Slievereagh: Where even the cattle are excited about hill running.

24 April, 2017 - Aidan Hogan

After a few chilly Sunday morning races during Winter/Spring it felt good to be heading down to Ballinvreena, near Kilfinnane in Co. Limerick for the first Wednesday evening run of the year.

The 7 O' clock start can make it tricky to get from work to the start line on time but there was a great turnout of almost 70 on the night. I had a handy enough spin of 40 minutes out from Limerick but one runner had driven from Mayo that afternoon and decided to break his journey home to Cork city by stopping off for an hour or 2 to run up and down Slievereagh. And sure why not? What else would ya be doing?

The registration venue in Ballinvreena was pretty unique for MMRA events - the beautifully preserved and maintained 'Davy's Cottage' made a change from race HQ being the boot of someone's car. As we all milled around the start line, Race Director Tom Blackburn arrived on the scene in a cloud of dust and promptly set up a security perimeter in the field to separate a small but curious bunch of bovine observers from the larger and curioser looking herd of hill runners.

Without much further ado, we all climbed the gate into the field and Tom called the assembled masses to attention for the pre-race briefing. He described the course and made mention of route arrows which he could confirm were in position the previous evening at least. When a runner queried where the finish line would be located, there were some sniggers from the group, which the race director quickly silenced, noting that a valid question had indeed been asked. Tom explained that there were numerous possible locations for the finish line and reassured all that the precise location would be determined as soon as possible, and certainly no later than the end of the race. Factors influencing the location of the finish line included, but were not limited to, how 'excited' the cattle might become during the race.

And then we were off! Up through a field and then over a few stiles and steps before entering a short section where we weaved between the trees to emerge on the fire road above. This first 0.5km was steep enough and the traffic was heavy, with a few queues forming at the stiles. Then we were on to open road for a while and we settled into our rhythms for the next kilometre or so of fire road.

But then the fire road ended and we had a nice steep section of boggy single track up the highest point - trig pillar and mast at summit of Slievereagh. There was a good bit of moving and shaking on this section and I think I picked off one or two strugglers and got passed myself also as I faded near the top.

Back on to fire road then for the next 5k which was mostly downhill. Another unique feature if the route was the section which runs alongside the shooting range. Although thankfully I hadn't experienced it before, it seems there's nothing quite like the sound of gunfire to encourage a slightly faster pace!

I was going fairly well along the fire road and picked off 1 or 2 more (including 2 purple Mooreabbey Milers running together) a little while before we crossed the stile back into the trees for the final 0.5km. Of course, I'm not the best on the steeper downhill bits so I was easily overtaken by one of the Mooreabbey Milers I had just passed as he came haring helter skelter towards the finish line. Now that I think of it, in my efforts to stay upright, I didn't actually notice whether the cattle were excited or not. They certainly weren't cheering and clapping wildly as we crossed the line - even with my exhaustion, I think I might have noticed that!

Back into Davy's then where tea and biscuits were dished out and we all had a bit of a natter in the fading light.

Great success for the first running of this particular event and a really enjoyable route too. Thanks to Tom and his team of volunteers who did a great job on the night.