Setanta takes Podium at the Wicklow Way Relay

As the rest of us slept soundly, well perhaps not Sean with the new baby - congratulations to Colleen and Sean, Shane was collecting Pat to drive to the start of the Wicklow Way Relay at Kilmashogue. Luckily they left in good time as Pat was so sleepy he first directed Shane to Ticknock car park before getting the start location correct. The race started at 7am with Pat running leg 1 for Setanta. Philip was also there, running for the 2nd Setanta team. It seems that they had a good battle for the first half of the race until it levelled off a bit and Pat got into his stride and pulled away.

I travelled with Sean to the start of leg 3 and waited for some news. It was a beautiful sunny morning and the hills looked fantastic. Pat arrived and let us know that he thought he was in around the top 10. Not a bad start. Shane came in not long after and handed over to Sean. He had had a steady run but dropped a couple of places to some of the fastest runners of the day.

As leg 3 was such a short leg, we didn't wait around and headed for the start of leg 4. Would Terry be there??? Of course he was . No chance he was going to miss it this year. Sean came flying in after no time at all and handed over to Terry. Good news, he had made up a few places as well as having the 3rd fastest time of the day on leg 3.

Again, not much time to socialise as we had to get to Glendalough for Terry's handover to Beth. As always on such a nice weekend, Glendalough was busy with tourists. We found the McCluskey sisters waiting at the start on the Green Road. A few introductions and a little bit of chat before Terry came in neck and neck with Una May. This meant he had gained a few more places – excellent!

Now it was time for me to start getting nervous as I was next to run after Beth. I went with Beth's sisters to Glenmalure to wait for her. She was taking them for a hike after her run, as if running from Glendalough to Glenmalure over the mountains wasn't enough. We were greeted by Graham Porter in top hat directing cars to the field where we needed to park. The craic there helped me take my mind off the race ahead. It is always a strange feeling when you hear the shout of "runner coming". You never know if it is going to be your turn or if you will have a bit longer to wait.

When Beth handed over, I knew she had taken a few more places but I didn't know how many. As it turned out, she had had a great run and with the 4th fastest leg 5 run of the day. I just had to concentrate on not loosing too many places, which I immediately failed to do within the first 100 meters when a guy came flying past me and I knew there was no chance of keeping with him – ah well. We turned into the forest and started the first climb. After about 20 minutes of climb I saw someone ahead of me and realised that I was gaining on one of the teams ahead. This kept me going although my legs were starting to kill me. I managed to pass him and by the time I hit the road was about 400 meter ahead. Thanks to Shane, Terry, Gerry, Ben and Mick here, for the water and encouragement. I managed to stay ahead up over the next peak and pulled out a good bit of time over the rough down hill sections before finishing at Iron Bridge and handing over to Gerry without loosing or gaining any places. I was a little disappointed with my run as somehow I had managed to add on 10 minutes extra in my head. When I saw my actual result I was happy enough.

After giving Louisa directions, I jumped in with Shane who said he knew the way. We saw Gerry along the road and give him some drinks. He had widened the gap ahead of the 2 teams behind and was looking strong. Then we had a few wrong turns and by the time we got to the start of leg 8 we had missed the handover. We were greeted by Mick with some very exciting news. Gerry had brought us up to 4th overall and Ben was only 47 seconds behind 3rd place. It was another fantastic run and Gerry had the 4th fastest leg 7 run of the day.

Normally we have time to stop in the Dying Cow for a quick drink while cheering the last leg runner through but Ben was moving so quickly we didn't have time. He had moved up into 3rd and we didn't want to miss his podium finish in Shillelagh. So after a little bit of encouragement for him we headed down to the finish to wait. As there were 3 teams within 5 minutes of each other there were quite a few people waiting expectantly. We were thrilled to see Ben finishing in 3rd. Again, another brilliant run. His 3rd place was also the 3rd fastest for leg 8 for the day.

The team:
Leg      Distance         Climb               Runner                        Time
1          14.4 km           556m               Pat Ryan                       70:18
2          15.1 km           759m               Shane Enright              86:37
3            8.0 km           126m               Sean Hassett               32:33
4            9.6 km           363m               Terry Lawless               49:32
5          13.6 km           571m               Beth McCluskey           62:05
6          12.7 km           566m               Hazel Thompson         71:33
7          21.2 km           651m               Gerry Lalor                    95:22 
8          10.0 km           283m               Ben Mangan                 41:52
Finish   104.6 km      3,875m                                                  8:29:52

The day had gone very smoothly for us. Everyone was at their start on time, no one got lost and everyone had a steady run. Now it was time to sit in the sun, enjoy the craic and watch all the other teams finishing. All day it had seemed that Rathfarnham would be the easy winners. They had been about 15 minutes ahead all day but when their 6th leg runner took a wrong turn and turned a 12km leg into 22km, Boards AC took advantage and came first with Rathfarnham in second.

Congratulations to each runner on the team for the unexpected 3rd place!

And what happened to the second team??? Things didn't go quite as smoothly for them. They had a few mishaps along the way. One injured runner, I hope you get better soon Jacqui and 2 runners who lost their way. They had a fun day though and managed to get a drink in the Dying Cow!!!