Boards fly high as Rathfarnham falter
This year’s Wicklow Way Relay found itself in one of the busiest weekends of the year with the Mourne Way Marathon up north and the European Trial in Crone Wood robbing the event of some long-distance men and aspiring internationals…
In the last few years the character of the Relay changed somewhat as the venerable old Dublin clubs fielded semi-elite teams of the best hill runners combined with high-class road runners. When the dust settled “Clonliffe and Guests” had twice bested a strong Rathfarnham side and chasing Crusaders and numerous records had been erased from the history books (seven of the twenty best team times ever were recorded in 2008 and 2009 and nine individual records set).
A wide open competition seemed on offer and a pre-race favourite hard to establish. Despite this newcomers Boards AC had organised themselves well with two strong teams and Rathfarnham were always fancied based on their seemingly endless supply of contenders.
Reid and McCluskey raise the bar
Fiona Reid, sister of Irish Champion Caroline Reid, knocked a second off Catriona Jenning’s one-year old record with a time of 30:19 on the fast and furious leg 3. On steep Leg 5, Beth McCluskey, perhaps Ireland’s all-time greatest female hill-runner, needed only a rare outing to take almost four minutes off Mags Greenan’s 2008 record.
At the end of the same leg, Rathfarnham seemed poise to confirm their class holding a sizeable lead. Sadly, they also confirmed their Relay penchant for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory to borrow the words of Boards AC member Paul Joyce, as the next runner, true to the Relay tradition, got badly lost. Joe Lalor, inceptor and race director, is fond to say the race is won and lost on the turn-overs, and don’t they know it in Rathfarnham.
By the time the first leg 7 runner set off, the “Surfing Boards” had overhauled the leaders and kept the momentum going to record their first significant team victory in the hills. A third consecutive silver medal greeted Rathfarnham before Setanta’s team arrived and claimed another good result for Irish orienteers in the 2010 IMRA season.
Preliminary results at IMRA, and some images courtesy of JPP Mitchell on flickr
