Before we move on to the results of late May to early June we’ll wrap a bow around this year’s Wicklow Way Relay results where 26 of our club runners competed across four different teams and the Brockagh race the same week.
BROCKAGH
A counter in the club championship but with less of us in action than normal due to people resting their legs for the relay Graham Bushe led the team home and was 1st M55 (Alan Kennedy was 3rd in the same category. Richard Kieran took 3rd place in the M60.
In the short race coach Rene ran with his son Cillian again and so was Niall MacCarthy who changed distance mid-race.
| RESULT Brockagh 26 |
| 1. Barry Minnock (Rathfarnham WSAF) 0:45:59 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 9. Graham Bushe 0:51:50 (1st M55) |
| 32. Richard Allan 0:59:19 – WW RC |
| 48. Alan Kennedy 1:03:03 (3rd M55) – WW RC |
| 70. Eoin Phelan 1:08:12 – WW RC |
| 93. Richard Kieran 1:13:57 (3rd M60) |
| 123. James Heggie 1:29:30 – WW RC |
| RESULT Brockagh 26 |
| 1. Finn McGurren (Clonliffe Harriers) 0:23:12 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 17. Niall MacCarthy 0:31:07 (1st M40) – WW RC |
| 32. René Borg 0:36:48 |
WICKLOW WAY RELAY
Most were in action for the official Glendalough A and B teams and the Wicklow Wolf RC team with Loraine Creane running for coach René’s company team (Running Coach Ireland) and Grace Curham, Brendan Lawlor and Lillian Deegan running for other teams.
All in all a record 45 teams were in action and we defended our long-standing record of never finishing outside the top-10 with a highly impressive 4th overall for our Glendalough Harried first team.
Laragh Legends placed 14th in the Hounds, finishing in 9:39:40 and narrowly trailing the winning Hare team by just 4 minutes 35 seconds although they were themselves in the Hound category.
In the Hares competition, Wicklow Wolfpack finished 14th of 21 Hares and 33rd of 45 teams overall, recording a time of 11:03:25.
The teams had a fun journey through with the Legends and Wolfpack quite close (28th and 31st) after leg 1. Some strong male runners on the next legs brought the Laragh Legends as high as 12th – a position they kept until leg 7. On the last two legs they dropped to first 18th then 19th. This was largely due to not being able to optimize legs vs runners due to the experience and scheduling constraints available to the team.
| Team | Category | Category Rank | Overall Rank | Time | Gap to Category Winner |
| Glendalough Harried | Hounds | 4th | 4th | 8:30:58 | +57:57 to TT Racers |
| Laragh Legends | Hounds | 14th | 14th | 9:39:40 | +2:06:39 to TT Racers |
| Wicklow Wolfpack | Hares | 14th | 33rd | 11:03:25 | +1:28:20 to Blessington Lakers |
LEG BY LEG
While the overall result was up there with one of the best performances for the club, the individual leg by leg results were equally notable. Graham Bush impressed with a top-10 on the always competitive leg 1 and Robin Seymour was 5th on the even tougher leg 2 where Stephen Kennedy had a run good enough for many first teams to finish 11th.
| LEG 1 RESULT |
| 1. Leo Corry (Belpark Triathlon Club) 0:56:34 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 8. Graham Bushe 1:08:35 (1st M55) |
| 28. Tivon Tyner 1:19:35 |
| 31. Alan Kennedy 1:21:39 (2nd M55) – WW RC |
| LEG 2 RESULT |
| 1. Luke McMullan (Belpark Triathlon Club) 1:12:06 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 5. Robin Seymour 1:17:57 (1st M50) |
| 11. Stephen Kennedy 1:22:25 (3rd M40) – WW RC |
| 26. Aaron Kedward 1:35:10 |
| 44. Brendan Lawlor 2:02:33 (1st M60) |
The club really dominated leg 3 where Shane Keogh was first man and second overall before Loraine Creane and Rachel Wisdom arrived close together in 4th and 5th having also started only seconds apart. On leg 4, Anne Bromley had a very solid 12th place overall and was 3rd woman on the leg.
| RESULT Wicklow Way Relay leg 3 |
| 1. Eve Buckley (East Cork AC) 0:36:11 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 2. Shane Keogh 0:36:16 – WW RC |
| 4. Loraine Creane 0:37:26 (1st F45) |
| 5. Rachel Wisdom 0:38:20 (2nd F45) |
| 26. Zoe Heathcote 0:47:46 – WW RC |
As legs grew longer, we didn’t run out of steam. Ian Bromley was 4th on leg 5 and first in his age category (a trend for many of our runners throughout the day) with Kevin Ferguson also a strong 12th and Rebecca Whineray was 5th woman on that leg running for our wolfpack.
| RESULT Wicklow Way Relay Leg 4 |
| 1. Barry Minnock (TT Racers) 0:40:17 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 12. Anne Bromley 0:51:33 (1st F40) – WW RC |
| 16. Colm Kenna 0:54:08 |
| 22. Siobhan Brennan 0:57:31 (1st F50) |
| RESULT Wicklow Way Relay Leg 5 |
| 1. Ruben Bartelnik (TT Racers) 1:00:09 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 4. Ian Bromley 1:10:34 (1st M45) – WW RC |
| 12. Kevin Ferguson 1:16:09 (3rd M45) |
| 28. Rebecca Whineray 1:26:32 (2nd F45) – WW RC |
Leg 6 was back to it’s regular 12.7 km distance, having been 10 miles last year (and more for our runners!), and that distance was a pure treat for Huw Thomas who was pushed into second only by TT Racers run-away winner. This meant we had had 5 runners in the top-5 across the legs at this stage.
| RESULT Wicklow Way Relay leg 6 |
| 1. Ronan Dunphy (TT Racers) 0:56:32 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 2. Huw Thomas 1:00:46 (1st M35) – WW RC |
| 29. Ben Lewis 1:17:33 – WW RC |
| 44. Karen Field 1:41:21 – WW RC |
| 45. Lillian Deegan 1:53:25 (1st F50) |
On leg 7, Angus took a mighty shift running close to his own prediction in 16th on the longest leg of the day. He was also the 1st M55 on the leg while Aoife was 2nd F45 just nipping under the 2 hours.
| RESULT Wicklow Way Relay Leg 7 |
| 1. Pierre Murchan (Ain’t No Way Relay) 1:18:08 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 16. Angus Tyner 1:42:17 (1st M55) |
| 34. Aoife Joyce 1:59:46 (2nd F45) |
| 43. Brian Field 2:17:33 – WW RC |
We got out sixth top-5 placing (and 2nd runner-up spot on a leg) when Paul Duffy cruised the team home in 2nd beaten only by Clane AC’s Terry Shanley. Fiona Smyth was our only other competitors on this leg where Taryn Keane had helpfully stepped in to fill a late withdrawal in our second team (Taryn would finish 26th on the leg).
| RESULT Wicklow Way Relay Leg 8 |
| 1. Terry Shanley (Clane AC) 0:37:42 |
| ——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- |
| 2. Paul Duffy 0:40:56 (1st M45) |
| 32. Fiona Smyth 0:55:53 |
After being beaten out late into 6th place last year – with Kilcoole’s Aubrey O’Neill chasing down and overtaking Grace Curham to leave us trailing by a few seconds only, this year the gap built late on and we had a big 12 minute buffer to nearest contenders DSD AC and 46 minutes down to the second Wicklow-based club (Kilcoole). Nine Wicklow-based teams competed in total.
How the teams fared versus prediction:
Glendalough Harried – predicted 8:31:25, actual 8:30:58 (27 seconds ahead)
Laragh Legends – predicted 9:34:15, actual 9:39:40 (5 minutes 35 seconds behind)
Wicklow Wolfpack – predicted 12:09:59, actual 11:03:25 (1 hour 6 minutes 34 seconds ahead!)
We have updated all the club’s Wicklow Way Relay results on THIS PAGE
Glendalough AC 