Category: Winter League

REPORT: All about Wexford! (and a bit of Holland…)

by glendaloughac, posted in Club races / events, Race reports, Road running, Trail running, Winter League

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.

RESULT
1. Emiel Berghout (Schiedam) 1:42:23
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
67. Richard Costelloe 2:04:59 (Club Record, PB)

GLENDALOUGH AC WL 2022/23

by glendaloughac, posted in Club races / events, Winter League

Our annual Winter League returns. Anyone who is a member of an AAI club can attend this training session. If you are not a member you are welcome to ‘come along’ for a few runs before signing up.

What is the Glendalough AC Winter League?

It’s like ParkRun but over different courses (mainly trail) in and around the Glendalough area and with final results based on a handicap system – so anyone can win regardless of ability and how hard you choose to run on the day.

When and where?

Selected Saturday’s during the winter period at 9:30 am. Sometimes an early start is organised at 8:30 am. You need to keep updated in the WhatsApp group on this.

Locations vary, the provisional schedule is below. WhatsApp group provides details.

What do I need to do to run?

You simply turn up on the day and sign-in on the sheet by:

  • Picking your course (short or long)
  • Stating the effort you will run at (‘very easy’ ,’easy’, ‘steady’, ‘comfortably-hard’, hard’ all-out!’)

Then listen carefully to the race briefing and you are ready to go!

What do I need?

You need a recent race time that you supply in advance to our Competition Secretary (via the Whatsapp or email rene.borg@outlook.ie)

(if you don’t have a recent race result, simply run the first run ‘all-out’. You won’t get a score for this first run – but that will set your predictions for the remainder of the WL)

You should also join the WhatsApp group for latest updates, questions etc.:

Finally, you need a functioning watch as you take your own time. No watch = no time. Send your time post-run to the WhatsApp group or write it on the sheet before leaving.

Is there a fee?

No. But there will be a box where you can donate one or two euro to the Winter League. This money will go towards the sprint and overall prizes.

What’s the purpose of the Winter League?

Exploring new trails, enjoying a run with a group and using it as an interesting easy, steady or hard run. Since you pick your own intensity and have two distance options, it’s easy to fit in with your training demands and priorities.

These run is good for building winter strength and learning how to pace yourself at different intensities.

How is the winner determined?

Based on your recent race time, an estimated time is calculated for each run based on the difficulty of the course and the effort you have stated you will run at. The closer you get to this estimate, the higher you score.

You don’t know this estimate ahead of time so are ‘running blind’. Your estimate is continuously updated based on your performances, so if you are honest with your effort and learn to read it well, then you will do well. If you constantly run too hard or too easy compared to your stated intent, you will do less well!

There are four rounds of three races. You get to keep the best score from each round and you get to count the three best scores from the four rounds. To win the overall series, you have to have run at least once in three of the four rounds.

WINTER LEAGUE – Final Round

by glendaloughac, posted in Club races / events, Winter League

Today’ result and final tally. 16 runners competed and 9 got the minimum 6 to score. The final round saw a three way battle between Aoife, Flora and Rene for the win and the Sportsroom voucher!

The final round of the Winter League took part on the Brockagh Woods course with runners trying to best their handicaps against the 5k and 9.1 km courses.

The situation

Aoife Joyce only had to better her current results by 21 seconds in order to make it impossible for either Flora McKnight or Rene Borg to catch her. It proved neck on neck as both Rene and Aoife had recorded the maximum score for the last 4 races in a row and would do so again at the fifth asking.

Having run 29:41 and thus running off a 30 minute handicap, Aoife obliterated her time with 25:28. This made Rene’s time academical but he got some consolation by lowering Barry O’Neill’s course record of 42:55 to 42:07 and taking the win on the day. Flora could not improve her handicap and dropped from 2nd to 3rd in the overall with Rene taking second. It all came down to 21 seconds after 12 races!

PositionNameStart timeFinish timeActual timeAverage PaceAvg / lapBehind winnerCourse run
1René Borg9:43 am10:25:07 am42:074:35 min/km10:32Long
2Aoife Joyce10:00 am10:25:28 am25:285:06 min/km12:440:21Short
3Marcus Murphy10:03 am10:29:08 am26:085:14 min/km13:044:01Short
4Colm Kenna10:03 am10:29:09 am26:095:14 min/km13:044:02Short
5Derek Cullen10:07 am10:30:46 am23:464:45 min/km11:535:39Short
6Barry O’Neill9:47 am10:30:58 am43:584:47 min/km11:005:51Long
7Flora McKnight10:03 am10:33:15 am30:156:03 min/km15:078:08Short
Round 12 – Brockagh Woods – standings

League summary

The league was evenly contested for much of it with several winners: Barry O’Neill and Bruce Phillips won one race each, Aoife, Flora and Colm took two each and Rene won 4.

#NameWins\RacesTOP 6AVGBehind
1Aoife Joyce265:48:030:58:010:00:00
2René Borg465:48:240:58:040:00:21
3Flora McKnight265:49:100:58:120:01:07
4Derek Cullen065:52:430:58:470:04:40
5Colm Kenna265:55:490:59:180:07:46
6Donna Quinn065:56:050:59:210:08:02
7Marcus Murphy065:56:580:59:300:08:55
8Bruce Phillips165:57:040:59:310:09:01
9Yvonne Brennan066:01:391:00:170:13:36
10Richard Kieran054:56:050:59:13 
11Barry O’Neill143:58:100:59:33 
12Catherine Devitt044:07:191:01:50 
13Aisling Kirwan022:02:041:01:02 
14Anne Marah011:00:281:00:28 
15Rachel Wisdom011:01:461:01:46 
16Michael Heatly011:01:491:01:49 
League 2019/20 – final standings

Notable achievements

This year’s league had four new course records: Donna Quinn and Aoife Joyce lowered the Roundwood 10k and 5k courses to 46:49 and 23:24 while Rene Borg lowered the long course times for Clara Vale and Brockagh Woods to 39:44 and 42:07.

People where adept at cracking their handicap breaking their times in 69 out of 106 attempts. Most of the 43 ‘failures’ – 15 – happened in the first two rounds as people were adjusting to their 2020 fitness levels!

League 2020/21

The league will return November 2020 but we will have other Saturday activities coming up for the rest of the year.

Next year’s league will feature and even tighter handicap system which should help keep the maximum number of people in contention for the longest period of time. We will also revisit bringing back the Pink Poulanass and Lower Lake Round courses to create a 16 round league.

WEEKEND ROUND-UP: Clara, Avondale, Enniscorthy

by glendaloughac, posted in Club races / events, Race reports, Road running, Winter League

Last week’s National Masters cross-country marked the end of the cross-country season for most of our runners. But the action continues…

Parkrun

Our weekend running began at 9 am in Avondale where Angus Tyner finished 6th in the ParkRun in 22:12. Not long after the smallest crowd yet assembled for our penultimate Winter League race (perhaps the weather deterred?) on the crown jewel of the six courses in the league: Clara Vale.

RESULTS

  1. Cormac Conroy, Parnell AC 18:48

———GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS——–

6. Angus Tyner 22:12

full results

Winter League

The League has come down to a three-way battle between Aoife Joyce, Flora McKnight and coahc René Borg. All would have to better their handicap by 2 minutes or more to have a chance to stay in contention. Flora duly lowered her 29 minute handicap to 27 min and Aoife took her 30 minute mark down to 26 min. René had to improve his handicap of 42 minutes for the longer course to 40 minutes to stay within reach and just about scraped it with 39:44 – lowering Barry O’Neill’s course-record by 10 seconds in the process. All now comes down to Brockagh Woods next weekend where Aoife starts the day as the heavy favourite – her fate is in her own hands.

Image may contain: 1 person, smiling, shoes, child and outdoor
Aoife at the Enniscorthy 10k. Photo: John Busher

Enniscorthy 10 km

Aoife returned to Enniscorthy for the first time in 12 years looking to improve on her 46 minute mark set in Inch in July. Storm Dennis meant this task was a bit more onerous than expected but she still came home in a chip time of 44:48. Mission accomplished.

  1. Ger Forde, Slaney Olympic 33:10

————–GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS

99. Aoife Joyce 44:48

full results

Brockagh Burst (belated)

We also spotted – a bit late – that Lillian Deegan ran Brockagh Burst where she finished 180th.

  1. Killian Mooney 27:14

————–GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS———–

180. Lillian Deegan 1:07:36

full results

WINTER LEAGUE 2020: Round 1 in Roundwood.

by glendaloughac, posted in Club races / events, Winter League

It was an eventful opening to the Winter League as usual. We missed the rain and could complete the whole event in gorgeous sunshine and be home for coffee and grub before the rain hit.

Some were playing it tactical, taking it relatively easy to reset their handicaps to an easier level for the new season whereas others took no prisoners including Barry O’Neill who lowered Derek Cullen’s time to 45:06 on the 10k course. Two of our runners went ‘cani-cross’ (Flora and Marcus) whereas Torben Dahl decided to add in a few extra mini-loops and had to forfeit finishing!

Aoife Joyce won the overall handicap race despite cashing in 41 penalty seconds for breaking her handicap by too much.

Overall standings – time penalties included

The series – and the hunt for The Sportsroom vouchers – continues on the Green Gapways course next Saturday from 9:30 am at the Glendalough Green.

REPORT: Winter League final round (Brockagh Woods)

by glendaloughac, posted in Club races / events, Race reports, Trail running, Uncategorized, Winter League

We got the excitement we had hoped for in the duel between Barry O’Neill and Bruce Phillips of who could ‘game the handicaps’ and run the best. Barry O’Neill knew that a 2 minute improvement of his previous best would secure him the league but this was easier set than done as he had run 44 minutes flat for the hilly 9.3 km course last time.

round12of12
Result of Round 12 of 12 (Brockagh Woods)

Bruce came in without improving his tally – meaning ‘only’ beating his time by 1:57 would now be enough for Barry – a time of 42:03. BUT … it was not to be – despite lowering the best time for the course to 42:55 and taking 65 seconds off his best. To add injury to insult, Aoife Joyce improved her handicap the most of any runner on the day – taking 2 minutes 3 seconds off her mark and this moved her up into 2nd place overall.

overall12of12
Overall results (12 of 12): In bold the top-4 results of each runner

In the end 16 seconds separated Aoife and Bruce in the overall standings with Barry O’Neill a further 52 seconds adrift. Barry did secure the honorary title ‘King of the Hill’ for being the best performer on the hilly routes (Clara Vale and Brockagh) while King of the Road went to Derek Cullen who performed best on the Green Gapways course. In the end we had 19 runners competing of which 11 managed to get the minimum 4 to score.

wl bruce 2.jpg
Winner Bruce Phillips

In terms of individual wins Rene Borg did best with 5 victories followed by Barry O’Neill with 3. Bruce, Donna, Arne, and Aoife took 1 race each. Two runners completed all twelve races in the series: victor Bruce Phillips and Rene Borg followed by Aoife and Colm with 10 races each.

wl barry.jpg
Barry O’Neill – 3rd despite his effort and new course record

Best improver in relation to handicap was Barry O’Neill – who improved it by 2 minutes 59 seconds ON AVERAGE in his races . No one was closer than Aoife Joyce who took 78 seconds off on average. Fastest average pace of the league was held by Rachel Wisdom with 4:26 min/km (but this was based on one race). Bruce Phillips ran by far the furthest – completing 97.4 km over his 12 races followed by René Borg with 69.2 km (this shows both who ran most races and who preferred the longer courses over the shorter).

All in all the short courses were more popular with 70 runs over them versus 36 people running long routes. Based on results, Brockagh Woods is the toughest course followed bye Green Gapways and Clara Vale

route statistics wl
Course statistics after the Winter League 2018/2019

NEWS: Winter League – final round

by glendaloughac, posted in Club races / events, Uncategorized, Winter League

The twelfth and final round of the Glendalough AC Winter League takes place this Saturday (9th March) at Brockagh Woods – so if you fancy a last go at these two delightful hilly courses – come along for 9:30 am and join us for coffee after in the Glendalough Green around 10:30ish.

The final battle

In the final standings things are nearly decided but a late twist could still emerge:

  • 2nd  placed Aoife JOyce can only improve by 22 seconds (if she beats her handicap by 2 minutes) and she is 38 seconds adrift of Bruce Phillips. Aoife, however, is safe from Donna Quinn in the race to take the ‘lady’s crown’
  • 3rd placed Barry O’Neill meanwhile can move ahead of Bruce if he beats his time by 1:58 or more AND Bruce does not improve his tally further.
  • Bruce can improve his total time by 2 seconds – should he do so, Barry O’Neill needs to beat his time by 2 minutes but will then by guaranteed a victory by 1 second overall!

Further down Donna Quinn can move ahead of Barry O’Neill in third if she beats her handicap by two minutes AND Barry O’Neill fails to improve his tally. Rene Borg in 5th can move ahead of Donna by improving his handicap by 33 seconds and Barry if he improves but this also requires that Donna does not improve her tally.

From 6th place below there are no further surprises coming: everyone in these places is 5 or more minutes behind and can move up no higher than 6th.

So it’s down to Barry vs Bruce!

 

Handicaps for the final round

brockagh handicaps updated.png

RESULTS: Handicap league Rd. 11 of 12

by glendaloughac, posted in Club races / events, Winter League

We had the most competitive handicap race yet at Roundwood Reservoir today. 8 out of 10 runners improved their handicaps. With 4 runners improving their handicap by more than 2 minutes and thus getting the maximum score, there was a shake-up at the top with Bruce Phillips taking the lead – 38 seconds ahead of Aoife Joyce and 57 seconds ahead of Barry O’Neill.

winterleaguerd11of12
Overall results after 11 of 12 rounds

It is only the second time the courses have been run so the fastest times run were reduced for nearly all races. Arne Klohn ran the new best mark for the 5 km (22:36) and Yvonne set the new ladies 5 km best at 23:56. The 10 km best times were reduced to 46:06 overall by Derek Cullen and 48:35 for the ladies by Donna Quinn. Barry O’Neill ran 44:12 but took the 10 km route along the lower reservoir so while his time has been accepted into the rankings, it won’t stand as a course best.

wlround11
Results Round 11 of 12

WINTER LEAGUE RD. 10 – Miner’s Road in the wind!

by glendaloughac, posted in Club races / events, Uncategorized, Winter League

The plot thickened at the Miner’s Road where today’s 10th round of the Club Winter League was held. This course is known as a ‘wind tunnel’ even on quiet days so we set off with some expectation of high winds. Thankfully, it was milder than expected even if the outward journey was slowed down enough to make beating handicaps challenging.

Yet this was exactly what most did. Bruce Phillips took the day and the biggest handicap improvement – finishing 2 minutes 3 seconds ahead of handicap.

Aoife Joyce in second improved by 1 minute 41 seconds allowing. This meant both Aoife and Bruce leap-frogged Donna Quinn who dropped to 3rd. Third place went to club coach René Borg who bettered his handicap by 41 seconds. Colm Kenna also timed his run well bettering his handicap by 15 seconds to finish fourth.

The fastest actual time was set by fifth-placed Derek Cullen who ran 21:56, the only person nipping under 22 minutes on the day. Yvonne Brennan came 6th and was fastest woman on the day (2nd best time overall) coming home in 22:25 missing her handicap by 35 seconds.

WL Round 10 result
Results Round 10

It’s now incredibly tight going into the last two races – Bruce is only 5 seconds behind Aoife and Donna merely 53 seconds with one poor result to discard making it fairly easy for her to close the 53 second gap. Everyone else relies on breaking their handicap substantially in BOTH of the next two races – the only realistic contender outside the top-3 is Rene who is 2 minutes 35 seconds down. The runners who have not yet run the minimum 4 to score do no longer have a realistic chance of ‘crashing the party late’.

WL overall round 10 of 12
Overall results: Round 10 of 12

A good morning out was celebrated in the Glendalough Green re-opened after its January hiatus!

NEXT ROUND: Next Saturday morning in Roundwood for the Reservoir Rounds courses!

REPORT: Winter League round 9 – Green Gapways

by glendaloughac, posted in Club races / events, Race reports, Road running, Uncategorized, Winter League

In an exciting race at Green Gapways, the league standings got massively over-turned. Barry O’Neill was the run-away leader setting the fastest 10 km time on the day and beating his handicap by nearly 6 minutes whilst recording his 2nd victory of this years league.

He was followed home on the day by Aoife Joyce in 2nd (3 minutes faster than handicap) who also climbed to 2nd in the overall table. Third was Bruce Phillips who had a strong run on the 10 km route and beat his handicap by 2 minutes 41 seconds, enough to move him up into 3rd overall.

round9results
Result of round 9 of 12

The ‘cutest’ run of the day was undoubtedly Donna Quinn who improved her handicap by 1 minute 59 seconds. This meant she got the best possible score whilst not improving her handicap so much it get’s massively hard to beat the second time. The run also took her top of the table now 62 seconds ahead of Aoife Joyce. Previous leader René Borg droppe to fourth.

overallresultround9
Overall standings with 9 out of 12 run an 4 to score

Fastest 5 km on the day was 23:14 which was set jointly by Yvonne Brennan and René Borg although it should be mentioned Yvonne decided to stop and wait for René with 100m to go! 6 out of 12 runners beat their handicap – apart from those previously mentioned there were good performances by Yvonne Brennan (84 seconds ahead of handicap) and Flora McKnight (2 minutes 24 seconds ahead of handicap).

The current standings mean that any runner who is 2 minutes or less behind the leader only needs one result where they improve their handicap by 2 minutes to jump back in front of the pack. Any runner within 4 minutes will need to post two such results in the final three rounds at the Miner’s Road, Roundwood Reservoir and Brockagh Woods.