glendaloughac

REPORT: Wins and DNFs at Wassenaar, EcoTrail, Kilmac Running Festival, Nav Challenge and Wicklow Intermediate!

Since our last report we have 47 (!) more results to report on 30 of which were our massive attendance in EcoTrail Wicklow on the last day of September pushing this year’s racing tally to a stupendous 483 (the previous record being 383 in 2017).

EcoTrail Wicklow

Let’s begin with the 4th edition of the EcoTrail races which had gathered an entry of over 1600 with 1096 starters: the third largest start line in a trail run in Ireland after Gaelforce Bray 2019 (where 6 waves of runs gathered 1238 starters) and Run the Line 2022 (where two races drew 1210). It’ll be great to see one of these events breaking 1500 starters at some stage in the near future.

We had 30 runners in actions plus a further of our 12 members crewing many in core roles with club coach Rene Borg hired as course director, Graham Bush and Diarmuid Kavanagh on marking duties and Keith Mulvey acting as sector leader at Lough Tay not to forget Duncan Barrett – the Djouce marshal – who won ‘Crew of the Year’ for assisting an injured runner off the trail.

Duncan Barrett with his prize for ‘Crew of the Year’

80 KM

Mark Willoughby crossing the Ballyremon Commons

Graeme Warren had opted to move down to 47k leaving Eoin Phelan as our only 80k representative in his first attempt at the distance. He battled valiantly but had to concede defeat in Kilmacanogue after 67 km of running when it became clear he could not make the Belmont cut-off.

RESULT

1. Yoann Stuck () 6:34:16 CR

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

126. Eoin Phelan DNF

47 KM

Sergio Mansillo with a new PB in the 47k

The 47 km was the most competitive of all races on the day with international superstars like Hillary Allen at the line and Irish international Enda Cloake blasting home to victory ahead of Gavin Byrne. ‘Our lot’ of six men were not in contention for medals but all ran solidly with Philip O’Brien home first in 5:20. There was vindication for James Heggie after conceding DNFs at the Tucker Trail and Skyline 55k as he came through in 236th out of 262.

RESULT

1. Enda Cloake (Slaney Olympic) 3:58:01

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

28. Philip O’Brien 5:20:11

55. Graeme Warren 5:40:08

96. Sergio Mansillo 6:04:23

147. Ross Thompson 6:29:52

187. Mick Greene 7:00:57

193. Gerard O’Rourke 7:06:05

232. Mark Willoughby 7:47:56

236. James Heggie 8:00:52

30 KM

In the 30 km the women’s field as absolutely stacked with Finland’s Kasia Laapaz obliterating the course record by 8 minutes despite the 2023 course being 1 km longer than the 2022 edition. Catherine Devitt did well to finish 5th woman and 3rd in the F40 category.

The real drama involved John Conway who hit the Bray seafront unaware that Tudor Moldovan’s misfortune in Belmont meant he was in joint-3rd place. When the race announcer shouted out ‘and here’s the sprint for the podium’, John took off like a rocket to secure a chance to hold the trophy and get on that rostrum (a week later he’d finish 8th in the Killarney Quest Adventure race – just for good measure).

Richard Costelloe also ran well in his Tollymore Marathon final prep race finishing 10th whilst at the other end Graham Wheeler conceded our 13th DNF of the season (meaning we are well beyond our all-time high of 5 in 2015!).

RESULT

1. Luke Weldon (Greystones AC) 2:37:46

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

3. John Conway 2:50:26 (1st M40)

10. Richard Costelloe 2:57:44

22. Anthony Breen 3:09:03

29. Catherine Devitt 3:13:49 (3rd F40)

44. Mark Lindsay 3:21:44

67. Alan Kennedy 3:35:49

99. Jack Moore 3:48:40

102. Donal Flanagan 3:50:15

118. Niall MacCarthy 3:53:27

174. Rebecca Whineray 4:09:59

298. Gleb Reys 5:23:49

327. Graham Wheeler DNF

19 KM

Simon Lynch sprints home on a soaking day at EcoTrail

We only had eight in action in the ‘speedsters’ race over 19 km with four tough climbs and here Diarmuid Kavanagh led home with a 9th place with Dave Lawless next and Nora Butler next (placing 12th woman) dead-heating with Tadgh O’Brien.

RESULT

1. Des Kennedy (Raheny Shamrocks) 1:37:32

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

9. Diarmuid Kavanagh 1:51:35

72. Dave Lawless 2:19:40

84. Nora Butler 2:22:43

86. Tadgh O’Brien 2:22:43

129. Simon Lynch 2:32:02

180. Daniel Puflea 2:41:42

228. Brian Howard 2:52:58

326. Jonathan Cody 3:38:27

TEAM COMPETITION

Eleven teams had the minimum 2 men and 2 women to contest the team competition and here the combination of John Conway (3rd in 30k), Catherine Devitt (5th woman in 30k), Diarmuid Kavanagh (9th in 19k) and Nora Butler (12th woman in 19k) was enough to take the win with bit of breathing space down to Parnell AC and Simon Connaughton’s Inner Fight crew.

NAV CHALLENGE 1 – CARRICK MOUNTAIN

Having marked the Great Sugarloaf for EcoTrail, Graham Bush was well warmed up for the first IMRA Nav Challenge of the year finishing 9th ut of 28th in the short 15 km course.

RESULT

1. Robert McEvoy (Cork Orienteers) 1:21:00

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

9. Graham Bushe 3:03:00

WASSENAAR 15 KM

Catherine Devitt took a few minutes of her time in the annual Wassenaar 15k (in reality 14.6k!) finishing 10th overall and winning the women’s race (and a big trophy to show for it!).

RESULT

1. Maikel Stolwijk (Leiden) 0:49:37

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

10. Catherine Devitt 0:58:25 (1st woman)

KILMAC RUNNING FESTIVAL

The third edition of the Kilmac Running Festival preceded the weekend’s cross-country action: Graham Bush remains a busy man matching up his own running with his marking at EcoTrail and then race directing the five events that are part of the festival.

WOMEN’S NIGHT CHALLENGE

Nora Butler and Rebecca Whineray were our representatives in the women’s only field on Friday evening’s loop of the Great Sugarloaf with Rebecca 4th overall and 2nd F45.

RESULT

1. Ciara Largey () 0:39:14

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

4. Rebecca Whineray 0:42:36 (2nd F45)

10. Nora Butler 0:46:50

LONG HILL

Local men Richard Kieran and Ben Lewis were our only runners in the four races on offer on Saturday going for the shortest (12k) route from Kilmac to Paddock Hill finishing 3rd and 5th and takingsome category podiums.

RESULT

1. Rob Tobin (Trim AC) 1:08:17

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

3. Richard Kieran 1:14:05 (3rd M55)

5. Ben Lewis 1:16:49 (2nd M45)

WICKLOW INTERMEDIATE

The various trail running engagements along with a large group focusing on the marathon have depleted our cross-country squads for the early season and only Diarmuid Kavanagh and Anthony Breen toed the line on a glorious sunshine day in Avondale for the Wicklow Intermediate. In the end only Anthony finished as Diarmuid had to pull out – our third club DNF in this busy fortnight. Anthony claimed the 100 pts for the Club Championship but as he wore no watch nor were times recorded, we only know he finished 17th out of 25 in the race!

PARKRUNS GALORE!

Angus Tyner reported in with 7 ParkRun results between May and September with 2 top-3 finishes and 4 sub-20 runs. Claire Thompson meanwhile ran in Mullingar finishing 3rd woman in 22:28 in her first race since the Relay back in June.

RESULT

1. Susan Glennon () 0:19:24

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

15. Claire Thompson 0:22:48 (3rd F35)

BEER AND BRATS 5K!

We finish off with a report from our ‘woman in Florida’ : founding member Flora McKnight who battled heat and humidity in the superbly named ‘Beer and Brats 5k’ finishing 251st in a solid field of 829 runners.

RESULT

1. Jonathan Hulzebos () 0:15:46

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

251. Flora McKNight 0:30:20

Flora strikes a strong pose at the Beer and Brats 5k!

REPORT: Skyline and Half-marathon time!

October 6, 2023 by glendaloughac, posted in Mountain running, Race reports, Road running

A belated report on the runs two weeks past while we wait for the full report on the nearly 30 runners who took place in EcoTrail Wicklow this weekend! It featured rugged action in Donegal and two half-marathon PBs on the roads!

SEVEN SISTERS SKYLINE 30K/55K

We begin the North-West where one of Ireland’s toughest and roughest mountain runs took place in County Donegal. Four of our runners were registered for the events but John Conway wasn’t quite ready after the Trans-Alpine and with Keith Mulvey falling ill, it was left to James Heggie (55k) and Catriona Healy (30k) to represent us.

James unfortunately had to DNF after nearly 6 hours of running but the day ended on a high with Catriona securing an impressive 8th place in the women’s race. This being only her second long mountain race (Run the Ridge in August being the first!).

55k

RESULT

1. Aidan McMoreland () 7:56:56

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

122. James Heggie DNF

30k

RESULT

1. Simon Duggan () 3:24:30

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

75. Catriona Healy 6:04:17

IRISH LIFE HALF-MARATHON

Speaking of firsts, we move back to Dublin where Ben Lewis ran his first road race and thus secured himself a half-marathon personal best in the Irish Life Dublin Half-marathon in a massive field of over 6000 runners.

RESULT

1. Peter Somba (Dunbyone AC) 1:07:01

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

2550. Ben Lewis 1:53:15 (PB, M45 PB)

CEIDE COAST HALF-MARATHON

In the West, Eoin Syron also took a half-marathon personal best in a more intimate field of 132 runners in the Ceide Coast Half-marathon which was noticeable for being won outright by female runner NOrah Pieterse from Mayo AC.

RESULT

1. Norah NEWCOMBE PIETERSE (Mayo AC) 1:23:02

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

27. Eoin Syron 1:41:50 (PB, M40 PB)

REPORT: Nine super races as Graham Bush secures first international medal!

September 20, 2023 by glendaloughac, posted in Mountain running, Race reports, Road running, Trail running, Ultra running

Twelve of our runners were in action once or more over nine very challenging and/or interesting races since our last report.

We begin with the confusing ‘Lakes 10k’ double: the ‘Run for Lakers’ 10 km trail run around Roundwood Reservoir followed 7 days later by ‘The Lakes 10k’: the scenic and beloved 10 km road race in Blessington.

‘RUN FOR LAKERS 10K’

Paul Duffy, Ben Lewis and Colm Kenna were our only representatives in a large front-loaded field at the Roundwood Reservoir with Paul securing back-to-back top 10s in this event taking fifth spot.

RESULT

1. Killian Mooney (DSD AC) 0:34:40

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

5. Paul Duffy 0:40:24

20. Ben Lewis 0:47:21

24. Colm Kenna 0:47:58

LUGGALA

While the larger field was busy on the good trails of Roundwood a select field of 31 IMRA enthusiasts congregated for the super-steep Luggala race with 8 km covering Cloghoge and Luggala mountains. Eoin Kennedy was our lone representative and came home in 11th.

RESULT

1. Brian Furey (Brothers Pearse AC) 0:56:00

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

11. Eoin Kennedy 1:19:24

THE LAKES 10K

A sligthly smaller than normal contingent from our club travelled to the scenic ‘The Lakes 10k’ organised by our friends in Lakeshore Striders AC but it’s not always about quantity: Marcus Murphy secured a PB by nearly a minute as part of his Dublin marathon preparations while Colm kenna ran his fastest 10k since the Wicklow Hospice 10k in February 2022.

RESULT

1. Brian Maher (Kilkenny City Harriers AC) 0:31:16

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

11. Marcus Murphy 0:38:33 (PB)

46. Colm Kenna 0:46:08

TRANS-ALPINE RUN

While Paul and Colm ran in Roundwood, John Conway began his 7 day journey in the Trans-Alpine stage race: 268 km through the alps in seven stages. Despite having only 7 days rest after his 2nd place in the Kerry Way Ultra Lite John finished 29th and 6th in his category while his wife Laura was a comprehensive winner of the women’s race – times shown are the cumulative for the 7 stages in 7 days.

RESULT

1. Fabien Gering (ASICS Frontrunner) 23:08:06

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

33. John Conway 33:40:45

WORLD MASTERS MOUNTAIN RUNNING – MADEIRA (UPHILL ONLY/ 31 KM LONG)

Graham Bush showcasing the first international medal won by a current member

As John’s journey neared the end Graham Bush and Richard Kieran embarked on their own foreign adventure on the trail-running mad island of Madeira where the World Masters Mountain Running Championship hosted a large Irish contingent (including fellow Sli Cualann runners like Ronan King and Ann-Marie Kenny).

RESULT – uphill 9k

1. Eric Blake (USA) 0:43:11

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

101. Graham Bushe 1:00:37 (Team Silver m50)

141. Richard Kieran 1:09:16

Both our runners were signed up for both the 9 km uphill only race and the 31 km long trail race (which Kieran eventually opted not to do). It was a huge success with Graham Bush contributing to the Irish team’s Silver team medal – the first international medal won by a member of our club. He did lament that had he been a split second faster, then Ireland would have taken the gold!

RESULT

1. Shaban Mustafa (Bulgaria) 2:11:52

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

75. Graham Bushe 3:00:55

STONE CROSS TO LUG RELAY

While the boys in green were in action internationally, Alan Kennedy and Eoin Syron had a run-out in the cult classic ‘Stone Cross to Lug’ which has suffered from declining numbers in recent years (perhaps not helped by poor weather possibly contributing to 4 non-starters in a 14 person field in the solo).

RESULT – LEG 1

1. Gerry McGuinness () 2:49:00

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

2. Alan Kennedy 1:57:12

Both Alan and Eoin ran in the Relay version of the race with Alan running the 14 km leg 1 and Eoin the 21k leg 3 on a separate team. With 4 teams in competition and 1 non-competitive, a podium was assured and Alan’s team took 2nd with Eoin’s 3rd.

RESULT – LEG 3

1. Eoin Syron (Glendalough AC) 1:57:00

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

CAUSEWAY COAST ULTRA

Not quite as far outside the country – at the Causeway in Northern Ireland – Eoin Kennedy did his second race in 7 days completing the 64 km Causeway Ultra over a mixture of terrains ranging from path to beach to road and finished 36th out of 60 runners.

RESULT

1. Nick Weston () 5:18:27

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

36. Eoin Kennedy 8:12:16

BEEKSE 31 KM

Richard Costelloe continued his productive racing season on Sunday 17th in the Netherlands with a brilliant podium finish in the Beekse 31 km road race in a fine time of 2:06 leaving 53 runners behind him in a race that was part of a the Beekse marathon event where multiple distances were on offer.

RESULT

1. Martijn de Kok () 1:58:10

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

3. Richard Costelloe 2:06:24 (3rd M45Club Record)

REPORT: Triumps on Kerry and Dutch trails…

September 4, 2023 by glendaloughac, posted in Race reports, Trail running, Ultra running

KERRY WAY ULTRA AND ULTRA LITE

Brian Lydon started the action running into the hot Kerry weather as he took the new ‘early start’ option at 6 am on Friday – only the 3rd Glendalough AC runner to undertake the full race (after Duncan Barret and Emma Hand).

*John Conway (right) with fellow Sli Cualann runner Michael Dowling (of Parnell) who finished 2nd in the full ultra*

Over 24 hours later – while Brian was somewhere midway towards the penultimate checkpoint in Kenmare – John Conway set off from Sneem for the 59 km journey to Killarney that is the ‘Kerry Way Ultra Lite’. This was John’s third attempt at the race having been 18th in 2020, and 4th in 2021. 1st in 2023?*

Coming into Templenoe, John sat in 4th overall – behind the eventual winner Sorcha Loughnane and Peter Power and Brendan Joy. Both slightly extended their leads on John by Kenmare but paid the price on the long slog towards Killarney where John first overtook Brendan (who lost nearly an hour on the Laragh man here and dropped to 5th overall) and then got himself into the rare situation of being the first man in the race – yet 2nd overall! It is worth noting that Sorcha Loughnane’s time – apart from being a new women’s record on the course – would have won the Kerry Way Ultra Lite every single year except when John McKeogh set the course record of 5:03 in 2020.

RESULT

1. Sorcha Loughnane (Donore Harriers) 5:17:51

(women’s CR)

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

2. John Conway 5:54:48 (1st man, 1st M40, 2nd overall)

Eight minutes before John crossed the finish line to celebrate his trophy, Brian Lydon had completed the full Kerry Way in just under 33 hours – a proud moment in the warm air but over soggy ground (the output of our weird summer).

RESULT

1. Stephen Mangan () 23:30:41

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

33. Brian Lydon 32:46:02

* He thus matched the joint best result in this race for our club: Barry Murray’s 2nd place in 5:53 in 2017. then there was 44 finishers. Now: 157! John’s 5:47 from last year remains the fastest time run by a club runner.

VELUWSE TRAILRUN

Catherine Devitt continued her strong season on both Dutch and Irish shores when she finished 9th in a 187 strong field at Veluwze – a nearly 30 km trail race in the Netherlands. she had about 40 seconds gap to the next woman and took the overall women’s prize as a result.

RESULT

1. Taco Schaaf (Zwolle) 1:47:40

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

9. Catherine Devitt 2:16:53 (1st woman)

This was Catherine’s 14th race of the season and with a nice tally: 11 category wins and 2 second places. Only once has she run and not finished on the women’s podium in 2023.

RACES: Mountain Rescue Benefit and Half-marathons galore

August 30, 2023 by glendaloughac, posted in Mountain running, Race reports, Road running

We celebrated 3 PBs, one Master’s PB, 1 Leinster and 1 National gold medal and a new club record in a busy 5 days of racing from Wednesday to Sunday last week.

MOUNTAIN RESCUE BENEFIT RUN

The racing kicked off a mere 4 days after most of runners had bloodied themselves in the Wicklow Off-Road. Of the four runners who ran only one (Aoife) hadn’t raced the previous weekend – yet Paul Duffy secured himself a ‘surprising’ (to use his own words) top-10 finish while Loraine Creane and Aoife Joyce took 2nd and 3rd on the women’s podium with Aoife winning the F45 for good measure while Angus Tyner took the M55 once again.

*Colm Kenna running at the MOuntain Rescue Benefit race*

RESULT

1. Liam Mooney (Lakeshore Striders) 0:33:52

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

10. Paul Duffy 0:37:21

27. Angus Tyner 0:40:25

(1st M55)

32. Loraine Creane 0:41:19 (2nd woman, 2nd F40)

40. Aoife Joyce 0:43:05 (1st F45, 3rd woman)

42. Eoin Phelan 0:44:19

58. Colm Kenna 0:49:16

NATIONAL HALF-MARATHON (TULLAMORE)

*Donna (799) with the successful Sli Cualann team*

Donna Quinn was the third scorer for the successful Sli Cualann ladies team who won the Female Open teams six minutes ahead of Mullingar Harriers. The top trio of Sarah Baryga, Catherine O’Connor and Donna also took the Leinster team gold medals once again ahead of Mullingar.

In doing so she lowered her PB from 1:32:36 (her 2022 mark) to 1:29:56 – the fourth fastest time run by current female members of the club. Gavin Kennedy also reduced his PB from earlier in the year by 2.5 minutes – a positive result on his road to Dublin. Donna also increased her lead in our club medal table – now having 31 medals to Claire Thompson’s 21.

RESULT

1. Ryan Creech (Leevale AC) 1:05:47

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

290. Donna Quinn 1:29:56 (PB, Leinster Team Gold, National Team Gold)

313. Gavin Kennedy 1:31:07 (PB, M45 PB)

ANTRIM COAST HALF-MARATHON

Eoin Phelan had a breakthrough performance at the Antrim Coast half-marathon. Only 6 months ago his PB stood at 1:52 for the distance: he lowered that to 1:37:16 in Northern Ireland. Clearly doubling up with a mid-week hill run did him no harm!

RESULT

1. Daniel Mateiko (Kenya) 0:58:36

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

382. Eoin Phelan 1:37:21 (PB)

OYLEGATE HALF-MARATHON

*Aoife Joyce at the Mountain Rescue Benefit race four days ahead of her half-marathon in Oylegate*

On Sunday, Aoife Joyce also completed the ‘mid-week hill run/weekend half-marathon double’ when racing in Oylegate near her childhood home and followed the sub-1:45 around for a 1:43:17: an improvent of 2 minutes on her last run there in 2021 and her fastest time since her 2014 PB of 1:29:41. As a bonus a nice cash prize was on offer for her third place in the over-40s category for women.

RESULT

1. Sean Hehir (Croghan AC) 1:12:10

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

46. Aoife Joyce 1:43:13 (3rd F40, F45 PB, F45 club record)

RACE REPORT: Wicklow Off-Road Championship / Frank Duffy 10 miler

August 20, 2023August 21, 2023 by glendaloughac, posted in Mountain running, Race reports, Road running

A full race report on all the action to follow but below an overview of how our club members fared in this weekend’s Wicklow Athletics Off-road championship.

Donna Quinn cuts no corners in the Derrybawn 10k

Like in previous years the event was hosted under the umbrella of our joint fund-raiser with Laragh GFC: the Run the Ridge 20k and the Derrybawn Woods 10k. The event nearly didn’t happen as adverse weather knocked a tree down on the cousre but quick action by course director Keith Mulvey, NPWS and ESB ensured the race could go ahead only 30 minutes delayed.

A record 30 competitors from our club competed in the 2nd Athletics Wicklow Off-Road Championship yesterday. It could have been more with 3 drop-outs in the week leading in.

Yvonne Brennan on the climb of the Derrybawn Woodland 10k

In the end we had 20 runners in the 10k and 10 runners in the 20 km. The tactic was to try and be competitive in as many individual and team categories as possible as the club with the most medals (Gold counting most) would walk away with the overall Club Trophy.

It was a fast and competitive race despite conditions with seven Wicklow clubs in action and with new course records in the 20k and the women’s 10k.

DERRYBAWN WOODLAND 10K

The 10 km distance saw the biggest field and included the team competition where the best cumulative time of the first three scorers across the line counted.

Rachel Wisdom looks over her shoulder at Gav Kennedy with Anthony Breen further back

We got off to a strong start with two out of the three men’s teams securing gold (the M35+ and the M50+). Richard Costelloe ran particularly strongly finishing 3rd in the championship, 4th in the combined, winning his category (M45) and setting a Club Record for the cousre (43:57). When Graham Bush and Angus Tyner arrived far up the field it was evident that the M50 team would dominate their category and so they did – anchored by Anthony Breen.

M50 winning team (Anthony, Angus, and Graham Bush flanking Billy Porter)

We had women’s teams in two categories: FS and F35+. Parnell dominated the FS led home by women’s winner Sile O’Byrne with Bronze for a team of Sarah Foster, Claire Thompson and Siobhan Brennan (all of whom picked up category medals. Catherine Devitt led home a strong quartet including Rachel, Donna and Yvonne to Team Gold while she finished 2nd overall and 1st in the F40 category.

The F35 winning team of Rachel, Catherine and Donna

By the time all 10 km medals were tallied Parnell had a slender lead of one gold medal.

Placings below show the combined place (Open race plus Championship race)

RESULT

1. Derek Crammond (Parnell AC) 0:40:57

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

4. Richard Costelloe 0:43:57 (1st M45, 3rd man, m35+ Team Gold)

11. Graham Bushe 0:46:52 (1st M50, m50+ Team Gold)

14. Angus Tyner 0:47:16 (2nd M55, m50+ Team Gold)

17. Marcus Murphy 0:47:35 (3rd M40)

18. Aran Lynham 0:47:56

19. Paul Duffy 0:48:15 (M35+ Team gold)

21. Catherine Devitt 0:48:51 (1st F40, 2nd woman, F35+ Team Gold)

29. Rachel Wisdom 0:51:19 (2nd F40, F35+ Team Gold)

30. Gavin Kennedy 0:51:22 (3rd M45, M35+ Team Gold)

32. Anthony Breen 0:51:28 (3rd M50, M50+ Team Gold)

33. Donna Quinn 0:51:40 (3rd F40, F35+ Team Gold)

43. Yvonne Brennan 0:54:41 (2nd F45, f35+ Team Gold)

45. Eoin Kennedy 0:55:27

52. Colm Kenna 0:58:07

57. Claire Thompson 0:58:51 (FS Team Bronze)

59. Sarah Foster 0:59:17 (3rd FS, FS Team Bronze)

64. Siobhan Brennan 1:00:01 (1st F50, FS Team Bronze)

72. Mark Willoughby 1:02:02

75. Annie Lowney 1:03:20

91. Eleanor Carty 1:06:51

Richard Costelloe strides strongly uphill

RUN THE RIDGE 20KM

In the 20km race a top-3 of open racers including Irish international Edward O’Connor along with David Power and Italian skyrunner Emmanuelle Sacchi broke away early leaving the championship contenders in the chasing pack. This included our own Johnny Conway who led our team home in an impressive 1:43:19 – the second fastest time by a club athlete since Torben Dahl’s runaway time of 1:32:07 from 2018. He was beaten only by Parnell’s MIchael Dowling and Inbhear Dee’s Ben Mooney but rather than Bronze here he was awarded Silver in the M40 category.

Jack Moore in the later stages of the 20k

Next was René Borg who broke away from a tightly packed group on the ridge to take 3rd M40 and the 3rd fastest time run by a club runner on the course. In the next 49 seconds Philip O’Brien, Graeme Warren and Torben Dahl arrived (with Lee Borland of WW RC dead-heating with Philip) and all took Gold in their categories.

Coach Rene makes a splash on his way to 4th in the County ranking

Jack Moore arrived shortly before the first female GMACer to ever complete the 20k race: Loraine Creane who won the F40. Alan Kennedy, Ben Lewis and Rebecca Whinery came next all taking category medals in the process.

RESULT

1. Barry McEvoy (Brother’s Pearse AC) 1:29:01

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

8. John Conway 1:43:19 (2nd M40)

13. René Borg 1:48:49 (3rd M40)

15. Philip O’Brien 1:49:01 (1st MS)

16. Graeme Warren 1:49:18 (1st M50)

17. Torben Dahl 1:49:38 (1st M45)

26. Jack Moore 1:55:30

27. Loraine Creane 1:56:15 (1st F40)

40. Alan Kennedy 2:02:15 (1st M55)

43. Ben Lewis 2:03:48 (3rd M45)

66. Rebecca Whineray 2:22:00 (2nd F45)

WICKLOW ATHLETICS OFF-ROAD CHAMPIONSHIP

Overall all efforts added up to taking the overall Club Trophy narrowly ahead of defending champions Parnell AC winning out 12 Gold medals to 10. No doubt competition will only intensify and we expect a barnstormer of an event for 2024! for now club captain Rachel Wisdom get’s to keep the trophy in her house until August 2024.

FRANK DUFFY 10 MILER

Not to be forgotten was a very fine PB from Eoin Phelan running in the Frank Duffy 10 miler that same morning where he also finished well within the top-10% of the 2807 strong field.

RESULT

1. David Glynn (Waterford AC) 0:52:38

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

266. Eoin Phelan 1:15:33 (PB)

REPORT: Belated results from Irish trails and Florida!

August 16, 2023 by glendaloughac, posted in Mountain running, Race reports, Road running, Trail running

With all eyes on the upcoming County Off-Road Championship where our biggest team yet is due to take the start line (32!), a few results went under the radar in the last few weeks.

TOUR DE PAIN – FLORIDA

4 MILE BEACH RUN

RESULT

1. Jonathan Besse
link () 0:21:02

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

278. Flora McKNight 0:43:09

Founding member Flora McKnight was back in action after a long period off and in Florida no less where she competed in Tour de Pain: three races in less than 24 hours starting with a 4 mile beach race Friday evening, a 5 km road run the next morning and finishing with a 1 mile race in the afternoon.

5 K

RESULT

1. Jonathan Besselink () 0:15:46

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

297. Flora McKNight 0:29:43

Flora finished 9th in her category after the three races were tallied together.

1 mile

RESULT

1. Jonathan Besselink () 0:04:32

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

302. Flora McKNight 0:08:36

BENBULBEN – LUKE’S BRIDGE

Eric Kelly did his second race in the new North-West League in Connacht up the majestic Benbulben. He suffered a fall on the way down – casting doubt on his participation on Saturday – but got through.

RESULT

1. Alex Hunter (Ratoath AC) 0:47:19

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

51. Eric Kelly 1:50:06

DARGLE FOUR PEAKS

Graham Bush was our sole representative in the Leinster Championship race at Dargle Four Peaks where runners could choose to attack the checkpoints clockwise or anti-clockwise. Despite struggling with a leg issue, he took 1st place in the M55 category again.

RESULT

1. Brian Furey (Brothers Pearse AC) 1:43:07

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

12. Graham Bushe 1:57:52 (1st M50)

GAELFORCE BELMONT 10K

Gaelforce moved into Belmont for their August 10k this year due to the ongoing works on the Bray cliff path. Three of our Wicklow Wolf RC flew the flag here among 563 others runners.

RESULT

1. Michael McMahon () 0:41:22

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

97. Jack Callaghan 1:01:14

131. Rebecca Whineray 1:03:33

354. Brian Howard 1:17:17

MOUNTAIN MEITHEAL FUND-RAISER

Congratulations to Niall Corrigan – former club president – who was first in the handicap race for Mountain Meitheal postscripting in the Leinster League.

RESULT

1. Denis McGlynn () 0:40:33

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

7. Angus Tyner 0:45:37 (1st M55)

24. Alan Kennedy 0:49:16

62. Loraine Creane 0:48:20

81. Eoin Phelan 0:55:49

Angus Tyner had the 10th fastest time and finished 7th in the handicapped rankings with Alan Kennedy 24th and Loraine Creane 52nd and 12th woman with Eoin Phelan also running off scratch.

ARDERIN – CLEAR LAKE

Meanwhile this weekend, James Heggie was our only runner at Arderin – Clear Lake over 12.6 km.

RESULT

1. Barry Minnock (Rathfarnham WSAF) 1:10:57

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

32. James Heggie 3:00:09

REPORT: LL ends, all action on the trails!

August 6, 2023August 6, 2023 by glendaloughac, posted in Mountain running, Race reports, Road running, Trail running

Long overdue report on several reports as our Club Championship continued at Lug na Coille and Angus Tyner wraps up the ‘M55 prize’ in the Leinster League….

TROOPERSTOWN SUMMER

The Leinster League finished on the familiar slopes of Trooperstown Hil where Eoin Syron led the team home ahead of Torben. Diarmuid Kavanagh was going well but had to pull up with a muscle cramp early on the climb.

Eoin was our highest finisher in the League overall in 18th spot for the whole league (counted best 7 out of 13 races) followed by Angus Tyner in 23rd who narrowly took the over-55 ‘title’ ahead of Alan Kennedy in 27th. James Heggie was the fourth and final Glendalough AC runner in 66th out of the 73 runners who achieved 7 races (a total of 504 runners ran 1 race or more).

RESULT

1. Enda Cloake (Slaney Olympic) 0:40:01

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

29. Eoin Syron 0:50:00

56. Torben Dahl 0:54:04

62. Alan Kennedy 0:55:46

95. Ben Lewis 1:01:48

122. Eoin Phelan 1:09:11

129. James Heggie 1:16:09

151. Diarmuid Kavanagh 0:00:00

SD SCP 6K (BHAA)

RESULT

1. Sean doran (Harrier Products) 0:20:36

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

31. Eoin Kennedy 0:28:48

35. Mark Willoughby 0:29:23

LUG NA COILLE

Eoin Syron (WW RC shirt front) breaks away from his club mates early (Kev in light blue, Rene and Diarmuid in the back 4th, 5th and 7th in the picture)

At the super-traditional Lug na Coille route runners had to brave the wet and mist. Slaney’s Enda Cloake won his 10th race in 11 outings this season and the fact his winning time was the slowest since 1999 spoke more to the conditions than Enda’s performance!

Kevin ahead of Rene and Diarmuid on the early fire-road

Eoin Syron detached himself early to finish first man home as he had at Trooperstown leaving the trio of Rene, Kevin, and Diarmuid to battle it out for further Club Championship points. Rene made his move late on Camarahill but Kevin would keep returning and trying to ‘drop’ the club coach before Rene eventually got a gap on the flat plateau which he extended on the descent. Diarmuid closed in significantly on the downhill – closing to within 8 seconds of Kevin. Alan Kennedy took a detour into the valley adding 2 km and plenty of time (but not as bad as two other runners who were lost for 4.5 hours!).

RESULT

1. Enda Cloake (Slaney Olympic) 0:58:02

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

12. Eoin Syron 1:09:33

14. René Borg 1:11:50

20. Kevin Ferguson 1:16:17

21. Diarmuid Kavanagh 1:16:25

32. Alan Kennedy 1:40:00 (3rd M55)

Sliabh Daeane – Ox Mountains

While our quintet battled on Lug na Coille Eric Kelly had his IMRA debut in Sligo in the North-West League finishing 39th and having a good time by all accounts.

RESULT

1. Aiden McMoreland () 0:43:08

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

39. Eric Kelly 1:24:54

BLUESTACK WAY 50 KM

This weekend John Conway finished 2nd in the inaugural Bluestack Way 50 km – a fairly speedy trail route that includes several road sections in County Donegal. John had crossed the finish line in 3rd spot but a time penalty for the runner-up saw him promoted to 2nd behind Irish international Cillian Fleming. John’s wife Laura won the women’s race.

RESULT

1. Cillian Fleming () 4:05:41

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

2. John Conway 4:37:00 (2nd overall, 1st M40)

REPORT: Dutch trails, Crone Caper and Blaney Rockets 10 mile

July 24, 2023 by glendaloughac, posted in Mountain running, Race reports, Road running, Trail running

A new club record and two podiums were the harvest as our runners sprung into action on Dutch trails, Wicklow hills and Monaghan roads…

Veluwezoom Trail Festival 32k

In the Netherlands, Rich Costelloe took on the 32 km distance in the Veluwezoom Trail Running Festival and zoomed (no pun intended!) around in 2:44.

RESULT

1. Niels Baljet (Rotterdam) 2:12:37

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

17. Richard Costelloe 2:44:07

Richard Costelloe in Nordwijk 10k a week before he took to the trails

CRONE COILLTE CAPER

Alan Kennedy led our team home at the tough race in Crone as he chased the possibility of catching club mate Angus Tyner for the overall M55 win in the Leinster League. Unfortunately, Paul Mahon and Paddy McLoughlin made a rare appearance knocking him into 3rd and removing the last mathematical chance of Alan catching Angus (who has 11 points – Alan can finish on 12 if he wins the M55 at Trooperstown).

Alan was followed home not by the regular summer crowd but by returnees and near-debutantees: Torben Dahl running his first race since the relay, Ben Lewis who was kept out by injury since May and Eoin Phelan enjoying only his second mountain race after making his debut at Ballinastoe last week!

Loraine Creane was out supporting some of the kids in the short race.

RESULT

1. Enda Cloake (Slaney Olympic) 0:29:04

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

20. Loraine Creane 0:44:24

42. Alan Kennedy 1:09:34 (3rd M55)

65. Torben Dahl 1:13:34

88. Ben Lewis 1:20:06

108. Eoin Phelan 1:29:11

121. James Heggie 1:37:45

BLANEY ROCKETS 10 MILE

Meanwhile further North, Donna Quinn lowered her 2017 PB in the 10 mile distance by 1m12s as she finished 3rd in the Blaney Rockets 10 miler.

With this she lowered both her own overall women’s 10 mile club record and also struck Nora Butler’s F40 record off the books.

*Donna hits the podium at the Blaney Rockets 10 mile*

RESULT

1. Mark McNally (Glaslough Harriers AC) 0:59:36

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

49. Donna Quinn 1:08:49 (3rd woman, 1st F40, PB, Club Record)

REPORT: Hornindal, Snowdon, Nordwijk, Clontarf, Ticknock, Tucker Trail.

July 11, 2023July 11, 2023 by glendaloughac, posted in Mountain running, Race reports, Road running, Trail running

Serious racing this week as several gruelling mountain races where taken on and we also had plenty of action on the roads including a big contingent at the Clontarf Half-marathon as we report on fifteen more results from Ireland, Norway, Wales and the Netherlands.

GLENDALOUGH TUCKER TRAIL

James Heggie fell for the cut-offs in the Glendalough Tucker Trail 80k – 11 of the 38 starters suffered this fate. Tough luck but on the plus side he had energy enough left to run at Ticknock 4 days later….

RESULT

1. Keith Lane () 8:19:40

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

38. James Heggie DNF

THREE-ROCK TICKNOCK

James was one of four finishers from the club in this Leinster League race with Angus Tyner leading the team home ahead of Alan Kennedy and Mark Willoughby on a new course devised for 2023. Angus and Alan took 1st and 2nd in the M55 neary ‘as usual’.

RESULT

1. Enda Cloake (Slaney Olympic) 0:37:42

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

38. Angus Tyner 0:47:55 (1st M55)

48. Alan Kennedy 0:49:28 (2nd M55)

146. James Heggie 1:11:05

171. Mark Willoughby 1:09:28

HORNINDAL ULTRA

Graeme Warren was in Norway running a race described as ‘Norway’s toughest mountain race’ and it seemed correct once his report arrived:

A quick update from Norway. I dropped out of the ultra at half way (still got a medal as that was also a race!). 37.5km, 2900m vertical, which took 8.48 hours, for an blistering average speed of a smidge over 4km an hour. This was a different league, way beyond anything I’ve tried before Technically really challenging and with brutal climbs and descents. I think there were only two short sections in any way runnable. At that pace, it would have taken c20hours for the ultra, and I wasn’t ready for that. So I stopped in good form, having had one of the best mountain days of my life, and with no injuries after a great adventure. Very happy indeed!

While Graeme earned a medal for completing the ‘shortened’ 38.6 km it was not enough for a placing and he had to concede as a DNF in the 75k.

RESULT

1. Erik Vadla (Sandles IL) 11:11:43

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

34. Graeme Warren DNF

CLONTARF HALF-MARATHON

*Eoin Phelan (middle) at a windy Clontarf*

Diarmuid Kavanagh was our fastest man and set his first marker on this distance as 1:37:41. Starting in Wave 4 it took him 8 minutes to cross the line and he described the first 4 km as ‘being at a funeral’ and Eoin Phelan also reported the race had some issues this year:

“It was poorly organised. i had to run with the race-tshirt in my hand as we barely made it to the start line due to queues for race numbers. the wind was so strong that I could barely take a drink of water from their wide plastic cups. i end up having to stop at each water station just so could actually swallow some water. the parking was poorly organised aswell. on a positive note it was a nice course and medal.“

Our Wicklow Wolf RC contingent also ran well with PBs for Graham Kearns and Ben McGettigan.

RESULT

1. Yared Derese (Carrick Aces AC) 1:10:27

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

323. Diarmuid Kavanagh 1:37:55 (PB, MS PB)

464. Mark Lindsay 1:47:13 – WW RC

592. Graham Kearns 1:49:03 (PB, M45 PB)- WW RC

731. Eoin Phelan 1:54:08

1412. Ben McGettigan 2:04:09 (PB, M35 PB) – WW RC

2044. James McCarthy 2:18:08 – WW RC

SNOWDONIA XTERRA HALF-MARATHON

*Rene Borg on the long ascent to Snowdon in the Xterra Trail*

Around the same time in Wales, club coach Rene Borg (representing an EcoTrail Wicklow contingent over there to sell Wicklow on the locals) began the long climb towards Snowdon in a race the organiser’s described as ‘a race that is known as one of the most challenging half routes out there (some will say harder than the full!)’. Despite these hardships and a fall on the final descent, Rene finished in the top-10% of the field and was back to see the other EcoTrail Wicklow ‘workers’ take the overall win (Ricki Wynne), M50 win (Paul Mahon) and F40 win (Nicola Cleary) in the 57 km race.

RESULT

1. Oliver Radford () 1:51:01

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

38. René Borg 2:26:43

NORDWIJK 10 KM and 5 km

Also abroad – in the Netherlands – Catherine Devitt won the F40 category in the Nordwijk 10k finishing 6th woman and 35th overall in a race that drew nearly 600 competitors.

RESULT

1. Bereket Yeman (Leiden) 0:32:54

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

35. Catherine Devitt 0:39:25 (1st F40)

Hubby Richard Costelloe competed in the 5 km – in similarly warm conditions around 25 degrees – finishing 10th out of 198 anf was likewise first in this category (M45).

RESULT

1. Maikel Stolwijk (Leiden) 0:17:30

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

10. Richard Costelloe 0:19:18 (1st M45)