Category: Race reports

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.

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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

REPORT: National Masters XC

by glendaloughac, posted in Cross-country running, Race reports

The National Masters Cross-Country came to Avondale and four of our runners joined up underneath the banners of the broader Sli Cualann teams to compete. Two and one kilometer loops had been laid out with a start from Avondale House featuring several hills including ‘The Green Wave’ midway through the bigger two kilometer lap making it one of the hilliest cross-country courses in the country.

There was much success for Sli Cualann overall with several individual medals and team bronze for the Men’s Intermediate team. Glendalough AC could not contribute to this effort as we have no male members under 35!

Ladies race

Ladies Masters and Over-65 men

Donna Quinn, running her first national cross-country event, set off first with the Masters Ladies race over 4 km (two laps) and went on to have a strong run finishing 67th out of 206 and fifth of the 11 Sli Cualann ladies in action.

Men’s race

Sli Cualann Masters (O35-O65) men’s team

Our three male representatives raced in the men’s over-35 to 65 race over 7 km (three 2 km laps after a shorter 1 km warm-up lap). 258 set off in a regular stampede.

First Glendalough AC man was club coach René Borg representing Sli Cualann for the first time (having not run outside county level since his transfer from Crusaders AC in 2013) in 30:11. Angus and Anthony arrived within a minute with Angus in 30:28 and Anthony in 31:10. This was the case for much of the Sli Cualann team – Parnell’s Tony Collins arrived at the 30 minute mark with Jonathan O’Neill in 30:35 and MJ O’Neill in 30:41 making it six out of the total twenty Sli Cualann runners in the field within that 70 second time-span.

Angus’ run made him fourth scorer in the 2nd placed over-50ies team with Rene and Anthony 2nd and 3rd scorer for the Sli Cualann B team that finished 22nd out of 22 in the over-35s!!!

As the race contained three or more Glen AC runners, it will count in the Club Championship 2020.

RESULTS

Masters Women

  1. Teresa Doherty, Finn Valley 15:21

————–GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS (REPRESENTING SLI CUALANN)—————

67. Donna Quinn 18:16 (5th Sli Cualann runner)

full results

Masters Men

  1. Brian Maher, Kilkenny City Harriers 23:43

————–GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS (REPRESENTING SLI CUALANN)—————

157. René Borg 30:11 (13th Sli Cualann runner)

166. Angus Tyner 30:28 (14th Sli Cualann runner)

193. Anthony Breen 31:10 (17th Sli Cualann runner)

full results

Report: IMRA Powerscourt Ridge

by glendaloughac, posted in Race reports, Trail running

The second last race of the 2019 IMRA racing calendar, Powerscourt Ridge was certainly also one of the toughest events of the Irish mountain running year.

Glendalough AC’s Barry O’Neill competed in very wet and windy conditions, finishing the 16km course in 1:43:41. The technical trails on this course included the summits of both Maulin and Djouce, combining for almost 700m of total climbs.

RESULTS

1.   Mark Stephens 1:16:26

35. Barry O’Neill 1:43:41

Report: Tollymore Trail Marathon

by glendaloughac, posted in Race reports, Trail running

The Tollymore Trail Marathon took place on November 16th in the beautiful Tollymore Forest Park, Northern Ireland. This challenging trail course featured four main climbs with almost 1,000m of elevation gain.

Glendalough AC’s Richard Costelloe had been targeting this event for his
main racing goal in 2019. Richard completed the race in a (PB) time of 3:27:21, taking fifth place overall.

RESULTS

1.   Chris Denton 3:01:54

5. Rich Costelloe 3:27:21

Report: Glendalough Trail Run

by glendaloughac, posted in Race reports, Trail running

The 10th annual Glendalough Trail Run took place on Saturday, 2nd November. This 15.5km trail race is a popular charity event supporting Fighting Blindness. The race takes in some of the stunning Glendalough scenery while challenging runners with over 500m of climbs over trail roads, single-tracks and a 400m pure mud section.

Glendalough AC had one runner competing this year: Richard Costelloe, who took 3rd place

Richard started out with a small leading group heading up the the Glendasan Valley. On the first steep climb he edged up to 3rd place, with the first two runners already creating a large gap ahead. The second long climb started up past Poulanass Waterfall, eventually looping back along the Wicklow Way for a fast descend back into Glendalough Valley.

For the remainder of the race Richard managed to keep just ahead of several chasing runners, finishing 3rd, earning a beautiful and unique handcrafted pottery bowl made by local artist Crannmore Pottery. This was Richard’s 22nd race of the year and by far his best result.

RESULTS

1.   Tim Grummell Sli Cualann AC  1:06:37

3. Rich Costelloe Glendalough AC 1:11:13

REPORT: Dublin Marathon 2019

by glendaloughac, posted in Race reports, Road running

Donna Quinn took full advantage of the perfect Dublin conditions to knock nearly 13 minutes off her marathon PB to record 3:27:25 and finish 66th in her age category. This is a new club record for the ladies section of our club  – so well done Donna, tremendous reward for your hard work and commitment to your training.

Not to be completely outshone in the local household, husband William Belton had his marathon debut, always a tricky proposition, and came home in 4:09:32. Enjoy the recuperation in the Belton/Quinn household!

RESULTS

  1. Ousmane El Goumri 2:08:06 (CR)

     30. Motu Gedefa 2:27:48 (ladies winner)

————GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS———————–

2644. Donna Quinn 3:27:25 (PB / LADIES CLUB RECORD)

8697. William Belton 4:09:32 (PB / DEBUT)

Full results

REPORT: European Cross-country challenge and ‘To Hell with the Fairies’

by glendaloughac, posted in Cross-country running, Mountain running, Race reports

Despite the Dublin Marathon coming up and winter training in full swing for many, a few club runners still got a race in over the last two weekends – in this case our two Danes!

First up was Torben Dahl who finished 13th in ‘To Hell with the Fairies’ out of 101 runners over the testing half-marathon course with 650 m ascent.

This Sunday, Rene Borg ran the European Cross-Country Experience – a ‘relaxed’ cross-country races offering a glimpse at the European Championship course. He finished 28th out of the 496 participants.

To Hell with the Fairies (Dublin Mountain Half)

  1. Killian Mooney, DSD 1:38

———–GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————

13. Torben Dahl 1:56:15

full results

European Cross-Country Experience

  1. Stephen Butler, Raheny Shamrocks 14:02

—————GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS—————–

28. René Borg 16:42

full results

https://www.imra.ie/events/details/id/1743/

WICKLOW INTERMEDIATE XC 2019

by glendaloughac, posted in Cross-country running, Race reports

With the late withdrawals of Anthony Breen and René Borg our men’s team for the Wicklow Intermediate in Avondale was gone but it did not stop Richard Costelloe and Barry O’Neill from hitting the grass for a second time in a week.

The men’s race took place over a course consisting of 2 x 1 km and 2 x 3 km laps including the most infamous hill in Avondale which had to be surmounted twice. Conditions were perfect with a cool, clear and sunny day.

Richard made good progress late in the race and Barry O’Neill ran steady throughout to finish 12th and 15th respectively.

RESULTS

  1. Ian McGrath, Bray Runners 30:34

————GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS———–

12. Richard Costelloe 34:26

15. Barry O’Neill 35:47

REPORT: Wicklow Novice XC 2019

by glendaloughac, posted in Cross-country running, Race reports

After a one-year absence from Novice cross-country, we had a men’s team representing us last weekend for the county season opener in Roundwood. The men’s challenge was to run 6 x 1 km laps of a hilly field and combine the best four scorers in an attempt to win team medals.

Debutante Richard Costelloe had a storming run: going off boldly in the top half of the field and holding on for a fine 9th place. Behind him Barry O’Neill and René Borg packed for most of the race. Rene passed Barry on the 4th lap only to be repassed on the final half of the last lap. They finished 14th and 15th with 4 seconds between them. 

The last man is usually critical in cross-country and this proved the case again: Colm Kenna suffered a bit as the result of a too fast lap 1, but by toughing it out to the finish line he secured our silver medals. Had one of the two Bray Runners behind him not DNFed, we would likely have been consigned to the Bronze!

Kilcoole where run-away winners with 12 points (15 points clear of our crew) and the individual honours went to Inbhear Dee’s Robin Mooney.

This weekend another four-man team consisting of Anthony Breen, Barry O’Neill, Colm Kenna and René Borg will take on the Wicklow Intermediate in Avondale.

RESULTS

  1. Robin Mooney, Inbhear Dee 21:49

————–GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS———————-

9. Richard Costelloe 23:32

14. Barry O’Neill 24:37

15. René Borg 24:41

19. Colm Kenna 28:47

Weekend RACE UPDATES: Dublin Race Series 10 Mile & IMRA Sliabh Bui

by glendaloughac, posted in Race reports, Road running, Trail running

We had several runners racing over the hot-weather August weekend, both on the Dublin roads and Wexford mountain trails.

Donna Quinn, Colm Kenna and William Belton competed at Phoenix Park for the Dublin Race Series 10 Mile. Donna finished the race in a time of 1:14.04, placing an impressive 12th out of 339 in her gender/age group. Not far behind, Colm finished the run in 1:24.16, and William followed up in 1:30.15. By all reports it was a hot day on the tarmac!

Meanwhile in Wexford Barry O’Neill ran the IMRA Sliabh Bui Southeast League race. This hilly course was a mix of single track, forest trail and fast fire roads, totalling just over 13km with 360m of climbs. No official results have yet been published, but Barry completed the course in a respectable time of 1:10.04.