This race report covers the racing between 16th January and 2nd February and we start on the roads where we had runners competing in the Clonakilty and Raheny 5 milers the weekend of the 25th and at Naas ParkRun and the Dundalk Half-marathon on the last weekend of January.
We finished January with 28 race results – 8 down on 2025’s tally.
CLONAKILTY 5 MILE
While most eyes are on Raheny the penultimate weekend of January there was another 5 mile in Clonakilty with several thousand runners and Fiona Smyth had a solid run of 41:35 there.
| RESULT |
| 1. Gavin Sweeney () 0:25:41 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 307. Fiona Smyth 0:41:35 |
RAHENY 5 MILE
Wicklow man Jonas Stafford won a hyper-competitive field of over 4000 runners in Raheny. Not to be totally outshone Aaron Cullen lowered Louis Byrne’s recent 5 mile club record by nearly 4 minutes and also erased the long-standing ‘all-time best’ of club coach Rene Borg (29:27) from 2012 from the books.
Mark Lindsay set his first club record for our club, lowering Rene’s 2017 M35 record by nearly two minutes.
| RESULT |
| 1. Jonas Stafford (UCD AC) 0:23:08 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 84. Aaron Cullen 0:27:34 (PB, Club Record MS / Overall) – WW RC |
| 469. Mark Lindsay 0:31:36 – WW RC |
| 513. Kevin Doherty 0:32:16 |
| 816. Graham Kearns 0:34:55 – WW RC |
NAAS PARKRUN
Donna, Colm and Aoife travelled on a sociable trip to the flat and fast Naas ParkRun where they all got a solid training run in.
| RESULT |
| 1. Sean McAullife () 0:17:37 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 18. Donna Quinn 0:20:34 |
| 50. Aoife Joyce 0:23:50 |
| 94. Colm Kenna 0:26:51 |
DUNDALK HALF-MARATHON
Graham Kearns polished off his Tokyo Marathon preparations with a marathon pace run in the Dundalk Half-marathon finishing in the top-500.91 spots and 5 mintes ahead Eoin Phelan completed his fourth race of the year taking the lead in the ‘Most Prolific’ with 11 months to go!
| RESULT |
| 1. Alex Jones () 1:03:02 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 404. Eoin Phelan 1:41:52 – WW RC |
| 495. Graham Kearns 1:46:47 – WW RC |
In the mountains, the IMRA season has kicked off in earnest with the first two IMRA Winter League races: a new course at Sugarloaf and Howth Winter.
SUGARLOAF WINTER 26
Ian Bromley continued his great 2025 form with a fantastic 6th place finish on a wet and technical course at Sugarloaf (designed by club man Graham Bushe). Huw Thomas continues to work his way back to full fitness after long injury and was our second man home followed closely by fellow Wicklow Wolfer Niall MacCarthy. Eoin Phelan and Brendan Lawlor continue to be near-ever present in these races.
| RESULT |
| 1. Jude Wejchert () 0:40:40 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 6. Ian Bromley 0:45:07 (1st M45) – WW RC |
| 80. Huw Thomas 0:58:15 – WW RC |
| 82. Niall MacCarthy 0:58:28 – WW RC |
| 115. Eoin Phelan 1:04:36 – WW RC |
| 137. Brendan Lawlor 1:08:12 |
HOWTH WINTER
Huw and Eoin are clearly determined to get in all their Winter League counters and were our only members to travel across town for the second Winter League in Howth where Huw finished 40 spots further up than Sugarloaf and Eoin 58 spots further up.
| RESULT |
| 1. Barry McEvoy () 0:28:54 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 40. Huw Thomas 0:39:59 – WW RC |
| 57. Eoin Phelan 0:43:15 – WW RC |
Glendalough AC 