Saturday 27th saw a triple-decker of races with a road, trail and hill run on offer, we start in Monaghan before moving via the Netherlands to Wicklow….
BLANEY ROCKETS 10 MILE
Donna Quinn returned homewards to Monaghan for one of her local races – the Blaney Rockets 10 mile and completed an easy enough cruise winning the F40 category in the process.
RESULT
1. Alexander Wallace (St. Coca’s AC) 0:53:59
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
67. Donna Quinn 1:10:19 (1st F40)
LUGNACOILLE
Paul Duffy showing that the ‘short and singlet’ tradition is still alive even on the high peaks… (photo: Gill McLoughlin)
Six runners took on the hyper-traditional Lugnacoille race – a proper straightforward up and down mountain run with an average gradient of 14%. Graham Bush showed strong form in distancing everyone else including Club Championship leader Paul Duffy who was second home followed by Jeff Swords, Kevin Doherty and Eoin Phelan (breaking the record for most races in a season with 32 through this effort) and finally Joe Lalor – winning the M70 category.
Kevin Doherty (photo: Dillon Ryan)
RESULT
1. Sean Quirke (Bilboa AC) 0:59:22
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
24. Graham Bushe 1:12:42
29. Paul Duffy 1:16:58
39. Jeff Swords 1:26:27
43. Kevin Doherty 1:31:22
52. Eoin Phelan 1:45:40
56. Joe Lalor 1:36:20 (1st M70)
OTTERLO TRAIL RUN
Otterlo
Richard Costelloe did his 4th race of just around 30 km in this racing season this time mainly on dunes and trails finishing 8th out of 72.
Eoin Phelan continues to draw away from the pack in the Most Prolific by completing a Tuesday/Wednesday race double encompassing the two races of our mid-week report. Eoin leads our most profilic with 31 races – eight clear of James Heggie – and now matching Angus Tyner’s record of 31 races (from 2017).
PARK WEST 5 KM
Eoin started Tuesday evening with his second best 5 km performance and 25th overall in a field of nearly 400 at the Park West 5 km in Dublin.
RESULT
1. Abel Deresu Dufera () 0:16:59
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
25. Eoin Phelan 0:20:11
GLEN OF THE DOWNS
Loraine Creane at Glen of the Downs
24 hours later he was joined for another evening race by five more of our runners: the new 8.2 km course in the traditional surrounds of Glen of the Downs.
Graham Bush continues his rise in form coming home as our first runner in 16th overall and 2nd M55. Loraine Creane was next – 2nd woman overall and 1st F40 – four races, four podiums this year and all the more impressive given her bad bike crash earlier in the year.
Graham Bush (right) with Liam Vines at Glen of the Downs
Eoin Phelan was next with James Heggie fourth while Chris Willoughby unfortunately had to concede his first DNF after pulling a hamstring midway through the race. The Wednesday night races now return to the Leinster League next weekend at Church Mountain….
RESULT
1. Daire Finn () 0:34:45
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
16. Graham Bushe 0:42:57 (2nd M55)
56. Loraine Creane 0:49:47 (1st F40, 2nd woman)
66. Eoin Phelan 0:51:12
123. James Heggie 0:59:42
186. Chris willoughby DNF
CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP
Five runners are heading to Lugnacoille tomorrow in what will likely be a club championship counter – good luck to Eoin (!), Paul, Kevin F. and Kevin D. and Graham Bush….
The rocky descent on Kevin’s / Miner’s Way – part of the Tucker Relay / Ultra (blue dot is club coach Rene Borg)
We start our results catch-up with a tripple of 5 km results: Angus Tyner competed in two ParkRuns abroad (Livingston and Brecon in Wales) finishing 6th and 5th in 20:41 and 20:03 respectively.
Colm Kenna ran 21:53 in the Mellon Educate 5k fund-raiser in Ashford – as far as we know, no results are published.
GLENDALOUGH TUCKER TRAIL 80K
Catherine Devitt in talks with deputy race director James Tucker – son of the late Adrian for whom the race is named
On the trail side of things, Catherine Devitt had a wonderful debut on the 80 km distance (and ultra distances!) finishing 2nd woman in the Glendalough Tucker Trail in 10:01. Catherine sat in 2nd place from throughout all checkpoints although she was embroiled in a constant tit for tat with third-placed Denise Barrett- gaining on most sections but conceding times on others throughout – but winning by a comfortable enough 4 minute cushion by the end. John Conway was a DNS with fatigue after a big season catching up wiht him and James Heggie had to concede his third ultra DNF of the season.
RESULT
1. Enda Cloake (Slaney Olympic) 7:42:00
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
20. Catherine Devitt 10:01:19
48. James Heggie DNF
Rene Borg passing the miner’s ruins near Wicklow Gap on the return journey of leg 1
About an hour and a half later, Rene Borg was among the last two relay runners to start after a handicapped start for most teams. He was the fastest leg 1 runner on the day and while he caught back 3-4 runners on the first leg, ultimately he and team mates Sean and Christian couldn’t overcome the handicap finishing – 9th out of 16.
RESULT
1. Rene Borg (Glendalough AC) 1:25:31 (CR)*
* For the route run by relay runners. Some of the elite ultra racers have covered the leg fasterincluding this year’s 80k winner Enda Cloake who covered it in a shade under 81 minutes.
IRISH RUNNER MILE
On Sunday, Eoin Phelan smashed his 10 mile PB by over 4 minutes in the Irish Runner 10 mile in the Phoenix Park often an important milestone on the way to the Dublin Marathon.
This weekend had it all: track records, a downhill only race in the alps, a tough half-marathon on Croghan Kinsella and the congested madness at Clontarf Half-marathon and was folllowed by another busy week including the Leinster League race at Carrick, Docklands 5k, the Ridgeway Ultra in the UK and the Fingal 10k road race and we got plenty of podiums, a club record and personal bests to celebrate.
WESTVIlET LOPEN AND WERPEN TRACK MEET
Richard Costelloe only had three other competitors to spur him on in the 3000m discipline at the Westvliet Lopen and Werpen track meet but that did not stop him reducing his PB from 10:08 to 10:01. With that run he claimed the overall club record (his own) and the M45 club record (held by Angus Tyner) and now holds 9 of our 142 club records. Not bad at age 48!
RESULT
1. Richard Costelloe (Glendalough AC) 0:10:01 (PB, Club Record)
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
CLONTARF HALF-MARATHON
Fergal Olohan ran a strong while Aran Lynham continued his recovery after the Lap of the Gap 100 km race by pacing girlfriend Ashley through the half in 2:01. First home, however, was Niall MacCague with a fine sub-90 minute performance.
RESULT
1. Wayne Waldron () 1:14:57
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
43. Niall MacCague 1:28:16
969. Aran Lynham 2:01:39
972. fergal Olohan 1:55:36
CROGHAN HALF-MARATHON
RESULT
1. Donatas Jocius (Crusaders AC) 1:46:53
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
24. Aoife O’Brien 2:09:33 (1st F35)
28. Chris willoughby 2:10:57 (3rd M50)
31. Alan Kennedy 2:13:21 (3rd M55)
41. Colm Kenna 2:20:57 (3rd M45)
43. Aoife Joyce 2:22:22 (3rd F45)
51. Eoin Phelan 2:31:23
MEGAVALANCHE DOWNHILL RACE
John Conway continues to be a glutton for punishment taking on the planned 21 downhill only races from Alpe d’Huez. Due to adverse weather conditions it was shortened to 16 km but that is still a lot of eccentric muscle damage. John took the M40 category finishing 12th out of 41 downhill demons.
Four of our runners joined 150 others for another Leinster League evening race and it was another close run between Paul Duffy, Richard Allan and Graham Bush. This time Paul turned the tables back – finishing first with Graham 2nd and Richard Allan 3rd. All three finished 3rd in their respectice age categories (M40, M55, M50) with Andy Hayes also finished the race in 87th.
RESULT
1. Oscar Durston (Kilcoole AC) 0:38:04
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
20. Paul Duffy 0:45:56 (3rd M40)
23. Graham Bushe 0:46:18 (3rd M55)
25. Richard Allan 0:47:30 (3rd M50)
87. Andy Walker 1:00:54
DOCKLANDS 5K
Wednesday evening racing gave way to Thursday night racing at the hyper-traditional Docksland 5k where 1700 runners assembled. Matthew O’Brien represented us finishing just outside the top-third of the field.
RESULT
1. Peter Somba (Ratoath AC) 0:15:02
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
619. Matthew O’Brien 0:24:04
THE RIDGEWAY – RACE TO THE STONES ULTRA
Eleanor Carty bagged her first ever ultra in Essex running the Race to the Stones 50k finishing in the middle of the field with a solid 6:48:37 for the 50 km race.
RESULT
1. Daniel Wheller () 3:44:47
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
175. Eleanor Carty 6:48:37
FINGAL 10K
It was double-PB joy for Eoin Phelan (a week on from Croghan) and Graham Kearns at the Fingal 10km in Dublin.
We had runners in action at four different Saturday and one Sunday – mainly on rough mountain and trail but we will start with last evening’s result at the Leinster League race in Ballinastoe where we had 13 competitors out.
BALLINASTOE
Richard Allen on the climb at Ballinastoe. Richard has now finished first club man home in 7 of the 9 races he has run for the club (photo: Eoin O’Brien)
On a course that tends to change a bit from year to year, runners this time had to navigate 10.6 rough km to get the finish line – some added a bit (like Paul) and others reccied a 1.5 km extension (like Keith!) but all got to the finish line in the end!
Richard Allan reclaimed his tag as ‘top dog’ (or wolf?) turning the tables on Paul Duffy and finishing 17 seconds ahead of him with Graham Bush a further 2 seconds adrift. Next round coming up soon?
We did well on the category podium front with before-mentioned Richard taking 2nd in the M50, Graham Bush winning the M55 (after his Connacht double-header over the weekend), Alan Kennedy taking the 2nd place in the M55 and Grace Curham finishing 2nd senior female (and 13th in the women’s race overall).
Kevin Ferguson (photo: Eoin O’Brien)
Also tight packing again with Kevin and Chris and Alan who finished within 18 seconds of each other with Grace, Angus, Eoin and Andy arriving between 74 and 78 minutes. Keith and James rounded up our group.
RESULT
1. Daire Finn () 0:52:19
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
28. Richard Allan 1:01:22 (2nd M50)
30. Paul Duffy 1:01:39
31. Graham Bushe 1:01:41 (1st M55)
40. Torben Dahl 1:03:55
50. Kevin Ferguson 1:06:10
52. Chris willoughby 1:06:16
54. Alan Kennedy 1:06:28 (2nd M55)
82. Grace Curham 1:14:12 (2nd FS)
86. Eoin Phelan 1:15:19
96. Angus Tyner 1:16:54
100. Andy Walker 1:17:54
132. Keith Mulvey 1:33:48
163. James Heggie 1:39:22
ZUIDERPARKRUN
Richard Costelloe went out for a bit of a training session to record a solid 18:05 and finishing 3rd in his local parkrun and 2nd M45 on the day.
RESULT
1. Jonny Yeates (Barnet and District AC) 0:17:34
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
3. Richard Costelloe 0:18:05 (2nd M45)
CONNACHT CHAMPIONSHIP – MWEELREA
Joe Lalor on Mweelrea (photo: Brian McConnell)
Graham Bush and Joe Lalor were our two representatives at the IMRA Connacht Championship double header that began on the 10.6 km course to the top of Mweelrea and back. Graham secured 2nd in the M55 category with Joe winning his.
RESULT
1. Matthew McDonnell () 0:59:49
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
15. Graham Bushe 1:21:06 (2nd M55)
32. Joe Lalor 1:50:29 (1st M70)
BENBULBEN (luke’s bridge)
53 people towed the line to run up the spectacular Ben Bulben including former member Brian Lydon who went on to finish 4th! Eoin Phelan was our ‘current’ representative and finished 42nd.
RESULT
1. Alan Dunne () 0:46:30
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
42. Eoin Phelan 1:14:10
THE RELAY
The Relay has all the essentials: times at hand-overs, emergency water, parking, and finish line celebrations and nicely captured the minimalist feel of the early days of the Wicklow Way Relay (now grown into a much larger and more involved event).
Our two Danes (Rene and Torben) had been drafted in to do leg 3 and 4 – essentially the same leg (from Gaffney’s lane to Pier Gates car park) – with Rene doing the net uphill outward leg and Torben the net downhill return.
Michael Dowling handed over to them in 8th position with Rene catching back 4 more teams as he ran the 4th fastest time on leg 3 on the day. Torben went one better by running at the fastest time on leg 4 (on the day) and taking back one further spot to bring the team into the podium places. Unfortunately, by the finish line, the team was back in 8th spot out of 11 with Kilcoole AC sweeping the podium. Here is an encouragement to the GMACers to field a team or two next year!
RESULT – leg 3
1. Aubrey O’Neill (Kilcoole AC) 0:42:29
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
4. René Borg 0:48:18
RESULT – LEG 4
1. Torben Dahl (Glendalough AC) 0:43:40
NEPHIN
Sunday brought the second race of the Connacht Championship where Graham completed the double-header on the short but incredibly steep Nephin race where 27 ‘survivors’ of the first day battled it out and Graham moved up 7 spots and traded his 2nd place on day 1 in the M55 to 1st. Joe Lalor also finished and won the overall M70.
Graham Bush at Nephin (photo: Peter O’Farrell)
All in all 20 people completed the full Championship with Graham finishing 8th and 1st M55 as well.
Lots of mountain and trail action with a lonely results from the Waterford Marathon to go with it. Results ranged from unfortunate DNF to a heap of podium wins at Howth….
SNOWDONIA 14 PEAKS SKYRACE
We start the report with DNF as John Conway took on the tough and technical 14 Peaks Race in Snowdon but unfortunately was timed out at the Nant Paris checkpoint after neary 7 hours of running.
John was in a good position when he rolled his ankle and he relates: “too many pain killers and got too dehydrated. When I got to the last aid station with 14k to go, I was all over the place and medic wouldn’t let me continue. Was doing well position wise but was in a hoop. Very tough race. Probably the hardest one day race I’ve done.”
RESULT
1. Josh Bakker-Dyos () 7:24:28
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
152. John Conway DNF
WATERFORD VIKING MARATHON
Eoin Phelan and 398 other competitors suffered in the heat at the Waterford Viking Marathon finishing in the top third of the field with a 3:54.
RESULT
1. Alexander Wallace (St. Coca’s AC) 2:26:00
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
137. Eoin Phelan 3:54:19
TINAHELY
There was also some action on locals hill with James Heggie our lone representative at the new and extended Tinahely route around Ballycumber Hill where 55 runners made the journey to West Wicklow.
RESULT
1. Liam Mooney (Lakeshore Striders) 1:19:55
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
49. James Heggie 2:41:06
Torben looking focused at Howth
HOWTH SUMMER
It was podium galore at Howth Summer where a surprisingly small field of 136 restarted the Leinster League. Paul Duffy was well out front sitting in 7th until the final km but ran out of steam a bit yet still finished as our first man home (by a whisker) ending Richard Allen’s streak of winning 6 head to heads with other club runners since Scarr in May.
Paul is now on a 12 race winning streak against fellow club members – his last ‘defeat’ was Run the Ridge last May where Richard Costello won out. For more on ‘head to head winners’ check the last paragraph of the report.
Chris chasing Alan – he would nearly catch him right on the line…
Only four seconds divided them and they won the M40 and M50 categories respectively. Torben Dahl was next in 23rd finishing 3rd M45 before Alan Kennedy and Chris Willoughby were dead-heated on the line but Alan crossing first (and taking 1st M55 position). Kevin Doherty was next in 47th before James Heggie rounded up our group 3 days on from his Tinahely race.
RESULT
1. Daire Finn () 0:41:04
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
12. Paul Duffy 0:47:39 (1st M40)
13. Richard Allan 0:47:42 (1st M50)
23. Torben Dahl 0:49:31 (3rd M45)
32. Alan Kennedy 0:51:51 (1st M55)
33. Chris willoughby 0:51:51 (2nd M50)
47. Kevin Doherty 0:54:14
126. James Heggie 1:18:56
HEAD TO HEAD RECKONING (2014-2024)
We keep track of head to head results since our club’s inception a decade ago with 43 separate runners having won ‘head to head’ (first male or female respective to all other club male or female runners in a particular race).
Paul Duffy has now moved up into 3rd space for most head to head wins after club stalwarts Torben (44) and Angus (38).
Three trail/hill races and two road races to report on including a fine PB in the Netherlands for Richard Costelloe while Gavin Kennedy secured our joint highest IMRA finish of the year on the men’s side matching Paul Duffy’s 10th place from Brockagh Burst and Angus Tyner’s 10th from Stranahelly Woods (the latter albeit in a very small field).
BIKE LOW CARBON RACE TICKNOCK
Phelan joined 43 others at the slightly unusual time of 6 pm on a Saturday for the ‘Bike low carbon race Ticknock’ utilising bits of the old Blue Light course and finished 16th and 3rd in the M35 category. Eoin would run at Wobbly Bridge too (below) to extend his lead in the ‘Most prolific’ competition with 23 races to James Heggie’s 17.
Winner was Slaney’s Enda Cloake doing his fourth race in ten days since travelling back from the Europeans in France.
RESULT
1. Enda Cloake (Slaney Olympic) 0:35:17
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
16. Eoin Phelan 0:50:45 (3rd M35)
FLAGSTAFF
Meanwhile in the North, John Conway attended the always competitive NIMRA event at Flagstaff (to Carlingford) finishing 22nd out of 78 runners on a course with an average gradient modifier of 30% over it’s nearly 17 km.
RESULT
1. Keith Johnston (Armagh AC) 1:47:38
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
22. John Conway 2:11:20
FOLEY’S FUN RUN – MINNESOTA
Having relocated from warm Florida to the cooler climate of Minnesota, Flora was back in action on the American roads finishing 2nd in the F45 category at the Foley’s Fun Run in 28:54.
RESULT
1. Preston Holewa () 0:17:21
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
59. Flora McKNight 0:28:54 (2nd F45)
WOBBLY BRIDGE
Gavin Kennedy chasing women’s winner Sarah Flanagan at Wobbly Bridge
Wobbly Bridge trail race saw it’s largest crowd yet with over 250 runners registered of which 187 turned up to race the long course. The course was slightly shortened from the 7.8 km of the last few years to 7.6 km this year robbing racers of a bit of downhill but also providing a surprise relief on the day…
The field is strung out quite wide on the downhill start meaning the back of the field will run nearly 100m extra in any case!
Chris Willoughby (orange), Rene Borg (centre) and Eoin Phelan (Navy) at the start line
We had eight runners competing, and banking Club Championship points, with Gavin Kennedy showing for the second time that he’s really moved up a level when he led us home in 10th and a fine time of 32:53 (winning the M45 category) as he outsprinted Irish international Sarah Flanagan (who won the women’s) on the line. Second home was club coach René Borg, opening his trail running season in 2024 with a 23rd placed finish and finishing 3rd M45 in his first outing in that category. Chris Willoughby was next followed by Eoin Phelan and Colm (all dipping under 40 minutes) with Chris taking 3rd in the M50 category. Donall Flanagan and Andy Walker came in next with Mark Willoughby, struggling through stomach issues, our final finisher.
RESULT
1. Daire Finn () 0:28:26
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
10. Gavin Kennedy 0:32:53 (1ST M45)
23. René Borg 0:35:09 (3rd M45)
36. Chris willoughby 0:37:09 (3rd M50)
48. Eoin Phelan 0:38:51
64. Colm Kenna 0:39:43
86. Donall Flanagan 0:41:26
96. Andy Walker 0:42:38
150. Mark Willoughby 0:48:30
Midzomeravondwedstrijd 5000m
Last in action – at nearly 10 pm Irish time, at the Midsummer track meet in the Netherlands, Richard Costelloe lowered this overall 5 km PB of 17:38 (from 2020) to 17:34.25 to win the Master’s men race and finish 9th overall.
While this is the fastest 5 km run on track for our club, Angus Tyner’s 17:18 M45 club record still stands as an indomitable challenge for our Master’s athletes.
RESULT
1. Stefan Buck (Rotterdam Atletik) 0:15:40
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
8. Richard Costelloe 0:17:34.25 (2nd M45, PB)
CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP UPDATE – ROUND 9 OF 16
With only men competing at Wobbly Bridge only the overall ranking was affected by today’s counter with Gavin Kennedy moving up to 2nd place with his second win yielding 100 pts.
Name
Round 9 – Hill/Trail counter
Gavin Kennedy
100.0
René Borg
93.1
Chris Willoughby
87.0
Eoin Phelan
81.9
Colm Kenna
79.2
Donall Flanagan
74.0
Andy Walker
70.3
Mark Willoughby
52.5
One more win and he’ll draw level with Paul Duffy and it will go down to ‘head to head’. Eoin Phelan and Rene Borg climbed to 4th and 5th respectively. Currently only 6 runners out of 44 have the minimum 5 races for a full score – so expect plenty of upsets later in the season….
Three mountain races to report on beginning with the weekend double-header featuring two new routes: the 2nd instalment of the IMRA Half-marathon league at the Trooperstown and Clara Vale route (replacing the cancelled Slieve Bloom Half) followed by a new route out of Glenmalure (Stranahely Woods) in the Leinster Championships.
While some were racing others were pacing Aran Lynham in his successful Lap of the Gap 100 km attempt (read about it here).
Aoife O’Brien (right) securing another podium at Trooperstown
TROOPERSTOWN AND CLARA VALE
Colm Kenna in his 9th race of the season (photo: Brendan Delaney)
On the new route at Trooperstown and Clara Vale, Torben Dahl kept showing signs of returning to his form of old crossing the line in 18th after gaining two spots late on. Aoife O’Brien was next finishing 2nd in the women’s race and 1st in her O35 category (her third category top-3 and second overall top-3 in the women’s races in her three IMRA outings so far this year).
Chris Willoughby finished a few minutes later with Colm Kenna securing a spot well within the top-half of the field as well.
RESULT
1. Daire Finn () 1:30:54
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
18. Torben Dahl 2:01:35
28. Aoife O’Brien 2:06:17 (2nd woman, 1st F35)
29. Chris willoughby 2:08:38
46. Colm Kenna 2:17:58
ZUIDERPARKRUN
Meanwhile in Holland, Richard Costelloe ran a Season Best 5 km for our club winning his local Zuiderparkrun in 17:48 – only 10 seconds off his best.
RESULT
1. Richard Costelloe (Glendalough AC) 0:17:48 (Season Best)
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
STRANAHELY WOODS
A valley down and a day later, orienteers Angus Tyner and Joe Lalor represented us at the Leinster Championship in Stranahely Woods on an unmarked course over roughly 14.5 km.
In a small field of 23 intrepid souls, Angus and Joe took the wins in the M55 and M70 categories.
RESULT
1. Enda Cloake (Slaney Olympic) 1:18:12
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
10. Angus Tyner 1:34:26 (1st M55)
22. Joe Lalor 2:22:28 (1st M70)
the field at Stranahely Woods (photo: Ian Bromley)
THE AYLING ABYSS
Angus Tyner at the Ayling Abyss (photo: Ronan Doyle)
Known as one of the most gruesome of the Leinster League summer series, the ‘Ayling Abyss’ had been lengthened from 10 km to 11.3 km this year. Despite this the winning time was the same as previous year’s courtesy of the double star dust of Ireland’s leading mountain runner (Zak Hannah) coming down from the North to race at the same time as fellow seasoned international Paddy O’Leary was home from California.
This led to an explosive start where Zak took the field through the first km in 2:40! Torben Dahl was having a great race when he and a number of other runners stopped to attend to a female runner who had cut herself up fairly badly after a fall. Richard Allan thus was first man home once again and 2nd M50 with John Conway (down from Louth) next ahead of Kevin Ferguson. Eoin and Niall arrived ensuring we had 5 out of our ten runners in the top-half of the field with Angus being followed by Torben, Keith and James.
RESULT
1. Zak Hannah (Newcastle AC) 0:51:36
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
25. Richard Allan 1:07:31 (2nd M50)
43. John Conway 1:12:17
51. Kevin Ferguson 1:14:15
87. Eoin Phelan 1:23:45
95. Niall MacCarthy 1:26:17
117. Angus Tyner 1:34:04
132. Torben Dahl 1:46:39
146. Keith Mulvey 1:35:29
154. James Heggie 1:38:29
CORKAGH 5 MILE
In the well-attended Irish Life Corkagh 5 mile (nearly 1400 in the field), Mark Willoughby took it steady enough to cruise home in 538th and 42:24 chip time.
A quick report from the Netherlands before we dig into the Wednesday evening action from the Scalp and from Arklow for this year’s Athletics Wicklow 5k Road Championship.
BRABANTSE WAL 10K
Catherine Devitt was ready to take on a full Trail Marathon but the organiser’s ran into permit issues seeing her race reduced to a 10 km. On a relatively flat and fast course, she took another win in 42:33. Full results pending….
SCALP
James Heggie at the Scalp (photo: Peter Parker)
A crew of ten of our runners joined 199 others at Carrickgolligan for the Scalp race in the IMRA Leinster League with Richard Allan first home once again and finishing 2nd M50 with Alan Kennedy (2nd M55) and Joe Lalor (2nd M70) also finishing top-3 in their categories.
RESULT
1. Daire Finn () 0:33:00
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
22. Richard Allan 0:41:41 (2nd M50)
45. Alan Kennedy 0:45:50 (2nd M55)
71. Grace Curham 0:49:10
76. Angus Tyner 0:49:41
96. Niall MacCarthy 0:52:35
117. Andy Walker 0:56:25
157. Keith Mulvey 1:00:29
183. James Heggie 1:06:27
208. Richard Kieran DNF
WICKLOW ROAD CHAMPIONSHIP 2024
We’ve been present at every Wicklow Road Championship since 2015 and this year was no exception even if our contingent of seven was the smallest since the strange years 2019 and 2020 (were we sent 6 and 7). Late injuries and withdrawals meant our M50 and our F35 teams folded leaving it up to 7 runners split over 2x M35 teams to try and contest.
Gavin Kennedy led the team home for the lone medal of the day (our 31st in this event) finishing a solid 2nd in the M45 category – he also dipped under 19 minutes for the first time (18:23) for a breakthrough performance and banked 100 points in the Club Championship.
Gavin Kennedy leading the team home with a PB, first sub-19 and M45 silver medal
Next was Blaise Kinsella in 19:23 with club coach Rene Borg 3 spots and 5 seconds further back. Eoin Phelan was next leading home our 2nd team and breaking the 20 minute barrier for the first time with a very fine time of 19:49 (a massive PB).
Blaise Kinsella (front) with Rene Borg behind two Parnell runners
next was Graham Kearns in his 5k road debut in 20:49 with Colm Kenna 43 seconds later – improving his 2023 time by about a minute – and Mark Willoughby rounding out the team. Donna’s absence means Colm is now the only Glendalough AC runner to have run all 10 road championship races we have contested – keep it up!
Finally thanks to Donna, Paul and Feidhlim – our volunteers on the night!
Gavin took his first ever victory in a Club Championship counter to move up to 4th and closer to the injured run-away leader Paul Duffy while Eoin Phelan’s fine run moves him up to 3rd with Rene Borg (absent the last 5 rounds with injury) moves up to 6th. With no women running tonight, Aoife retains her lead in that category.
Congratulations to Graham Bush who became the first runner to complete the original Wicklow Round below 24 hours. The original round was thought to be 18-20 km longer than the current version and after one failed attempt (by Tony Kiernan, Aisling Coppinger, Gary Morelee and one other (whose name escapes us just now) in biblical conditions, Tony and Gary returned to finish the route in 33 hours 56 minutes.
Graham Bush on Camaderry (photo: Alan Kennedy)
It was deemed to long and difficult for the purpose it had and replaced with the current round (generally 106-116 km depending on route choice) leaving out the long Eastern sojourn to Croghanmoira – the peak stricken from the round (a sad loss as it is one of Wicklow’s better peaks).
Graham stocking up in Glenmalure ([photo: Claire Keeley)
Having already completed the current incarnation of the Round and with times having plummeted for the existing version (with Gavin Byrne having run it now at 15:04 – 9 hours below the time limit), Graham started Saturday morning to bring the original under 24 hours. This process has been helped by the shortcuts becoming not just increasingly known but also increasingly well worn
Moving well throughout the day in fair conditions and with strong route choices Graham never looked in danger of slipping below schedule and finished in 23:07. Congratulations on this terrifc performance Graham and we are certain others will now have the gra for taking on ‘The Original’.
Graham Bush at the finish in Kippure (photo: Ben Lewis)
Glendalough AC 