The Galty Three

26 June, 2019 - Emily Glen

Like all good race reports, this one of our epic adventure on the Galty Crossing starts with a fun fact. About Donkeys. Donkeys are herd animals, they get lonely if they don’t have their pals with them. Their reputation for stubbornness is actually born from a “highly developed sense of self perseverance”. And they don’t love the rain.

So, we started our Galty Crossing with a detour into The Apple Farm for punnets of strawberries. Emily hopped out of the car and saw two donkeys in a pen, and almost in reply to her “OMG DONKEYS!” one of them replied with a most guttural and heartfelt bray. It was hilarious at the time, but on reflection, an omen for the crossing ahead of us.

Fast forward a few hours, our group of 9 Leinster IMRA runners were happily settled in front of a fire in The Sallows Ecohostel. Rechecking the route, laminating maps (yes, we brought a laminator!) and discussing the lessons learned from the recce completed a couple of weeks ago, which we had managed to complete in a record breaking 9 and a half hours….. Now, Emily actually missed the recce. And is not a super navigator, more used to trails than open mountain, but nevertheless, she jotted down the mandatory checkpoints, loaded viewranger and decided that the best plan of action was just to stay with the herd. That description overstates her navigation skills, which should really be summed up by telling you that she bought her first compass especially to meet the mandatory kit requirements of the Galty Crossings. Others in the group were much more prepared… Alice was noting down the bearings of each checkpoint, laminating each section in turn and trying to describe the terrain and debate route choices to anyone who would listen, mostly to herself. Linda’s kit was exemplary, everything in a waterproof bag or pouch and loaded carefully into a pack with its own waterproof cover. Weather during the recce ranged from sun hot enough to burn and hail stones large enough to bruise, so with these lessons learned, we packed and repacked layers of waterproofs and vest tops. Meanwhile the lads had gone to find out if the local pub really did serve "The Perfect Pint".

The morning of the Galty Crossing dawned slowly with grey, dark clouds hanging low in the sky and the first drops of rain falling quietly but insistently… Check-in completed and we loaded on busses to the start at Angelsborough. After the Race Director gave us his last words of wisdom, we set off up Paradise Hill (which on reflection is not the most apt name for a mucky climb upwet, sodden ground after our unusually rainy June). We could see the larger Temple Hill looming behind it, hidden in cloud reminiscent of a Jack and the Beanstalk Fairytale. As we rounded Paradise Hill, you could already see the neon clad shapes of runners disappear up Temple Hill into the weather that were deemed so unpleasant that the Ironman Youghal swim had been called off just miles from where we climbed. With every step we took up Temple Hill the cloud grew thicker, the rain grew heavier and the wind grew stronger. The wind pummelled our heads, the rain slowly soaked us through and the visibility made it impossible to go any faster than a staggering plod. Even if visibility was better, peaking out from beneath our caps was impossible as rain stung our eyes. The wind was so strong that each of us were lifted off our feet once or twice, you couldn’t lift both feet off the ground at the same time so running was impossible. It was starting to become clear to us that we might not be beating our record 9.5 hour feat of crossing the Galtees. It wasn’t particularly cold but if the runner ahead strayed more than 10ft away, they were lost into the mist. At this point, Emily learned her plan of sticking with the group was flawed. The runners ahead were gone, Linda was about 50ft behind Alice, but such was the visibility - no one in the group knew this. Half way up Temple Hill, Alice and Emily stalled to see if they could make out the figure of Linda in the mist. “I’m not sure about this, Alice” shouted Emily over the wind... With a sinking feeling, we realised we had prepped ourselves for route, distance and relatively changeable weather (hailstones and 8 degrees temperature as appropriate to Irish June weather). We had not prepared ourselves for what was looking like for us would be 10+ hours in what was later described as the spin cycle of a washing machine set at cold wash. The decision to make it to the first kite was taken, to locate Linda, see if there was any possibility of changes in this weather then make a decision….we knew that Temple Hill was the only real turning point - if we went beyond it we had to commit to the route, the day and the weatherand we staggered on - trying to go upwards but mostly being blown sideways.

Finally, it levelled off and we got through the mist to the cairn and the first kite. The entrance to cairn had collapsed in on itself, but the walls still stood and we clambered inside for shelter and to make a plan for our descent. The wind at the top was stronger, and there was no let up. We knew that this was not our day to cross the Galtees, laminated maps or not!. We should have listened to that Donkey! Alice phoned the race director and Emily phoned Linda, who was meters away from the Cairn - not that anyone could tell this through the cloud we were all in. Luckily because we had over-packed, we had warmer dry gear to change into, and lunch! As we stood to leave the Cairn and descend Temple Hill, three men rounded one of the walls and instructed us all to get back inside and stay together for warmth. One of their number, Colin, had joined our recce and another was a MMRA runner who’s leg had seized on the way up the next climb. By the time they had gone through the same process we had, the original Galty Three had been sitting in the Cairn for about half an hour and were really feeling the cold. We decided we were leaving immediately and the guys were in good enough shape to make it down themselves if they decided not to follow. Thankfully they did and they followed us down the mountain with Linda leading the navigation.

Our knight in shining armour (Rachel) came to rescue us on her white horse (Linda's little VW) and she found the six of us being really well looked after by a slightly shocked local shopowner who was making us tea and feeding us scones. The whole adventure taking us up over 5 miles and lasting nearly 3 hours, just about forty minutes shy of the 2019 winner’s time! When our car got back to the carpark, we saw last years winner Tom Blackburn sitting in the back of the Race Director’s car looking decidedly dry and fresh. Had he already finished the Galty Crossing??! Turns out even the experts and speedgoats found that day incredibly hard, Tom himself had taken a wrong turn and DNF’d too. The lovely RD, Trish, welcomed us home and told us that we deserved our Tshirts for having completed the route in the recce anyway. We decamped to the hotel where we defrosted under hot showers and sat happily reading the papers, eating our dinners and welcoming in runners from the comfort of our armchairs, while texting our Leinster IMRA colleagues pictures of pints of Guinness and food to ‘comfort’ them as they negotiated the weather and terrain a few kilometers away.

This was Linda’s first DNF and the second for both Alice and Emily - and not a single moment of regret, FOMO or wonder if we could have pressed on crossed our collective minds since that day. We have huge admiration for the runners who continued on into that roaring weather and attempted and finished the crossing that day, but we knew we had met our limit… this time.

One common trait amongst runners is that overriding sense of optimism. Think about the times you’ve said “if the weather had been better; I could have made a better time. If my training block wasn’t interrupted by that thing; I would be fitter;. If I didn’t have that niggle; I would be faster.” That’s why we love IMRA...There’s always something to aim for, someone to try catch, someone to learn from and a camaraderie at all levels! There is always a reason that keeps us coming back, training for the next adventure and striving to be better, faster, stronger. We can say all of the above, and we can say that epic adventure on Temple Hill has made all three of us hungry in true Donkey stubbornness for Galty Crossing 2020.

-The Happiest DNF’ers
Alice Clancy, Linda Rowden & Emily Glen

Foggy Crossing

25 June, 2019 - John Bell

I had been thinking about this race for a few years, after running the IC Galtymore race a couple of times and talking to others who had done it. Reading through a few reports and looking at the photos it looked to me like a tough but doable route, just stretching the distance I normally do. I signed up early enough as the weekends can fill up quickly, and this they did so there was no chance of a recce. This wouldn’t have been a problem if the weather was anything like last year when heat was the main issue. I printed the maps and studied and plotted the route with a few notes then laminated the maps. I only added a few bearings to the maps using permanent marker after laminating but in the washing machine conditions these wore off so I ended up checking my bearing at any bit of shelter I could find – rock outcrops and peat hags or just kneeling on the ground.
On the morning of the race I met a few of the usual suspects at registration and after getting the thumbs up for the kit check it was onto the bus for the trip to the race start at Angelsborough. The view was limited to the lower hills of the Galty’s as the cloud was already down quite low. I had been watching the weather forecast for a few days and at one point during the week it looked light the worst of the weather wouldn’t hit until the afternoon, which would have meant that we might get through much of the open mountain sections. A final check of the forecast the day before dashed that hope. I got chatting to Brendan from Fermoy, who was being a total optimist, saying how it doesn’t look too bad that the winds were light and the temperature was ok. Yeah, at the bottom of the mountains I was thinking. Brendan gave me a few tips on the best route, and this would have been helpful on most other days, but not this day.
At the race start Tom gave us a quick briefing of the route and advised most of all to take care. Then we were off. Tom, Brian Mullins, Barry (eventual winner) and another chap in a red top set the pace leading up Paradise Hill and on towards Temple Hill. I was going at a reasonable pace but didn’t want to burn too much energy too soon. Shortly after Paradise Hill, I was behind Barry but the other 3 ahead had disappeared into the thick cloud. I kept Barry in view up to the cairn on Temple Hill. From here we were nearly blown off the mountain, where I had to scramble down a bit of scree. I should have had the map a compass ready but kept going to get out of the worst of the wind in the direction I thought was the way. After adjusting the dial I realised I was going in slightly too far to the north, but not accounting for being blown down the mountain so quickly I ended up jumping two fences before finding myself looking down a very steep gorge. Not what I was expecting. A quick check of the map I and I realised my mistake. Heading back up the hill so early in the race was not fun. I rejoined the route when a group of about six went past on their way towards Lyracappal. This group quickly splintered, so I set my bearing on ploughed on up the steep climb to the wall. At least in the cloud you can’t see how steep this section is. It was a relief to finally get to the wall and after allot of walking it was time to stretch the legs and cover some ground. The wall provided a welcome handrail leading to the next climb up Galtymore.
Galtymore to Galtybeg was the one part of the route I knew, having done the Galtymore race in both sunshine and ‘winter’ conditions before. At the checkpoint on Galtybeg I was with two others and there was a marshal who was sitting down sheltering just off the ridge. After some words of encouragement...you could be in 6th but maybe 10th, as he could have missed a few people passing when ducking away from the elements.
The next stretch had fewer paths or features to follow, so I was relying on taking the right bearing. I doubted where I was a number of times and I was walking lots try to check my route. Finally I reached Greenane, but I was moving very slowly. Turning towards Fabreaga I got running again and down to the cairn fairly straightforward. Off I went again trying to cover a bit of ground but I ended up drifting off route on an animal track slightly off the bearing. The terrain was rough now and after lots of walking and feeling the cold was taking its toll. At this stage I wasn’t sure where I was or which direction to go. I needed to get my phone out of my bag and reorient myself. I ended up having checking where I was a few times as after so long on open mountain with hardly any visibility I had no confidence I was going in the right way.
Finally I reached the edge of the forest and a track to follow. The track wasn’t much relief as it was mostly ponds and bog. At least it provided a handrail to follow and visibility was improving a bit. After another short section across open mountain I joined a proper track where I met a few runners following the track. At one point we reached a track junction that was not on the OS map but luckily one of the others had recce’d the route and was sure of the way. Shortly after the control at Slieveanard it was on to the last section of open mountain. Again we came to a cross roads on the track that wasn’t on my map. After a quick debate some of the group when left and myself and two others went straight. Straight was closer to the route I planned. We contoured around the hill, which lead to the track along the forest edge and down to the last control - being careful not to miss the turn. From here it is the long home stretch. I tried to get going but my legs were having none of it. It was just a plod through the forest and out onto the road. After the adventures in the mountains the road section didn’t seem too bad. At least I wasn’t going to get lost again. Coming up to the finish Trisha and her team gave a cheer for the last few steps and then gave us a very welcome can of coke and some biscuits. Then the shower and meal at the hotel was so good. It would have been a long drive home without it.
I’ll have to come back next year for another go... provided we get some reasonable weather where I might see some of the mountains.