Unknown

28 November, 2009

On the way out to the race looking out at all the yachts in the tranquilsea, under the glorious sun and perfect blue skies, you could be forgiven for thinking we were holidaying on some exotic foreign shore. 30 minutes later that was soon forgotten; running head on into a strong wind across theopen hill, the lungs burned, sweat obscured the vision and reality was a bitless idyllic!

The race got off to a delayed start. The official reason being the disruption to Dart services, although it was more likely due to themass influx of Southside forgetting their passports to get across the Liffey causing queues at immigration. Surprisingly the field included many of the growing number of Scots, thus quashing rumours about them being laid off sick after pulling stomach muscles laughing after England's defeat on Sunday night!

Having come across only one place to pass fellow competitors in the first 5 minutes of my warm up, I knew that there would be a mad scramble to get into a good place on the lap of the pitch, before hitting the narrow forest
trail with its mini-obstacle course. Sure
enough this was the case, but a frantic pace and some sharp elbows did not prevent M50 style tailbacks for many at the start of the first big climb coming out the wooded section. At the head of the race things soon spread out with Paul Nolan71 and Eoin"one-man-relay-team" Keith stretching out a big lead, followed by Kevin Keane and further back a tight group of chasing runners winding their way around the narrow tracks.

By the start of the second lap the impressive Paul, showing he is back in great form, was well ahead and Eoin similarly clear in second. The chasing group was catching on Kevin, but in the end it was not enough. Laura McGinley won the woman's race with Emma Sokell in second place and Kiwi, Zoe Melling third, just over a minute behind. Eugene Coppinger won the M40 category, Bruce Shenker was the first M50 and Mick Kellet showing some of his form from Carrauntoohil took the men's M60.

With the formalities done, it was time for some rehydration in the GAA club bar. At this stage, being the professional (first time) reporter, I tried to get a few quotes. Not much of what was said can be printed. All I got was "Val me niet Lastig, ik praat niet me rioolpers" from one of the Dutch contingent (Dutch mountain runners?). I have no idea what that means, butreckon there is potential for some great scrabble scores there!

On a final and more serious note, there was an incident that resulted in one the runner having to be taken from the course in an ambulance after a nasty fall. We wish him a speedy recovery and hope that his injures are not as serious as first though. I hope that this will be an isolated incident. At the end of the day, we should all remember that it is perhaps not worth too many risks for the sake of few league points.