	René Borg	4	379.0	0	121.0
6	Aoife Joyce	4	321.5	0	178.5
7	Mark Willoughby	5	314.6	0	185.4
8	Aran Lynham	3	281.0	0	219.0
9	Alan Kennedy	3	266.8	0	233.2
10	Colm Kenna	3	247.0	0	253.0
11	Graham Bushe	2	196.3	0	303.7
12	Richard Allan	2	189.5	1	310.5
13	Angus Tyner	2	183.4	0	316.6
14	Anthony Breen	2	180.3	0	319.7
15	James Heggie	3	179.9	0	320.1
16	Catherine Devitt	2	179.4	0	320.6
17	Loraine Creane	2	177.5	0	322.5
18	Chris willoughby	2	174.8	0	325.2
19	Claire Thompson	2	146.2	0	353.8
20	Andy Walker	2	130.6	0	369.4
21	Rebecca Whineray	2	127.2	0	372.8
22	Gerard O’Rourke	2	122.5	0	377.5
23	Graeme Warren	1	100.0	1	400.0
24	Diarmuid Kavanagh	1	96.2	0	403.8
25	Torben Dahl	1	95.6	0	404.4
26	Marcus Murphy	1	95.5	0	404.5
27	Kevin Doherty	1	95.2	0	404.8
28	Blaise Kinsella	1	94.6	0	405.4
29	Rachel Wisdom	1	87.4	0	412.6
30	Graham Kearns	1	86.8	0	413.2
31	Philip O’Brien	1	86.6	0	413.4
32	Donna Quinn	1	86.2	0	413.8
33	Jeff Swords	1	83.4	0	416.6
34	Ben Lewis	1	83.4	0	416.6
35	Grace Curham	1	81.6	0	418.4
36	fergal Olohan	1	77.7	0	422.3
37	Corrie Adams	1	77.6	0	422.4
38	Niall MacCarthy	1	76.9	0	423.1
39	Donall Flanagan	1	74.0	0	426.0
40	Neil Fusco	1	71.8	0	428.2
41	Richard Kieran	1	64.2	0	435.8
42	Brendan Farrell	1	63.5	0	436.5
43	Sam Fleming	1	55.5	0	444.5
44	Aaron Kedward	1	48.9	0	451.1
45	Tadeusz Cantwell	1	6.7	0	493.3