Lap of the Gap cancellation COVID-19 – Question and Answers

Please find below the important questions regarding Lap of the Gap 2020 cancellation due to COVID-19. If you cannot find the answer to your question below please email lapofthgap@gmail.com with the subject line ‘cancellation query’ or email us through our Facebook page.

Read the cancellation announcement here.

Questions and Answers

What happens to my entry now?

Your entry is automatically deferred to 2021 (if you do not contact us and inform us otherwise – see below).

I cannot make 2021’s event. What are my options?

You can either get a refund (see below), transfer your event to 2022, or sell your entry to a friend.

Can I get a refund?

Yes, considering the extraordinary situation, you can avail of a refund should you so choose. Please note transaction/processing fees are not refundable – only the entry fee paid.

To get your refund please email lapofthegap@gmail.com with the subject ‘refund’ – this is a dedicated account setup to handle the refunds for the event and the only one we will be monitoring for this.

Alternatively, we suggest you avail of the name change option to transfer your entry to a friend.

Will the money arrive back in my account?

No. At this time all money resides with Glendalough AC. As a club account, we cannot facilitate electronic transfer. You will instead receive a cheque in the post.

How long will it take to receive the refund?

We will try to process your request within 5 working days depending on volumes. As our volunteers cannot make regular travels to the post office to post cheques during this period, actual time from request to receiving the cheque can take 3-4 weeks.

How do I transfer my entry to a friend?

Simply email us at lapofthegap@gmail.com with the subject ‘name change’ adding your friend’s email on CC along with their full name, date of birth, gender, full address, and t-shirt size and we will update your entry to reflect your friend.

How long will it take to get my refund?

It depends on the demand we receive. As our permanent staff are all volunteers, it may take a few weeks to process refunds in case we receive many requests.

How do I defer my entry to 2021?

This happens automatically (see above). If you wish to defer, simply do nothing.

My ticket was transferred from 2019 to 2020. Do I qualify for a refund?

You must transfer to 2021 and are not entitled to a refund. Most transfers are refund requests beyond the normal deadline for refunds. As such the value of your ticket was voided in 2020 and you were given a free ticket to 2020 as an exception. If your transfer was done under special circumstances, you can contact us to discuss the details.

Can I leave my entry fee as a donation to you?

Yes, your entry fee in that case will go towards covering the losses we are deciding to absorb in 2020 for services already rendered to us by professionals, deposits and so on. Any surplus goes into the fund-raising money for the event dedicated to improving the trail network around Laragh and the athletic development in our valley.

How do I leave my fee as a donation?

You can inform us on lapofthegap@gmail.com that you do not wish a transfer to 2021 or refund or you can simply do nothing and make up your mind later.

Can I change my event for 2021?

Yes, we’ll announce a process for this in January 2022. Please note that if you upgrade from marathon to half-marathon there will be an upgrade fee. There will be no downgrade fee if you move from the full marathon to the half-marathon.

I bought a bus ticket. Is it refundable?

Yes, please ask for this along with the refund of your ticket to lapofthegap@gmail.com. Note only the bus ticket price is refundable – not the transaction and processing fees.

I received a free ticket as part of a competition / reward for volunteering. Can I get the value refunded?

No, you must transfer your ticket to 2021 or sell it to a friend and request a name change from us.

Is registration open for 2021?

Yes, if you know someone who wants to register please find next year’s event details and registration here.

Lap of the Gap COVID-19 update

We are sad and disheartened to announce the Glendalough Lap of the Gap Marathon will not be taking place on 23rd of May as planned following concerns over our organisation’s ability to plan and execute a safe high-quality event – even if the current situation should be lifted in time for the event to legally go ahead.

We had looked forward to celebrating our 5th anniversary with you but feel this decision is in the best interest of our entrants, crew, suppliers, and public safety.

All entries will be deferred to the rescheduled 22nd of May 2021. Postponement to later in 2020 was sadly not an option as Athletics Ireland is not currently issuing new road race permits for the second half of the year. We feel it is not possible to continue to plan for this year’s event in such circumstances and will instead pull out all the stops for you to make 2021 our best event yet.

If you have any queries, please first review our new dedicated ‘Questions and Answers’ page. If you cannot find your answer email lapofthegap@gmail.com with the subject ‘other query’. Please don’t ask your question in the comments of our page as it may not be spotted by our volunteers.

Read the questions and answers here.

WEEKEND ROUND-UP: Shanganagh and the Hague

Our weekend report starts in Shanganagh where Barry O’Neill and Marcus Murphy were on the first ‘road trip’

In The Hague Richard Costelloe set a new personal best for the half-marathon running 1:30:15 and only narrowly missing out on the sub-90 minute barrier with some cramping.

THE HAGUE HALF

  1. Dawit Wolde  Ethiopia 59:58

—————-GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS—————–

896. Richard Costelloe 1:30:15(PB)

Full results

SHANGANAGH PARKRUN

  1. Derek Lawlor, Crusaders 17:32

—————-GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS—————–

13. Barry O’Neill 20:46

25. Marcus Murphy 22:48

Full results

WINTER LEAGUE – Final Round

Today’ result and final tally. 16 runners competed and 9 got the minimum 6 to score. The final round saw a three way battle between Aoife, Flora and Rene for the win and the Sportsroom voucher!

The final round of the Winter League took part on the Brockagh Woods course with runners trying to best their handicaps against the 5k and 9.1 km courses.

The situation

Aoife Joyce only had to better her current results by 21 seconds in order to make it impossible for either Flora McKnight or Rene Borg to catch her. It proved neck on neck as both Rene and Aoife had recorded the maximum score for the last 4 races in a row and would do so again at the fifth asking.

Having run 29:41 and thus running off a 30 minute handicap, Aoife obliterated her time with 25:28. This made Rene’s time academical but he got some consolation by lowering Barry O’Neill’s course record of 42:55 to 42:07 and taking the win on the day. Flora could not improve her handicap and dropped from 2nd to 3rd in the overall with Rene taking second. It all came down to 21 seconds after 12 races!

PositionNameStart timeFinish timeActual timeAverage PaceAvg / lapBehind winnerCourse run
1René Borg9:43 am10:25:07 am42:074:35 min/km10:32Long
2Aoife Joyce10:00 am10:25:28 am25:285:06 min/km12:440:21Short
3Marcus Murphy10:03 am10:29:08 am26:085:14 min/km13:044:01Short
4Colm Kenna10:03 am10:29:09 am26:095:14 min/km13:044:02Short
5Derek Cullen10:07 am10:30:46 am23:464:45 min/km11:535:39Short
6Barry O’Neill9:47 am10:30:58 am43:584:47 min/km11:005:51Long
7Flora McKnight10:03 am10:33:15 am30:156:03 min/km15:078:08Short
Round 12 – Brockagh Woods – standings

League summary

The league was evenly contested for much of it with several winners: Barry O’Neill and Bruce Phillips won one race each, Aoife, Flora and Colm took two each and Rene won 4.

#NameWins\RacesTOP 6AVGBehind
1Aoife Joyce265:48:030:58:010:00:00
2René Borg465:48:240:58:040:00:21
3Flora McKnight265:49:100:58:120:01:07
4Derek Cullen065:52:430:58:470:04:40
5Colm Kenna265:55:490:59:180:07:46
6Donna Quinn065:56:050:59:210:08:02
7Marcus Murphy065:56:580:59:300:08:55
8Bruce Phillips165:57:040:59:310:09:01
9Yvonne Brennan066:01:391:00:170:13:36
10Richard Kieran054:56:050:59:13 
11Barry O’Neill143:58:100:59:33 
12Catherine Devitt044:07:191:01:50 
13Aisling Kirwan022:02:041:01:02 
14Anne Marah011:00:281:00:28 
15Rachel Wisdom011:01:461:01:46 
16Michael Heatly011:01:491:01:49 
League 2019/20 – final standings

Notable achievements

This year’s league had four new course records: Donna Quinn and Aoife Joyce lowered the Roundwood 10k and 5k courses to 46:49 and 23:24 while Rene Borg lowered the long course times for Clara Vale and Brockagh Woods to 39:44 and 42:07.

People where adept at cracking their handicap breaking their times in 69 out of 106 attempts. Most of the 43 ‘failures’ – 15 – happened in the first two rounds as people were adjusting to their 2020 fitness levels!

League 2020/21

The league will return November 2020 but we will have other Saturday activities coming up for the rest of the year.

Next year’s league will feature and even tighter handicap system which should help keep the maximum number of people in contention for the longest period of time. We will also revisit bringing back the Pink Poulanass and Lower Lake Round courses to create a 16 round league.

WEEKEND ROUND-UP: Clara, Avondale, Enniscorthy

Last week’s National Masters cross-country marked the end of the cross-country season for most of our runners. But the action continues…

Parkrun

Our weekend running began at 9 am in Avondale where Angus Tyner finished 6th in the ParkRun in 22:12. Not long after the smallest crowd yet assembled for our penultimate Winter League race (perhaps the weather deterred?) on the crown jewel of the six courses in the league: Clara Vale.

RESULTS

  1. Cormac Conroy, Parnell AC 18:48

———GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS——–

6. Angus Tyner 22:12

full results

Winter League

The League has come down to a three-way battle between Aoife Joyce, Flora McKnight and coahc René Borg. All would have to better their handicap by 2 minutes or more to have a chance to stay in contention. Flora duly lowered her 29 minute handicap to 27 min and Aoife took her 30 minute mark down to 26 min. René had to improve his handicap of 42 minutes for the longer course to 40 minutes to stay within reach and just about scraped it with 39:44 – lowering Barry O’Neill’s course-record by 10 seconds in the process. All now comes down to Brockagh Woods next weekend where Aoife starts the day as the heavy favourite – her fate is in her own hands.

Image may contain: 1 person, smiling, shoes, child and outdoor
Aoife at the Enniscorthy 10k. Photo: John Busher

Enniscorthy 10 km

Aoife returned to Enniscorthy for the first time in 12 years looking to improve on her 46 minute mark set in Inch in July. Storm Dennis meant this task was a bit more onerous than expected but she still came home in a chip time of 44:48. Mission accomplished.

  1. Ger Forde, Slaney Olympic 33:10

————–GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS

99. Aoife Joyce 44:48

full results

Brockagh Burst (belated)

We also spotted – a bit late – that Lillian Deegan ran Brockagh Burst where she finished 180th.

  1. Killian Mooney 27:14

————–GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS———–

180. Lillian Deegan 1:07:36

full results

REPORT: National Masters XC

The National Masters Cross-Country came to Avondale and four of our runners joined up underneath the banners of the broader Sli Cualann teams to compete. Two and one kilometer loops had been laid out with a start from Avondale House featuring several hills including ‘The Green Wave’ midway through the bigger two kilometer lap making it one of the hilliest cross-country courses in the country.

There was much success for Sli Cualann overall with several individual medals and team bronze for the Men’s Intermediate team. Glendalough AC could not contribute to this effort as we have no male members under 35!

Ladies race

Ladies Masters and Over-65 men

Donna Quinn, running her first national cross-country event, set off first with the Masters Ladies race over 4 km (two laps) and went on to have a strong run finishing 67th out of 206 and fifth of the 11 Sli Cualann ladies in action.

Men’s race

Sli Cualann Masters (O35-O65) men’s team

Our three male representatives raced in the men’s over-35 to 65 race over 7 km (three 2 km laps after a shorter 1 km warm-up lap). 258 set off in a regular stampede.

First Glendalough AC man was club coach René Borg representing Sli Cualann for the first time (having not run outside county level since his transfer from Crusaders AC in 2013) in 30:11. Angus and Anthony arrived within a minute with Angus in 30:28 and Anthony in 31:10. This was the case for much of the Sli Cualann team – Parnell’s Tony Collins arrived at the 30 minute mark with Jonathan O’Neill in 30:35 and MJ O’Neill in 30:41 making it six out of the total twenty Sli Cualann runners in the field within that 70 second time-span.

Angus’ run made him fourth scorer in the 2nd placed over-50ies team with Rene and Anthony 2nd and 3rd scorer for the Sli Cualann B team that finished 22nd out of 22 in the over-35s!!!

As the race contained three or more Glen AC runners, it will count in the Club Championship 2020.

RESULTS

Masters Women

  1. Teresa Doherty, Finn Valley 15:21

————–GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS (REPRESENTING SLI CUALANN)—————

67. Donna Quinn 18:16 (5th Sli Cualann runner)

full results

Masters Men

  1. Brian Maher, Kilkenny City Harriers 23:43

————–GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS (REPRESENTING SLI CUALANN)—————

157. René Borg 30:11 (13th Sli Cualann runner)

166. Angus Tyner 30:28 (14th Sli Cualann runner)

193. Anthony Breen 31:10 (17th Sli Cualann runner)

full results

Report: IMRA Powerscourt Ridge

The second last race of the 2019 IMRA racing calendar, Powerscourt Ridge was certainly also one of the toughest events of the Irish mountain running year.

Glendalough AC’s Barry O’Neill competed in very wet and windy conditions, finishing the 16km course in 1:43:41. The technical trails on this course included the summits of both Maulin and Djouce, combining for almost 700m of total climbs.

RESULTS

1.   Mark Stephens 1:16:26

35. Barry O’Neill 1:43:41

Report: Tollymore Trail Marathon

The Tollymore Trail Marathon took place on November 16th in the beautiful Tollymore Forest Park, Northern Ireland. This challenging trail course featured four main climbs with almost 1,000m of elevation gain.

Glendalough AC’s Richard Costelloe had been targeting this event for his
main racing goal in 2019. Richard completed the race in a (PB) time of 3:27:21, taking fifth place overall.

RESULTS

1.   Chris Denton 3:01:54

5. Rich Costelloe 3:27:21

Report: Glendalough Trail Run

The 10th annual Glendalough Trail Run took place on Saturday, 2nd November. This 15.5km trail race is a popular charity event supporting Fighting Blindness. The race takes in some of the stunning Glendalough scenery while challenging runners with over 500m of climbs over trail roads, single-tracks and a 400m pure mud section.

Glendalough AC had one runner competing this year: Richard Costelloe, who took 3rd place

Richard started out with a small leading group heading up the the Glendasan Valley. On the first steep climb he edged up to 3rd place, with the first two runners already creating a large gap ahead. The second long climb started up past Poulanass Waterfall, eventually looping back along the Wicklow Way for a fast descend back into Glendalough Valley.

For the remainder of the race Richard managed to keep just ahead of several chasing runners, finishing 3rd, earning a beautiful and unique handcrafted pottery bowl made by local artist Crannmore Pottery. This was Richard’s 22nd race of the year and by far his best result.

RESULTS

1.   Tim Grummell Sli Cualann AC  1:06:37

3. Rich Costelloe Glendalough AC 1:11:13

WINTER LEAGUE 2020: Round 1 in Roundwood.

It was an eventful opening to the Winter League as usual. We missed the rain and could complete the whole event in gorgeous sunshine and be home for coffee and grub before the rain hit.

Some were playing it tactical, taking it relatively easy to reset their handicaps to an easier level for the new season whereas others took no prisoners including Barry O’Neill who lowered Derek Cullen’s time to 45:06 on the 10k course. Two of our runners went ‘cani-cross’ (Flora and Marcus) whereas Torben Dahl decided to add in a few extra mini-loops and had to forfeit finishing!

Aoife Joyce won the overall handicap race despite cashing in 41 penalty seconds for breaking her handicap by too much.

Overall standings – time penalties included

The series – and the hunt for The Sportsroom vouchers – continues on the Green Gapways course next Saturday from 9:30 am at the Glendalough Green.