Hell Fire Flicker
Authors
Unknown
28 November, 2009
“Doesn’t the year fly by” I remarked to my warm-up partner who dryly quipped “yeah, another year passed and my life is going down the plug hole”!! no, she wasn’t Beverly Cooper Flynn nor the Cranberries former nanny!The warning signs were there at 6.30pm – a fleet of cars already parked out on the road outside the barrier and no sign of the “Guardian of the Barrier Key”. When the barrier was taken care of the cars quickly filled the large car park to capacity and still they kept coming. At a quick look around there were many new faces and some older ones too!
A friendly request for a pre-race comment from our esteemed former Chairman, Mr. O’Gorman was “……I’ll beat you tonight” and off he loped to skip the queue for registration!
We all lined up in front of the barrier and listened to the all-important details of the race, and the even more important point of where the post-race drinks were to be held. Joe made a plea for car pooling which, given the enormous popularity of the races will be essential for the remaining 12 races if we are not going to cause major congestion at race venues.
Once the race got under way it became apparent that in both the men’s and women’s field no one would be able to match the speed of John Brooks and Beth McCluskey. John raced away for a clear victory ahead of Kevin English and Eoin Keith and will be a hard man to keep within sight of.
Beth’s pre-race plan to beat Peter O’Farrell and Gerry Lalor was almost fulfilled but she remained upbeat about her performance. Second placed Laura McGinley is rumoured to be starting a petition to have Beth moved out of the ladies class and into the men’s to give the rest of the ladies a chance! Crusader’s Emma Sokell swooped in ahead of Laura to complete the top three ladies.
The M40 class was most competitive with Eugene Coppinger leading the field of Bob Lawlor and Dessie Shorten.
Roisin McDonnell, Jane Watt and Clare Walsh were the first ladies in the F40, F50 and F60 classes.
First juniors were Oisin MacCinneide and Yvonne Bell
So, on to Sugarloaf next Wednesday where the faster road runners who ran at Hellfire will find the going slightly more rocky!
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Some post-race quotes
<B>Martin Flynn:</B> “the race was like how you describe hill runners – they love banging their head off a wall and then it is great when you stop”!
<B>Berndt Heim :</B> “I stayed at the back to check out the girls” – Hazel subsequently pointed out this was politically incorrect to assume the ladies would be to the rear of the field and he had the grace to look suitably chastised!
<B>Jacqui Howard:</B> “This was my first race and I found it tough but I definitely will be back”.
<B>Gavan Doherty:</B> busy chatting with his fiance Santina, managed to pause mid-sip of his pint to remark it had been “short and sharp” – I clarified that he meant the race and not his Guinness.
<B>Clare Walsh:</B> admitted that it was “lovely, once I reached the top of the hill” Clare is enjoying the hill running following an outstanding career as an Irish record holder over 100m and 400m. Few people know that Clare represented Ireland over 100m at the Munich Olympic Games in 1972 and set an Irish record of 11.9 mins. She also has an Irish record of 53.7 mins over 400m set in 1971 at Barcleona.
<B>Paul Cullen:</B> “These races are too punctual - I’ll never make it out on time and I cycled – I’ll have you know!” – he put his point forward most emphatically by prodding my journalist’s page as one reporter is want to do to another. Paul Mahon helpfully suggested perhaps he should bike pool!
<B>Diarmuid O’Colmain:</B> “Watch out Eva”! is all I could get out of him as he makes a welcome return to the hills after a long lay-off due to injury.
<B>Emma Sokell:</B> on asked had she any comments to do with the race smiled and said “Oh yes…..I have come up with a great money-making scheme with Vivian – we are going to sell people’s keys back to them after the race”.
Oh dear.................!
