Tag: Mountain running

RACE REPORTS: ‘Monster’ Half and Run the Line

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

We have had a gap in our reporting since August but our members have not been idle: before this weekend, they had raced 139 times since then, setting 8 new personal bests on roads. We’ll do a big ‘catch-up’ on this shortly.

Our Wicklow Wolf RC members were out in force at Run the Line

MONSTER HALF-MARATHON (DEN HAAG)

These races featured new club records for the women’s section (by Donna Quinn – more on this in our ‘catch-up’) but this weekend Catherine Devitt lowered the half-marathon record once again with her 1:31:30 finish on in the Monster Half-marathon in The Hague (half of it run on hard-packed sand!).

Richard Kieran at Run the Line

Catherine’s result was also an all-time best for our women in the F40 category.

RESULT

1. Carsten Kok (Fortius) 1:14:05

——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

37. Catherine Devitt 1:31:30 (3rd F40, PB, Club Record, F40 PB)

RECORD OUTING AT RUN THE LINE

In Run the Line, our club had it’s greatest single day turn-out with 18 runners competing in the 11.5 and 26 km courses. This was in large degree due our new members from the Wicklow Wolf Running Club side which has seen 46 new runners joining this ‘club within the club’ at Glendalough AC in 2022.

RESULT
1. Eoin Flynn 0:54:09
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
61. Gavin Kennedy 1:07:44
110. Alan Kennedy 1:12:00 (WW RC)
116. Conor Diamond 1:12:25 (WW RC)
130. Jack Moore 1:12:56 (WW RC)
212. Corrie Adams 1:17:59 (WW RC)
515. Maria Forsyth 1:36:31 (WW RC)
The Wicklow Wolf jersey was well represented here by Jack Moore
RESULT – LONG COURSE
1. Derek Crammond (Parnell AC) 1:55:01
——GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-
53. Graham Bushe 2:27:03
82. René Borg 2:35:59
85. Paul Duffy 2:36:59
118. Loraine Creane 2:54:53
119. Diarmuid Kavanagh 2:44:06
123. Graeme Warren 2:44:24
226. Eoin Kennedy 2:58:30
310. Mick Greene 3:28:00 (WW RC)
333. Richard Kieran 3:11:46
390. Mark Willoughby 3:23:10 (WW RC)
435. David Murphy 3:32:19 (WW RC)
471. Jake McManus 3:47:43 (WW RC)

RACE REPORTS: Bursting at Brockagh, Ballyhoura and belated xc results….

by glendaloughac, posted in Uncategorized

BURSTING UP BROCKAGH?

We begin with yesterday’s news.

On a windy day in Brockagh Woods anyone who wanted to record a good ‘percentage of winners time’ was to be disappointed as the top-3 swept home under the existing course record with Barry McEvoy taking nearly 3 minutes off Des Kennedy’s mark. The course was slightly shorter than in some previous iterations with the corner being cut West of Brockagh East and no return journey over Brockagh South-East – but the record was comprehensive enough that it can stand on its own as ‘undisputed’. The Brockagh East course has gone through small variations from year to year but what never changes is the relentless fire-road and the merciless grassy bank on the uphill. Such was the standard that the winner from Howth two weeks previous – Mark Snitch – was relegated to 4th place here.

Diarmuid Kavanagh had his debut with Glendalough AC (Photo: Lindsay Heppenstall)

For our club we had one of the best turn-outs at a hill race with eight runners competing and for the second week running, we got someone into the top-20 with Aran copying Torben’s 19th place finish from Howth. Club coach Rene was 2nd club man across the line with new members Diarmuid and Brian 4th and 5th before Loraine Creane came in finishing 7th woman on the day. Next was Richard, Colm and Keith. For Brian Lydon and Diarmuid Kavanagh the race marked their debut for our club.

158 runners competed and Wicklow clubs were well represented.

RESULTS

  1. Barry McEvoy 24:04 (Course Record)

——–GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS—————–

19. Aran Lynham 30:27

23. Rene Borg 30:44

39. Diarmuid Kavanagh 32:35

47. Brian Lydon 33:08

55. Loraine Creane 34:22

58. Richard Kieran 34:35

73. Colm Kenna 35:43

108. Keith Mulvey 39:29

Full results

ANGUS ON THE MONEY AT THE PARKRUNS

Angus Tyner fits in a few ParkRuns between his orienteering commitments and with great results with two back to back 18:46 run-outs first at the Wexford Race course Parkrun and then at Shanganagh. In both race she secured 3rd place and first over 50.

https://www.parkrun.ie/parkrunner/526551/

HOWTH WINTER

Torben Dahl and Richard Kieran had kicked off this year’s Winter/Spring League at Howth Winter finishing 19th and 72nd out of 156 runners with Richard snatching first prize in the M55 category.

  1. Mark Snitch 36:02

——-GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS——-

19. Torben Dahl 39:32

72. Richard Kieran 46:14 (1st M55)

BALLYHOURA MOONLIGHT CHALLENGE

Moving back two weeks on Friday evening Johnny Conway lined up for the Ballyhoura Moonlight Challenge – a 28 km trail run in the dark where he equitted himself well and finished 22nd.

https://www.imra.ie/events/results/id/2227/

ANTHONY BREEN IN ACTION

Anthony Breen sneakily competed in the Leinster Senior and Wicklow Masters securing an M50 Bronze medal in the latter.

LEINSTER SENIOR

  1. Hiko Tonosa, DSD AC 30:32

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

78. Anthony Breen 43:51

WICKLOW MASTERS

  1. Tim Grummell, Inbhear Dee 21:14

———–GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS———-

22. Anthony Breen 24:09 (M50 Bronze)

CARLINGFORD AND CROSS-COUNTRY

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

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

LAKES, BOGS AND MORE…

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

Another busy period comes to an end with our runners competing in such diverse events as Stone Cross to Lug, the Roundwood Reservoir 10k and the Lakes 10 km last weekend.

LAKES 10 KM

It was a fruitful day at the Lakes 10 km in Blessington. Donna Quinn bagged a new personal best while Aoife Joyce got a master’s PB in the over-40 category which was also the second fastest time run by one of our ladies while members of the club.

Richard Costelloe was our first man home with 39:38 and while it was not a PB, it was still his second fastest time run with Glendalough AC.

Our ladies packed particularly well finishing 4th, 5th and 6th as well as taking 2nd and 3rd in the F40 category and 3rd in the FS category. Claire ran her fastest time since 2017.

It was also a good day for Colm Kenna who ran his fastest 10 km since 2016 and an over-40 PB.

Donna Quinn setting her new PB
  1. Sergiu Ciobanu, Clonliffe Harriers 30:49

————-GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS———-

28. Richard Costelloe 39:38

42. Donna Quinn 41:36 (PB, 2nd F40)

50. Claire O’Callaghan 43:23 (3rd FS)

56. Aoife Joyce 44:16 (Master’s PB, 3rd F40)

70. Colm Kenna 45:36 (Master’s PB)

FULL RESULTS

The Glendalough AC team post Lakes 10k (Donna, Richard, Aoife, Colm and Claire)

ROUNDWOOD 10K

On Sunday Paul Duffy changed his planned run-out in the Lakes to instead do the local Roundwood 10k on the trails around the reservoir and for the first time banked a ’10k time’ along with a fine 12th place finish out of 166.

  1. Robin Mooney, Parnell AC 36:01

————-GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS———-

12. Paul Duffy 41:53 (PB)

STONE CROSS TO LUG

Barry O’Neill in Stone Cross to Lug

Far from the glitz and glamour of the roads and trails, Barry O’Neill carved out the run of the weekend in some of the most desolate and boggy stretches of the West Wicklow mountains as he took on the 54 km from Stone Cross to Fenton’s Pub beneath Lugnacoille – a sojourn featuring 2170m climbing and some of the hardest underfoot you are likely to meet in these parts.

Only 16 hardy souls even dared attempt it and Barry secured a sub-9 hour finish and 12th spot overall before doubling up with a bottle of MacArdles from the boot and a pint chaser in Fenton’s.

RESULTS

  1. John Bell 6:53:19

————-GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS———-

12. Barry O’Neill 8:59:34

FULL RESULTS

CLUB OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPS

This week concluded with 8 of our runners competing in the 9th round of the Club Open Championships – this time a 4 km cross-country race in Avondale. Here Barry O’Neill showed no tiredness as he cruised home first. Angus Tyner continues to lead the overall series ahead of the last three rounds.

Barry leads Donna up the hill in Avondale

RACE REPORTS: More mountain success

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

Five races to report on since our last update. Yesterday at Paddock Hill Aran Lynham nearly snuck into the top-10, sitting in fourth position after the climb but losing ground midway through. With an 11th placed finish, his first top-10 is not far away. Paul Duffy was only 45 seconds behind in 16th with Eoin Kennedy in 38th (his second race in 4 days!).

Colm Kenna bagged his first top-50 finish since Brockagh Burst 2015 with a strong run despite gashing his knee. 109 runners took the start line.

This was the first time two of our runners got into the top-20 since Brockagh earlier in the season.

MOUNTAIN RESCUE BENEFIT RACE
1. Patrick Ward 36:22

———–GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

11. Aran Lynham 40:24

16. Paul Duffy 41:09

38. Eoin Kennedy 45:52

49. Colm Kenna 48:27

full results

The team post-race (Phote: Richard Costelloe)

Earlier Barry O’Neill had been a busy bee with run-outs at Annagh Hill where he used his natural aptitude for descending for a 20th place out of 53 starters with Eoin Kennedy in hot pursuit (23rd).

Seven days earlier Barry finished 9th out of 39 at John’s Hill, Kilbrannish. Annagh Hill was won by Paddy O’Leary – home from the US.

ANNAGH HILL

  1. Paddy O’Leary 51:20

————-GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS———–

20. Barry O’Neill 1:13:24

23. Eoin Kennedy 1:14:50

full results

Eoin Kennedy (photo: Richard Costelloe)

JOHN’S HILL, KILBRANNISH

  1. Johan Muller 53:10

——–GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS——-

9. Barry O’Neill 1:04:08

full results

Finally Paul Duffy got himself his best finish of the season with 16th out of 97 runners at Howth Summer (he’d better this with his 16th out of 109 the coming week at Paddock Hill).

Paul Duffy gives Paddock the thumbs up (Photo: Richard Costelloe)

HOWTH SUMMER

  1. Ian Conroy 56:48

——–GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS——-

16. Paul Duffy 1:03:13

full results

Colm Kenna (photo: Richard Costelloe)

This brings us to the Devil’s Glen – a popular route for our runners used in our Winter and Summer Leagues as well. Here 125 runners toed the start line and while Aran Lynham led the men home again (in 20th spot) while Colm Kenna recorded his first DNF.

Aran secured the covetted ‘sub-40’ time for the course – a feat he now shares with 8 other club members. The men’s club record on the course (34:58 by Barry Murray) will take some beating.

DEVIL’S GLEN

  1. Barry Minnock, Tullamore Harriers 33:43

———-GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS————-

20. Aran Lynham 39:48

120. Colm Kenna DNF

full results

RACE REPORTS: Mountain Men

by glendaloughac, posted in Mountain running, Race reports

Three races in 7 days for several of our runners and the days that were in it could not have been more different.

Sunday saw extreme mist in the unmarked ‘Circuit of Glenmacnass’ classic making for difficult navigation and wet underfoot. Aran Lynham – running with fellow Laragh man Andrew Kenny – emerged on the Military Road well of the course – and had to do the ‘run of shame’ down the road back to the village.

This left Richard Costelloe to lead our men home in 28th spot followed by Barry O’Neill and Graeme Warren in 41st and 42nd spot (former Glendalough AC chairman Niall Corrigan stalked them in 43rd!) and Keith Mulvey rounded out ‘the team’ in 59th in his first hill run this year.

Barry O’Neill at Glenmacnass

CIRCUIT OF GLENMACNASS
1. Edward O’Connor 1:59:30

———-GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS——–

28. Richard Costelloe 2:32:25

41. Barry O’Neill 2:47:00

42. Graeme Warren 2:50:30

58. Keith Mulvey 3:25:10

DNF Aran Lynham

full result

The Wednesday featured the ‘Ayling Abyss’ and with it one of the trickiest descents of the Leinster League. Paul Duffy reported after coming down through the trees ‘it’s the most stretched I’ve felt in terms of my mental limits’.

This time Aran ‘finished the job’ as our first finisher in 37th with Paul only 2 spots down with Graeme Warren and Barry O’Neill in 82nd and 98th spot.

Paul Duffy at Djouce (Photo by Brian Furey)

DJOUCE – THE AYLING ABYSS


1. Karol Cronin, Sportsworld AC 52:28

———-GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS——–

37. Aran Lynham 1:04:02

39. Paul Duffy 1:04:34

82. Graeme Warren 1:13:46

98. Barry O’Neill 1:17:49

full results

Aran Lynham at Djouce (photo: Andrew Hanney)

The last competition of the week was the final hill race of our 2021 Club Open Championship – the Up/Down individual race on the Brockagh West 10 km course.

Temperatures reached 26 degrees by the middle of the race and some of our members were clever enough to take the ‘early start option’ and set off at 7:30 instead of the ‘main start’ at 9 am.

Richard Costelloe just about nipped Paul Duffy and Aran Lynham to the top but Paul let loose on the descent and claimed his second victory in the series and ‘equalising to 1-1’ in this week’s rivalry with Aran.

Paul overtakes Angus, who couldn’t race due to a back injury, at the top of the table with 5 months and 5 events to go.

Coach Rene on the descent of Brockagh West (photo Richard Costelloe)

CLUB OPEN CHAMPIONS – BROCKAGH WEST

Overall standings

RACE REPORT: Wild Wednesday

by glendaloughac, posted in Uncategorized

Very busy Wednesday behind us. At 7 pm Barry O’Neill took on the grueling ‘Crone Caper’ mountain race finishing 74th out of 157 runners.

Barry summiting Maulin

Meanwhile 11 of our members represented the club in the Wicklow Road Championship for the fifth year running and it was a productive evening. Our men were led home by Richard Costelloe like in 2020 and packed well with Graeme, Paul, Rene and Angus following within 20 seconds of each other. Richard just finished outside the medals in the F45 category.

Our club has gained some great new members over the last year and it was good to see several making their ‘team debut’: Graeme Warren, Paul Duffy and Eoin Kennedy get the mention here.

Claire O’Callaghan had a terrific race in her ‘post-baby comeback’ getting Bronze in the Female Senior category with Donna and Aoife getting the silver and the bronze in the F40 category. Team results will be up later but it looks likely the ladies took the Team Silver in the FS category and thus bring the medal tally to 4 for the evening. (edit: the men’s Senior team finished 3rd bringing the tally to 5).

Claire on her way to 3rd place in the FS category

The Wicklow Road Championship doubled as the 6th round of our Glendalough Open Club Championship and here we allowed two ‘distance entrants’ with Richard Kieran and Aran Lynham running solo time trials earlier in the day as they could not make the evening’s event. Richard took his second win on the trot after this victory in the Glen 2 Glen Half-marathon. Angus Tyner and Donna Quinn hold on to their leads with 6 races to go: the Up/Down hill race, the trail race, the cross-country PaarLauf, the cross-country individual race, the Track time trial and the Hybrid Relay.

new member Eoin Kennedy in his first ‘official’ outing for the club

CRONE CAPER

  1. Barry Minnock, Tullamore Harriers 54:56

————-GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS———-

74. Barry O’Neill 1:12:45

Full results

WICKLOW ROAD CHAMPIONSHIPS

  1. Derek Crammond, Parnell AC 15:48
  2. Sile O’Byrne, Parnell (1st lady) 17:34

—————-GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS———————

22. Richard Costelloe 18:14

40. Graeme Warren 19:14 (PB)

42. Paul Duffy 19:22

44. Rene Borg 19:33

45. Angus Tyner 19:34

53. Claire O’Callaghan 20:28 (3rd FS)

56. Donna Quinn 20:42 (2nd F40)

57. Anthony Breen 20:42

63. Eoin Kennedy 21:24

66. Aoife Joyce 21:34 (3rd F40)

74. Colm Kenna 22:09

Full results

GLENDALOUGH OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP – ROUND 6 (5 KM ROAD RACE)

1. Richard Costelloe 18:14

2. Graeme Warren 19:14

3. Paul Duffy 19:22

4. Rene Borg 19:33

5. Angus Tyner 19:34

6. Aran Lynham 19:40

7. Claire O’Callaghan 20:28 (1st lady)

8. Donna Quinn 20:42 (2nd lady)

9. Anthony Breen 20:42

10. Eoin Kennedy 21:24

11. Aoife Joyce 21:34 (3rd lady)

12. Richard Kieran 22:01

13. Colm Kenna 22:09

REPORTS: IMRA Vir-2-al Relay Charity Race

by glendaloughac, posted in Mountain running, Race reports

With no races at the moment, we didn’t expect to be writing any reports until IMRA opened up their Virtual replacement for the traditional Killiney Hill Relay.

Rules allowed runners to pick any 2 km stretch within their 2 km radius and run on on Wednesday 15th. To record a result, runners simply had to record their activity and take a photo of themselves before, during or after.

This obviously meant some runners had the rub of the green and access to very fast net downhill courses. Club coach René Borg took full advantage by picking a 2 km drop from the forest line at Scarr mountain to the road in front of his houe at Drummin townland. For his effort he nearly snatched the ‘Pushing the legal limits of the Spirit of IMRA award AKA Downhill Run Only Award’ being awarded 2nd place. Rathfarnham’s Peter O’Farrell somehow contrived to find a faster and more downhill course.

RESULT


TEAMS

  1. Team 8 22:50

———TEAMS WITH GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS———-

35. Team 10 (Rene Borg, Glendalough AC) 29:11

INDIVIDUAL

Leg 1

  1. Rene Borg, Glendalough AC 6:03

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/

Race Report: Run the Ridge

by glendaloughac, posted in Mountain running, Race reports

Glendalough AC proudly hosted the Run the Ridge series on Saturday 17 August.

The two ‘Run the Ridge’ races consisted of a 20 km mixed mountain and trail run across the spectacular Derrybawn Ridge, and 10km trail run and a junior race through Derrybawn Woods.. This race was setup to raise funds for local club Laragh GAA and organised with the help of experienced runners and organisers from Glendalough AC.

Our runners arrived in this our 4th edition of Run the Ridge to be greeted by a cloudy but sunny start.  This year saw our 8km route replaced with a longer and higher 10km trail offering even more superb views.  Recces and marking of our 20km route revealed three significant conifer trees down across the half way point and a river running down a trail off the summit.  This resulted in an additional obstacle course being provided for, which in mountain running means more fun!  With a combined field of over 100 runners, after the usual race briefing including the extra obstacles, first off were the 20k runners.  GMAC club member Derek in the meantime was transporting a small team of marshals to their designated places in the back of his van. 

The runners were so fast up the first hill they caught everybody by surprise.  With the 2016 course record of 1:30:37 set by Adrian Hennessy in their eyes this may have distracted the first 15 or so runners who tragically turned left instead of right at the critical first T-junction.  Some swore they saw Colin McRaes ghost rallying after the 15 runners.  But even Colin McRae would have been impressed with the skilful rallying by Derek in his Volkswagen Transporter van.  The Marshals in the back got a quick lesson on hanging on for dear life!  However this heroic act saw the runners backtrack about one kilometre off course and the race was then truly on!

Exactly 30 minutes later the 10k race began with this years route providing a more technical section proving quite interesting for those (most) who wore road shoes!  All 10k runners here were trend setters for future a course record.  In both races tales of a few spills, trips, nav moments, laughs, munching on blueberries, tranquility, wet feet, bog-holes and rogue deer were amongst the subjects discussed over the finish line.  Some kind words were heard about the final lap of the pitch being cruel, torture, or of tactical benefit to some.  First home in the 10k race and course record setter was Maria O’Sullivan in a time of 48:18, a magnificent time with so many climbs.  Considering the previous record for the 8k was 40:36 on easier and less technical ground, Maria showed a powerful performance to cover the additional 2 kms just 8 minutes off the 8km time and now a course / Female record to celebrate.  1st Male across the line was over one minute later and still a mean time of 49:24

The real challenge for the 20k runners was for the top-15 runners who added an additional 2km’s to their race and then to try to makeup those positions again, not knowing who had gone ahead of them.  This meant a blistering chasing climb up the Wicklow Way and across the ridge.  A mid afternoon shower cooled some on the ridge and topped up the river on the descent forcing good use of balance and advantages to those who have done skiing before!  However everyone got back down off the mountain safely.  A real battle occurred on the long final descent onto the pitch between Robin Mooney and Stephen Hurley with just 5 seconds between both runners having made an epic recovery from an additional 2km of course to pass everybody.  Robin held out first home in a fantastic time of 1:41:05 with Stephen Hurley finishing just 5 seconds behind, both obviously exhausted and battered by their efforts.  First Female home was Linda O’Connor who finished strongly with a big smile and a time of 1:51:45.

All marshals and sweepers returned safely with more plasters and pampering being dished out to them certainly not because of the rallying in the back of the van!!  All competitors, visitors and our fantastic volunteers tucked into the well earned tea, coffee and yummy cakes and had a bit of banter after the race.   Glendalough AC and Laragh GAA appreciate the support of all volunteers that turned up on the day and helped organise such an enjoyable event.   It is the competitors and volunteering crew enjoying the competing and organising that makes trail running so enjoyable and ensures that Run the Ridge will remain successful hopefully into future years.  A late surprise to all 20k runners was notification that following registration to ITRA this years Run the Ridge now offers each 20k finisher one ITRA point.  This will prove interesting for the field next year…..

Report by Race Director Keith Mulvey

full results