MID-WEEK PLAYTIME

09 June, 2018 - S.M. Griffith

MID-WEEK PLAYTIME
Wednesday nights in Summer- a playground for adults with a hillrunning issue, there is nothing else I would rather be doing. Finally, I get to run my first one of the season. Pre-race consists of meandering through the ‘car park’ and being unable to walk 20 metres without seeing a smiley face smiling at you, wanting to know how you’re doing and/or wanting to talk about the inevitable torture ahead. Thrilled by the sun setting over the mountain up above, a thud of doubt reverberates throughout my stomach, wondering what is ahead. I squint into the distance and berate myself for forgetting my visor, to which I have recently become enamoured. I see Niamh with hers, and the kit junkie in me sighs at my own folly.

Greeted by a long lost (to me) Orla, I attempt a ‘warm up’ with her and Brona and first-timer Aisha (welcome Aisha). I am panting more than the rest of them during the warm up and I begin to think I should have found another way of commuting today other than cycling.

At the start-line a short while later, like cattle in a pen, we wait to be let out. Where I am situated, we can’t hear anything Jason is saying, but we know there is a car behind us, trying to get past us, and there is also some kind of a warning about ticks. All of this adds to the feeling of joyous unease that is building up in my stomach. Beleaguered by injuries over the last couple of years, I am determined not to go out ‘hell for leather,’ as per my usual non-strategic reaction to nearly every race start I have ever been at, but I do actually manage to pace myself up the fire road. I see the fast girls up ahead, and I decide to let them go. I don’t even know who the top few of them are anymore, but I know they have been doing well. Like a herd of buffaloes, a weird trippy sand storm engulfs us- the kind I would imagine exists in New Mexico, or some place where cacti grow. At the junction, there is a man in a van smiling at us all. How long has he been held up by us here? And how is he smiling?? This is the kind of thing that sheep normally do to day-trippers like us in the countryside. And here he is, roles (kind of) reversed, smiling at us.

Anyway, onwards we go upwards through the forest. I knew from the earlier ‘warm-up’ that this section is narrow, so I put the foot to the floor and try to convince myself that I am strong at the uphill. This approach works a little bit. I overtake my erstwhile nemesis Fiona who had earlier taken off like a bat out of hell and had put the fear of God in me. I cannot see who else I am overtaking. On to the flat fireroad, I grimace; I know this is not my kind of section. A girl in a white t-shirt dashes past me. I have no idea who she is, but boy is she fast! On to a narrow grassy track, Ann H stops suddenly. She confirms she is ok, so onwards I go. In the corner of my eye, I see another woman to my left hunkered over in a semi-foetal position. I ask her if she is alright. She confirms she is OK too. It is at exactly this point I begin to wonder whether this might be a good time for me to stop also? I do, after all, feel kind of sick too at this point. I don't remember racing being quite as difficult of this. I remind myself it could be a while before I get out racing again, and I shush away these thoughts that are creeping in.

Back on to the rocky trail before the final ascent to the summit, some tall fella overtakes me. I don’t blame him; ascents are not my strong point. I think there is someone taking a photo, guiding us upwards off the path on to the boggy trail up to the summit, but I can’t be sure, because I don’t actually have full range of vision anymore on account of a mixture of sweat, suntan lotion, sun, and delirium from over-exertion. Underfoot, the bog is bouncy, like a mattress, and particles of bog are being thrown up like dust. I have never seen conditions as dry as this. ‘Slow and steady,’ I tell myself, but nothing about this feels steady. Only slow. Two more girls overtake me. The girl in the white dashes past me again (I don’t remember passing her) and there is another girl who is giving me a good run for my money, and she has someone shouting encouragement at her from up ahead in the race, but on the descent, I manage to catch my breath again, and every cell in my body is humming as I let myself go down that mountain. One foot in front of the other. I cannot think about anything else, and I feel like I am six again. The tall fella is still ahead of me. At times, I want to overtake him, and I think I will but then I decide to hold back, as there isn’t really any point. I am not racing him, after all, and I want to keep something in the can for the undoubted sting-in-the-tail that is up the way. But there is the girl in white again. Darn it, I need to speed up.

On the fairy-like descent through the magical mystery forest, I find myself right behind her. She nobly lets me pass. But as soon as we hit the fireroad, she leaves me for dust (literally) and duly whoops my glutes on the uphills. But wait, there is Orla! How can I be anywhere near Orla?? She left me for dust earlier. I decide that even if I had any more fight in me to try to pass her, I don’t think I would want to use it on Orla, which is just as well, because I have no more fight in me, so I don’t actually have to test that theory. Instead, I decide to just hold my place and hope that no other women pass me.

At the end, I nearly keel over with the effort. Orla graciously gives me a high five, and I beeline for the Scouts who credit me a chocolate oat bar thingy and orange squash. Clearly, they recognise in me the early warning signs of an indubitable collapse. I melt on to the grass below and devour my treats. Others join me and instantly, we begin to relive the route. So much for taking it handy. But what a journey!! Euphoric, I don’t know whether I will ever sleep again. Smiley red faces all around. I cannot wait for the next instalment. Thanks Jason & Co.

Warren Swords

07 June, 2018

Another hot and sunny Wednesday.

You can begin to tell the Wednesday night regulars by their tans.

Was delighted to see Barry Murray on the start line.

I’ve had some good battles with Barry but last season he left me for dust. Feeling fitter this year, I was looking forward to racing him and seeing where I was at.

After a fast start on the fireroad, I was surprised to see Barry pushing it from the start. This is going to hurt.

Onto the single track through the forest, the pace was still pretty furious when Mikey came past me. As did John Bell.

Dug deep to follow in the footsteps of Mikey to make sure the imaginary elastic band didn’t snap.

Recovered slightly on the fireroad before another hard effort through the forest. Gavin Byrne came by at this stage, obviously feeling great ahead of Wicklow Way race on Saturday, and pushed on.

Legs felt better on the climb by the fence, the gradient not as severe, and was running close behind Mike and John. Onto the final climb to the summit and I was cursing Mikey as he ran all the way up it, forcing me to do the same.

Reaching the cairn, I was surprised to see we were just behind a group of 5 runners. Game on, or so I thought.

Pushed off the summit and passed Mikey with Barry still in sight. Terrain was tricky to negotiate on tired legs but I was slowly beginning to reel in the runners ahead.

On the narrow trail, the gap closed quickly but only to widen again when we hit any sort of flat or incline. On the fireroads, my legs were like jelly. A glance at my watch revealed we still had 2km to go.

Gavin Byrne came into view. Barry went by him and I attempt to do the same, only to find the legs turning to jelly once again.

Another fireroad saw Gavin increase the gap but with a final surge of energy on the last drag, I managed to get by him. (In reality I suspect he was saving the legs.)

Finished a few seconds behind Barry, so was delighted with that. John Bell had a great run, pushing on the last climb and flying down to finish.

Strava shows Christian McKenna had the fastest overall descent. To add insult to injury, he captions his race as "kicking off the track season." Ah here, track runners are not supposed to descend like that.

Well done to Jason and all the volunteers. Great course and well thought out.

Eastsider Reunion

07 June, 2018 - Barry Murray

Well I'm now heading back west after a flying visit to the eastside. A work trip in the big smoke conincided nicely with one of my favorite times of the week... The Wednesday night mini running festival.

And what an evening it was.... sun splitting the rocks, a dry grassy field for registration and a big crowd for what was a newbie to the Leinster League circuit. Sort of new. I had been missing the Wed night bashes with living out far west and being even too far away from MMRA summer league races. So it was great to be back in the game and great to catch up again with all the gang.

Dreading a M50 crawl southbound, I got picked up early by Torben and we hit the road. But thankfully, we didn't get held up and cruised out to arrive over an hour early ! We weren't the only eager beavers as already there was about 50 cars.. and some setting it was, overlooking the sugar load and the sea. Great thing about the IMRA is how close a community it is. Torben sorted me out with a lift, Gav-Scott Byrne sorted me with a punch on his race voucher and Andrew Hanney sorted me with a bandana.. nice one lads ;-) Had time to relive the Carraountoohil experience with Alan Ayling and I think we both knew that the legs wouldn't be feeling too fresh this evening. A good few other Carrauntoohil heads around too... with Brian, Diarmuid and Bernard .... I was hoping they weren't feeling too fresh either !

After a bit of a warm up and some strides, I realised this was going to be a sweat fest. But still, I'll never get sick of the sun ! Shuffled my way to the front line and it was good (sort of) to see plenty of friendly competition. I was hoping John Bell would get stuck in traffic, but no joy, there he was ready to go... no stress as always. Warren Swords was looking eager and finding his form again. Mikey was fully loaded with beetroot juice and still trying to get the taste out of his mouth ! Even had our national ultra legend Eoin Keith was lining up with his race number 50 on. It had been a long time since we both raced together and with his new age group, he was back for more glory ;-) Then there was the slight fast looking guys... Killian and Christian.... who the rest of us knew would be floating around the course.

Anyway, after about 2hrs, Jason finally got the race underway ;-) He's definitely a man of details, fair play, as it shows your meticulous with the planning.

One of the weirdest things happened as we shot off. After about 20metres, we see a car driving down towards us on the narrow trail. It immediately starts reversing ! Dairmuid Collins is out front, with the rest of us just behind.... the car manages to reverse back up the hill.... and we all then manage to veer off right around him. Definitely a first for an IMRA race I think.

Off on the first fire trail and I wanted to go out hard. I knew there was a single track up through the forest and I also just wanted to be close to the front. I think where you place yourself early in a race can sometimes dictate how the rest of the race goes for you. Diarmuid was still out front, with Neilus just behind, who was only doing his 2nd IMRA race of the season. The fast young lads were just waiting to jet off. Myself and Brian Furey exchanged places .. and he just got ahead of me before the forest climb. So I knew I had the lads, John , Warren and Mikey hot on my tails. Legs were feeling a bit tender on the first climb but I kept up with Brian and we passed Neilus at the first fire road junction. Thought Brian might have tired legs from Carrauntoohil but he moved off fast and I never saw him again until the finish. Gavin Scott Byrne slipped by me and somehow had good speed in his legs with 127km to cover on Saturday !

Biggest climb of the day was up to Prince Willies seat... a long steady climb that was runable but fatiguing. The foreign name bloke went by me here, Marcin I think. It was a hot steady climb and I was just digging in to keep the pace. Could still see Diarmuid, with Gav also just ahead. Next minute, the Bell trots by me and we all want to know what he's smokin ;-) I tucked in behind him and tried to not let him get away. At the summit, he was just a few metres ahead, with Diarmuid, Gav and Marcin just a few metres ahead also.

On the descent, the legs where feeling a bit sore. Fast enough descent with lots of jumping over rocks. I was trying to pull back the lads but we seemed to be all running the same speed. Back on a bit of fireroad section and I started closing in on Gav. Back down then through the tree's again and I could hear breathing behind me. Was thinking it must have been Warren as I know he is particularly good at fast descending. The forest trail was fun, lots of ducking under tree's and fast twists and turns.

Back out onto the last fire trail road and I know these sections can suit me more than some others. Just seem to have that extra gear on very runnable sections. Had Diarmuid, John and Marcin just ahead of me and closing in on them ever so slightly. No breathing behind me so knew I had gotten ahead of Gav and Warren. Back down the hill to the finish behind the 3 lads, Diarmuid, John and Marcin. Fairly flat out and hot... what a great race. Mikey was a bit further back with Bernard , blaming the beetroot ;-)

Flap jacks from the scouts and a couple of pints after with a big crowd back in Enniskerry. Like I said, these Wed nights are like mini running festivals. And IMRA knows how to host them without much fuss and with little cost to the runners.

Well done RD Jason and helpers. Might see some of you out west for the Connaught Champs. And don't forget there is a little mountain called Mt Brandon to run up and down in September ;-)

Let’s do it...

07 June, 2018 - Mikey Fry

After dropping the kids off too mum in Enniskerry the usual Wednesday activity for me I had plenty of time to get lost:)
Me being me I just presumed the race start was the same as when it was back in the day .....and was I wrong driving past the Christmas trees in the field where we had parked back then I continued up and make decision that it wasn’t there did a lovely u turn and headed back down bottom of road and took out the phone...a got a little beep from behind so I moved out of the way it was actually Chris and together we found reg not to far around the mountain....
Walking up to reg yotu couldn’t not hear viv giving out some sound advice and mike confusing me:)
Lots of chats and warmed up with some of the lads we missed the turn at the gate since we were chatting like old grannies but met up with Warren and Brian would brought us back the right way thankfully we didn’t send the early starters the wrong way.....
Sorry waffle waffle ....so Jason takes us through lengthy race route and we’re off up the fire road as we hit the first bend we meet a car who decided to reverse back leaving us in a cloud of dust ..at this stage the two young lads where nowhere to be seen Christian and killian speedster ...Barry and Brian having a early duel was quiet funny to watch(Barry super old man who now runs Munster league since relocating to dingle was in good race form even after hitting highest mountain in Ireland Saturday as were a few of the lads)anyway turning right at the gate we hit a nice forest section up hill nice bouncy ground a little bit of place changing so John nips by on one of the upy bits Barry still ahead with Gavin Deirmid Brian etc ahead warren behind me also passed neilus at some stage welcome back I think he went off a little to fast..we troop on up the nice forest sections across fire roads eventually heading up towards the summit around the lovely mound of rocks and a really nice bouncy decent could have steeper :) Warren nips by me and I was thinking let him go 2k of fire road at the end :(need to have a wee bit in the tank .... before we headed backwards into the forest section Bernard passed me around here some where and I kept up with him there was some really nice running parts through the forest as we crossed over fire roads and back in and out then we lost the tape and had to have a wee look around hit another fire and back on track now it was the gruelling fire roads to the finish keep bernad in my sights but was happy to leave him off a bit noticed someone coming a bit back and told myself not again Gramham who has nip passed me at the end of the last too races so I lashed on to the finish line wrecked bur happy to be there ....lots of chats with all lads and ladies some amazing flap jacks and beetroot chats with Tanya a bit of a nudie bum showing no names told:))(thanks for not telling your pee turns bloody thought I was dying when I got home:) and down to the pub for some more fun chats tea chocolate .....
Thanks again to Jason and the crew...
Well done:)

Mikey