Barry Murray

17 July, 2023

I know the Connaught Champs weekend is a highlight for many and I have written about it before, but this weekend based around Irelands highest mountain is certainly another everyone should put on their list at least once.

For the first time, and there haven't been too many as far as I know, Robbie and crew added another event to the weekend, with what they called the Reeks Vertical 800. The novelty of it is what attracted me but as I stood at Cronins Yard on a murky friday evening looking up at a misty summit high in the sky, I wasn't as attracted. The balmy sunny evenings of June seemed like a lifetime ago and the previous years of good weather for this weekend had finally come to a halt. Still, it was actually fairly mild with light winds and most of the mountain that we were to run up was visible.

Cronins Yard is a great base and IMRA are given their own little field for the weekend. The Munster crew have their own van and a couple of markee type tents for registration and commune area's so it feels like a proper little festival.

About 25 hardy souls lined up just before 8pm and Robbie gave us a short brief. A group of 5 of us went off , with Nick Hogan being the only I knew and I knew he'd be ahead of me. The first 2km were runnable enough and got to the river crossing in just under 15mins. With the race description as 3km, I was thinking to myself that it looked like a long km to the top. The trudging began and the ground was soaked so it was one of those energy sapping climbs. The eventually winner who I didn't know went off ahead out of sight and was really climbing well... I had Nick just still in view and two other lads just ahead of me. As we got higher, the wind started to pick up, the mist got thicker and the temperature started dropping... but it was a very well marked course with flags every 50ms or so. Also, and this is one of the big observations made by everyone, there were marshals camped out at all the important parts of the route.

As the climb got steeper and rockier, I looked at my watch and I was close to 3km... yet the summit still looked miles away ! I got back up with a northie guy, Alan Ritchie, and put myself in 4th... with Nick and the other guy a couple of minutes ahead on the climb . The fun really starts with about 4-500m to go... when you hit the big slabs of rock. Its then a case of all fours and suits any of the rock climbers, of which , I think there were a few as I noticed how suddenly a few behind me were getting closer and closer. The first lady was flying it up and probably was used to chalking her hands and climbing up even more vertical places. It got a bit wilder as we neared the top and the rock surfaces were slippy so it got a bit hairy at times but that's all part of the fun.

The summit has a big stone grotto and I heard the cheers so it was a relief to be finished. Brian Mullins and Ed Casey were on duty and fair play to them for taking on the toughest marshal station of the night. I held on to my 4th, with Nick in 2nd and the young lad who went flying off ahead was changed and ready to descent. It would have been nice to sit around and wait for everyone if it was one of those balmy evenings but it wasn't the conditions to be hanging around in in shorts, singlet and rain jacket. 1st and 2nd lady came in not too far behind me and were climbing well. A few of us then shuffled off back down as a "recovery" run... but going down was probably more treacherous than going up ! Was good to be able to cheer people on , and even a few 16yr old youngsters were making good ground with the mother of one of them half way up the mountain taking photos.... so lots of proper mountain folk out for this event, great to see.

It was approaching 10pm by the time we got back to base camp and signed ourselves in. An 8 degrees craft brew was on offer and duly accepted. No better way to rehydrate after a run like that, in fact, any run ;)

A great start to a mighty weekend of mountain running in the Kingdom. Some folk took on "the treble" so that's some achievement. With the atrocious conditions for the Skyline the next day and then what were very pleasant conditions for the Classic on the Sunday, it was definitely a weekend with the spice of life.

Well done again to all the Munster crew for putting on a great show. I think there is only so many times that these volunteers can be thanked so all going well next year, I'll be the one standing at the Grotto next year on a Friday evening in July !