Wicklow Way Leg 5 Sunday Run

I have done the Wicklow Way Relay race 3 times and each time I swore I would try and get people from the club to do some runs in Wicklow on a Sunday. Some of the photos below are amazing but it really does not do justice to the scenery that’s only 40minutes away from the clubhouse.

So a group of us set off Sunday morning from the clubhouse at 9am. The run was 13.7Km from Glendalough to Glenmalure and even though I put up a strong argument that running back from Glenmalure would be twice the fun it fell on deaf ears and we left half the cars in Glenmalure and half in Glendalough so we only had to run 13.7Km and not 27.4Km.

It is surprisingly easy to get lost or take a wrong turn when you are running somewhere new. When you are doing the race and there is someone chasing you down its even easier so its really important to recce your run to make sure you know your way. Thanks to Karl we were back on track after a slight detour early on.

The first 6Km were challenging but nothing impossible and we took regular breaks to regroup and take in the amazing views. There are no cars, no houses, no noise and in the entire run we only came across a handful of people.

We were really lucky with the weather. There was no rain, no wind and although it was cold once you were running the conditions were perfect. When you did go into the shade of the trees the temperature really dropped and there where huge icicles on the side of the path. Some people just couldn’t help themselves and had to have an organic Ice pop. I won’t mention any names.

Finally we came to end of the climb and we came through the forest and out ahead were some amazing views. I knew the scenery was going to be great but even I was impressed. After the boardwalks was rocky steps, some covered in ice, were we had to take our time but the run was all down hill , pretty much, from there back to Glenmalure.

As promised the outdoor sauna was all set up at the finish but lunch beside an open fire for some reason was more appealing. We will try and do another Wicklow Way Sunday run but its hard to avoid all the championship races coming up. But I’ll definitely be going to Wicklow again.