Peter O'Farrell

25 June, 2012

1 1464 Aengus Burke 44.49
2 1539 PJ Carroll 47.19
3 1537 Roibeard Miller 47.35
4 1533 Martin McDonald 48.03
5 1536 Jody O'Reilly 48.20
6 812 Gerry Lalor 48.33
7 1535 James Hamm 49.08
8 1556 John Kirwan 52.11
9 1476 Pat Quill 53.04
10 170 John Roche 54.56
11 1544 Aidan McManus 55.07
12 1557 Eoin O'Brien 56.25
13 1555 Ciaran Elster 57.20
14 1540 Alo Maher 57.40
15 1553 Peter Mahon 58.49
16 1554 Billy O'Neill 61.14
17 1552 Tony Finlay 61.40
18 1538 Ronan Costello 62.06
19 1558 Michael O'Keeffe 62.16
20 1534 Mark Breen 63.32
21 1541 Jean McEvoy 63.51
22 1532 Trevor Fennell 64.21
23 171 Derek Charles 64.13
24 1550 John O'Rourke 69.45
25 1542 Catherine McDonald 74.56
26 1543 Lorraine Gee 82.38
27 1547 Mark Hodge 84.47
28 1549 Dawn Young 90.39
29 1551 Eugene McDonough 90.49
30 1545 Marie Conroy 90.55
31 1548 Linda Gorman 91.04
32 1546 Caroline Gorman 91.05


Thanks to all who came and made the race a success, especially the BallyroanAbbeyleix AC team, the Club Vitae team and last but not least the shocktroops from dublin - Gerry, Derek and John! Many thanks to Coillte's Richard Jack for many helpful phonecalls and contacts with the other local private landowners on the course route. The IMRA committee very kindly agreed to let the race be part of the IMRA calendar and hopefully we'll host a championship race here next year heading up onto the Ridge. Glanbia provided Whey Protein prizes and protein bars for all the runners. Orla's Dad John had orange juice for everyone but a minor mix-up meant all the bottles of juice stayed in the field after I moved the finish line to beyond the crossroads.
The Civil Defence lads were quite simply at a whole other level. They had three vehicles and 10 people out on the course counting all the runners through various checkpoints and keeping me informed via walkie-talkie of where everybody was at all times. Never having actually seen military precision this was as close as I'm likely to get. The civil defence were ably abetted by Owen Conroy and his Clonaslee volunteers on the course.

The sun shone, the mud was muckier than the muckiest mud on mucky day, the bouncy Castles kept LilyRose happy and Louisa mildly concerned, we guessed the weight of the pig (18kg), Orla wouldn't be persuaded to go for the Queen of the mountain and on the mountain Aengus Burke ran a very very impressive time to win the inaugural Glenbarrow Festival of the Mountain hillrun. Jean McEvoy won the ladies with a smile. The Club Vitae regulars did very well in what may have been a shock to anyone expecting a pleasant run on trails and that well known connoisseur of the far side of hillrunning events Gerry Lalor pronounced himself pleased, the last time he made such an announcement was at Tonleegee and and the Lake so I'm happy enough.
After Senator Norris eventually got the race going and the assembled runners passed the battery of official photographers (and the glamourous granny competition) they headed up a road and into the trail beside the Glenbarrow and on up onto the lost village of Coon where hardy souls lived a life till recently. Briefly leaving the forestry they bounced along the brilliant new boardwalk section of the Ridge of Capard with views of seven counties before a muddy descent back through more private forest and down again to the field. 11km of mixed terrain fun.