Glacier Lakes 24

21 April, 2024 - Andy Keeling

This race is a special one for me. When I first took to mountain running in 2019 with a few short winter/spring league races under my belt I volunteered to help at the Glacier lakes race. As a newbie the day left a huge impression on me. I remember seeing the finishers come in tired, mucky, scratched up from hours in the heather and bog. But despite the ordeal that they had all been through it was the smiles on the faces that stuck with me. The sense of accomplishment in the air was intoxicating. This was added to by the presence of Paddy O'Leary at the finish line. I hadn't heard of the Wicklow round before that day.
I think Paddy was in Glendalough after finishing up filming his "Coming home" documentary (if you haven't, go watch it) about smashing the Wicklow Round. The day had really opened my eyes to the world of long navigation racing. A seed was planted that day - I went straight home and looked for long races to start recce-ing.

Fast forward to 2024, and I'm here myself getting ready to set out on the course for the 2nd time. The weather is fantastic. Too good for a navigation race in fact :p. But it will still be an interesting day. There's a big field of runners this year. This race is unique in its effort to close the gender and age gap in racing. Start time handicaps are in place to even up the field. This makes for a way better race in my opinion. Probably could be implemented in many other Imra races to make them fairer and ultimately more interesting.

I set off at 0940 with the other fellows to try and catch the people who have started already. Myself and John Bell chat as we start out the miners road. John and most of the rest cross the road and into the heather when we come to the tarmac. I stay on St. Kevin's Way to keep running a bit longer and enter the heather later. Crossing at the slack heaps a bit further on I see this plan hasn't worked. John and others are already farther on and higher up than me. B#£*ocks! It always seems to take longer than you think to get over to Lough Ouler this way. Today's no different, but I catch John and with other solo and relay runners we descend to dip our legs together in the heart shaped lake. The climb out is brutal. Hands and knees in soft mucky pools but I'm actually glad of the cooling effect it has as the sun beats down. I keep a high traverse around Tonelagee but to my dismay, I catch sight of John who's flying across the rough ground below and opening up a lead. I put this to to the back of my mind and enjoy my descent down Tonelagee to the gap.

Dodging cars, I run straight through cp1 and up the road to try and keep John in my sights. He's flying now though and manages to open up a huge gap and my legs feel heavy. Dipping in Lough Firrib and on to the three lakes, he seems to get farther and farther. That's probably the last I'll see of him til the finish I reckon. I pass Avril after the three lakes and find the river leading to table track. I meet Jodie here and we descend. This is my least favourite part of the run. The stone paved road is torture in my rigid soled mudclaws. Farther down I meet Ivana and we get to cp2 around the same time.

I grab my bag and run off opting to consume its contents on the move instead of stopping. The climb to Art's Lough is torture and makes me question my life choices. The legs seem to have barely enough power for the steep upward steps. I meet Andrew Trafford here and we get to the lake together. The climb up Cloghernagh is equally tough, but I manage. I miss my intended low contour to the left and end up at the Cairn where the trails cross. This means I've climbed more than I wanted but hey ho, keep moving towards Kelly's. My high line here takes me across some bad ground on the far side of Cloghernagh. I almost lose a leg between heather covered boulders and immediately cramp up from the jerking motion of my stride being abruptly stopped. I try my best to run it off in the unforgiving ground. As I head over to Kelly's I spot John way ahead. After the lake I find the track leading to the long fire road down. This seems way longer than when I was up on a recce with Avril weeks before. I wonder have I missed the small cairn marking the cut down to the lower trail/road. Or has someone moved it? To my surprise, I come around the corner to see John and Andreas scratching their heads at the cairn wondering if this was the right spot. Race mode re engaged we descend the cut and I try to get ahead a bit. Descending to cp3, I can hear that they are close behind but I don't look back.

Quick in, grab, and out at the checkpoint and through Drumgoff. In my recce, I had picked out a route from here up the Burma road and over the Mullacore/Cullentragh col towards the Wicklow Way on the other side. I reckon though not many will take this direct route opting for the slightly longer way around Cullentragh. As I start the last climb of the day I wonder if John is speeding around the lower track and think that he'll probably get to the finish line first. I'm probably the only eejit taking this line up and over. I hear something behind me, turn and to my surprise there he is! 50m behind me! Race mode re-re-engaged! I dig deep to grunt up the hill. I find my way over the top and get onto the Derrybawn track. I know he's behind me, but I don't look. I find a line through wet grassy tussocks down to the Wicklow Way bend and I'm on the hard stuff. I try and find my empty barrel bottom scraper for energy to keep the pace up on the fire road. I know John is fast on this terrain and expect him to catch me any minute. I find the way down to the upper lake dodging the many tourists and selfie influencers of the Glendalough paths. Baffling onlookers, in this beautiful weekend sunny vista a sweaty, bearded man covered in scratches and muck crashes into the scene and jumps into the lake. Planting both feet in a stamping motion and then runs off. Looking back over my shoulder I run the road, dodging walking families and couples. I quickly splash in the last lake and into the monastery. I think I might've done done it. Through the graveyard arch and over the line. Wahoo! What a race! I become one of the content, muddy, scratched finishers with a beaming smile of accomplishment. With a bit of luck, someone is watching and a seed is planted.

Sunshine Lakes

21 April, 2024 - John Bell

Having competed in relay teams a good few times and rd'd a couple of times, I had wanted to try the solo out for a while. My race prep involved a short recce from Glendalough on the Thursday before to get an idea for the last descent to the upper lake. My option a and b turned out to be rubbish, with too much felled forestry or waist high heather, so plan c was needed. The relentless rain the last couple of months put me off doing any more recces, so I'd be relying on memory from previous relays and luck with route choices.
While registering in the sunshine and applying sunscreen it felt like spring had finally arrive. There was the usual good buzz at the start as people headed off with their bonus time or waited for the 9:40 start. John M was very surprised that I didn't get any bonus time.. and he's older the me! Maybe he thought my brother would give me some bonus time, but not likely. More like he would try penalise me ;-) Time to go. Off up St Kevin's Way I was intending on going out easy. I was chatting to Andy and followed closely by Kevin. When we got to the road crossing the three of us had a bit of a gap. Going over to Lough Ouler, we traded places a few times as we each picked different lines, but we arrived at the saddle together. From here Kevin went to the supposedly easier ramp, while Andy and I went straight down. The direct descent was quicker, but slippery. Tip the water and back up the slop Andy found a great track contouring around, so I followed him for a bit. Once Checkpoint 1 was in sight and the ground didn't look too bad, I veered off making a bee line for it.
Off on to Leg 2 with the climb up the road to Turlough Hill, cutting a few corners on the way. Coming up to the Quarry I caught up with Rachel, and changed her mind about the longer loop around the back. We contoured around the front to join the track towards Lough Firrib. A line of runners dotted across the hill showed the way so didn't need to take a bearing. I went right of the lake and found a good track going towards Art's Cross and followed that for as long as possible without veering off too much. Met Avril along the way who was taking the same line. Over two Three Lakes through some slop, and then turn left towards CP2. I caught up with Andy Trafford along the Lough Brook. Half way down Andy went left and slightly higher, while I followed the river bank. Higher worked out better and Andy got to Table Track first. We caught up with Paul Morrisey along the way, who was double checking his map, taking no risks of going wrong with his team mates waiting.
Into Checkpoint 1, I collected my drop bag and headed straight off up the forest road refuelling as I went. Andreas and Liam with fresh legs ran past and on to the ramp leading up to Art's Lough. This bit is steep and it was like a slow-motion race that went on for ages. Finally, the gradient eased, but the bog sucked the energy when trying to run. Tipped the water and on to the next ramp. Shorter and not so steep but when I got to the top, I decided that was enough climbing, so I took the lower route along Badger Hollow. This worked out reasonably well initially but after the Clohernagh Ridge the heather was high and hiding rocks. On previous years i found much better going, but no luck here today. I dropped to the river and started up to Kelly's Lough, which kept hidden until I was at the lake. I caught back up with Andreas here, after he took the higher track. I ran and chatted with Andreas along the forest road keeping an eye out for the turn into the trees, but neither of us were sure where it was. After poking our heads into a few gaps in the trees we finally found what we thought was the track, but still weren't sure. To turn too early would be a painful experience. Andy Keeling caught up and confirmed that we were on the right track. So off we went. Aiming for the nice track down through the mature tree along Drumgoff Brook, but when we got there it was a felled mess. Andy and Andreas didn't hesitate, so I followed them down. Andres took a tumble but lucky just grazed a rock.
On in to CP3 for more encouragement and a drop bag. I refuelled as I walked up the road and in to the forest. That gave me a bit of energy that I needed and I was catching Andy along the forest road towards Joseph's Glen. I was stalking Andy for a bit. Rachel Harney had shared her plan for Leg 4 with me, which was a direct line up the gully leading straight towards Derrybawn Ridge, and it was way better than my plan a or b. This turned out to be Andy's route also. About a third of the way up I joined alongside Andy to give him a surprise. The race was on. That only lasted about 5 minutes until we approached the top where Andy put in a sudden burst of speed and found a half decent way through the heather, while I tried running / hoping over waist high crap. My legs were shot at this stage, so I had nothing left to try go after Andy. I just wanted to get down and through the next obstacle, the crowds along the Green Road and through the Monastic City, and finally to the finish. What better way to spend the rest of the afternoon with a couple of beers and some food sitting in the sunshine and cheering the rest of the field as they came in?
Thanks so much to all the volunteers for giving up their day so we could get out racing around the glacier lakes. And to the all competitors for chats and smiles along the way. Looking forward to next year, when I'll be looking for a relay team ;-)