Instead of the Leinster League, we should have the Brockagh League?

03 July, 2016 - Brian O Murchu

I had never been on Brockagh before until January this year, then a second time at Brockagh Burst. The descent in that race seemed a little kinder to my ability (or lack of descending ability).

On the winter version of Brockagh, I started off at a comfortable pace letting the first kilometre speedsters go on ahead. Although early on I was quite far back off my usual position, I felt quite strong up the hill and got back into the top 20.

This time round in the summer version, my intention was to stay at a comfortable pace. At the start Des went ahead and there was one other runner between Des and the main group. Graham Bushe was the first to speed by and up the pace but the group stayed intact. Then Laura Shaughnessy sped by, but this time no one stayed with her, and she very quickly caught up with Colm Moran ahead. I wasn't going to follow that pace as I was staying in the comfortable zone.

Rory Campbell and Mikey Fry both took turns injecting some pace, and the lead group got smaller. In spite of trying not to respond to this increase in pace, I found myself speeding up to stay with them each time. I was already pushing hard and out of my comfort zone. There was a slight downhill at one point, and I lost contact with the group....damn those rocky downhills! When I caught up again, Pat Foley had drifted ahead, and the group was now 4 -Rory, Mikey, Paul Keville & myself. We were running together for quite a bit, and as we went around a hairpin bend, I found myself coming out of the corner quicker than the others. For a second I hesitated thinking to wait for the group, but with Pat Foley just ahead, I kept my momentum going to bridge the gap to him.

Myself and Pat ran together for a bit. Laura was ahead in 2nd, and Colm in 3rd. I started yo-yoing off Pat, which seemed strange as I considered myself a consistent paced runner. Pat and myself did catch Colm, and the track was quite narrow so we stayed in single file. When we got to the heather, I assumed that the summit was near. But every time I looked up, the summit seemed to get further away. At one point Pat was walking, and I was running, but the gap between us stayed the same. I lost contact with Pat and Colm as they went ahead, and as I was passing an early starter I heard some heavy breathing. I thought it was from the early starter but the noise got louder. I looked back, and to my surprise there was Bernard Fortune. I had thought earlier on in the race I had a big enough of a gap on him that he couldn't catch me. And looking back at some of the race photos, he was further behind than I thought. But he still caught up, and then bridged across to Pat Foley before the summit as well. It's incredible how Bernard does that!

Once to the summit, I had really pushed hard on the way up, now the question was could I stay ahead of those behind me? Onto the descent I found it was very runnable and I was slowly catching Laura. After a while I glanced behind me and I spotted the green tshirt of Mikey Fry. Every time I looked back, the green tshirt was a little closer. On the last grassy section I knew if I could get to the gate ahead of Mikey I would be safe. I got to the gate without being passed, although it was close. Once onto the fireroad I passed Laura and got a gap. When the fireroad flattened out, Laura started catching me. There was still a long way to the finish and I was at my maximum. Without looking back I could hear the footsteps getting closer. Around the last corner, Laura had enough momentum to go straight past me. But as the run-in to the finish changed from flat to downhill, I was able to sped up and just finish ahead in 5th position.

Once over the finish line, the midges were out in force. While it's nice to hang around and chat, I reached my midges tolerance limit very quickly. The next few days looked like I had the chicken pox as a result:O