Eight days later and one of the toughest records on the Irish mountain running circuit has been broken again. Shane Lynch completed The Wicklow Round, taking in 26 of the main summits in Wicklow, in 16:23:32 on sunday, breaking the previous mark of 16:27:20 by just four minutes.
That was set just the previous Saturday by Paddy O’Leary, the San Francisco-based mountain runner from Wexford, who in clocking 16:27:20 had become the first man under the 17 hours.
For Lynch, a former Irish orienteering champion, part of the challenge was the unseasonable warm temperatures: starting on the Old Military Road, just north of Kippure, the looped course takes in 26 of the main summits in Wicklow, in strict order, including the bulking Lugnaqullia, at 925m, using only a paper map and compass for direction, all inside the time limit of 24 hours.
Starting at 4am, Lynch was on record pace for most of the route, with O’Leary among those to greet his record-breaking run back the start near Kippure - gently vowing to give the record another go in the near future.
The Wicklow Round covers some 100km, and roughly 6,000 metres in total climbing - or two-thirds the way up Mount Everest.
