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28 November, 2009

Nephin 2000
Report by Douglas Barry
On Sunday the 23rd July, John Lenihan continued on his winning way to the 2000 Connaught Championship on the much more forgiving terrain of Nephin mountain near Crossmolina, Co. Mayo. Nephin was a gentle contrast to the unforgiving scree of the first race in the championship the previous day at Croagh Patrick. The Croagh Patrick race lived up to its fearsome reputation as an athlete eater, leaving four runners needing hospital treatment at the end of a torrid day.
One of them was former international Paul Nolan who did not want to risk an injured leg having spent the previous evening in hospital getting treatment. In contrast, a heavily bandaged Ercus Stewart was out to secure his over 50s title on the 5 mile race, and was determined to go to the line come hell or high water. The runner up at Croagh Patrick, Neil Carty, couldn't make the start, but not through injury. Lenihan only had English runner Simon Fairmainer to contend with.
The Irish champion was worried that the pounding his winter leg injury had taken on Croagh Patrick might cause him to slow on the Nephin descent. He planned to try and get a comfortable margin by the 2,646 foot summit, so that he could take it easy on the steep descent. However, he admitted he would be happy with second place in the race if his old injury flared up, as that would still guarantee him the championship. He confided that he was even happier to find that Nolan and Carty were missing the action!!
From the start, Lenihan lived up to his word. He charged off up the attractive horseshoe route following the edge of Nephin's north-eastern corrie, closely tracked by Fairmainer. However as the route steepened the Kerryman's climbing power began to tell. He put more and more distance between himself and the Englishman. At the summit, Lenihan had a 2 minute and 10 second gap. Confident of his margin, he throttled back on the descent.
In contrast, Fairmainer was fired up. Covering the steep ground like a gazelle, he whittled away at the Kerryman's lead. On the initial gentle descent from the trig point, he only gradually eroded the lead, but then the ground dropped away dramatically before hitting the soft bog that covers the terminal moraine marking the 5,000 year old death throe of Nephin's glacier. At the moraine, the margin had been slashed to just under a minute.
Warned of the rapidly closing Fairmainer by his supporters, the former World Champion ignored his injured leg and surged down the final kilometre to preserve his margin. He more than succeeded. The Riocht runner extended it back to a minute and a half over the disappointed Englishman. The pair were so far ahead of the rest of the field than we had to wait for more than seven minutes for the next runner - Cork's Irish Trail Running Champion Eoin Keith.
Jane Watt had another determined run to take the women's race from Eva Mulleady and Eithne McShane. Former Connaught champion Vivian O'Gorman took the over 40 men's race while the redoubtable Ercus Stewart made light of his swathing of bandages to win the over 50 race. The junior race was won in fine style by Westport runner Michael Morris who climbed and descended so effectively that he took 5th place overall.