Rathfarnham sweep away Glasnamullan
Peter O'Farrell at the 2008 World Trophy
The labyrinthine forest race through Ballinastoe wood at the foothills of Djouce was displaced in favour of a revived route dubbed Glasnamullan-Ballinastoe, starting a few kilometres further up road, and offering an open mountain challenge instead…
… as runners were led up iconic Djouce Mountain for the second Wednesday in tow.
Rain darkened the grassy hill-side enough for Rathfarnham’s green power-house train to be noticeable as Peter O’Farrell, Aaron O’Donohue, Brian Furey and John Brennan took a clean sweep of the honours and with it the overwhelming team victory. The south Dublin side are in a serious mood for this year’s mountain running season and have their eyes set on the Wicklow Way Relay team record on June 11th. No one will bet against them.
Another Dublin club, Crusaders AC, took their share of the spoils too when Aoife Joyce took her first Leinster League victory since her return from injury, a win that had been brewing on top of a few solid performances in recent hill races, building an unconquerable lead on the ascent ahead of Clare Sullivan and Duhac’s Mirjam Alik, the latter narrowly outsprinting Clonliffe’s Karen Duggan on the flat section to the finish.
The new route met with widespread acclaim, and your reporter can only join in the chorus having inspected the course this weekend: a flat narrow trail through forest leads you onto grassy tracks with a high fun factor for descenders before the steep climb to Djouce before coming off the steep and rocky Eastern slope.
Results now online over at IMRA
