More training than racing to report from this week – Aoife Joyce had a run-out at the Avondale ParkRun today for her first 5 km ‘race’ in nearly 5 years and had an enjoyable time coming around in 24:10 on the somewhat bumpy course.
RESULT
————GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS———
22. Aoife Joyce 24:10 (3rd lady)
Another result from the hills. As Catherine Devitt was racing at Hellfire, Barry Murray took to the start line at Corrin Hill in Munster. The race had the unusual feature of having three Pauls occupying the top-3 placings. Perhaps Paul is replacing John as the name to pick if you want to excel in the hills.
Barry meanwhile showed he was only a bit behind his early-season form of 2018 – finishing 7th for the second consecutive year in a time only 23 seconds slower than the previous seasons outing. With conditions in the hills ever-changing such small variations are nearly the same as ‘no change’.
RESULTS
———-GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS———
6. Barry Murray 29:42 (3rd M40)
After the club shenanigans in Clara Vale Saturday, one club runners was involved in more serious business as the IMRA 2019 season kicked off at Hellfire Woods.
Seven day after her come-back in cross-country, Catherine Devitt returned for her first IMRA run since August 2017 and finished 14th in the ladies race and 86th overall with 217 finishers in this the first race of the Winter/Spring League.
RESULTS
———-GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS———
86. Catherine Devitt 43:46
full results: https://www.imra.ie/events/results/id/1672/category/O/
Our Winter League is now 3/4 one with today’s Clara Vale run the 8th of 12 with 4 to score.
Overall results
Barry O’Neill was the fastest overall on the 9.1 km long route with 39:53. He had intended to run only the short course due to a sore back but a wrong turn changed his fate and the course record – Barry was over 5 minutes faster than his handicap and finished 2nd in the adjusted rankings. Arne Klohn’s 40:13 was the second fastest and 47 seconds faster than his handicap. Derek Cullen with third-fastest time was 20 seconds slower than his handicap on a day when many were blown away – a few highlights:
On the other side Johnny Conway matched his handicap exactly as did the first-timers in this year’s league: Flora, Jimmy Cullen and Lizzie Murphy. Derek Cullen was the only runner slower than handicap – but only narrowly – he ran 41:16 having run 41:20 last time – full marks for consistency!
René Borg cemented his overall lead by running 7 minutes faster than his handicap to take overall victory on the day but this overall lead is now precarious: Donna Quinn lies 24 seconds behind with two ‘worse than handicap scores’ yet to potentially better and three more runners within the 2 minutes that they can improve by beating their handicap by 2 minutes in one of the last four races.
Of the runners with 3 or less to score, Derek Cullen and Claire O’Callaghan are well-positioned to jump right into the top-3 if they can keep current standards and Barry O’Neill and Marcus Murphy are dark horses if they can put together 2-4 good results in the last 4 rounds
Having missed the previous three instalments of this years Wicklow cross-country championship, it was heartening to see a big squad of our runners out for today’s Wicklow Masters Cross-Country Championship held in pristine conditions in Shanganagh Park today and hosted by Bray Runners. Thanks in advance to our hosts for a marvellous event!
A great Nollaig na mBan
Our women where up first and we sported our biggest team yet with 5 runners: two of our ‘regulars’ (Yvonne Brennan and Donna Quinn) with Catherine Devitt and Aoife Joyce making their come-backs after extended breaks and Rachel Wisdom returning to cross-country for the first time in many years.
Rachel went off in an early lead but Parnell’s Catherine O’Connor quickly asserted herself and dominated the majority of the race to finish first – 24 seconds ahead of Aisling Smith. Rachel battled midway for the last podium spot with another Parnell runner – Ann-Marie Kenny – but lost out by 21 seconds in the end. As a consolation she took the Gold Medal in the F35 category. Behind our Catherine Devitt set out in second but had been caught midway by Yvonne Brennan and Donna Quinn.
The girls worked together and packed well and in the end Donna Quinn paced herself best to take 5th overall – Yvonne and Catherine followed in quick succession in 6th and 8th spot and then Aoife in 15th. Such tight packing was duly rewarded: our women took Gold in the team competition with 15 points – 7 ahead of second-placed Parnell and four individual medals – the Gold, Silver and Bronze in the F35 category (Rachel, Donna and Catherine respectively) and the Bronze medal in the F40 category for Yvonne. This was the 5th team medal in cross-country in our history so far but only the 2nd gold.
Not to be completely outdone, our men also took home two individual medals: Angus Tyner had another excellent race – as is his habit – finishing 13th overall and taking the Bronze medal in the M50 category. Not far behind was a determined Anthony Breen in 20th who was rewarded for his efforts with the Bronze medal in the M45 category. Barry O’Neill and Rene Borg worked together for the mid-part of the race and finished 28th and 31st respectively with Johnny Conway (making his senior debut in the discipline) in 37th. Next in was another first-time cross-country runner – ultra-man Duncan Barrett in 47th followed by Colm Kenna and Keith Mulvey in 49th and 50th place. Winner of the men’s race were the hosts Ian McGrath.
Overall, our men finished 5th out of 6 teams with 51 points – avoiding finishing last by a mere two points ahead of the Kilcoole B team – every place counts!
All in all, 1 team GOLD, 1 individual gold, 1 individual silver, and 4 individual bronze medals represented a fantastic haul for the teams which will hopefully encourage everyone ahead of the 2019-2020 cross-country season!
A special thanks for our hosts Bray Runners for putting on a smoothly run event on a superb course.
WOMEN’S RACE (4K)
————–GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS—————
4. Rachel Wisdom 16:39 , 1st F35, TEAM GOLD
5. Donna Quinn 17:03, 2nd F35, TEAM GOLD
6. Yvonne Brennan 17:07, 3rd F40, TEAM GOLD
8. Catherine Devitt 17:25 , 3rd F35, TEAM GOLD
15. Aoife Joyce 19:06, TEAM GOLD
MEN’S RACE (6K)
————–GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS—————
13. Angus Tyner 22:01, 3rd M50
20. Anthony Breen 22:51, 3rd M45
28. Barry O’Neill 23:30
31. René Borg 23:36
37. Johnny Conway 24:12 (XC debut)
47. Duncan Barrett 26:33 (XC debut)
49. Colm Kenna 26:55
50. Keith Mulvey 27:08
WOMEN’S TEAMS
MEN’S TEAM
5. Glendalough AC 51 points
Seven brave club members decided to start the New Year with a bang by heading up Leinster’s highest peak Lug na Coille. Sadly, the forecast ‘partially cloudly’ conditions turned into ‘blanket mist’ pretty quickly as our group ascended the Table Track to summit Lug via Camenabologue.
A slightly rushed beginning to the descent to shake heat back into cold bodies led to the classical mistake of picking the Corrigaslaggaun spur off Lug na Coille instead of the planned for Clohernagh descent. Thankfully everyone kept their wits and calm about them and an alternative – if 10 km longer (!) – route back to the cars was quickly identified as our group broke through Drumgoff wood via some bush-hacking to rejoin the Wicklow Way and civilisation.
Despite the disappointment of missing out on the fabulous descent off Clohernagh including the ‘zig-zags’, we got lovely views of Kelly’s Lough on the way across Lough Mountain as well as a true adventure leaving many in the group refreshed in spirit if not in their legs! Now hopefully we’ll all stay on course in this Sunday’s Master’s Cross-country.
Arne Klohn demolished the group to cruise home in a fine 20:40 on the tough 5 km up to the turning point over Glendasan valley exactly 2.5 km from the Glendalough Hotel. The route follows Kevin’s Way up along the Glendasan River.
His time was a new record in the second running over the course and Rachel Wisdom also set a new ladies record with her 21:41. Only one runner raced/ran the long course – Bruce Phillips – and one took the option of running solo after the mass start (René). Once handicaps were factored in Arne Klohn still retained the win ahead of Rachel Wisdom and Aoife Joyce.
Bruce Phillips was the first person to do the long course so his 49:49 stands as the course record for that as well.
Arne’s win moves him up to third in the standings and with 5 races left and 4 runners on 3 races (with 4 to score) competition is heating up.
Arne Klohn continued recent good form with a fine 18th place finish at IMRA’s Djouce Remembrance Race. It was great to see good club turn-out at an event where many old friends passed in the recent years were remembered.
———GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS———–
18. Arne Klohn 33:11
31. Derek Cullen 35:29
34. Yvonne Brennan 35:44 (2nd lady, 2nd F40)
45. Bruce Phillips 39:54
Meanwhile club coach René Borg braved the stampede on the harbour front in Wexford running 6:09 for the Goal Mile Wexford.
We got midway through the Winter Handicap League today with the new run at Brockagh Woods. The course proved popular with several commenting it would make a nice IMRA trail race (in fact, a good part of the course is used in the Laragh Trail Race 6k).
Three runners competed in the long 9 km route with the remaining seven taking on the shorter 5 km route – all counting in the same rankings courtesy of the handicap system.
Fastest on the long course was Barry O’Neill with 44 minutes flat whilst Johnny Conway was fastest on the short with 22:36. Both will stand as course records until the second running along with Yvonne Brennan’s 24:31 (fastest female time).
Once adjusted for handicaps these were the results with Barry O’Neill winning 36 seconds ahead of Johnny who in turn had 11 seconds to Colm Kenna in third.
In the overall ranking the defending league winner – club coach René Borg – retains a 5 second lead to Donna Quinn but with the four best counting, runners will have plenty of results to discard in the final 6 races and for the runner who have run 3 or less, they could still feature at the top once they get in their fourth race.
Next round we restart our run through the six courses with Kevin’s Jaunt up St. Kevin’s Way and back to the Glendalough Hotel – next Saturday (29th) from 9:30 am. As always everyone is welcome, entry is free, and coffee and cakes a’plenty in Glendalough Green afterwards.
