Our full marathon course is the main event of the day: 42.2 km with 809m up hill and 795 m downhill.
View full route details on Plotaroute (GPX download available)
View route (and segments) on Strava
Course layout
The Glendalough Lap of the Gap Marathon consist of a large diamond-shaped looped (the literal ‘Lap of the Gap’) with a total of 4 km of ‘tail’ leading in and out of it.
The race begins at the side of the Lower Lake in Glendalough before covering roughly lightly undulating kilometers to the village of Laragh (where the finish line is located). It is here you begin the roughly 38 km of the ‘diamond’ climbing first to the upland pass of Sally Gap at ~500m (the titular gap!) which you reach just after 22 km. From here your journey back to the finish line in Laragh begins via the scenic Lough Tay (Guinness Lake).
The route takes you from green rural roads up to dramatic open mountain roads among dark heather and back again. As you re-enter the village of Laragh you have less than 1 km to the finish.
Course profile
The Lap of the Gap Marathon is run 100% on tarred roads primarily in the Wicklow Mountains National Park. Roughly 19.9 km are uphill, 5 km flat, and 17 km downhill.
The majority of the ascent happens during the first 22 km making the last 19 km quite fast and furious!
If that sounds hard, just consider that the average gradient of the first 22 km is still only 1.7%, so there is plenty of relief in between the steeper sections.
Hills
Your main adversary in Lap of the Gap is not the clock like in regular road marathons: it is the hills and we have several ‘famous’ hills. Here are some of them:
Officialy known as the ‘R115 climb’ we named this uphill after the grassy triangle with the eponymous coffee shop ‘the Glendalough Green’ climb takes you out of Laragh village and onto the ‘Military Road’ towards Sally Gap.
The Military Road begins with an aggressive kilometer at over 5% gradient before flattening out for a while as you head to the ….
The Glenmacnass Grind
1.7 km with 3.6% but most of the middle section climbs near 6.6% this is the longest continuous climb of the route but also the most rewarding as you take in Glenmacnass Waterfall in all it’s glory.
‘Hill 16’.
This little kicker of 260m at a punishing 7.6% happens just around mile 16 (26 km). It’s shortness is misleading – after a brief downhill, your climbs continues for another 800m as part of the R769 climb.
Oldbridge Bank
850m at 9.6% but it feels coming at km 35! This nasty little critter also features the highest gradient on the route hitting 14.4% in the middle of the climb.
Mulberry Gate Bank
The last significant hill (600m in length) takes you past the final Water Station at the entrance to our Race Director’s house (!). As you pass here you will notice the Wicklow Way walking route turning right up the mountain (don’t go up there!).
School Lane
You can nearly smell the finish line by the time you see McCoy’s Petrol Station but between you and the final downhill stands this short 300m with 8.5%.
Once you cross this, you have only 200m to the finish!
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