Peter O'Farrell

12 March, 2019

This new route on Maulin was really excellent, the happy happy joy joys last a long time after this one. Steep climbs, fast downhills, good racing and loads of nice folk to chat to before and after.
Weather conditions on the day were good for running, albeit windy. Kudos to the hard working volunteers at registration with many moving parts coming together flawlessly, the chip timing working well and Diarmuid O'Colmain setting up an impressively well stocked mini hospital for the cuts and grazes. A special mention for Laura Flynn, on summit duty on top of a very windy Maulin.
We had arrived early with the usual tag team logistics in place, I drove down with the boys, Orla ran down the WW, she arrived in need of food and water and maybe a break and instead was given two children as I went off for a warm-up. That didn't last too long and soon enough we got the instructions and were off up the fireroad to the steep singletrack climb.
I was expecting Robbie Bryson to come past on the very steep first kilometre path, as he has climbed like no one else in Leinster (or Snowdon as it happens) but it was Ciaran Aylward who set the early pace in the race to keep sight of Killian Mooney. Killian was in a different class to the rest of us and we could only hope that he was running so fast he missed a turn. The perfectly marked course wasn't too helpful in that regard and sure enough he was a small dot on the path to the summit as he turned into the climb there. I had thought it was windy on the way up Maulin but once over the top the true force of the wind became apparent. Once again, fair play to Laura.
With Killian at the head of affairs I idly worked out what mini battles I had available to me.
IMRA is super fun as a young lad but once you get a bit older (39 to be specific) it's like a kiddie race, there's even more prizes to go for.
Should you find that overall top 3 is getting to be a problem you can console yourself with first unplaced old man and then if new arrivals to the old man mini-race such as Warren or regular veterans such as Mikey are too quick there's always the cherry of first Rathfarnham Green Stormtrooper and then finally the last hope - a spot prize in the pub.
The tag team logistics meant there wasn't going to be a pub!
Kate Cronin was just as good as Killian with second placed Becky a good gap back, much like myself. Still, it's early season, we can improve :)