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With a heavy heart we had to hand back the Athletics Wicklow Off-Road Championship trophy to the first winners: Parnell AC. We fielded 30 runners (the same as last year) and they did their best collecting the highest medal haul (20) but our 7 gold medals fell one short of Parnell who collected 8 (and 12 medals total).

Before we delve too deep into the championship, we also have two IMRA races to report on from this weekend along with ‘4 missed races’ from previous weeks.

MT LEINSTER HALF-MARATHON AND GALTYMORE

Both the Leinster Half-Marathon League and the Irish Championships concluded this weekend and we had Aoife O’Brien and Alan Kennedy competing at Mt. Leinster and with some success as Aoife O’Brien won with nearly 7 minutes to spare on the nearest woman. This was enough to secure the overall win in the league ahead of Anna Cronin (3rd on the day) and Aoife’s first outright win in a non-relay IMRA race.

For Alan Kennedy it was also a crucial day in the league: by finishing 2nd in the M55, he secured his overall win in the league in that category.

Graham Bush – doing his regular ‘double race weekend’ – finished 23rd in a field of 62 at the Irish Championship finish on the toughest course of the series: Galtymore and was third M55. Joe Lalor also competed winning the M70. This confirmed Graham as 2nd in this year’s M55 championship with Joe Lalor M70 champion.

SEAHAN AND OTHER MISSING RACES

A few results were missed – firstly Eoin Phelan’s runs on Brandon Half, Tory Hill, Mullaghmeen and Seahan meaning he now leads the ‘Most Prolific’ with a staggering 42 races in 8 months!

We missed the Seahan results for all our racers which included also Graham, Torben, Alan, Jeff , Joe and Keith. Our club runners have now done an average of 2 races per day in 24!

CHAMPIONSHIP SUMMARY

Larger teams from several clubs – including Bray Runners and Lakeshore and Benedicts – meant gold medals were spread around more. We had won 5 gold medals in the 20 k last year (versus 2 this year) and where we had taken three team golds in the 10k (F35, M35 and M50) only our O50 men retained their title with our other four teams all taking silver. The margins were narrow with our women losing out to Benedict’s by a mere 10 seconds to St. Benedicts (who took their first gold medals in the championship

Noteable successes were the clean sweeps of the F40 podium (taken by Catherine, Rachel and Donna for the second year running) and the M40 podium in the 20 km race (taken by Louis Byrne, Torben Dahl and John Conway).

DERRYBAWN WOODS 10 KM (ATHLETICS WICKLOW OFF-ROAD – SHORT)

Richard Costelloe was yellow shirt across the line for the second year running in 46:16 with Graham Bush continuing his strong resurgence only 47 seconds behind (and 36s faster than last year) and similarly doughty o50 Richard Allan another 28 seconds back. This is the first time we have had three men under 47 minutes (all 5 sub-47 min times have been run by the three aforementioned gentlemen). Paul Duffy came agonisingly close with a course best of 47:07. Despite running semi-injured Gavin Kennedy was next taking 3 minutes off his 2023 time.

Blaise and Kevin Ferguson were either side of Gavin and both contributed to the Male Senior team taking the Silver with Edson Ferreira as the third scorer in his championship debut for us.

Catherine Devitt was first woman home once again in 48:17 improving on last year’s time by over 30 seconds and lowering the women’s club record on the course. She was followed by Rachel having a great run – knocking 1:14 of her 2023 mark with Donna Quinn third scorer for the master’s women’s team.

Anthony Breen showed remarkable consistency – finishing 10 seconds faster than his 2023 time. Colm Kenna reduced his PB for the cousre by over three minutes.

Aoife Joyce won the F45 category and together with Siobhan Brennan (2nd in the F50 category taking over 2 minutes off her best) helped our female seniors (Grace, Kate and Fiona) take team silver behind the rampant Parnell side led home by women’s winner Sile O’Byrne.

RUN THE RIDGE 20 KM (ATHLETICS WICKLOW OFF-ROAD LONG)

It was a case of Bray vs Glendalough to a large degree in this year’s 20 km and we swept the podium in the M40 category and packed well in the process. Louis Byrne – fresh off his 12-hour race – was our first man home followed by ‘Mr Run the Ridge Torben Dahl’ 1 spot back (Torben holds the club record at 1:32 and has also run the 2nd fastest time of 1:43:01) and winner of the o45 category. John Conway (who led our charge in 2023) was next in 1:48:01 with Kevin Doherty a few more minutes back taking a bronze medal in his championship debut. Then we had Jack Moore (in a personal best on the course), Eoin, Ben, Andy and Dave Lawless arriving.

PERFORMANCES OVER THE YEARS – RANKED

10k

20K

Three trail/hill races and two road races to report on including a fine PB in the Netherlands for Richard Costelloe while Gavin Kennedy secured our joint highest IMRA finish of the year on the men’s side matching Paul Duffy’s 10th place from Brockagh Burst and Angus Tyner’s 10th from Stranahelly Woods (the latter albeit in a very small field).

BIKE LOW CARBON RACE TICKNOCK

Phelan joined 43 others at the slightly unusual time of 6 pm on a Saturday for the ‘Bike low carbon race Ticknock’ utilising bits of the old Blue Light course and finished 16^th and 3^rd in the M35 category. Eoin would run at Wobbly Bridge too (below) to extend his lead in the ‘Most prolific’ competition with 23 races to James Heggie’s 17.

Winner was Slaney’s Enda Cloake doing his fourth race in ten days since travelling back from the Europeans in France.

FLAGSTAFF

Meanwhile in the North, John Conway attended the always competitive NIMRA event at Flagstaff (to Carlingford) finishing 22nd out of 78 runners on a course with an average gradient modifier of 30% over it’s nearly 17 km.

FOLEY’S FUN RUN – MINNESOTA

Having relocated from warm Florida to the cooler climate of Minnesota, Flora was back in action on the American roads finishing 2^nd in the F45 category at the Foley’s Fun Run in 28:54.

WOBBLY BRIDGE

Wobbly Bridge trail race saw it’s largest crowd yet with over 250 runners registered of which 187 turned up to race the long course. The course was slightly shortened from the 7.8 km of the last few years to 7.6 km this year robbing racers of a bit of downhill but also providing a surprise relief on the day…

The field is strung out quite wide on the downhill start meaning the back of the field will run nearly 100m extra in any case!

We had eight runners competing, and banking Club Championship points, with Gavin Kennedy showing for the second time that he’s really moved up a level when he led us home in 10^th and a fine time of 32:53 (winning the M45 category) as he outsprinted Irish international Sarah Flanagan (who won the women’s) on the line. Second home was club coach René Borg, opening his trail running season in 2024 with a 23^rd placed finish and finishing 3^rd M45 in his first outing in that category. Chris Willoughby was next followed by Eoin Phelan and Colm (all dipping under 40 minutes) with Chris taking 3^rd in the M50 category. Donall Flanagan and Andy Walker came in next with Mark Willoughby, struggling through stomach issues, our final finisher.

Midzomeravondwedstrijd 5000m

Last in action – at nearly 10 pm Irish time, at the Midsummer track meet in the Netherlands, Richard Costelloe lowered this overall 5 km PB of 17:38 (from 2020) to 17:34.25 to win the Master’s men race and finish 9^th overall.

While this is the fastest 5 km run on track for our club, Angus Tyner’s 17:18 M45 club record still stands as an indomitable challenge for our Master’s athletes.

CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP UPDATE – ROUND 9 OF 16

With only men competing at Wobbly Bridge only the overall ranking was affected by today’s counter with Gavin Kennedy moving up to 2nd place with his second win yielding 100 pts.

One more win and he’ll draw level with Paul Duffy and it will go down to ‘head to head’. Eoin Phelan and Rene Borg climbed to 4th and 5th respectively. Currently only 6 runners out of 44 have the minimum 5 races for a full score – so expect plenty of upsets later in the season….

A quick report from the Netherlands before we dig into the Wednesday evening action from the Scalp and from Arklow for this year’s Athletics Wicklow 5k Road Championship.

BRABANTSE WAL 10K

Catherine Devitt was ready to take on a full Trail Marathon but the organiser’s ran into permit issues seeing her race reduced to a 10 km. On a relatively flat and fast course, she took another win in 42:33. Full results pending….

SCALP

A crew of ten of our runners joined 199 others at Carrickgolligan for the Scalp race in the IMRA Leinster League with Richard Allan first home once again and finishing 2nd M50 with Alan Kennedy (2nd M55) and Joe Lalor (2nd M70) also finishing top-3 in their categories.

WICKLOW ROAD CHAMPIONSHIP 2024

We’ve been present at every Wicklow Road Championship since 2015 and this year was no exception even if our contingent of seven was the smallest since the strange years 2019 and 2020 (were we sent 6 and 7). Late injuries and withdrawals meant our M50 and our F35 teams folded leaving it up to 7 runners split over 2x M35 teams to try and contest.

Gavin Kennedy led the team home for the lone medal of the day (our 31st in this event) finishing a solid 2nd in the M45 category – he also dipped under 19 minutes for the first time (18:23) for a breakthrough performance and banked 100 points in the Club Championship.

Next was Blaise Kinsella in 19:23 with club coach Rene Borg 3 spots and 5 seconds further back. Eoin Phelan was next leading home our 2nd team and breaking the 20 minute barrier for the first time with a very fine time of 19:49 (a massive PB).

next was Graham Kearns in his 5k road debut in 20:49 with Colm Kenna 43 seconds later – improving his 2023 time by about a minute – and Mark Willoughby rounding out the team. Donna’s absence means Colm is now the only Glendalough AC runner to have run all 10 road championship races we have contested – keep it up!

Finally thanks to Donna, Paul and Feidhlim – our volunteers on the night!

CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP – AFTER ROUND 8

Gavin took his first ever victory in a Club Championship counter to move up to 4th and closer to the injured run-away leader Paul Duffy while Eoin Phelan’s fine run moves him up to 3rd with Rene Borg (absent the last 5 rounds with injury) moves up to 6th. With no women running tonight, Aoife retains her lead in that category.

A quick-fire report from boardwalks, trail and road as we pass by 250 races this year from our members. Eoin Phelan – in action this weekend – leads our ‘Most Prolific’ competition with 19 races followed by James Heggie (14) and Alan Kennedy (10). Most prolific woman so far is Aoife Joyce (with 8) – a tally she shares with husband Rene Borg and the current club champion Paul Duffy.

TOWER SPRINT – BEYOND THE TREES (AVONDALE)

Our first runner in action this weekend was club coach Rene Borg who lined up for the penultimate May ‘Tower Challenge’ at Beyond the Trees in Avondale starting at 8 am. One by one runners were sent off to complete the 775m run from the bottom to the top of the wooden tower – a climb with an average incline of 6%.

Rene finished 1st on the day (2:43) and fourth fastest so far. the best regular competitor has set a time of 2:36 so far with the masked mystery runner ‘The Twig’ setting a stupendous 2:03.96 on the run.

ParkRun Shanganagh

Colm and Donna continued Wicklow Road Race preparations at the Shanganagh ParkRun where Donna was first woman home in 21:03.

STUWWALOOP

In Holland, Catherine Devitt notched up yet another victory on a cross-country style course of 21 km . Results are currently not available .

CLARE BURREN HALF AND FULL MARATHON

Nora Butler and Eoin Phelan took on the Clare Burren challenge over the half and full marathon distances respectively. While some sections are on road most are on the challenging terrain of the Burren but both came away with a very memorable experience.

CIRCUIT OF AVONBEG

At the Circuit of Avonbeg a select crew of 30 runners set off on the 26 km traverse (if you hit the shortest route) over much of the rougher terrain on offer in the area with Graham Bush narrowly edging out fellow M55 Angus Tyner for the last spot on that particular category ‘virtual podium’.

IN OTHER NEWS…

Also in running-related matters congratulations to club captain Marcus Murphy who finished 3rd in his age category at the Castle Series Olympic triathlon.