An FRG variation

07 June, 2015 - Mick Hanney

It was a busy day in Wicklow with the Wicklow 200 spinning through Glenmalure in the morning and early afternoon. The weather was great today - sunny, clear and with only a mild breeze. The top of Lugnaquilla was clearly visible on the way over from Aughavannagh so a good day in the hills beckoned, hopefully. Baravore car park was pretty full from early on with walkers taking advantage of the good weather. Registration took place just over the ford, happily passable and dry today. Dermot & crew as usual ran a smooth and efficient operation. Between early starters and normal-time starters there were about 38 runners. The main field set off at 12 on the dot and very quickly we were into the zig-zag path behind the ruined house, this part nicely marked with marking tape. Gorse was thick but we all forced our way through to the higher fire-road into the Glen. Bernard past me on his usual slow start, fast finish strategy. For the fire-road section I ran alongside Brian O’Meara before gaining slowly on Gareth Little as we approached the steep section near the waterfall. Reduced to a walking climb at this point. The single track here wasn’t as boggy as previous years. The going was slow but we still narrowed a gap on Brian McGuckian ahead of Gareth. Soon enough him and Gareth were walk-running together with me seconds behind. At this stage the guys, and the majority of the race field veered left to follow the most direct line along the glen to the summit. Having studied the map in advance I opted to gamble for a longer line which took me along a pretty runnable track which veered right and then straight towards ridge which runs from Lug towards Table track. Having taken the direct line in previous Fraughen Rock races I reckoned it was time to try something different but I’d no idea whether it would work out or not. As my watch beeped for 5k distance ran I was wondering if I made the right decision, as 5k would usually be the turning point in this race and I was still a bit to go to the top. However, I was running not walking or having the climb with my hands, so the journey to the top didn’t take too long and I could see runners emerging from the ‘usual’ approach to the cairn and lo and behold could see Gareth and Brian who had taken the direct line, arriving at the cairn at the same time as me give or take. So far so good on the gamble front. Tip the cairn and the descent begins, but which way? Ignoring the direction everyone else was heading in I ran back the way I came, figuring the running would be good this way. I made a bit of an error at this stage in cutting right towards Fraughen Rock Glen too soon and this brought me onto rocky ground. Realistically I should have fully committed to my route of choice, which would have brought me on an entirely runnable path. Nevertheless the rocky bit didn’t last too long and I could see the track down Fraughen Rock glen lined up ahead of me for me to run and it was pretty decent running and the ground conditions were good too. Approaching the waterfall Brian O’Meara overtook me with good downhill skills, but I regained ground on Brian once we hit the fire-road which followed. A quick look around revealed the tell-tale Crusaders vest of Brian McGuckian not too far behind and I know that Brian is faster than me on decent ground. I upped the effort levels but so too did Brian O’Meara and he hit the zig zag track near the end just before me and was able to keep a gap until the finish. My finish time was my quickest on FRG. A lot of that is due to the weather but it should pose the question as to whether the longer route is a route for more to try in the future. Time will tell. It is certainly worth a gamble ;-) Was nice to swap race tales at the end with the feet dipped in the Baravore river. And the pint back at the Glenmalure lodge went down very well with Brian McGuckian and Michael Maughan for post-race banter. A big thank you to Dermot and his volunteer crew for helping and making this race a nice occasion for the rest of us. Congrats to Bernard and Becky for respective wins on a beautiful sunny day in Wicklow.