Wicklow Way Relay 12th June

aero2k

Savage running, well done to both teams. Great pics too, Woddle and SJ, it almost looks like fun.....

Daithi BC

4 stars (good)

Note to self: When running in a singlet for the first time all summer, apply suncream to shoulders.

Thanks to all the rest of the team for brilliant performances and well done to the B team as well - shattered our time from last year!

donothoponpop

4 stars (good)

Well done to all who ran in this best race of the year. Results show that the race begins months before the start, with teams being picked, runners assigned to legs, and recces organized.

Before the race, I had hoped for a top 10 finish for our A team- although I secretly anticipated a finish of 5,6,7 or 8. B team looked stronger than their moniker suggested, particularly after some strong results in recent imra race, so I figured they might be around the same place as our Boards team from last year- 14th place.

After waking up and making some coffee,I was greeted to the great news that Krusty had a great run, finishing leg 1 in 7th place. More surprising was earlyevenings result- two minutes behind, in 9th. Truly those demons from last years mishap had been slayed, and how! Another cup of coffee and some porridge, and I nearly choked at the result that came in- Abhainn had made up 5 places over leg 2, Boards A were now in 2nd! I'll admit to mixed feelings around this time- it's easy to run in 10th team, slap on back, well done, no-one really notices: but when you are in a podium place, expectations arise.

(Quick caveat- at this point, texts (from Woddle, who was brilliant support throughout the day), came through intermittently, as I drove to areas with little mobile coverage, so the concentration will be on the A team- B team please don't feel slighted!)

Our new replacement (from Rathfarnham!) Vanessa had a great run to hold second, as did mymojo, whose time I don't know, but eagerly anticipate scrutinizing! Slogger Jogger took off, and I was sat watching the madcap antics of marshal Graham Porter, aided and abetted by Jane (and goaded by Peter!). Its strange to stand and chat with other runners before a leg starts, one eye on the road looking for your runner, the other on sizing up the competition.

Anyway, the Rathfarnham runner came in, and had a 10 minute gap on SJ, who ran a brilliant leg under the hour. I slapped hands, and set off. The idea was to pace this run, being a long uphill, a downhill, another uphill, and a couple of killer downhills to finish. I had run it in 62 minutes last year, while fitter, and chasing runners, but I would have been happy with 65 this year. As it happens, I paced too softly, with no-one to chase or be chased by, and finished in 63:xx, but with too much energy. Slapped hands with Daithi, little disappointed with the energy I still had, but never mind, I hadn't been caught, and we were still second, right?

Except I realised I was talking to my mate Jason, who was meant to be running leg 7 for Rathfarnham. Took a couple of minutes before the penny dropped, and the Rath guys were asking me had I seen a runner wearing white on the course? The unfortunate guy had gone astray, and ended up running a 12k leg in 23k. This misfortune was our good fortune: Boards were now in 1st place.

I drove back to Tinahely, stopping along the road to run a bit with Daithi, who was flying. The message at this stage was very much, hold it together, don't f*** it up, and if there was a sharp turn on leg 7, there was an overbearing team captain there, to make sure the right route was followed. On to Tinahely, and wait for Daithi, who came in and set off Beepbeep, still in first. Eleven minutes later, Jason came in for Rathfarnham, having ran a great leg and clawed back vital time. Still, 11 minutes over 10k would be hard to find, so we drove to the finish, with cautious confidence. Met BB along the way, and ran beside him- he was in real pain, his recent hip injury causing major discomfort. At this point, it was 5k to go, and I ran beside him, talking of glory and history, if only he'd get up over this last uphill bend (of course there was another uphill bend around the corner...). Anyway, after a while we decided it was cruel to be torturing the guy like this, and let him run his own race. Down to the finish, and wait, wait... Soon he came round the corner, and with a final sprint, took the tape, in under 8 hours, for a Boards victory! It wasn't long after that the Boards B team came in, 7th place, another magnificent achievement!

This is the first time I have been part of a winning team since under sevens hide-and-go-seek, so I'll be milking it for a while;) Far, far, beyond what I had imagined. Well done to each and every Boards member who gave their all today, for the two teams. Commiserations also to Rathfarnham, who had some of the fastest legs of the day, only to be undone by a wrong turn. Talking to Jase, Donna, Peter, and the others after, they were gracious in applauding Boards winners, if a little downbeat about another defeat snatched from the jaws of victory. There's always next year to avenge, guys. Although this time Boards will be defending champions, and victory tastes very, very sweet!

Training for places on the A team starts tomorrow! Well done to Joe, Nora, and all their helpers on a truly great day.:)

donothoponpop

4 stars (good)

TheRoadRunner wrote: »

As long as my team beats BOARDS I'll be a happy man

I have rediscovered I am crap on hills recently so I'll be depending heavily on my team mates to whoop some BOARDS ass.

Any of you chickens fancy a gentlemans wager

good luck to all runners and hopefully the weather behaves.

RoadRunner,

WHO'S YOUR DADDY?!?:D

Slogger Jogger

4 stars (good)

Race report for leg 5
here

RacoonQueen

4 stars (good)

Good work captain. When can we play again? :pac:

Edit: I won't ask how far behind 6th place we were just in case it was my fault.

BeepBeep67

4 stars (good)

donothoponpop wrote: »

Well done to all who ran in this best race of the year. Results show that the race begins months before the start, with teams being picked, runners assigned to legs, and recces organized.

I think we had a great General to ensure all recces happened and all the planning that needed to be done was in place - thanks DoNot you were FAB!

Woddle

4 stars (good)

Not too sure how comfortable some people are about having their pics up on boards but Lindie has a cracking one of the winning team.

Slogger Jogger

4 stars (good)

Woddle wrote: »

Not too sure how comfortable some people are about having their pics up on boards but Lindie has a cracking one of the winning team.

If anyone isn't happy with their photo up I can remove...

Woddle

4 stars (good)

Slogger Jogger wrote: »

If anyone isn't happy with their photo up I can remove...

It was only that I put one up recently and I read on the persons facebook that he wasn't too happy

earlyevening

4 stars (good)

Stick it up on the Group Membership area? Then only a few people can see it.

Slogger Jogger

4 stars (good)

Nice pics on Lindie's flickr page alright
here

TheRoadRunner

3 stars (average)

donothoponpop wrote: »

RoadRunner,

WHO'S YOUR DADDY?!?:D

Fair enough i deserve that we finished fourth. If yo ever fancy a team race on the road/track or cross country we wil be willing to oblige. Hats off to you guys though that was a great performance today. We were over 30 minutes behind you.

Daithi BC

4 stars (good)

Leg 7 Race Report (Surfin' Boards)

About five minutes after I arrived at the start of leg 7, the marshall told me that the first runner should be with us in about five minutes. I went off for a warmup and a few stretches and fifteen minutes later I heard the shout of "Runner!". We soon realised that the runner was d'pop who handed over to me with the words "Run your own race, don't look behind you". By the time I got 100 metres into my leg, my brain had interpreted this as "The guy in second is about 50 metres behind me, so run like hell".

I cruised through the first couple of km, and started the first of the two climbs. Got up it ok, but didn't feel quite as strong as I would have liked, but had a nice downhill section on lovely dry tracks to recover and then met Paul when I got back onto the road. It was great to have a domestique to get me a few drinks and keep me encouraged, and I made it to the bottom of the second climb in pretty good order. About half way up, I really started to suffer, and ended up walking the last 100 metres to the first gate. My legs felt like mile 24 in a marathon on a bad day and my stomach was in such a bad way that I was very nearly sick at the top of the climb. Still, I made it over, and got back onto the downhill the far side without anyone overtaking me, and all I wanted to do at that stage was hand over a lead to BB67 to defend.

The last km uphill was just torture, especially as I kept seeing people every time I went round a bend but then realised that it still wasn't the handover. Eventually I got to the finish and sent BB67 on his way, and then found a nice shady spot to recover.

1:35:15 on my watch, so about 3:15 slower than last year. A bit disappointing from that point of view, but I'd take that any day to be on the winning team!

Slogger Jogger

4 stars (good)

aero2k wrote: »

Savage running, well done to both teams. Great pics too, Woddle and SJ, it almost looks like fun.....

It is. Give it a go. As d'pop says selection for next year is now open

BeepBeep67

4 stars (good)

I'm in bits today all I'm missing is a pair of crutches - but it was so worth it

RacoonQueen

4 stars (good)

BeepBeep67 wrote: »

I'm in bits today all I'm missing is a pair of crutches - but it was so worth it

I knew my arse muscles would hurt today after all that downhill but I didn't expect THIS :eek: My friends laughed at me but it IS totally worth it!

jfk247

4 stars (good)

ran leg 6 for Team Slow(27) yesterday. 2 of our runners got lost and put an extra 1hr and half on the time!!! not that we would have been anywhere near the winners. alot of ppl got a bit lost so a recce is a must for a race like this.
well done to the boards teams and to the organisers, fantastic day out. great running by everyone.

Krusty_Clown

4 stars (good)

Provisional leg times are up in the WW relay forum here.

Some superb performances there, with the key word being consistency. Though we didn't win any legs, we were consistently in the top few places and the percentage of the leg winner's time was always right up there
7th - 109%
3rd - 115%
5th - 108% (joint 4th)
3rd - 115%
3rd - 105%
6th - 109%
5th - 111%
4th - 105%.

Winning Time: 07:58:44 (top 8% of all recorded finishing times).
Winning Margin: 00:08:25

Slogger Jogger

4 stars (good)

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Provisional leg times are up in the WW relay forum here.

Some superb performances there, with the key word being consistency. Though we didn't win any legs, we were consistently in the top few places and the percentage of the leg winner's time was always right up there
7th - 109%
3rd - 115%
5th - 108% (joint 4th)
3rd - 115%
3rd - 105%
6th - 109%
5th - 111%
4th - 105%.

Winning Time: 07:58:44 (top 8% of all recorded finishing times).
Winning Margin: 00:08:25

Great results all around. Those fast times are the performance bar though. You've done your level best and you can gaze with respect at the faster times, which could be targets for improvement. If only I had younger legs

Krusty_Clown

4 stars (good)

Other Boards Team:
Fantastic performances here all around too. There'll be quite a fight for position next year, but thankfully we'll have three teams, so there'll be plenty of room for everyone.
9th - 113%
17th - 143%
19th - 137%
7th - 121%
6th - 115%
5th - 109%
6th - 114%
DloW69 - Sorry, didn't catch your first name.


Boards Stupid: 08:43:17 (109% of winner).
Top 16% of all recorded results.

donothoponpop

4 stars (good)

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Provisional leg times are up in the WW relay forum here.

Some superb performances there, with the key word being consistency. Though we didn't win any legs, we were consistently in the top few places and the percentage of the leg winner's time was always right up there
7th - 109%
3rd - 115%
5th - 108% (joint 4th)
3rd - 115%
3rd - 105%
6th - 109%
5th - 111%
4th - 105%.

Winning Time: 07:58:44 (top 8% of all recorded finishing times).
Winning Margin: 00:08:25

Some of those %'s make for weird reading. Abhainn's run (for my money, joint Boards performance of the day- the other being Slooger's breaking the hour) has the highest % of winner, but Ger powered in a phenomenal time. Likewise, my own (and Jeff's!;)) middling % is flattered by an errent would-be winner who would have bumped it up considerably.

But at the end of the day, as you say, consistency is the keyword. You put all those %'s in the mix, make sure no-one takes a wrong turn, and next day you're still gleefully smiling as you polish your gold medal for the twentieth time.:)

Krusty_Clown

4 stars (good)

donothoponpop wrote: »

Some of those %'s make for weird reading. Abhainn's run (for my money, joint Boards performance of the day- the other being Slooger's breaking the hour) has the highest % of winner, but Ger powered in a phenomenal time. Likewise, my own (and Jeff's!;)) middling % is flattered by an errent would-be winner who would have bumped it up considerably.

But at the end of the day, as you say, consistency is the keyword. You put all those %'s in the mix, make sure no-one takes a wrong turn, and next day you're still gleefully smiling as you polish your gold medal for the twentieth time.:)

You can't really look and compare across legs, you can only realistically make comparisons within individual legs. Abhainn's performance was phenomenal and was key to yesterday's win. Ger's performance over the same leg, is stupifying. Abhainn had better start hitting them hills pretty soon.

Daithi BC

4 stars (good)

I'm nominating Abhainn for leg 7 next year. Reckon he could go well sub 1:30.

copacetic

Well done to both teams. Great result!

Slogger Jogger

4 stars (good)

Daithi BC wrote: »

I'm nominating Abhainn for leg 7 next year. Reckon he could go well sub 1:30.

Lets get that National Lottery device out and randomly allocate legs That, or if Joe wants to do back to back legs who am I to stand in his way.

BeepBeep67

4 stars (good)

Slogger Jogger wrote: »

Lets get that National Lottery device out and randomly allocate legs That, or if Joe wants to do back to back legs who am I to stand in his way.

You'd want to have some balls for that!

Stark

4 stars (good)

BeepBeep67 wrote: »

You'd want to have some balls for that!

Or you could just use synthetic testosterone.

Slogger Jogger

4 stars (good)

All garmin track data recorded yesterday by anyone taking part should be public property. We need to see the tracks of those that erred.

In fairness to the Rathfarnham runner. He went well astray but made his way back and finished his leg. I heard of another runner from Wicklow nonetheless who started leg 5 in Glendalough, took a wrong turn half way through and finished... at Glendalough again before running home. Surely if you start your leg and you're running for a team you have informally made a contract with your team to finish the leg...

Slogger Jogger

4 stars (good)

Just wondering where everyone's results in line (see the imra WWR forum thread) with their own recorded time? The official result for me has me 17 secs slower than my own recorded watch time. Not that it makes much difference but you wouldn't want it to be too significant particularly when you worked so hard for those seconds