Our seventh edition of Run the Ridge was a fabulous success with a record entry into both our Open and County Championship races. More than 320 runners had signed up and 265 of them took to the start lines in our three events: first the titular 20 km ‘Run the Ridge’ followed by the Derrybawn 10k and finally the 3 km juvenile course for runners aged 11-16.

RUN THE RIDGE 20K

Weather conditions were warm but not sweltering and recent fairer weather left the softer paths – especially the ridge itself – in perfect running conditions. Gavin Kelly – who had finished 2nd in our Glen to Glen-Half-marathon fund-raiser in May (in an impressive 74 minutes) – took the lead early and proceeded to run Edward O’Connor’s course record very close. The Clane AC man finished in 1:29:40 – a mere 33 seconds from the best time and was followed home by Paul McKenna from Bray Runners (first Wicklow Championship runner in the 20k) and Cherryorchard AC’s ultra-machine Sean Meehan.

Louise Murray WOULD NOT be denied a course record as she lowered Hannah Carroll’s 2017 record to 1:39:39. Second in the women’s race was Muireann McDonnell and third Julie McNamee – a regular visitor to Wicklow from her native Donegal and by now nearly ‘honorary’ Glendalough AC member (although we suspect Tir Chonaill would like to keep her!).

3 KM

By the time the 20 km racers finished, the 3 km juvenile race had been decided first with. A moved error meant a short section was left out leaving the course slightly below the advertised 3 km mark – but Parnell’s Scot Hannon’s time of 10:59 was still impressive and Parnell made it two junior wins when Lara Buck set the fastest female juvenile time with 11:56.

Fifteen juniors competed in the juvenile race – slightly up from the 13 from last year. We’d still like to see some growth in this area but this year we were able to offer the slightly more interesting 3 km version of the course (with the 2023 juniors having run 2 km).

10 KM

Next to arrive where the 10 km racers where Tullamore Harrier’s former mountain running international Barry Minnock took the win in a fine time of 39:34 (the second fastest ever run on the course) he was followed home by American visitor Matthew Walker who was only 24 seconds behind (and whose father Jeffrey was the first m60 on the day in 7th overall).

Third place and first in the county championship was Liam Mooney of Lakeshore Striders taking the first medal of the day (Lakeshore would capture a further 8).

Women’s winner was Sile O’Byrne (Parnell AC) making it back to back wins for her in the 10k followed by Niamh Brophy (Lakeshore Striders) and the 2022 winner Catherine Devitt (Glendalough AC) in third.

ATHLETICS WICKLOW OFF-ROAD CHAMPIONSHIP 2024

A detailed breakdown of categories will be written up later but overall winners of this year’s championship were Parnell AC. This returns the trophy to the first club to win it (in 2022) with Glendalough AC having taken it in 2024.

In 2023, Glendalough had taken it with 12 gold medals (and 25 in total) ahead of 10 gold medals (and 20 in total) for Parnell AC. This year bigger squads from Bray, Lakeshore and St. Benedict’s meant higher competition across multiple categories. Parnell took 12 medals but 8 were gold and that was sufficient to edge out the hosts (who took 20 medals – but only 7 Gold) with Bray Runners increasing their haul from 2 to 15 this year to finish third in the medal table.