RACE REPORTS: Devilish hills and trails, Dutch ParkRuns and home turf at Brockagh

Our result round-up begins at one of the most well-loved trail runs among our club members: the Devil’s Glen.

Paul Duffy closely chased by Diarmuid Kavanagh at Devil’s Glen (photo: Joseph Boyle)

DEVIL’S GLEN

Paul Duffy led us home continuing his strong comeback – he also got the covetted ‘sub-40’ blue ribbon performance (the fifth club runner to do so in our colours and the 8th current member to have done so).

Less than 2 minutes behind was Diarmuid with Colm Kenna and Barry O’Neill arriving just around the 50th position (a feat they’d repeat a week later).

RESULT

1. Matthew McConnell () 0:34:15

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

8. Paul Duffy 0:39:07

18. Diarmuid Kavanagh 0:40:59

47. Colm Kenna 0:46:27

51. Barry O’Neill 0:47:13

Colm Kenna at Brockagh a week after Devil’s Glen

WICKLOW WAY RACE

48 hours later Duncan Barrett set out on another Wicklow Way Race. Without his 2021 training volume he couldn’t quite replicate his best run over the course in Autumn but he still put in a strong and experienced showing with 12th position and a time of 17 hours 2 minutes for the 127 km.

RESULT

1. Mickie Brennan () 13:45:13

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

12. Duncan Barrett 17:02:18

Graeme Warren descends off Brockagh having used Camaderry as a warmup

CAMADERRY ‘DEVIL’S CLIMB’

While Duncan was still running, a small field of four competed in the 5th round of our Club Championship – the 5 km Uphill only run from the Upper Lake to Camaderry East. Club coach René took the win with Donna Quinn beating Aoife in the ladies. After a slight dip in attendance in the recent Club Champs, we expect them to pick up as the next counter is the Wicklow Road Championship.

RESULT

1. René Borg 0:40:16 (1st M40)

2. Graeme Warren 0:43:24 (1st M45)

3. Donna Quinn 0:43:55 (1st F40)

4. Aoife Joyce 0:51:01 (2nd F40)

ZUIDERBERG PARKRUN

That same morning in The Haag, Richard Costelloe returned to action finishing 4th in the Zuiderberg ParkRun in 20:46.

RESULT

1. Matthew Russell (Kovsie AC) 0:18:06

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

4. Richard Costelloe 0:20:46 (1st M45)

Rene takes the club lead baton late on the Brockagh climb with Aran in pursuit

BROCKAGH LL

The Leinster continued this Wednesday and the ‘yellow wave’ again swept over a local hill – the new 11.3 km Brockagh course. Young guns Aran and Diarmuid led our men out on the ascent but were overtaken late on the climb by René who led the troops home in 12th followed by Aran in 15th. With two men in the top-20, Loraine put more gloss on the evening when she finished 3rd lady and first F40.

Graeme Warren had overtaken Diarmuid late on the climb and he and our next three packed very tightly coming in 26th, 29th, 31st and 32nd all within just over a minute.

Loraine Creane has time to smile down the grassy bank at Brockagh

Colm Kenna came next well inside the top half of the field with a strong run and Barry O’Neill – still managing himself back from knee injury closed out our pack.

It was a good day for Sli Cualann as well with Parnell’s Derek Crammond winning – David and Cormac Conroy in 8th and 10th and Hugh Kinsella winning the M60. For good measure Kilcoole AC’s Peter Bell was 2nd.

RESULT

1. Derek Crammond (Parnell AC) 0:49:40

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

12. René Borg 0:59:20

15. Aran Lynham 1:00:24

26. Graeme Warren 1:02:58

29. Diarmuid Kavanagh 1:03:44

31. Eoin Kennedy 1:04:09

32. Loraine Creane 1:04:21 (3rd lady, 1st F40)

51. Colm Kenna 1:09:43

56. Barry O’Neill 1:11:55

Eoin Kennnedy descends away from the seting sun

RACE REPORT: Comeback kids

It was a good week for people ‘returning to action’ and none moreso than Marcus Murphy who raced for the first time in 4 years returning with a solid 20:52.

RESULT

1. Derek Crammond (Parnell AC) 0:16:56

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

19. Marcus Murphy 0:20:52

DEVIL’S GLEN

Diarmuid Kavanagh

Paul Duffy had a disrupted start to the season courtesy of a recurring back issue but is swiftly finding his groove being our first runner home at both Trooperstown Hill and Devil’s Glen with his first top-10 since 2012. For Diarmuid Kavanagh this was his first top-20 in a non-relay IMRA race.

RESULT

1. Matthew McConnell () 0:34:15

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

8. Paul Duffy 0:39:07

17. Diarmuid Kavanagh 0:41:00

44. Colm Kenna 0:46:28

48. Barry O’Neill 0:47:13

TROOPERSTOWN SUMMER

Torben Dahl at Trooperstown

As has been the trend of late races on our ‘local’ hills (Brockagh, Paddock, Scarr, and Trooperstown) draw a good contingent and this time was no exception with a very close battle once again between our men with Paul, Torben and Aran within less 90 seconds. Barry O’Neill continues to manage his way back after long-term knee injury.

RESULT

1. Peter Bell (Kilcoole AC) 0:43:39

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

25. Paul Duffy 0:51:27

27. Torben Dahl 0:51:46

29. Aran Lynham 0:52:56

61. Barry O’Neill 1:02:10

64. Loraine Creane 1:02:33

REPORT: Relay, rough mountain, and Lap of the Gap

It continues to be one of our busiest and craziest racing season with our runners participating in everything from the Wicklow Way Relay to the tough and rugged Glacier Lakes and Seven Sisters Skyline races to our very own Lap of the Gap Marathon and Glen to Glen Half – and that’s before we celebrate Aran Lynham’s first win in the Tralee 10 km road race!

WICKLOW WAY RELAY

Sarah and Rachel waiting to spring into action on leg 3

Our club had 14 runners competing as part of three different teams in the Wicklow Way Relay on 14th of May. Like in many previous years we had teamed up with runners from Parnell and the team ‘Parnelldalough’ finished 4th out of 35 (our highest finish yet) and continued our streak of ‘never being out of the top-10’.

Blazing Yellow – featuring 8 Glendalough AC runners – finished 11th and Graham Bushe competed for Mountain Swifts who finished 3rd. It was a day of high drama with 11 teams made non-competitive due to deviations from the Wicklow Way including unfortunately our ‘mother club’ Sli Cualann who were set to take 3rd (as TT Racers – occupying the final podium position midway through) were made non-competitive early in the race.

Paul Duffy takes on water on leg 4

The other Glendalough AC runners in action where: Brian Lydon, Torben Dahl, Rene Borg, Aran Lynham, Rachel Wisdom, Sarah Foster, Paul Duffy, Blaise Kinsella, Diarmuid Kavanagh, Graham Bushe, Johnny Conway, Anthony Breen, Duncan Barrett and Aoife Joyce.

GLACIER LAKES

The previous week Graham Bushe had finished 8th in the long and rough Wicklow Glacier Lakes Race.

RESULT

1. Andrew Tees () 4:39:30

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

8. Graham Bushe 5:46:40

LAP OF THE GAP MARATHON / GLEN TO GLEN HALF-MARATHON

Blaise Kinsella (left) after the Glen to Glen Half

In our annual club fund-raiser Duncan Barrett and Graeme Warren finished neck on neck in 22nd and 23rd position with Blaise Kinsella our only representative in the half-marathon. Blaise ran very well and nearly got himself under the 90-minute barrier.

RESULT – full

1. Darren Foley () 3:07:08

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

22. Duncan Barrett 3:46:20

23. Graeme Warren 3:46:44

RESULTS – HALF

RESULT 1. Tudor Mircea (Clonliffe Harriers) 1:10:39 (CR)

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

14. Blaise Kinsella 1:30:44

SEVEN SISTERS SKYLINE

Brian’s view in Seven Sisters

On the same day in County Donegal Brian Lydon took part in the first round of the WMRA World Cup in Ireland’s toughest mountain race: the 55 km Seven Sisters Skyline and over the unrelenting course he took nearly 40 minutes off his time from last year to finish 60th.

RESULT

1. Ricky Wynne () 7:07:47 (CR)

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

60. Brian Lydon 10:47:53

BORN TO RUN TRALEE 10K

Aran get’s top spot

Continuing our tour of the country, Aran Lynham secured the first men’s road race victory for our club in his maiden outing over the 10 km distance in Tralee and set a first mark of 40:03. He said he took advantage of many local top runners being at a half-marathon in Castleisland – but a win is a win!

RESULT

1. Aran Lynham (Glendalough AC) 0:40:03 (PB)

CAPE WRATH 400K

Johnny’s ‘mug shot’ for Cape Wrath

As we speak club member John Conway has completed day 3 of the gruelling 8-day expedition race ‘Cape Wrath’ in Scotland – taking runners the 400 km from Fort William to Cape Wrath. Johnny currently sits solidly in 15th position and can be tracked below:

https://live.opentracking.co.uk/capewrathultra22/

MASSIVE MAY: Track, Road and hills!

Before our big relay update, we catch up on the many race results from the last few weeks including the Carrick and Prince Willie’s Leinster League races, the Prague Marathon, the Leinster Novice Championship and the Wicklow Track and Field 3k as well as ultra performances by Duncan and Brian in the Waterville 130k and Ballyhoura 63k respectively.

CARRICK MOUNTAIN

Eoin Kennedy descending at Carrick

The last race before the relay is sometimes an opportunity for some of our runners to do the final race sharpener but this year Angus Tyner and Eoin Kennedy used it as a replacement as neither could make the relay this time around.

RESULT

1. Peter Bell (Kilcoole AC) 0:39:47

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

25. Angus Tyner 0:51:48 (2nd M50)

28. Eoin Kennedy 0:49:59 (2nd MS)

PRAGUE MARATHON

Club PRO Gleb Reys was on pacing duties in Prague (for a friend) and came through the Czech marathon in 5:10.

RESULT

1. Nobert Kigen (Team Birell) 2:07:54

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

4099. Gleb Reys 5:10:51

Gleb enjoying Prague

WICKLOW TRACK AND FIELD

The week before the relay, our club made it’s debut at the Wicklow Track and Field with four runners competing in the Friday evening 3000m with two PBs and three top-3 finishes (although in a small field).

RESULT

1. Neil Wiktorski (Parnell AC) 0:09:12

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

9. Aran Lynham 0:10:49 (3rd MS, PB)

10. Blaise Kinsella 0:10:50 (2nd M40, PB)

11. René Borg 0:11:03 (3rd M40, M40 PB)

12. Colm Kenna 0:12:22

Aran at the 3k with club coach Rene in the background

LEINSTER MASTERS AND NOVICE ROAD RACE

Donna Quinn represented our contingent under the Sli Cualann banner at the Gowran Leinster Road Race and lowered her PB over 3 km from 12:13 to 11:27 while setting a new club over40 record. Donna’s run was enough for 8th overall and yielded two bronze medals: one individual in the F40 category and one with the Sli Cualann ladies team.

Rachel Wisdom still holds the club 3 km record (set in 3k) for women with 11:17.

RESULT
1. Noureen Brouder (Sportsworld AC) 0:10:35
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
8. Donna Quinn 0:11:27 (3rd F40, PB, F40 PB)

Donna and the Sli Cualann ladies at the Leinster Road Race

BALLYHOURA ULTRA TRAIL

Brian Lydon continued his new adventures over the long distances and made up for the disappointment of missing the Maurice Mullins 50k with a strong run-out at the Ballyhoura Ultra Trail 63k race.

Brian Lydon at Ballyhoura Ultra Trail
RESULT
1. Michael Costello () 5:39:50
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
22. Brian Lydon 7:40:31

PRINCE WILLIAM’S SEAT

Paul Duffy and Aran Lynham have both returned from injury and were testing the bodies ahead of next week’s Wicklow Way Relay. Torben Dahl led the yellow singlets home while Paul managed to overtake Aran during the race. All three finished within 50 seconds which has been the trend of the 2022 season with a good gang of 10 male runners always within about a minute of each other in races.

Paul and Aran at Prince Willie’s Seat
RESULT
1. Conall Whelan (UCD AC) 0:42:09
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
32. Torben Dahl 0:50:59
35. Paul Duffy 0:51:25
38. Aran Lynham 0:51:40

Torben Dahl at Prince Willie’s

WATERVILLE 130K

Duncan Barrett had come out of a period of relative recovery to run the Waterville 130 km with friends. Taking it easy (by his standards) he managed to come around in 20th position overall and 21 hour 8 minutes. This was no mean feat on a day with hot weather causing a DNF rate of over 37% in the race.

RESULT
1. Stephen Mangan () 16:02:48
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
20. Duncan Barrett 21:08:51

RACE REPORTS: Roads in Kilkenny and Wexford, hills and trails in Belmont and Glenmalure

Another busy week of race results with our runners taking on several road races, the good trails of Belmont Estate and the traditional mountain race ‘Circuit of Avonbeg’.

CIRCUIT OF AVONBEG

We had three runners in the Leinster Championship race ‘Circuit of Avonbeg’ – a 25 km (or more depending on navigation) open mountain race starting and finishing in Glenmalure.

Graham Bushe was still recovering from his personal ‘Arderrin challenge’ – where he clocked 12 Wicklow arderrins in 6 hours but got himself home in 17th with John Conway in 19th – now fully recovered from the niggle that forced him to drop out of the Mourne Seven Sevens.

Torben Dahl was our next finisher – 12 years after making his IMRA debut on this exact course (finishing 8th). This time – on tired legs – he had to settle for 28th.

RESULTS

1. Ruairi Long (UCD) 2:35:56

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

17. Graham Bushe 3:25:48 (3rd M50)

19. John Conway 3:40:31

28. Torben Dahl 4:27:04

WEXFORD 10K AND HALF-MARATHON

Eight days after his 5 km PB in Shanganagh, Blaise Kinsella was at it again finishing 11th overall in the Wexford 10k in 40:47 – taking nearly 1.5 min off his previous best of 42:15.

RESULT

1. Sean Hehir (MSB) 0:32:53

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

11. Blaise Kinsella 0:40:47 (PB, M40 PB)

Gleb Reys was running in the half-marathon and couldn’t quite snatch a PB on the day but finished in the middle of the field in 1:56:24.

RESULT

1. David Mahon (Slaney Olympic) 1:11:43

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

492. Gleb Reys 1:56:24

BELMONT AND LITTLE SUGARLOAF

The IMRA Leinster League kicked off on the hardpacked trails of Belmont with the technical rocky ‘Little Sugarloaf’ in the middle and here Brian Lydon was our first man home followed by Diarmuid Kavanagh and Sarah Foster representing our ladies section in the 148 strong field.

Diarmuid on Little Sugarloaf

RESULT

1. Conor Greenan (TT Racers) 0:40:36

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

22. Brian Lydon 0:45:49

48. Diarmuid Kavanagh 0:50:54

90. Sarah Foster 0:59:58

Sarah enjoying life on Little Sugarloaf

SHANGANAGH PARKRUN

In the Shanganagh ParkRun Blaise Kinsella banked a surprise 5 km PB of 18:36 knocking 50 seconds off his previous best.

RESULT

1. Alex Gray () 0:16:45

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

9. Blaise Kinsella 0:18:36 (PB, M40 PB)

Brian Lydon at Little Sugarloaf

STREETS OF KILKENNY 5K

Not to be outdone Donna Quinn ran another PB (her 3rd in 2022) only 1 second short of Rachel Wisdom’s club record of 19:03 and the fifth fastest personal best run by current female members of our club. Donna’s previous mark was 19:17. The time also broke Yvonne Brennan’s F40 club record (20:25).

RESULT

1. Eoin Everard (Kilkenny City Harriers AC) 0:14:11

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

184. Donna Quinn 0:19:04 (PB, F40 CLUB RECORD)

RESULTS BONANZA: ParkRuns, Quest, National 10k and IMRA/NIMRA racing


We have a lot of results to catch up on so starting from this weekend and working back:

GREAT IRELAND RUN 10K

Donna Quinn joined the Sli Cualann team for the National 10k Championship in the Phoenix Park and a firm aim to try and break the 40 minute barrier. In the end she fell narrowly short (40:24) but still recorded a PB (by one second!) and got some glitter home: 3rd in the F40 category and what looks like a Silver medal with the Sli Cualann ladies team (lead home by Parnell’s Sile O’Byrne in 4th overall and Catherine O’Connor.

Her time was also the fastest time run by a woman in Glendalough AC colours.

RESULT

1. Mick Clohisey (Raheny Shamrocks) 0:30:49

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

158. Donna Quinn 0:40:24 (3rd F40, PB, Club Record, F40 PB)

results

MOURNE SEVEN SEVENS

John Conway was the only ‘survivor’ of 5 Glendalough AC runners who had originally intended to run the British Championship race in the Mournes (all absent due to injury or other commitments) and was sitting in the top-100 when he had to make a decision to pull out because as he said ‘fitness is fine but quads weren’t quite up for the downhill’. Focus remains on his big project: the Cape Wrath 400k stage race in 5 weeks!

The race was won by mountain running legend Finlay Wild from Lochaber AC.

results

TINAHELY

Three of our runners were in action at the inauguration of the fabulous Tinahely route – initially advertised as 7 km, it’s length was corrected to 13.5 km the week prior and then adjusted again to 14.6 km a few days before. Despite this, some runners couldn’t get enough and after the tough first climb was crested, the first chasing pack took a further detour – with 4 or 5 runners adding their day’s tally up to 19 and even 20.3k!

Thankfully, our trio were not thus tempted. Anthony began the long midway descent first only for Rene to overtake him early on the descent. Without anyone to follow, maximum attention had to be paid as this route – in true IMRA fashion – featured one piece of tape per junction. Rene started the second climb in 2nd position (unbeknownst to him at the time) but had to concede ground as first Eoghan Hughes then Anthony and then Liam Vines ground their way past on the way to the top. Coming into the final stile, Anthony took a wrong turn down towards the short course allowing Rene to repass him and secure 4th place – narrowly off a surprise podium but enough to get 1st M40 and the highest IMRA finish for a GMAC runner since Torben finished 4th at Oughaval Woods in 2019. Anthony – having realised his mistake – managed to recover to finish 11th.

Barry O’Neill was out testing the system after a long period with sore knees and sat back a bit to still finishing in a solid 28th spot out of the 57 runners there. This route will likely return – as it featured not only two tough climbs but lots of lovely single track dirt path and grassy trails.

RESULT
1. Matthew McConnell () 1:06:46
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
4. René Borg 1:19:15 (1st M40)
11. Anthony Breen 1:23:20
28. Barry O’Neill 1:35:10

results

QUEST GLENDALOUGH

The previous day (Saturday 2nd April), Diarmuid Kavanagh had recovered enough from his knee injury to compete in the Quest alongside Eoin Kennedy (only 7 days out from his ultra debut in Maurice Mullins!) whereas John Conway had to DNS with some knee trouble.

Eoin finished 136th out of 575 in the Sport category doing well in the first two runs (finishing 99th, 126th and 174th in the three runs).  In the Expert category Diarmuid Kavanagh had to overcome two punctures on the bike sections to finish 63rd out of 253 – not quite the day he had hoped for

Richard Kieran at Annagh Hill (photo: Mick Hanney)

ANNAGH HILL

Richard Kieran was our only runner at the sixth and final Winter League race at Annagh Hill – a course infamous for it’s tough and slippy descents and it did not disappoint this year. Richard finished 36th out of the 105 runners – his best finish in the league and enough for 25th overall. Richard was the only Glendalough AC runner to complete the minimum 4 to score. Torben completed 3 (enough for 53rd spot). Rene Borg, Angus Tyner, Brian Lydon and colm Kenna each finished two (for 104th, 107th , 116th and 137th respectively) with the remaining club runners all completing only one of the six counters. In total 433 runners competed in the league.

RESULT
1. Enda Cloake (Slaney Olympic) 0:53:55
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
36. Richard Kieran 1:19:00
Richard Kieran at Annagh Hill (photo: Mick Hanney)

WICKLOW WAY HALF

One week on and it was again time for the Wicklow Way Half – an out and back course from Lough Tay to Crone Wood. Richard was in action again and our first runner over the line followed by Sarah Foster who made a big step up in distance: prior to this race her longest race had been 13.5 km! She played it smart and finished well up in 122nd out of the 196 competitors.

RESULT
1. Barry McEvoy (Unattached) 1:33:30
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
105. Richard Kieran 2:37:11
122. Sarah Foster 2:44:48

CASTLEBLANEY PARKRUN

Meanwhile on a visit home Donna got a controlled session in at the Castleblaney ParkRun which was enough for 3rd overall and 1st woman in a time of 21:05 (nearly two minutes off her PB from the end of 2021).

RESULT
1. Owen Carleton (Annadale Striders) 0:17:05
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
3. Donna Quinn 0:21:05

RACE REPORT: Trooperstown, Wicklow Hospice, Camaderry 5k

February finished as it began with several members racing on hills, trails and road.

TROOPERSTOWN WINTER

Sarah Foster coming off the first peak at Trooperstown Winter (photo: Brendan Delaney)

The third IMRA/Winter Spring League race happened on ‘local ground’ on Trooperstown Hill with a predictably big turn-out from our crew. Our first four runners crossed the line with a 71 second compression (Torben, Angus, Rene and Brian) with Eoin, Richard K., Colm and Sarah all running well too. With a few injured hill runners yet to return to the ‘squad’ the summer season looks promising.

RESULT

1. Enda Cloake (Slaney Olympic) 0:40:17

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

20. Torben Dahl 0:50:00

22. Angus Tyner 0:50:03 (2nd M50)

30. René Borg 0:51:00

32. Brian Lydon 0:51:11

45. Eoin Kennedy 0:53:36

76. Richard Kieran 0:59:35

93. Colm Kenna 1:02:58

105. Sarah Foster 1:06:25

Rene Borg and Angus Tyner on the climb during Trooperstown Winter (photo: Mick Hanney)

WICKLOW HOSPICE 10K

Saturday the 26th saw a double-header: Blaise Kinsella and Colm Kenna ran in the Wicklow Hospice 10k and BOTH secured PBs. Blaise in his first time trying (!) and Colm putting paid to a mark that had stood since 2016 for him.

RESULT

1. Ronan Wogan (Bohermeen AC) 0:34:28

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

12. Blaise Kinsella 0:42:15 (PB, M40 PB)

17. Colm Kenna 0:44:49 (PB, M40 PB)

Richard Kieran finds time for a smile at Trooperstown (photo: Mick Hanney)

CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP: CAMADERRY SHOULDER 5K

Meanwhile on home turf the second round of the Club Championship took place over the neo-classical Camaderry Shoulder 5k course. Guest runner, and former member, Barry Murray won the race in the first sub-21 run on it (20:53) running from last spot in the straight up handicap race.

Brian Lydon, however, was race winner. Having started in 4th, he overtook Diarmuid, Sarah and Donna to take maximum points. With the Predictor and Handicap round out of the way the more serious championship races loom ahead.

RACE REPORTS: February 2022

Donna Quinn, Sheila O’Byrne and Catherine O’Connor at Enniscorthy 10km

With restrictions easing and weather finally picking up, many of the great races welcomed athletes in February 2022.

Donadea 50K – 12/02/2022

Over 250 athletes braved the Donadea 50km, and national championship race, on Saturday 12th, with quite a few dropping out due to unusual weather and trail conditions. John Conway started strong but a fuelling mistake midway through saw him lose ground as the race progressed – he still secured a PB and could celebrate his better half Laura take 2nd overall in the ladies race.

John’s time was also a new club record for the 50 km – beating Barry O’Neill’s previous 4:39:05 mark.

1 – Sean Hehir, MSB – 2:56:04

——–GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS—————–

70 – Johnny Conway – 4:21:14 (PB)

Results: https://www.popupraces.ie/race/donadea50k-2022/

Enniscorthy 10K – 13/02/2022

The Enniscorthy 10k was productive and profitable for Sli Cualann and Glendalough AC with Inbhear Dee’s Kilian Mooney winning the men’s race and Sli Cualann ladies taking 2nd, 3rd and 4th spot overall with our own Donna Quinn the girl in fourth, Aoife in 9th and Parnell’s Hannah Nolan in 12th. The Sli Cualann ladies team went home 160 euro richer for their efforts.

Aoife Joyce
  1. Killian Mooney, Sli Cualann AC 31:49

9. Ruth Fitzgerald, West Waterford 35:19

——–GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS (COMPETING AS SLI CUALANN)—————–

Donna Quinn – 0:40:25 (PB)

Aoife Joyce 0:44:30

full results

Ticknock WINTER – 13/02/2022

The Winter League continued with it’s third round – as usual we had smaller representation for the ‘northern’ routes where Torben and Angus had a close shoot-out – more of those to come!

1 – Enda Cloake – 0:39:27

——–GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS—————–

30 – Torben Dahl – 0:49:23

36 – Angus Tyner – 0:49:56

Results: https://imra.ie/events/results/id/2136

TRIM 10 MILE – 14/02/2022

The weekend action finished with Angus taking on an extremely windswept Trim 10 mile which lead to a time that as he described ‘he could do in training’. Despite this his time was enough to set a new club M50 record for the 10 mile and finish top-5% of the 1515 strong field.

  1. Martin Hoare, Cellbridge AC 50:45

—————–GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS—————— (competing as Sli Cualann)

77. Angus Tyner 1:07:31

See Also

STREET OF WICKLOW 5K AND CLUB CHAMPS CLOSE THE YEAR….

After the end of a long year and the Xmas festivities our athletes took to the Streets of Wicklow for the traditional 5 km.

On a perfect day and on a new faster course, Donna Quinn secured not only a PB but a breakthrough performance running 19:17 – the just rewards for years of consistent training and a nice cap to a season which saw her crowned Club Champion only a week earlier.

Aran Lynham was our first man home in 18:55 – a few seconds short of his PB. It was also a great day for Colm Kenna – his 21:50 was his fastest time since 31/03/2017 when he ran 21:25 and less than a minute off his PB (21:01) from 2016. Graeme Warren got narrowly ‘Quinned’ and had he run 4 seconds faster (and matched his PB from July), he would have finished dead-heated with Donna on the day.

STREETS OF WICKLOW 5K

  1. Tudor Moldovan, Clonliffe Harriers 15:28

———GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS———–

39. Aran Lynham 18:55

51. Donna Quinn 19:17 (PB)

52. Graeme Warren 19:21

Claire Thompson 21:14

Colm Kenna 21:50

full results

CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL ROUND

A week prior three teams had lined up to contest the final round of our Club Championship with teams of two competing on the very hilly ‘Camaderry Shoulder 5k’. Here club coach René Borg had to lead his team to victory in order to wrest the title from Angus Tyner (orienteering in England). Aoife Joyce – paired with Rene on the ‘partner rule’ – had to keep her team ahead of Donna’s to defend her lead in the ladies race.

In the end it was a close run affair – Donna lead the first leg home with Paul Duffy and Aoife Joyce in pursuit. Aran Lynham and Barry O’Neill set off with René Borg leaving last. In the end the duo of Borg-Joyce nearly clawed back the deficit finishing a narrow second – close but no cigar as Angus and Donna were confirmed champions of 2021.

OVERALL RESULTS

CARLINGFORD AND CROSS-COUNTRY

Mud and grass where the order of the day for our athletes this Sunday. Conditions where slightly windy but otherwise good as our tremendous trio of Claire Thompson, Donna Quinn and Aoife Joyce took to the start of the Wicklow Novice Cross-Country.

Team Gold! (Photo: Rene Borg)

WICKLOW NOVICE CROSS-COUNTRY 2021 – ROUNDWOOD

Very little could detract from a great day except the slightly small size of the ladies’ field: and among those not returning for the 2022 will be our own Claire Thompson who finally broke her ‘Gold Duck’.

Claire had finished 4th in her Novice debut in 2015 and narrowly missed out on the gold on several occasions with Silver in the Novice in 2016 and 2017 on top of Silver and Bronze in the Intermediate in 2015 and 2016. But in her 6th Wicklow cross-country race (and 9th overall) she secured the Gold and knocked herself out of county Novice competition for good. Her winning time of 15:28 was her second fastest time over 4 km cross-country since her 14:31 in the Leinster Novice 2016. She also knocked 1:45 off her personal best over this particular course in Roundwood.

May be an image of 1 person and outdoors
Aoife Joyce showing the joy of cross-country (photo: Andrew Hanney)

Her closest rival on the day was club mate Donna Quinn who took a somewhat unorthodox pacing approach starting at the back of the field and working her way through on the first few laps.

May be an image of 1 person, standing, playing a sport and outdoors
Claire showing determination with Donna in close pursuit (photo: Andrew Hanney)

She was closing aggressively towards the end and finished 2nd only 6 seconds behind Claire. this was by some distance Donna’s fastest cross-country race – 38 seconds faster her previous best (in the Wicklow Intermediate 2016).

The start goes! (Donna at the back!) (photo: Rene Borg)

Third counter on the day and instrumental in securing Team Gold was Aoife Joyce – 11 years on from securing the Bronze medal in the Dublin Novice with Crusaders AC – she secured her second Team Gold with Glendalough AC (adding to the Wicklow Masters 2019).

FULL RESULTS

  1. Claire Thompson 15:28
  2. Donna Quinn 15:34

7. Aoife Joyce 16:47

CARLINGFORD

Barry O’Neill taking on ‘hands and knees stuff’ (photo Turlough Conway)

Much further North, Barry O’Neill and Johnny Conway (‘fresh’ from his outing the previous weekend in the Wicklow EcoTrail 80k) took on Slieve Foy outside Carlingford where local man Michael Dowling took the victory.

In a field of 44 Johnny claimed the always covetted ‘top-10’ with 6th place overall and Barry O’Neill took 15th.

FULL RESULTS

  1. Michael Dowling 46:43

———GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS———-

6. John Conway 52:22

15. Barry O’Neill 54:26

full results