Some belated weekend results: our runners were not only in action in TWO half-marathons (Den Haag and Wicklow Way) but in THREE with a triplet of our members completing the Bohermeen Half.
BOHERMEEN HALF
Graham Kearn secured a massive PB going from 1:49:03 to 1:37:17 with Nora Butler also improving her time from 1:46 to 1:43 and Donall Flanagan also secured PB with 1:44:49.
RESULT
1. Martin Hoare (Cellbridge AC) 1:06:49
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
571. Graham Kearns 1:37:17 (PB)
772. Nora Butler 1:43:09 (PB)
842. Donall Flanagan 1:44:49 (PB)
BARCELONA MARATHON
We also missed David Murphy’s results in the Barcelona Marathon – our first road marathon of the season.
We report from two very different halves: a very fast and very flat course in the Netherlands and the always popular Wicklow Way Half which took place in windy conditions over slippery boardwalks….
Den Haag Half-marathon
Massive crowds in Den Haag (photo: NN CPC Loop Den Haag)
PBs were the order of the day on the street of Den Haag where Richard Costelloe lowered his time from 1:22:29 (ran in 2023) to 1:21:22 – narrowly missing out on breaking Angus Tyner’s 1:20:52 M45 club record. It was the fourth fastest half-marathon run for our club and makes Richard the fifth fastest half-marathoner currently a member of the club. Richard set a new 10 mile PB on the way! The men’s race was won in a new Dutch record set by Somali-Dutch runner Abdi Nageeye.
The other half of the household – Catherine Devitt – finished in 1:28:28 and 10th in the F40 category and 77th in a very large and competitive women’s field won by Kenya’s Susan Chembai. In all 13565 runner competed on the street of Den Haag.
RESULT
1. Abdi Nageeye (NN Running Team) 1:00:21
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
409. Richard Costelloe 1:21:22 (PB)
1110. Catherine Devitt 1:28:38
WICKLOW WAY HALF
Torben Dahl our 2nd man home
Paul Duffy was our first runner home, he was within the top-10 at the turn in Crone but this aggressive start meant he had to concede a good few spots on the way back. Nearest club man was Torben Dahl – 7 minutes and thirteen spots back in 40th but still 5 minutes faster than his 2023 showing. Aoife Joyce and Alan Kennedy arrived next in 2:26 and 2:26.04 with Aoife improving her 2023 time by 10 minutes and both taking category placements (Aoife 2nd F45 after overall women’s winner Sarah Flanagan and Alan winning the M55 category) with a good 70 seconds to spare on next challenger Anthony Gillen.
Paul Duffy flies towards Crone
Paul Smith had his debut run for our club and came in next in a sold 2.5 hours and 87th spot and then it was regulars Ben Lewis and Colm Kenna and Eoin Phelan in a seven minutes window. Siobhan Brennan was next in 2:45 finishing 3rd in the F50 category and our participation was capped off with James Heggie in 204th.
Paul Smith in his first race for the club
RESULT
1. Barry McEvoy () 1:36:54
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
27. Paul Duffy 2:08:42
40. Torben Dahl 2:15:25
69. Aoife Joyce 2:26:00 (2nd F45)
70. Alan Kennedy 2:26:04 (1st M55)
87. Paul Smith 2:30:47
104. Ben Lewis 2:35:48
110. Colm Kenna 2:38:00
116. Eoin Phelan 2:42:52
124. Siobhan Brennan 2:45:17 (3rd F50)
204. James Heggie 3:26:13
VICARSTOWN PARKRUN
Angus Tyner continued his good form in ParkRuns running a solid 19:26 in Vicarstown to finish 2nd and 1st M55 as a bit of warmup for his Sunday orienteering on Brockagh.
Three results to report this time as we had a small contingent on a wintry Ticknock in Dublin, a large contingent at the super-local road race in Moneystown and a late ParkRun result from Torben.
TICKNOCK WINTER
Snowy conditions led to a slightly new route being put in place at Ticknock where four of our male runners were in action with Alan Kennedy first home followed by Richard Kieran and Eoin Phelan (within 6 seconds of each other) and James Heggie.
RESULT
1. Matthew McConnell (SeekVert) 0:35:32
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
61. Alan Kennedy 0:51:28
87. Richard Kieran 0:57:06
88. Eoin Phelan 0:57:12
143. James Heggie 1:07:04
MONEYSTOWN 4 MILE
Thirteen of our runners ran in Moneystown inaugural road race: a tough 4 mile course around quiet country roads. We had thirteen runners – unsurprising as several club members are former alumni of Moneystown Primary School for whom the race raised funds.
Aoife Joyce receiving her prize for 3rd
John Conway was invited as ‘celebrity starter’ and was our first man home in 10th position and 25:10 followed by Aran and Gavin before Donna arrived as winner of the women’s race. Parnell’s Caroline Ayton was next before Aoife Joyce secured a second podium spot for our club on the day.
The award winners on the day with Aoife (1st left), Donna Quinn (third left), and John (centre)
It was great to see a good attendance from our Thursday Night beginner’s group with Ciara Flynn, Sile Keane and Cari Burke all in action. There was also representation from our Wicklow Wolf RC – in the person of the owner Simon Lynch himself.
John Conway (blue singlet) mid-race
Colm Kenna took 7 seconds off his 8 year old 4 mile PB while Gavin Kennedy, Fergal Olohan and Siobhan Brennan set their first club records (Fergal in his first race for us) by setting the standard for the M45, M50 and F50 categories in the distance.
Donna Quinn took her 19th club record setting a new F40 best (now 6 ahead of Angus!) while Aoife Joyce, Aran Lynham and Gavin Kennedy filled in the until then vacant 4 mile records for the F45, Male Senior and m45 categories.
RESULT
1. Robin Mooney (Inbhear Dee AC) 0:21:44
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
10. John Conway 0:25:10 (PB)
12. Aran Lynham 0:25:46 (PB, MS Club Record)
13. Gavin Kennedy 0:26:15 (PB, M45 Club Record)
14. Donna Quinn 0:26:39 (1st F40, PB, F40 Club Record)
22. Aoife Joyce 0:28:16 (3rd F45, PB, F45 Club Record)
27. Colm Kenna 0:29:11 (PB)
28. Yvonne Brennan 0:29:35
31. Fergal Olohan 0:30:01 (PB, M50 Club Record)
44. Siobhan Brennan 0:32:08 (PB, F50 Club Record)
55. Simon Lynch 0:34:26 (PB)
67. Cari Burke 0:37:17 (PB)
77. Ciara Flynn 0:40:47 (PB)
83. Sile Keane 0:43:19 (PB)
RIVER VALLEY PARKRUN
A late result: last weekend Torben Dahl continued his Wicklow Way Half prep running 20:25 and finishing 5th on a bumpy course at the River Valley ParkRun in Swords.
This weekend featured longer distance events with two local half-marathons and the 129 km of the Transgrancanaria Classic by the ever unbreakable Brian Lydon….
CLONMEL HALF-MARATHON
Eoin Phelan in Clonmel (photo: Sarah Whelan)
Eoin Phelan ran in the reasonably new IMRA Clonmel Half (run for the first time in 2023)
RESULT
1. Enda Cloake (Slaney Olympic) 1:40:24
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
84. Eoin Phelan 2:40:35
WICKLOW HOSPICE HALF-MARATHON
Graeme Warren had a great run-out in the Wicklow Hospice Half where he crossed the line in 11th overall (10th man) in a shiny new PB time of 1:26:59 knocking 13 seconds off his previous mark from the Wicklow Gaol-Break last year. This also lowered his M50 club record by the same margin.
RESULT
1. Lee Lindsay () 1:22:39
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
11. Graeme Warren 1:26:59 (1st M50, PB, M50 Club Record)
TRANSGANARIA CLASSIC
Brian ran a great race, starting out in the low 200s before dropping into 311th position by the top of the first major climb at 40 km. From there on he kept improving his placing and finally gained 10 places on the final 20 km to finish 215th out of 497 and second of the four Irish competing in the race.
Free entries available to Lap of the Gap Marathon Marathon, Glen to Glen Half-marathon, Glendalough Trail Race and EcoTrail Wicklow (but read conditions*)
Free entry to cross-country and track Wicklow Championship events (Road and Off-Road are sometimes subsidised)
* These free tickets are because the events are either our fund-raisers and/or our club members help out to earn money and free tickets. It’s generally expected to help out at one of these events first before availing of the free ticket offer although we make exceptions to this.
Wexford was jam-packed with events with IMRA having an event both Saturday AND Sunday during the same weekend as the always popular Enniscorthy 10k. We had runners represented in all three as well as abroad, but first to our club races…
WINTER LEAGUE ROUND 12
Our weekend began in Clara Vale where the battle for the win in the annual Winter League came down to the wire. Donna ran closest to her predicted time to overtake Graeme Warren in the overall standings. Torben Dahl had a great run setting a new best time for the ‘Clara Against the Clock’ 9.1 km route in 39:47. The winter league resumes in October….
FORTH MOUNTAIN
Eoin Phelan at Forth Mountain
RESULT
1. Tom McCarthy () 0:48:00
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
15. Alan McCarthy 1:02:40
18. Eoin Phelan 1:06:00
ENNISCORTHY 10 KM
A huge Sli Cualann contingent travelled to Enniscorthy once again. The SC teams always does well in Wexford and this year was no different with the Sli Cualann team winning both the men and women’s competition. Donna was the third scorer for a strong women’s team (Parnell’s Sile O’Byrne was 2nd overall with Catherine O’Connor 3rd) with Parnell’s Caroline Ayton 4th scorer. Gavin Kennedy finished just three seconds behind Donna and set a new PB by nearly 2 minutes in the process.
RESULT
1. Shane Spring (Raheny Shamrocks) 0:32:25
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
68. Donna Quinn 0:41:23
70. Gavin Kennedy 0:41:26 (PB)
SLIABH BUI
The day after Forth Mountain , a separate IMRA event – this time part of the Winter Spring League rather than the South-East League- was held a bit north at Sliabh Bui. A few members were marshalling as the grim Saturday had given way to a beautiful sunny Sunday. Grace Curham was our only running representative – the new-joiner through Wicklow Wolf RC finished 6th woman and 1st in her category (female senior).
RESULT
1. Enda Cloake (Slaney Olympic) 0:42:47
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
32. Grace Curham 0:58:13 (1st FS)
Langsingerland 30k
The weekend racing was not exclusive to Wexford with Richard Costelloe taking on his second 30 km race in two weeks – this time not on sand but on road that was ‘Paved, mucky and puddly bike paths’ according to Richard which yielded a club record and personal best on the rarely run distance. It was a solid run roughly equal to a 37:29 10 km performance.
A full on weekend with action on hills, road and mucky cross-country courses from 5 km to the ultra distances beginning at Trooperstown Hill Saturda morning and finishing at the 123.ie National Masters XC in Dundalk on Sunday afternoon.
TROOPERSTOWN WINTER
Let’s begin locally with the Trooperstown Winter run where we had six runners in action (seven if we count club coach Rene Borg accompanying son Cillian on the short course).
Graeme Warren nips ahead of Shane O’Malley last second
The winter course on this one of our key local hills was slightly changed – 400m shorter than 2023 (9.3 km distance), it featured a less direct ascent, more direct descent and more use of the mountain bike trails in the woods which were particularly slippy after the recent rainfalls. Torben and Graeme packed tightly separating by only one spot and a mere 19 seconds (it would have been two had Graeme not thrown his chip foot over the mat ahead of Dublin Runner’s Shane O’Malley. Alan Kennedy was next as the 4th M55 (like Graeme who was 4th in the M50 narrowly missing out on a category podium). Colm was next followed by Siobhan Brennan with a strong run and Eoin Phelan.
Eoin Phelan on the final descent (Photo Ben Conroy)
RESULT
1. Matthew McConnell () 0:39:48
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
39. Torben Dahl 0:52:41
41. Graeme Warren 0:53:00
78. Colm Kenna 1:00:20
98. Siobhan Brennan 1:04:31
104. Eoin Phelan 1:06:15
SLI CHORCHAI ULTRA
Further South, James Heggie took on the Sli Chorcai Ultra but ultimately had to abandon the race after around 50 km of hardship – the second DNF of the season since club coach Rene Borg stepped off the track in the Wicklow Indoor back in January.
RATHCOFFEY 5K
In Rathcoffey Mark Willoughby recorded our first 5 km race of the year in style running within 1:20 of his PB as he looks to get the year started.
RESULT
1. Fionnuala Mccormack (Kilcoole AC) 0:16:37
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
39. Mark Willoughby 0:23:43
DELFT 10K
Richard Costelloe kicked off the Sunday morning by revisiting the site of his Club Record in 2023 – the Delft 10k and he promptly improved his time running sub-36 minutes with 35:59 to finish 6th.
Unfortunately, it has proved the Delft 10k is 140-200m short meaning that Richard’s times on the course unfortunately do not count in our official 10 km reckoning – a pity as the extra 200m would easily leave him as the best 10 km runner in the club. Hopefully a properly measured course will see to this shortly! * His time would be equivalent to a 36:20 10 km.
RESULT
1. Koen Kuipers (De Koplopers) 0:31:43
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
6. Richard Costelloe 0:35:59 (PB effort but course short)
* from a club record perspective Richard retains both the overall and M45 club records with his 37:08 fastest from the Zoetemeer 10k with Amidou Dembele regaining the ‘All-Time Best’ with his 36:31 run for Crusaders AC
NATIONAL MASTER’S CROSS-COUNTRY – DUNDALK
The weekend’s running finished in Dundalk when Rene Borg was the lone adult Sli Cualann/Wicklow representative at the National Masters and Intermediate cross-country. This was his debut at National cross level and the first time a Glendalough AC runner has run a national cross-country event.
Running over the 7 km distance, he finished well within his goal of being in the first 3/4 of the field on a course so mucky it lead to the average times dropping 3-4 minutes on the 2019 incarnation and being described by one runner as ‘not fit to drive a tractor through’ – in other words nearly good old-fashioned cross-country event had the sunshine on the day been replaced by rain.
Rene gained more positions than he lost as the race went on and was narrowly beaten out in a sprint finish by Willie O’Donoghue, a former Master’s XC medal winner, of Moreabbey Milers. Their battle helped pull them nine seconds clear of the next chasing pack
The St. Brigid’s Bank Holiday weekend is a time for 10 milers and since Ballycotton stopped in 2017, the two heavy-weights are Trim and the John Treacy Dungarvan 10 mile. Angus and Nora Butler took the trip down south this year – our club’s third road trip to the race (the last in 2017 and 2018). We also had a good contingent travelling towards Trim – but rather than going on the roads they took on the tough Mullaghmeen forest course – a fitting location given the host club is St. Brigid’s AC!
JOHN TREACY DUNGARVAN 10 MILE
For Angus this was his first trip to the West Waterford race. He has set his other club records (including the overall of 59:38) in Trim. Angus our most prolific racer over the 10 mile distance (with 4 results) and also holds the all-time best and is the only runner in the club to dip under 60 minutes. He was philosophical about the race:
“Very mild… Almost too warm. and breezy… For too much of the race. Anyway, this will keep me away from road races for a while .“
This time around Angus set a new club record of 67:24 – 7 seconds faster than his M50 club record set in Trim in 2022. Nora Butler meanwhile banked a PB – having run 77:57 in Bundoran she loweered her time by 35 seconds.
RESULT
1. Oisin Spillane (Ennis Track Club) 0:51:56
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
326. Angus Tyner 1:07:24 (M55 PB, M55 Club Record)
997. Nora Butler 1:17:22 (PB)
MULLAGHMEEN
The dauntless trio of Eoin P. Keith Mulvey and James Heggie took on the forest tracks of Mullaghmeen where 99 runners took to the start. They described the route with words such as ‘savage’, ‘where dreams go to die’, ‘horrific’ with hints of the features of the Barkley Marathon. Eoin was first club man home in 59th followed by Keith and James in 88th and 95th.
James Heggie returned to his more familiar stomping ground of the long tough hills as he took on the 28 km night race in Ballyhoura this Friday past.
RESULT
1. Enda Cloake (Slaney Olympic) 2:02:20
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
214. James Heggie 4:11:47
HOWTH WINTER
The morning after our first Wicklow Wolf run of the year saw only a duo of Glendalough runners make their way up to Howth where preparations had been disrupted by a disgruntled local removing marking ahead of the race but Eoin and Keith managed to get around with minimum incident. It was interesting to note that the winner of the race – Slaney’s Enda Cloake had also won the Ballyhoura Winter Challenge only about 13 hours earlier.
A strong start to the year continued as the weekend took us to 50 race results for the year.
Event organisers raced against the clock to get their races done and runners dusted ahead of the forecast rain and wind warnings. Wicklow had two events running in short succession a mere 15 minutes apart: IMRA’s Brockagh Burst kicked off at 11 am (early starters a bit before) just as the Leinster XC kicked off with the juvenile relays on the same hour.
BROCKAGH BURST
Rainy conditions hit Laragh first so fair running was not on the cards at Brockagh Burst although neither was the snowy winterland of a few years ago.
Alan Kennedy (black jacket) and Paul Duffy (yellow jacket) at the start line
This year’s route used the slight variation without the Brockagh South-East summit. Despite this variation normally being faster, the general race conditions meant the course was anything but: times were down significantly on previous years and the race had a near-enough 20-25% no show rate (the Leinsters in Avondale saw similar DNS rates as some competitors clealry opted against making the trip).
Paul Duffy contributed his strong start to the season finishing 10th (3 spots up on 2023) and closer to the winner having sat in 12th position at the summit. He also secured 2nd in the M40 category. Next home was Alan Kennedy in 28th (3rd M55) followed by Eoin Kennedy, Conor Rossiter, Colm Kenna, Keith Mulvey and James Heggie for a total of six competitors from the club.
LEINSTER CROSS-COUNTRY
Donna Quinn in the 87 strong women’s master’s field
Having lost Gavin Kennedy and Claire Thompson to injury and with Marcus Murphy and Diarmuid Kavanagh having to literally take a rain-check due to illness, our representation on the Sli Cualann teams were whittled down to Donna Quinn (Master’s Women), Angus Tyner and Anthony Breen (on the M50 team) and René Borg as the lone M35+ representative.
Donna set off first as part of a 10 woman Sli Cualann team consisting of herself and nine Parnell runners. Donna finished 4th – one spot and not far behind team mate Emily Ryan. Crucially both where ahead of the 2nd and 3rd Donore Harriers finishers consigning them to 4th.
In the County teams, Wicklow were being chased hard by Offaly who had a 10 point lead by the time each team’s first and second scorers crossed the line. But as Emily Ryan, then Donna and then another 13 runners arrived before their third scorer, the County Bronze was made safe.
RESULT
1. Kate Purcell (Raheny Shamrocks) 0:15:32
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————- (RUNNING AS SLI CUALANN)
16. Donna Quinn 0:18:17 (F35+ Club Bronze, F35+ County Bronze)*
* this extends Donna’s record as our most decorated runner with 36 medals (17 individual, 19 team).
MASTER’S MEN
Master’s men take off (Anthony and Rene front right)
Next up were the men between 35 and 64 years of ago on the 7 km version of the course. Here coach René Borg delivered a battling performance to finish second Sli Cualann finisher behind Parnell’s Ray Kenny with Angus Tyner never far behind. Rene was first scorer for the M35 team and fourth scorer (behind three Kilcoole AC runners) for the Wicklow County team. Sadly both finished last on the day. Yet it was a good outing – the field was the same size as 2023 but Rene finished 15 spots further up in 78th: our club’s highest finish in a Leinster Master’s event.
Anthony Breen battles in the 136 strong field
Angus was only 29 seconds back in 87th and second scorer for the M50+ team. Third was Inbhear Dee’s Paul Kelly, 4th was our own Anthony Breen and 5th Cormac O’Ceallaigh of Parnell. The same team did slightly better in the county competition finishing 4th with Angus 2nd scorer and Anthony 4th – 38 points behind Meath.
The action finished with Intermediate men and women where we had no representation and the Sli Cualann men finished 6th out of 7 lacking one runner for a county team and with Robin Mooney the best placed Wicklow athlete in 8th.
FUNCHAL HALF-MARATHON
In warmer climates Bruce Phillips did his annual ‘warm half-marathon’ at the Funchal Marathon and Half-marathon event that doubled as the Portuguese Marathon Championship. He started strong but faded some on a bumpy course and finished around 4.5 minutes off the M60 PB he had set in Malaga the previous year.
Glendalough AC 