We had runners in action at four different Saturday and one Sunday – mainly on rough mountain and trail but we will start with last evening’s result at the Leinster League race in Ballinastoe where we had 13 competitors out.
BALLINASTOE
On a course that tends to change a bit from year to year, runners this time had to navigate 10.6 rough km to get the finish line – some added a bit (like Paul) and others reccied a 1.5 km extension (like Keith!) but all got to the finish line in the end!
Richard Allan reclaimed his tag as ‘top dog’ (or wolf?) turning the tables on Paul Duffy and finishing 17 seconds ahead of him with Graham Bush a further 2 seconds adrift. Next round coming up soon?
We did well on the category podium front with before-mentioned Richard taking 2nd in the M50, Graham Bush winning the M55 (after his Connacht double-header over the weekend), Alan Kennedy taking the 2nd place in the M55 and Grace Curham finishing 2nd senior female (and 13th in the women’s race overall).
Also tight packing again with Kevin and Chris and Alan who finished within 18 seconds of each other with Grace, Angus, Eoin and Andy arriving between 74 and 78 minutes. Keith and James rounded up our group.
| RESULT |
| 1. Daire Finn () 0:52:19 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 28. Richard Allan 1:01:22 (2nd M50) |
| 30. Paul Duffy 1:01:39 |
| 31. Graham Bushe 1:01:41 (1st M55) |
| 40. Torben Dahl 1:03:55 |
| 50. Kevin Ferguson 1:06:10 |
| 52. Chris willoughby 1:06:16 |
| 54. Alan Kennedy 1:06:28 (2nd M55) |
| 82. Grace Curham 1:14:12 (2nd FS) |
| 86. Eoin Phelan 1:15:19 |
| 96. Angus Tyner 1:16:54 |
| 100. Andy Walker 1:17:54 |
| 132. Keith Mulvey 1:33:48 |
| 163. James Heggie 1:39:22 |
ZUIDERPARKRUN
Richard Costelloe went out for a bit of a training session to record a solid 18:05 and finishing 3rd in his local parkrun and 2nd M45 on the day.
| RESULT |
| 1. Jonny Yeates (Barnet and District AC) 0:17:34 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 3. Richard Costelloe 0:18:05 (2nd M45) |
CONNACHT CHAMPIONSHIP – MWEELREA
Graham Bush and Joe Lalor were our two representatives at the IMRA Connacht Championship double header that began on the 10.6 km course to the top of Mweelrea and back. Graham secured 2nd in the M55 category with Joe winning his.
| RESULT |
| 1. Matthew McDonnell () 0:59:49 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 15. Graham Bushe 1:21:06 (2nd M55) |
| 32. Joe Lalor 1:50:29 (1st M70) |
BENBULBEN (luke’s bridge)
53 people towed the line to run up the spectacular Ben Bulben including former member Brian Lydon who went on to finish 4th! Eoin Phelan was our ‘current’ representative and finished 42nd.
| RESULT |
| 1. Alan Dunne () 0:46:30 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 42. Eoin Phelan 1:14:10 |
THE RELAY
The Relay has all the essentials: times at hand-overs, emergency water, parking, and finish line celebrations and nicely captured the minimalist feel of the early days of the Wicklow Way Relay (now grown into a much larger and more involved event).
Our two Danes (Rene and Torben) had been drafted in to do leg 3 and 4 – essentially the same leg (from Gaffney’s lane to Pier Gates car park) – with Rene doing the net uphill outward leg and Torben the net downhill return.
Michael Dowling handed over to them in 8th position with Rene catching back 4 more teams as he ran the 4th fastest time on leg 3 on the day. Torben went one better by running at the fastest time on leg 4 (on the day) and taking back one further spot to bring the team into the podium places. Unfortunately, by the finish line, the team was back in 8th spot out of 11 with Kilcoole AC sweeping the podium. Here is an encouragement to the GMACers to field a team or two next year!
| RESULT – leg 3 |
| 1. Aubrey O’Neill (Kilcoole AC) 0:42:29 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 4. René Borg 0:48:18 |
| RESULT – LEG 4 |
| 1. Torben Dahl (Glendalough AC) 0:43:40 |
NEPHIN
Sunday brought the second race of the Connacht Championship where Graham completed the double-header on the short but incredibly steep Nephin race where 27 ‘survivors’ of the first day battled it out and Graham moved up 7 spots and traded his 2nd place on day 1 in the M55 to 1st. Joe Lalor also finished and won the overall M70.
All in all 20 people completed the full Championship with Graham finishing 8th and 1st M55 as well.
| RESULT |
| 1. Matthew McDonnell () 0:50:40 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 8. Graham Bushe 1:05:30 (1st M55) |
| 23. Joe Lalor 1:30:08 (1st M70) |
Glendalough AC 