Wexford Half Marathon & 10k
Sunny April skies greeted the huge number of athletes and supporters on one of the most scenic race start lines as the Slaney estuary was calm and the music blared. With so many opting to wear the event T shirt the Quayfront was awash with purple & gold. At 10.15 the first wave of 4 half marathon athletes took off at speed followed every few minutes by the next 3 waves and then it was the turn of the 10k athletes as their waves were started. It gave supporters on the early section of the course a great chance of seeing their own as the race was spread out. A warm morning and a great atmosphere at the finish line as athletes passed 2 pubs, a gun shop and a creche !
Congratulations to each member who ran, special mention to Hazel and Linda who ran their first 10k and to Ryan & John H who broke their PB times.
Martin won the M70 and John D was 2nd M60, well done gents.
Thanks to the club members who were out supporting on the course, it definitely lifts everyone when they hear their name being shouted.
Half Marathon results:
Ryan Ellard 1:34:45
Dermot Foley 1:34:52
John Hyland 1:42:41
Eamonn Foley 1:41:05
Rob Casey 1:44:02
Tadhg Henderson 1:47:51
Jesse Kielthy 1:59:51
Enda O'Sullivan 2:15:22
Marion Galvin 2:16:43
10k results:
Martin Kelly 47:47
Micheál Kinsella 50:30
John Dier 50:53
Ilze Bedrite 55:23
Geoff Hoffheinz 55:43
Jennifer Kehoe 55:48
Hazel Doyle 56:32
Darren O'Grady 57:07
Louise Henderson 1:00:18
Linda Leacy 1:03:24
Bridie McGuire 1:22:59
Sharron Dier 1:35:26
Hellevation Backyard Ultramarathon
On Saturday club member Donal Grant was busy competing in a fairly unique event. Anyone interested in joining him next time out get in touch.
He wrote an account of his experience to whet the appetite of anymore thinking of it for next year. Have a read below...
Hellevation
Backyard Ultramarathons are a relatively new addition to the roster of ultra endurance events. They take place over a loop of 6.7km or 4.17 miles. You have one hour to complete the distance before you have to go again. Every hour on the hour until you either don’t start a loop or you don’t get back within the hour. Last man (or woman) standing is the winner! The idea behind the loop distance is that you cover 100 miles every 24 hours.
Hellevation is one of the newest backyard ultra events on the Irish calendar. This was the second year it has been stagedin the picturesque, if very remote, Grange village in Tippperary. With almost all of the loop on trail, and with nearly 200m of elevation on each loop, it’s a serious test of mental strength.
Approx 70 athletes took to the starting corral on Saturday to test themselves against the trails. Most people finished in 47-53 minutes, which gives you a few minutes to go to the toilet, eat, rest, check your insta, before you head back to the start corral again! Every hour on the hour!
As the hours passed by and the loops accumulated, people slowly started to drop out, either through tiredness, injury, or else hitting their target, eg 7 loops is over marathon distance and was a popular loop to finish on.
Darkness came during loop 9, and out came the head torches. This don’t slow us too much but it did mean you had to concentrate a lot more on the trail, which takes a lot of extra energy. I had a wobble around loop 8, with some stomach issues, but I was able to run through it and was feeling better by loop 10. It did mean I had stopped eating though, so I was on borrowed time! I had 12 loops as a loose target, but I was convinced to go back out and finish loop 13, alongside about 20 other hardy souls. Just to get to 90km, I started loop 14 and turned back, finishing just after 1:20am with 90km in the bag.
The race was eventually won by Wayne McGuigan, who was also the defending champion, and an absolute machine! He did 25 loops and could probably have run on for days!
It’s a really interesting format, that is ultimately a much bigger test of your mental strength than your legs!
I still haven’t decided if I’ll go back next year, but if I do I’ll try to convince some of my clubmates to do it too!
