Another super Lap of the Gap
Sweat, scenery and sweet times in the Garden County
FOR the seventh time, runners from Ireland and 30 other countries took to the start lines in Glendalough to challenge themselves against the country’s highest, and, perhaps, toughest road marathon: The Lap of the Gap in the Wicklow Mountains National Park.
The popular event takes runners from the roadside by the Lower Lake to Laragh village before the long net uphill section to Sallygap where the ‘King of the Hill‘ competition is decided.
From here, the final 19 km are slightly easier as runners take in the scenic views over Lough Tay before finishing on the forested backroads going through Oldbridge.
Several shorter testing climbs have received legendary status over the years and none more so than the infamous ‘School Lane’ climb on the final 500m. Lap of the Gap tests runners from start to finish.
Yet every year, the contestants impress with their performances, their tenacity and their great spirit and this year was no exception as four runners dipped under the three-hour barrier for the first time in the race’s history and the event had its oldest ever finisher when 81-year-old Jacques Crochet finished in the half-marathon in 2.11. FULL MARATHON RESULTS Marc Augustin (Le Cheile AC), elite entrant and winner of last year’s half-marathon race, stepped up a distance and had a comprehensive victory running the third fastest time for the course (2.46:47) for a nine minute win ahead of Sean Meehan.
The Cherry Orchard AC runner has broken the course record for the Waterville 130km trail run only a few weeks prior to this second-place finish.
The extra fitness showed as Sean not only improved on his sixth place finish in 2023 – but took a full 17 minutes off his previous best.
Third place was hotly contested with Tiernan Swan finishing 14 seconds clear of Brian Duffy (2.59:25 to 2.59:39).
In the women’s race, hot favourite Aisling O’Connor (Tullamore Harriers) won her fourth Lap of the Gap title in 3.13 (adding to her victories in 2017, 2018 and 2019).
The rest of the podium was unchanged from last year with Julie McNamee (Tir Chonaill) and Jade Harbron (Cherry Orchard AC) reprising their second- and thirdplace finishes from 2023. Julie – an experienced ultra runner – recently moved into the F50 category won the race in 2022 and has never finished lower than fourth in the women’s race.
Category prizes went to Kenneth Rothwell (M40), Michael Quigley (M60), Conor Corry (M50), Larry Rigney (M70), Rosarii Dunne (F50), Rose Leith (F60) with Wicklow athlete Ann Marie Kenny of Parnell taking the F40.
The Glen to Glen half-marathon draws the biggest crowd of the day, and the course takes people around the Upper Lake Park before runners climb up above Glenmacnass Waterfall before returning to Laragh the way they came up.
Two elite entrants, Tudor Moldovan (Clonliffe Harriers) and Gavin Kelly (Clane AC), were expected to battle it out for the title and so it proved.
Tudor holds the course records on both the half-marathon and marathon courses and was intent on lowering his previous mark of 70:39 having recently run an impressive PB of 2.24 in Limerick.
He started aggressively but faded somewhat on the return to win in 71:11 (34 seconds off his record) with Gavin Kelly second in 74:08 (only Tudor and Sean Hehir have run the course faster).
Father Murphy’s Michael Bagnall was third in 81:38 with women’s winner Niamh O’Connor finishing fourth overall.
In doing so she set a trio of achievements: she defended her 2023 win here, lowered her best on the course by six minutes and erased Linda O’Sullivan’s course record from the history books by lowering it from 1.26:34 to 1.23:55.
Niamh’s win also meant two sisters won the event’s two races for the first time – and if that was not enough the third O’Connor sister finished third in the half-marathon in 1.31:59. The two O’Connor sisters were denied a one-two through a strong run from Wicklow runner Lucy O’Malley who ran 1.30:46 to secure second place just as she had last time she ran the race in 2022.
Brendan Keogh narrowly edged out first local runner Paul Duffy (Glendalough AC) by a single second to win the M40 category with the remaining categories going to Neill Fraser (M50), Anthony O’Brien (M60), Jacques Cochet (M80), Karen Bevan (F40), Caoimhe O’Barra (F50), and Barbary Murray (F60).
Loyalty prizes for the ‘5 Gappers’
This year’s race featured several new initiatives to continue to try and build the best possible race experience for contestants including the addition of names on bibs and the new ‘loyalty trophies’ where runners who have finished the race more than five times get recognised with a special trophy made by artist Richard Healy.
Roundwood Inn owner Michael Ahearne looked set to become the first and only person to run all seven editions of the race but a work conflict meant he stayed on six completions and he was joined by Susan Dixon, Ciaran Byrne, and Christy Cahill (six6 each) and Nicky Gordon and Liam Costello (with five each) with Cormac O’Ceallagh running his sixth Glen to Glen half-marathon (for good measure, he went on to run the 20 km of the Wicklow Way Relay Leg 7 for his team later in the day).