BALLYHOURA TRAIL MARATHON 29th April, 2017

03 May, 2017 - Niamh Abeyta

Race day at last! I crawled out of bed at 4:45am muttering soft curses to myself all the way down the stairs. Signing up for the Ballyhoura Trail Marathon had seemed such a good idea at the time... but at 5am in the morning, it didn't seem too bright!

I ate a small breakfast before making two cups of strong coffee, one for me, and one for Kirstie, who was picking me up at 5:30am. We packed up the car, and we were off to Kilfinane and the start line of the Ballyhoura Marathon. En-route, we witnessed a spectacular sunrise (the only good thing about getting up so early).

We arrived with lots of time to spare. We signed in, got our kit checked and then met our other good friends Brian and Julie. They had travelled up the night before in their camper van. We've trained a lot together over the last number of months on our local hill trails in the wonderful Glanageenty in Kerry (home to John Lenihan, the legendary mountain runner).

The nerves were starting to kick in for all of us, but we chatted and jigged about until it was time for the off. Brian, Kirstie and myself thought we'd stick together for the whole marathon, while Julie was quite happy to go at her own pace. Julie is a super runner and a very determined lady, this was to be her 101st marathon! Brian had run this marathon last year, so he knew what to expect. Kirstie and I were newbies to this mountain marathon lark, so we stuck to him like glue.

We ran on the road for the first mile, then we headed off up a steep(ish) forest trail. It was all uphill for about 2.5 miles, but after that, there was some lovely downhill running, which we thoroughly enjoyed. The terrain was nicely mixed between fire-road, forest trail, and open hill trail, so it was never boring.

We kept the pressure on to keep moving, as we needed to make the 3 hour cut-off point at Ballyorgan (half-way). No time for photos! So we chatted, joked, (and sang) our way around, red arrows and marking tape guiding us. We arrived at the half-way point with 6 minutes to spare! I really enjoyed the first half, including that monster climb up Seefin Mountain. It's the mountain that never ends (or so we thought). Brian was staying very quite when we pestered him on what was to come.

After Ballyorgan, we had some nice flat running on a little trail beside a lovely stream. Lots of stiles to clamber over, and we joked amongst ourselves that they were thrown in 'cause there were no hills! We then started up the next big climb. The scenery and panoramic views were stunning, and made all that hard work a little bit easier. There was some beautiful forest trail running, and the light shining amongst the trees was amazing. We made it to the village of Glenroe, where Brian and I broke into the theme tune for the long-running soap opera of the same name. Kirstie was looking at us like we were crazy (she's English/Scottish).

After Glenroe, we turned off the road, and it was immediately up up up! We could see brightly coloured dots moving slowly on the mountain above us. We put the heads down, and drove on (well crawled onwards), and we kept going 'til we got to the very top. After a few photos, we carried on, and I really enjoyed the downhill running here. We were all feeling very tired at this point, but we had about 2 miles to go, and it was (mostly) down hill. We arrived out of the woods, and back onto the road, and we started increasing the pace, 'til we saw the houses of Kilfinane. We pushed the pace further and further, and we turned in for the final heave. We sprinted for the line, and we crossed together.

We picked up our mugs, went inside for some food, hot tea, and post race analysis. Julie wasn't far behind us, and we cheered her over the line (from the balcony, as we couldn't negotiate the stairs again). It was a great day out. The race was well marked out, the aid stations were well stocked, and the volunteers were brilliant. Loved every bit of it.