Peter O'Farrell

22 March, 2016

I had decided to do this race as I reasoned I won't be a student forever and it did feel like a kind of reward for all those nights of attending classes.
The brucie bonus of getting to race in the stunning locale of the Glendalough Valley within the Wicklow Mountains National Park was also on my mind. It really is rare enough to get to race down here with the numbers cap. It was cool enough at sign-on and I was wondering about what to wear but thankfully went with just the DIT singlet as the sunny sun really opened up on the higher slopes once the race got going.
Andrew O’Donnghaile (NUIG) took off like he thought he was doing a 2km timetrial. I kept an eye on 2014's winner, Josh O’Sullivan Hourihan (UCC), and UCD's Colm Moran. I reckon we all had the same thought at the same time - "he's gone out too fast, he'll blow up".
Five other lads thought differently and went after Andrew with various degrees of success whilst the rest of us chugged along within ourselves. Some useless pup of a walker had moved the marking tape at the end of the fireroad and unfortunately the first runners took a contouring longer route onto the grassy track we were supposed to take. I was in 5th at the time and despite having marked this course in the past I began to follow the lads before I stopped and thought about it. I reversed and followed Colm and the others up the grassy slope. Clare McCarthy was running really strongly and putting the lads around her under serious pressure. We headed on up towards Gerry, now in photographer mode and snapping away. There was no sign of the first four lads and I found myself in an unearned lead.
Once you are racing the oul thought process gets a bit funny though, I was probably only about 20% sad for Andrew and the lads and 80% delighted to be in with a chance of winning for DIT.
Andrew really was the class act of the race though and reasserted himself in the lead and went on to open a massive gap by the summit of about 100 seconds.
I really needed an absolutely kamikaze descent, a la Colm Hill in 2011, but unfortunately I mustered a Toyota descent - safe, tidy, efficient but not fast or exciting. I started worrying that 2016's Colm, Colm Moran, had borrowed from the Colm Hill school of descending but he had a similar experience to myself. Slower on the climb, faster on the descent to the man ahead but not enough to catch.
The course really is super, a sustained descent is slightly unusual in Ireland and superdry underfoot conditions are virtually unheard of so it truly was a day for fast free running. Thanks to Gerry and team for putting on a great event and hopefully the winners on the day might grace the European Trial race coming up soon.

TCD dominate

20 March, 2016 - Gerry Brady

The Colleges mountain running championships were held on Camaderry Glendalough in ideal conditions. The course was dry apart from the summit climb and there was no wind. The race was being held in Glendalough for the seventh time and the course records held by Colm Hill (DIT) of 41:24 from 2011 and Ciara Largey (Queens) of 49:58 from 2012 both survived. Andrew O’Donnghaile (NUIG) won the men's race in 44:21 and he would have broken 44 minutes if it wasn't for some idiot moving the marking tape. Clare McCarthy (TCD) won the women's race in 50:44 after fighting it out with the men on the ascent.

TCD won both teams races.

Camaderry, 20th March 2016 (8.5 km / 522m climb)

Men individual 2016
1. Andrew O’Donnghaile (NUIG) 44:21
2. Peter O’Farrell (DIT) 45:06
3. Colm Moran (UCD) 45:45
4. Mael Lambert (TCD) 46:06
5. Josh O’Sullivan Hourihan (UCC) 48:08
6. Christoph Rohrmeier (TCD) 48:45
7. Laurence Quinn (UCD) 49:56
8. Conor Brennan (TCD) 50:15
9. Feidhlim McGowan (TCD) 51:05
10. Cian Corcoran (NUIG) 54:03
11. Stephen O’Kennedy (TCD) 54:52
12. Arron Matheson Reen (TCD) 56:32
13. Bastien Boisde (TCD) 01:09:17

Women individual 2016
1. Clare McCarthy (TCD) 50:44
2. Aisling Ahern (TCD) 01:08:16
3. Laura Brennan (TCD) 01:09:16

Men’s team 2016
1. TCD 18 (4. Mael Lambert, 6. Christoph Rohrmeier, 8. Conor Brennan)
2. UCD (3. Colm Moran, 7.Laurence Quinn)
3. NUIG (1. Andrew O’Donnghaile, 10. Cian Corcoran)

Women’s team 2016
1. TCD 1 (1. Clare McCarthy , 2. Aisling Ahern, 3. Laura Brennan)