Tralee 100K Ultra 2014

The Inaugural Tralee 100K Ultra took place on Saturday, 3rd August 2014.
First ultra in Kerry at this distance attracted 42 runners and one wheel chair athlete, well known all over Ireland - Jerry Forde. 

Starting in Tralee Wetlands, the runners made their way to Ardfert, Ballyheigue, Causeway, Kerryhead, Ballyheigue again, Banna (running 5K of the famous by now "Banna 10K"!), Barrow (Including Barrow Hill), Churchill, Fenit (switchback at the pier), Tralee, Blennerville and finish outside Brandon Hotel in Tralee.

At the first 10K in Ardfert it was the very experienced Irish International ultra runner John O'Regan (Energia 24hrs winner in 2011) and Tom Foley from Tralee who set the early pace with Brian Redmond from Castlemaine (winner of Brandon Mountain Marathon in 2013)  and Dublin based, Polish runner Jacek Latala (second place finish in Portumna 100K in 2011) folllowing a couple of  minutes later with the rest of the field spread out, trying to preserve energy for hours of running/walking ahead.

St.Brendan's AC's only entrant to this run was Tom Scanlon from Causeway. Tom set a very even pace from the start and kept this up for all the race. He got  big cheers coming through Ardfert and Causeway.

At the 40K mark around Kerryhead the lead was still held by John O'Regan with Brian Redmond and Jacek Latala in pursuit but Tom Foley opted for a more sustainable pace. Just a few places behind leader and keeping good pace were the leading 2 women Jayne Angilley and Amy Masner with Gillian Cordner not too far behind, surely feeling the effort she put in just 2 weeks ago in Energia 24Hrs race in Belfast.

Around 70K mark just before Barrow the race had a change of leader, with Jacek Latala building up over 15min lead over John & Brian. His lead was reduced when Jacek had an unscheduled (over 1.5K) detour around Barrow Golf course as there was no signed turn around point for runners at that time. From that point his advantage grew by each kilometre with John O'Reagan's (2014 AAI National Champion (joint) in Energia 24hrs) exploits in Belfast leaving him short of fresh legs for this event. It was just 2 weeks previously when he covered 227.2K in the 24hrs race.
Brian Redmond also had disruption in his training due to an injury a couple months ago and it would be playing catch up for the rest of the day, trying to stay close to John O'Regan.
Tom Scanlon's tactics of maintaining a constant pace played dividends and he was on target to finish well under the15hrs cut off time and start passing some runners.

From around 90K mark, Jacek Latala increased his pace to run 4:55min/km for the last 10K to build a huge time advantage of over half an hour over the next runner. His relentless pace over the whole distance proved to be the decisive factor and even warm conditions on the day didn't hamper his race and preparation for SPARTATHLON  (ultra race from Athens to Sparta - 246km, at the end of September).
After 8hrs and 40min first Tralee 100K Ultra Marathon had its first winner - Jacek Latala.
Second person over the finish line was John O'Regan and just 2min behind Brian Redmond.
Forth person overall was also the first female - Jayne Angilley in 9hrs 46min, with Amy Masner finishing just under 10hrs in second position and Gillian Cordner completing the top 3.

Tom Scanlon had a strong second half of this race, moving up in overall standing and finishing in 28th position in a time of 14:13:30. Congratulations to Tom on this achievement and in the process, setting up a brand new St.Brendan's AC record for 100K distance.

This was a great event to have in Tralee and North Kerry and should attract a few more entrants in years to come. Standard set by the winner will be difficult to break but also is worth to mention the fact that all participants except one finished this event within the  time limit. 
Well done to runners and their crews for putting long day of work and organisers and volunteers for giving time to help with smooth running of this event. 

Position	Name	Time	Gender	Gender (Pos)
1	Jacek Latala	8h 40m 43s	Male	1
2	John O Regan	9h 20m 39s	Male	2
3	Brian Redmond	9h 22m 39s	Male	3
4	Jayne Angilley	9h 46m 28s	Female	1
5	Ed McGroat	9h 57m 43s	Male	4
6	Amy Masner	9hr 59m 36s	Female	2
7	Gillian Cordner	11h 05m 48s	Female	3
8	Don Hillard	11h 9m 16s	Male	5
9	Gary Connolly	11h 14m 00	Male	6
10	Nick Liddane	11h 23m 17s	Male	7
11	Tim Crowley	11h 23m 32s	Male	8
12	Tom Shanahan	11h 23m 58s	Male	9
13	Marie Chapman	11h 30m 57s	Female	4
14	Noel Guilfoyle	11h 48m 00	Male	10
15	Gavin Dillion	11h 54m 00	Male	11
16	Terence O Connor	11h 58m 48s	Male	12
17	Pat Quinn	12h 28m 15s	Male	13
18	Aidan Swords	12h 49m 00	Male	14
19	Noel Roche	13h 5m 47s	Male	15
20	Marylin O Shea	13h 9m 37s	Female	5
21	Elma McGelligot	13h 18m 45s	Female	6
22	Martina Crean	13h 18m 46s	Female	7
23	William Brick	13h 25m 39s	Male	16
24	Noreen McCarthy	13h 33m 02s	Female	8
25	Tom Foley	13h 46m 06s	Male	17
26	Derek Mackessy	13h 58m 25s	Male	18
27	JJ O Connell	14h 12m 27s	Male	19
28	Tom Scanlon	14h 13m 30s	Male	20
29	Brian O Se	14h 16m 01s	Male	21
30	Hazel Wharton	14h 17m 38s	Female	9
31	Catriona O Sullivan	14h 20m 12s	Female	10
32	Jim McNeice	14h 25m 10s	Male	22
33	Patricia Hannon	14h 25m 11s	Female	11
34	Ted Moynihan	14h 32m 05s	Male	23
35	Tom O Sullivan	14h 32m 17s	Male	24
36	Martin Lilley	14h 34m 43s	Male	25
37	David Quirke	14h 41m 11s	Male	26
38	Gretta Quirke	14h 41m 12s	Female	12
39	Conor Cusack	14h 47m 15s	Male	27
40	Andrew Holder	14h 51m 01s	Male	28
41	Randall Wharton	14h 59m 52s	Male	29
42	Ann O Shea	14h 59m 55s	Female	13
43	Gerry Forde	15h 23m 21s	Male	43
DNF	Alan Murphy		Male