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.
Our Winter League is now 3/4 one with today’s Clara Vale run the 8th of 12 with 4 to score.
Overall results
Overall result adjusted for handicaps (Round 8)
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:
Bruce Phillips 1:58 faster than handicap on the 9.1 km course
Aoife improved her time by 1:38 on the 5 km course
Donna Quinn 1:08 faster and set a new course record for women of 42:52
Yvonne, Arne and Colm all run 30-47 seconds better than their handicaps
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!
Glendalough Green is closed – where will we go now?Derek (sitting) ponders his handicap, Johnny (standing) just remembering his his
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.
Overall rankings after 8 of 12 with 4 to score
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
A belated race result from 2018. Torben Dahl ran the Wanake ParkRun on 29th of December as part of his holiday in New Zealand. If you’re around those parts Torben heartily recommends what was a stunning run with great view.
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!
Most chaotic team photo ever!
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.
Rachel Wisdom on the first lap
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.
‘A’ means medals: awards for Angus and Anthony
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.
Anthony and Johnny at the start (photo: Andrew Hanney)
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.
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.
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.
Results (handicapped) for round 6 of 12
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.
Overall results: round 6 of 12 (best 4 results to score)
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.
We held our Annual Xmas Party in Byrne an Woods in Roundwood this year and that means one thing: a chance to hand out the annual awards and honour our winners! Any fully paid up club member is eligible to win an annual award.
It was a busy year with 25 of our senior members competing in 200 races, winning 12 races, taking another 15 podiums and category prizes and recording 19 personal bests and 9 new club records.
All photos courtesy of Keith Thompson. Special thanks to Claire O’Callaghan who organised the party as well as our new club singlets this year!
Club Champions 2018
This year the club champion was selected based on points gained in any race where two or more of our club runners competed. Scoring was done using the Keswick Ranking. With 28 races to count champions were Torben Dahl (overall) and Donna Quinn (ladies). Torben edged out Barry Murray only on number of victories – otherwise being tied.
Donna Quinn (Ladies Club Champion 2018)
Most prolific runner
A new award for the runner durable and wise enough to rack up the most races. This was also won by Torben Dahl who ran nearly 20% of all races run by club members this year – running 27 races (ahead of Barry with 24 and Angus with 20).
Most improved runner
We look at results and performances on road, trail, hill and cross-country to pick the most improved runner and this year it went emphatically to Johnny Conway who improved the most on several scores including having the most personal bests in 2018.
Marcus Murphy receicing award on behalf of Johnny Conway (Most Improved Runner)
Best Road Performer
The 2018 ‘Best Road’ award was selected based on overall performances during the year. Angus Tyner set a new club record (and over-45 club record) with his 59:48 10 mile time early in the year and also racked up the most wins and podiums on the road along with individual and team medals in the Wicklow Road Championship. An undisputed winner!
Angus Tyner (Road Performer of the Year)
Best Off-Road Performance
This year’s ‘Best Off-Road’ prize went to a singular performance: Duncan Barrett for improving his personal best in the gruelling Kerry Way Ultra by 6 hours. In addition, Duncan had a fine season with several top-10 finishes on the road.
Duncan Barrett (Best Off-Road Performance)
Best Team Performance
Our members voted between the Wicklow Way and The Relay teams as well as the Bronze winning and Silver winning Masters Men and Senior Ladies teams respectively in the Wicklow Road Championship. In the end, the popular vote went to the ladies: Claire O’Callaghan, Donna Quinn and Yvonne Brennan.
Wicklow Road Championship Ladies Team: Donna Quinn, Claire O’Callaghan and Yvonne Brennan (absent) Best Team performance
Club Person of the Year
The only prize not given for athletic excellence but instead general commitment to the club and contribution beyond racing. The people voted and their choice was Colm Kenna for his unfailing support of training sessions, regularly racing and hard work as treasurer and website designer for our club.
Colm Kenna (Club Person of the Year)
Annual Raffle
We also held a raffle – winner was Philip Cullen who guessed the exact number of victories our runners recorded this year!
THURSDAY 20/12: Cross-country training at Vartry Reservoir from 7 pm to 8 pm
SATURDAY 22/12: Club Winter League at Brockagh Woods – 5 km and 9 km run options from 9 am
SUNDAY 23/12: Group long run (venue to be confirmed)
THURSDAY 27/12: NO TRAINING!
SATURDAY 29/12: Club Winter League Round 2 – Kevin’s Jaunt course from 9 am (meet Glendalough Hotel)
THURSDAY 03/01/19: Final tune-up before Master’s Cross-country (short session) – likely Vartry
There are likely more runs being organised over this period but keep in mind there are several races as well including Wicklow 5k, Djouce Remembrance Race, Solstice Mile and the GOAL Mile.
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).
Glendalough AC 