Wicklow Glacier Lakes:

10 April, 2016 - Graham K. Bushe

Well what can I say? Another new event for me to add to my ever-growing list. And Oh, what an event! A challenge that lets one explore their way for hours around open mountains finding lakes, jumping rivers, exhausting climbs, peaks to cross or contour around, steep descents, trail sections, peat hags, boulder fields... the list goes on. What more could I ask for?
As a first timer, I’m not going to go into a lengthy description of which route I took through the various sections. For a couple of reasons; I can’t really remember and I don’t know enough about alternate paths. I’m sure that over the coming days I will dissect my TomTom download in a bid to work out where I was and where I should have been. In short, I am happy with one or two of the choices I made but many could be improved. I say this while trying to forget the drastic mistake made when I turned right as I joined the Wicklow Way just after the start of leg 4. I had travelled over a kilometre before that nagging feeling that something was wrong took hold, and I turned back and went the right way!
What I will say is that I really enjoyed it. I sank to half way up my thighs between the peat hags approaching Lough Firrib, I did a spectacular belly flop into the Avonbeg River, I nearly lost my leg in a hole beside a boulder coming down from Kelly’s Lough, I almost went head over heels on the zig-zags, many times I thought I couldn’t go on only to get another surge to push on again, I chatted to fellow runners, I stuffed my face with jellies at checkpoint 3, I finished! Job done!
Can someone please explain this? The couple of times I have run a road marathon, it ended up with me saying never again. But today and indeed last September at the Stone Cross to Lug I finished saying I want to try a different route the next time!!
And now I sit comfortably in my armchair, well comfortable as long as I don’t move... and at some point I’m going to Have to Move.
A huge thank you to Rachel and all the volunteers for yet another great event. Now I can understand why there is so much talk about this one.