Our weekend report starts in Shanganagh where Barry O’Neill and Marcus Murphy were on the first ‘road trip’
In The Hague Richard Costelloe set a new personal best for the half-marathon running 1:30:15 and only narrowly missing out on the sub-90 minute barrier with some cramping.
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.
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.
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.
While our seven representatives at the Wicklow Road Championship this year was our smallest contingent yet, they still brought home two individual and two team medals.
Rachel Wisdom and Donna Quinn took 1st and 2nd in the ladies O35 category and combined with Aoife Joyce, back for her first race in 4 years, to take the team gold in the women’s masters o35-49 category.
Due to injury and late drop-offs we only fielded one men’s team: a masters team and not a senior team as well as in previous years. Here Torben Dahl was first home in 17:52 followed by Barry O’Neill and Richard Costelloe who arrived close together and Colm Kenna as the fourth man to count.
Also a big thank you to the organisers and to our own volunteers who stepped up: Yvonne Brennan and Angus Tyner.
RESULTS
Brian Geraghty 15:53 , Greystones and District
———————–GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS—————
21. Torben Dahl 17:52 (team Bronze 35-49)
41. Barry O’Neill 18:50 (team Bronze 35-49)
42. Richard Costelloe 18:54 (team Bronze 35-49)
50. Rachel Wisdom 20:17 (Individual Gold 35-49, Team Gold 35-49)
65. Donna Quinn 21:03 (Individual Silver 35-49, Team Gold 35-49)
Barry O’Neill and Colm Kenna took to the wet windswept flanks of Scarr yesterday for the latest instalment of the IMRA Leinster League. Barry O’Neill swept home in 22nd place – his best finish in the IMRA Leinster League confirming his improved hill form this year.
Colm Kenna was also in action once again and finished 114th.
The team very nearly didn’t make the starting line. First Torben Dahl called in with a poor IT band Tuesday evening (he had a miracle recovery), Angus Tyner did in his ankle on Wednesday night (he didn’t recover) and finally Amidou Dembele’s car broke down in Sligo on the way down from Donegal Friday evening. One rental car later Amidou was at least on his way to Dublin but injury and other commitments in the men’s team meant genuine concerns existed around whether Angus could be replaced.
That was until Richard Costelloe dusted himself off early in his Ballyhoura recovery and took over in the eleventh hour (thanks Rich!) and making his debut in the event. Derek Cullen and Anthony Breen also had their debuts on the ‘official team’ having previously only competed in the event along with the ‘Laragh Locals’. He ran strong despite sheepishly admitting his house-renovation project had left him short of training since qualifying!
The times they are a-changin’!
The final team thus bore only 4 repeat runners from 2018: Rachel Wisdom, Torben Dahl, Amidou Dembele and Yvonne Brennan with Marcus Murphy, Angus Tyner, and Blaise Kinsella (injured) and Johnny Conway (moved to London!) making way. By accident rather than design, the four returning runners ran the first four legs!
Barry O’Neill bore the captain’s mantle and sat down with club coach Rene Borg to bang out a time schedule based on people’s predictions. It was pretty good as it proved – the team predicted an 8 hour 31 minute finish and crossed the line in 8:29 – 45 seconds faster than the 2018 team.
Predicted versus real times
Looking at the team line up, we knew ahead of team that getting into the top-10 would be hard enough with many closely matched teams behind the run-away top-2 (TT Racers and Rathfarnham – TT Racers going on to do an unprecedented ‘4 in a row’).
Flying as high as 4th early on, the team eventually settled in 8th place (2 spots up from 2018) meaning a fifth top-10 finish in five years. No one got lost, no one was late and no one had any notable trouble along the route so that is about as uneventful as a Wicklow Way Relay can get. Even our tracker didn’t give out.
Placings by leg:
Leg 1: 9th Amidou
Leg 2: 5th Torben Dahl
Leg 3: 10th Yvonne Brennan
Leg 4: 15th Rachel Wisdom
Leg 5: 12th Richard Costelloe
Leg 6: 16th Derek Cullen
Leg 7: 11th Anthony Breen
Leg 8: 6th Barry O’Neill
Some history
Amidou Dembele ran Leg 1 for the eighth time – the joint-most attempts on leg 1 in the competitions history along with Nadya Dunne and Derek Charles. He has a bit to go to break the record for ‘most attempts at a leg’ which belongs to Tommy Galvin who has run leg 2 twelve times (!).
We keep track of every club runners history in the relay and it can be seen below with the 2019 times. Times before 2015 were run by these runner for their previous clubs/teams.
Barry O’Neill’s leg 8 time is the fastest time set by a male runner in our club and the third fastest overall and Torben Dahl’s 74:02 on leg 2 is a new club record. Rachel Wisdom’s leg 4 time was the fastest female time on the new (since 2018) extended leg 4 course.
Meanwhile earlier in the week at Downshill, our runners kept polishing off the form for the Wicklow Way Relay. Torben finished a good 5th followed by Barry O’Neill in 13th and Richard Costelloe in 25th. Colm Kenna was 93rd.
The final chance to make a claim for our Wicklow Way Relay team was had in the Devil’s Glen where a new and faster course was inaugurated. Torben Dahl – already preselected – underlined his credentials finishing 10th as our first man across the line.
Barry O’Neill had another stomping run to finish 22nd and he was followed by Richard Costelloe in 34th and Colm Kenna in 98th. 136 runners competed. One round of the Trail League remains and Torben sits in 8th with Barry O’Neill joint-14th.
Glendalough AC 