Unknown

28 November, 2009

Goal Flash 25/04/2001
Report by Joe Lalor
A rather unique hill race took place on Wednesday night the 25th April 2001, one with zero metres of climb.
This unusual state of affairs was brought about by the current Irish F&M precautionary restrictions which forced a change of venue from the slopes of Three Rock to the flat sands of Dollymount for the annual fund raiser in aid of third world charity GOAL. Approaching the start time of 7.30pm, the signs were not good. Andorra were leading Ireland one nil in the football World Cup qualifier up the road, while above the heavens opened and drenched the assembled "hill runners" at the exposed start of the Causeway Road. Among the starting 49 runners were several northside friends who were taking advantage of our enforced exile to remake old acquaintances, while their southside colleagues now knew what all the fuss about Wednesday night Dublin traffic was all about. The route was advertised as 7.0 Km, but adjusted before the race as a result of a committee member with a car and time on this hands who clocked it with his tripometer as 5.8 Km. However, the barrier on the beach at the start of his trip and the one at the end were not the same barrier: there was 1.2 km of sand in between!!!
With much improved weather the runners took off with the warning of the Chairman ringing in their ears, "I don’t care who you are, there's to be no passing on the bridge, it's too dangerous". As it happened, there was very little passing anywhere. The flat course seeded the runners quite quickly and, to a great extent, there they stayed until the end. There were many fine performances, as can be seen in the results, showing little sign of early season sluggishness or foot and mouth fatigue. However, one point of note in the results was that many runners failed to stay in their normal place in the pecking order. Why was this?, did the absence of a climb or a decent descent tempt them above their station or is there secret training afoot --- time will tell.