Well the girls made history yesterday at being just absolutely brilliant! Oh and also being the first all-female team to complete the relay, and all from one club!

What a team! Unlike almost every other team, by all accounts, every single member signed up very willingly, did their reccies, did their homework on the route, did the training, showed up in only a couple of cars, and ran their guts out on the day!

Bronagh, our much loved ladies captain, showed us all how it’s done on leg 1. In a field of about 28 super teams Bronagh kicked the day off with a cracking time of 1:16 on one of the toughest legs of the day.  Storming into the end she brought the team in the top ten. I took over on leg 2 and lost the will to ever run again somewhere along the stone wall up from the Dargle river. Thank God for Paul Mahon’s tired legs as I just about managed to hold him off.

Taking over at leg 3 Grainne took off down that fast road section like a pro! She says she double backed at one stage to check the route and it did her no harm as she came storming down to the last gate. We could see the black and amber vest lashing through the last couple of fields chasing Colleen all the way. As we met her on the road she took off down the last stretch as if it was the first.

Ann louise was ready and nervous at leg 4. We met her a couple of miles in and she had already passed people! There was no stopping her as she ploughed past chasing down that bloke in the grey t-shirt! Coming into Glendalough she looked the strongest of all the finishers there as some of them were really struggling!

After lashing on the sun block Karen was ready to head off from Glendalough onto leg 5. (We have to find a downhill only race for Karen!) Because there was nowhere along the route to get water to Karen, who seems to survive on air anyway, we headed to Drumgoff. The day was certainly heating up but no sooner had we downed a cup of coffee than Karen came flying in in a time of about 74 minutes. Incredible running! And she should be tired after the 12 Bens! Bearing in mind I think Eugene did this leg in about 65 minutes last year.

Krissy went storming off on leg 6 and to say we were worried about Krissy getting lost would be an underestatement! About 25 minutes in we met Krissy absolutely ploughing up a forest track still grinnng from ear to ear. If you know leg 6 you’ll know it’s more uphill than down and even when we met Krissy on the road, she was still storming away and smiling the whole time! She came flying down the little track to Ironbridge, after veering off track for about a minute, to hand over to Maura for leg 7.

Maura had looked very apprehensive but she was on the right leg. I think she already has one of the fastest times for a female on leg 7 of 1:49 (as does Bronagh on leg eight) so she was the right woman on the right leg. Despite having the longest leg we met Maura with a focused and determined look at two points and there was no letting up! She passed over to Mags on leg 8 after recording again I’d say one of the fastest womens times on that leg despite her reservations!

Mags didn’t need much chaperoning through the forest cattle track and despite coming across one of them en route she beat it out of the way and ploughed through. waching Mags on the road was incredible! She got faster and faster and luckily for us she was being chased down the whole way by Mike Long; this just made her more determined. Bringing us home in 12th position it was a perfect end to an absolutely terrific day.

There are lost more photos so just click here.

Tony took some splits and if you look up your times against the record you’ll find that many of you recorded some of the fastest times for women on many of the legs. Every single one of you ran faster than we had anticipated and no one doubted the effort put in en route in extremely tough, hot conditions. Some of you were racing on your legs against people who run these routes week in week out and are finishing in the top ten in hill races. So if you were passed by anyone then that’s who you were passed by, I know this for sure. You should all be very proud, as I am. Well done to all the Clonliffe girls!

These times are unofficial:

Leg 1 Bronagh 1:16:18
Leg 2 Aisling 1:24:23
Leg 3 Grainne 42:34
Leg 4 Ann Louise 54:06
Leg 5 Karen 1:14:40
Leg 6 Krissy 1:18:27
Leg 7 Maura 1:52:05
Leg 8 Mags 49:47

Total Time of 9:32 (Is that about half an hour faster than Gerry anticipated!?)