Winter League – Glendalough AC

WINTER LEAGUE – Final Round

February 24, 2020February 24, 2020 by glendaloughac, posted in Club races / events, Winter League

Today’ result and final tally. 16 runners competed and 9 got the minimum 6 to score. The final round saw a three way battle between Aoife, Flora and Rene for the win and the Sportsroom voucher!

The final round of the Winter League took part on the Brockagh Woods course with runners trying to best their handicaps against the 5k and 9.1 km courses.

The situation

Aoife Joyce only had to better her current results by 21 seconds in order to make it impossible for either Flora McKnight or Rene Borg to catch her. It proved neck on neck as both Rene and Aoife had recorded the maximum score for the last 4 races in a row and would do so again at the fifth asking.

Having run 29:41 and thus running off a 30 minute handicap, Aoife obliterated her time with 25:28. This made Rene’s time academical but he got some consolation by lowering Barry O’Neill’s course record of 42:55 to 42:07 and taking the win on the day. Flora could not improve her handicap and dropped from 2nd to 3rd in the overall with Rene taking second. It all came down to 21 seconds after 12 races!

Position	Name	Start time	Finish time	Actual time	Average Pace	Avg / lap	Behind winner	Course run
1	René Borg	9:43 am	10:25:07 am	42:07	4:35 min/km	10:32		Long
2	Aoife Joyce	10:00 am	10:25:28 am	25:28	5:06 min/km	12:44	0:21	Short
3	Marcus Murphy	10:03 am	10:29:08 am	26:08	5:14 min/km	13:04	4:01	Short
4	Colm Kenna	10:03 am	10:29:09 am	26:09	5:14 min/km	13:04	4:02	Short
5	Derek Cullen	10:07 am	10:30:46 am	23:46	4:45 min/km	11:53	5:39	Short
6	Barry O’Neill	9:47 am	10:30:58 am	43:58	4:47 min/km	11:00	5:51	Long
7	Flora McKnight	10:03 am	10:33:15 am	30:15	6:03 min/km	15:07	8:08	Short

Round 12 – Brockagh Woods – standings

League summary

The league was evenly contested for much of it with several winners: Barry O’Neill and Bruce Phillips won one race each, Aoife, Flora and Colm took two each and Rene won 4.

#	Name	Wins	\Races	TOP 6	AVG	Behind
1	Aoife Joyce	2	6	5:48:03	0:58:01	0:00:00
2	René Borg	4	6	5:48:24	0:58:04	0:00:21
3	Flora McKnight	2	6	5:49:10	0:58:12	0:01:07
4	Derek Cullen	0	6	5:52:43	0:58:47	0:04:40
5	Colm Kenna	2	6	5:55:49	0:59:18	0:07:46
6	Donna Quinn	0	6	5:56:05	0:59:21	0:08:02
7	Marcus Murphy	0	6	5:56:58	0:59:30	0:08:55
8	Bruce Phillips	1	6	5:57:04	0:59:31	0:09:01
9	Yvonne Brennan	0	6	6:01:39	1:00:17	0:13:36
10	Richard Kieran	0	5	4:56:05	0:59:13
11	Barry O’Neill	1	4	3:58:10	0:59:33
12	Catherine Devitt	0	4	4:07:19	1:01:50
13	Aisling Kirwan	0	2	2:02:04	1:01:02
14	Anne Marah	0	1	1:00:28	1:00:28
15	Rachel Wisdom	0	1	1:01:46	1:01:46
16	Michael Heatly	0	1	1:01:49	1:01:49

League 2019/20 – final standings

Notable achievements

This year’s league had four new course records: Donna Quinn and Aoife Joyce lowered the Roundwood 10k and 5k courses to 46:49 and 23:24 while Rene Borg lowered the long course times for Clara Vale and Brockagh Woods to 39:44 and 42:07.

People where adept at cracking their handicap breaking their times in 69 out of 106 attempts. Most of the 43 ‘failures’ – 15 – happened in the first two rounds as people were adjusting to their 2020 fitness levels!

League 2020/21

The league will return November 2020 but we will have other Saturday activities coming up for the rest of the year.

Next year’s league will feature and even tighter handicap system which should help keep the maximum number of people in contention for the longest period of time. We will also revisit bringing back the Pink Poulanass and Lower Lake Round courses to create a 16 round league.

WEEKEND ROUND-UP: Clara, Avondale, Enniscorthy

February 17, 2020February 17, 2020 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

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.

Image may contain: 1 person, smiling, shoes, child and outdoor — 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.

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.

Killian Mooney 27:14

————–GLENDALOUGH AC RUNNERS———–

180. Lillian Deegan 1:07:36

full results

WINTER LEAGUE 2020: Round 1 in Roundwood.

November 2, 2019 by glendaloughac, posted in Club races / events, Winter League

It was an eventful opening to the Winter League as usual. We missed the rain and could complete the whole event in gorgeous sunshine and be home for coffee and grub before the rain hit.

Some were playing it tactical, taking it relatively easy to reset their handicaps to an easier level for the new season whereas others took no prisoners including Barry O’Neill who lowered Derek Cullen’s time to 45:06 on the 10k course. Two of our runners went ‘cani-cross’ (Flora and Marcus) whereas Torben Dahl decided to add in a few extra mini-loops and had to forfeit finishing!

Aoife Joyce won the overall handicap race despite cashing in 41 penalty seconds for breaking her handicap by too much.

Overall standings – time penalties included

The series – and the hunt for The Sportsroom vouchers – continues on the Green Gapways course next Saturday from 9:30 am at the Glendalough Green.

REPORT: Winter League final round (Brockagh Woods)

March 10, 2019March 10, 2019 by glendaloughac, posted in Club races / events, Race reports, Trail running, Uncategorized, Winter League

We got the excitement we had hoped for in the duel between Barry O’Neill and Bruce Phillips of who could ‘game the handicaps’ and run the best. Barry O’Neill knew that a 2 minute improvement of his previous best would secure him the league but this was easier set than done as he had run 44 minutes flat for the hilly 9.3 km course last time.

round12of12 — Result of Round 12 of 12 (Brockagh Woods)

Bruce came in without improving his tally – meaning ‘only’ beating his time by 1:57 would now be enough for Barry – a time of 42:03. BUT … it was not to be – despite lowering the best time for the course to 42:55 and taking 65 seconds off his best. To add injury to insult, Aoife Joyce improved her handicap the most of any runner on the day – taking 2 minutes 3 seconds off her mark and this moved her up into 2^nd place overall.

overall12of12 — Overall results (12 of 12): In **bold** the top-4 results of each runner

In the end 16 seconds separated Aoife and Bruce in the overall standings with Barry O’Neill a further 52 seconds adrift. Barry did secure the honorary title ‘King of the Hill’ for being the best performer on the hilly routes (Clara Vale and Brockagh) while King of the Road went to Derek Cullen who performed best on the Green Gapways course. In the end we had 19 runners competing of which 11 managed to get the minimum 4 to score.

In terms of individual wins Rene Borg did best with 5 victories followed by Barry O’Neill with 3. Bruce, Donna, Arne, and Aoife took 1 race each. Two runners completed all twelve races in the series: victor Bruce Phillips and Rene Borg followed by Aoife and Colm with 10 races each.

wl barry.jpg — Barry O’Neill – 3rd despite his effort and new course record

Best improver in relation to handicap was Barry O’Neill – who improved it by 2 minutes 59 seconds ON AVERAGE in his races . No one was closer than Aoife Joyce who took 78 seconds off on average. Fastest average pace of the league was held by Rachel Wisdom with 4:26 min/km (but this was based on one race). Bruce Phillips ran by far the furthest – completing 97.4 km over his 12 races followed by René Borg with 69.2 km (this shows both who ran most races and who preferred the longer courses over the shorter).

All in all the short courses were more popular with 70 runs over them versus 36 people running long routes. Based on results, Brockagh Woods is the toughest course followed bye Green Gapways and Clara Vale

route statistics wl — Course statistics after the Winter League 2018/2019

NEWS: Winter League – final round

March 7, 2019 by glendaloughac, posted in Club races / events, Uncategorized, Winter League

The twelfth and final round of the Glendalough AC Winter League takes place this Saturday (9th March) at Brockagh Woods – so if you fancy a last go at these two delightful hilly courses – come along for 9:30 am and join us for coffee after in the Glendalough Green around 10:30ish.

The final battle

In the final standings things are nearly decided but a late twist could still emerge:

2nd placed Aoife JOyce can only improve by 22 seconds (if she beats her handicap by 2 minutes) and she is 38 seconds adrift of Bruce Phillips. Aoife, however, is safe from Donna Quinn in the race to take the ‘lady’s crown’
3rd placed Barry O’Neill meanwhile can move ahead of Bruce if he beats his time by 1:58 or more AND Bruce does not improve his tally further.
Bruce can improve his total time by 2 seconds – should he do so, Barry O’Neill needs to beat his time by 2 minutes but will then by guaranteed a victory by 1 second overall!

Further down Donna Quinn can move ahead of Barry O’Neill in third if she beats her handicap by two minutes AND Barry O’Neill fails to improve his tally. Rene Borg in 5th can move ahead of Donna by improving his handicap by 33 seconds and Barry if he improves but this also requires that Donna does not improve her tally.

From 6th place below there are no further surprises coming: everyone in these places is 5 or more minutes behind and can move up no higher than 6th.

So it’s down to Barry vs Bruce!

Handicaps for the final round

brockagh handicaps updated.png

RESULTS: Handicap league Rd. 11 of 12

February 17, 2019February 17, 2019 by glendaloughac, posted in Club races / events, Winter League

We had the most competitive handicap race yet at Roundwood Reservoir today. 8 out of 10 runners improved their handicaps. With 4 runners improving their handicap by more than 2 minutes and thus getting the maximum score, there was a shake-up at the top with Bruce Phillips taking the lead – 38 seconds ahead of Aoife Joyce and 57 seconds ahead of Barry O’Neill.

winterleaguerd11of12 — Overall results after 11 of 12 rounds

It is only the second time the courses have been run so the fastest times run were reduced for nearly all races. Arne Klohn ran the new best mark for the 5 km (22:36) and Yvonne set the new ladies 5 km best at 23:56. The 10 km best times were reduced to 46:06 overall by Derek Cullen and 48:35 for the ladies by Donna Quinn. Barry O’Neill ran 44:12 but took the 10 km route along the lower reservoir so while his time has been accepted into the rankings, it won’t stand as a course best.

WINTER LEAGUE RD. 10 – Miner’s Road in the wind!

February 9, 2019February 9, 2019 by glendaloughac, posted in Club races / events, Uncategorized, Winter League

The plot thickened at the Miner’s Road where today’s 10^th round of the Club Winter League was held. This course is known as a ‘wind tunnel’ even on quiet days so we set off with some expectation of high winds. Thankfully, it was milder than expected even if the outward journey was slowed down enough to make beating handicaps challenging.

Yet this was exactly what most did. Bruce Phillips took the day and the biggest handicap improvement – finishing 2 minutes 3 seconds ahead of handicap.

Aoife Joyce in second improved by 1 minute 41 seconds allowing. This meant both Aoife and Bruce leap-frogged Donna Quinn who dropped to 3^rd. Third place went to club coach René Borg who bettered his handicap by 41 seconds. Colm Kenna also timed his run well bettering his handicap by 15 seconds to finish fourth.

The fastest actual time was set by fifth-placed Derek Cullen who ran 21:56, the only person nipping under 22 minutes on the day. Yvonne Brennan came 6^th and was fastest woman on the day (2^nd best time overall) coming home in 22:25 missing her handicap by 35 seconds.

It’s now incredibly tight going into the last two races – Bruce is only 5 seconds behind Aoife and Donna merely 53 seconds with one poor result to discard making it fairly easy for her to close the 53 second gap. Everyone else relies on breaking their handicap substantially in BOTH of the next two races – the only realistic contender outside the top-3 is Rene who is 2 minutes 35 seconds down. The runners who have not yet run the minimum 4 to score do no longer have a realistic chance of ‘crashing the party late’.

WL overall round 10 of 12 — Overall results: Round 10 of 12

A good morning out was celebrated in the Glendalough Green re-opened after its January hiatus!

NEXT ROUND: Next Saturday morning in Roundwood for the Reservoir Rounds courses!

REPORT: Winter League round 9 – Green Gapways

January 26, 2019 by glendaloughac, posted in Club races / events, Race reports, Road running, Uncategorized, Winter League

In an exciting race at Green Gapways, the league standings got massively over-turned. Barry O’Neill was the run-away leader setting the fastest 10 km time on the day and beating his handicap by nearly 6 minutes whilst recording his 2nd victory of this years league.

He was followed home on the day by Aoife Joyce in 2nd (3 minutes faster than handicap) who also climbed to 2nd in the overall table. Third was Bruce Phillips who had a strong run on the 10 km route and beat his handicap by 2 minutes 41 seconds, enough to move him up into 3rd overall.

The ‘cutest’ run of the day was undoubtedly Donna Quinn who improved her handicap by 1 minute 59 seconds. This meant she got the best possible score whilst not improving her handicap so much it get’s massively hard to beat the second time. The run also took her top of the table now 62 seconds ahead of Aoife Joyce. Previous leader René Borg droppe to fourth.

overallresultround9 — Overall standings with 9 out of 12 run an 4 to score

Fastest 5 km on the day was 23:14 which was set jointly by Yvonne Brennan and René Borg although it should be mentioned Yvonne decided to stop and wait for René with 100m to go! 6 out of 12 runners beat their handicap – apart from those previously mentioned there were good performances by Yvonne Brennan (84 seconds ahead of handicap) and Flora McKnight (2 minutes 24 seconds ahead of handicap).

The current standings mean that any runner who is 2 minutes or less behind the leader only needs one result where they improve their handicap by 2 minutes to jump back in front of the pack. Any runner within 4 minutes will need to post two such results in the final three rounds at the Miner’s Road, Roundwood Reservoir and Brockagh Woods.

WINTER LEAGUE: Round 9 info

January 21, 2019 by glendaloughac, posted in Club races / events, Winter League

This Saturday’s run will take place on the Green Gapways course (not Miner’s Road as originally planned) with the usual 5 km and 10 km options. Below are the expected times for those who have run before. To score well in the league you need to improve your 5 km or 10 km time by up to 1 min and up to 2 min respectively.

Finish and start line at the Glendalough Green. AGM in Lynhams afterwards from 11 am.

Name	Expected time	Distance
Torben Dahl	0:19:00	Short
Catherine Devitt	0:19:00	Short
Michael Heatly	0:19:00	Short
Darren Reilly	0:21:00	Short
Angus Tyner	0:22:00	Short
Amidou Dembele	0:22:00	Short
Jason Kehoe	0:22:00	Short
Derek Cullen	0:22:00	Short
Ben Mooney	0:22:00	Short
Arne Klohn	0:22:00	Short
John Conway	0:22:00	Short
Jack Kennedy	0:22:00	Short
Bruce Phillips	0:22:00	Short
Robert Cherry	0:23:00	Short
Rachel Wisdom	0:23:00	Short
René Borg	0:23:00	Short
Donna Quinn	0:23:00	Short
Marcus Murphy	0:23:00	Short
Barry Murray	0:24:00	Short
James Kelly	0:24:00	Short
Ciaran Frisby	0:24:00	Short
Barry O’Neill	0:24:00	Short
Colm Kenna	0:24:00	Short
Yvonne Brennan	0:25:00	Short
Aisling Kirwan	0:25:00	Short
Colm Mullen	0:25:00	Short
Claire O’Callaghan	0:25:00	Short
Alessandro Poloni	0:26:00	Short
Harry Conroy	0:26:00	Short
Sheila Donelan	0:26:00	Short
Terry Kavanagh	0:26:00	Short
Vincent Coller	0:27:00	Short
Niall Corrigan	0:27:00	Short
James Heggie	0:27:00	Short
Aoife Joyce	0:27:00	Short
Irene Clark	0:28:00	Short
Jack Conroy	0:28:00	Short
Keith Thompson	0:29:00	Short
Ciara Burke	0:29:00	Short
Aideen Burke	0:29:00	Short
Peter Merrigan	0:29:00	Short
Keith McLoughlin	0:29:00	Short
Philip Cullen	0:30:00	Short
Laurence Colleran	0:30:00	Short
Niamh Cherry	0:30:00	Short
Caitriona Murphy	0:30:00	Short
Colette Matthews	0:30:00	Short
Mick Cullen	0:30:00	Short
Sheelagh O’Malley	0:30:00	Short
Derek Cullen 2	0:30:00	Short
Andrea Cullen	0:30:00	Short
Flora McKnight	0:30:00	Short
Carol Costello	#DIV/0!	Short
AJ Cotter	#DIV/0!	Short
Heather Cullen	#DIV/0!	Short
Amanda Halligan	#DIV/0!	Short
Torben Dahl	0:34:00	Long
Darren Reilly	0:37:00	Long
Amidou Dembele	0:39:00	Long
Jason Kehoe	0:39:00	Long
Ben Mooney	0:40:00	Long
Robert Cherry	0:40:00	Long
Angus Tyner	0:40:00	Long
Arne Klohn	0:41:00	Long
Marcus Murphy	0:41:00	Long
Rachel Wisdom	0:42:00	Long
Michael Heatly	0:43:00	Long
Jack Kennedy	0:43:00	Long
John Conway	0:43:00	Long
Barry Murray	0:43:00	Long
Catherine Devitt	0:43:00	Long
Yvonne Brennan	0:44:00	Long
Aisling Kirwan	0:44:00	Long
James Kelly	0:45:00	Long
Colm Mullen	0:45:00	Long
Alessandro Poloni	0:45:00	Long
Vincent Coller	0:45:00	Long
Derek Cullen	0:46:00	Long
Ciaran Frisby	0:46:00	Long
Colm Kenna	0:46:00	Long
Claire O’Callaghan	0:47:00	Long
René Borg	0:47:00	Long
Donna Quinn	0:48:00	Long
Bruce Phillips	0:48:00	Long
Terry Kavanagh	0:48:00	Long
Harry Conroy	0:48:00	Long
James Heggie	0:48:00	Long
Barry O’Neill	0:49:00	Long
Sheila Donelan	0:49:00	Long
Niall Corrigan	0:50:00	Long
Irene Clark	0:50:00	Long
Jack Conroy	0:53:00	Long
Keith Thompson	0:53:00	Long
Philip Cullen	0:53:00	Long
Laurence Colleran	0:54:00	Long
Ciara Burke	0:54:00	Long
Aideen Burke	0:54:00	Long
Peter Merrigan	0:56:00	Long
Keith McLoughlin	0:56:00	Long
Aoife Joyce	0:57:00	Long
Derek Cullen 2	0:59:00	Long
Colette Matthews	0:59:00	Long
Carol Costello	1:00:00	Long
AJ Cotter	1:00:00	Long
Heather Cullen	1:00:00	Long
Amanda Halligan	1:00:00	Long
Flora McKnight	1:00:00	Long
Sheelagh O’Malley	1:00:00	Long
Mick Cullen	1:00:00	Long
Andrea Cullen	1:00:00	Long
Caitriona Murphy	1:00:00	Long
Niamh Cherry	1:00:00	Long

Winter League Round 8 – Clara Vale

January 12, 2019 by glendaloughac, posted in Club races / events, Winter League

Our Winter League is now 3/4 one with today’s Clara Vale run the 8th of 12 with 4 to score.

Overall results

wl result round 8 — Overall result adjusted for handicaps (Round 8)

Barry O’Neill was the fastest overall on the 9.1 km long route with 39:53. He had intended to run only the short course due to a sore back but a wrong turn changed his fate and the course record – Barry was over 5 minutes faster than his handicap and finished 2nd in the adjusted rankings. Arne Klohn’s 40:13 was the second fastest and 47 seconds faster than his handicap. Derek Cullen with third-fastest time was 20 seconds slower than his handicap on a day when many were blown away – a few highlights:

Bruce Phillips 1:58 faster than handicap on the 9.1 km course
Aoife improved her time by 1:38 on the 5 km course
Donna Quinn 1:08 faster and set a new course record for women of 42:52
Yvonne, Arne and Colm all run 30-47 seconds better than their handicaps

On the other side Johnny Conway matched his handicap exactly as did the first-timers in this year’s league: Flora, Jimmy Cullen and Lizzie Murphy. Derek Cullen was the only runner slower than handicap – but only narrowly – he ran 41:16 having run 41:20 last time – full marks for consistency!

clara messy group photo — Glendalough Green is closed – where will we go now?

derekthinking — Derek (sitting) ponders his handicap, Johnny (standing) just remembering his his

René Borg cemented his overall lead by running 7 minutes faster than his handicap to take overall victory on the day but this overall lead is now precarious: Donna Quinn lies 24 seconds behind with two ‘worse than handicap scores’ yet to potentially better and three more runners within the 2 minutes that they can improve by beating their handicap by 2 minutes in one of the last four races.

wloverall8of12 — Overall rankings after 8 of 12 with 4 to score

Of the runners with 3 or less to score, Derek Cullen and Claire O’Callaghan are well-positioned to jump right into the top-3 if they can keep current standards and Barry O’Neill and Marcus Murphy are dark horses if they can put together 2-4 good results in the last 4 rounds