Unknown

28 November, 2009

T?was a cold dark night.... The evening was surprisingly bordering on pleasant by the time 125 brave souls lined up to listen to Paul Mahon make like a lady and give the chairwomans pre-race words of warning and encouragement. There was some relief for the Rogaine veterans wearily propping up the start as said start was advanced beyond the locked forestry barrier, shortening the course and making times slightly irrelevant. Luckily enough...

With John Brooks and Beth McCluskey pretending to be nervous at the start, the race for silver was on in earnest. As it turned second place was never really in doubt with Laura McGinley and Vincent O?Sullivan cantering to strong finishes in the main cateogories. Brockagh is a traditional hillrun with the old dictum applying - what goes up must come down. The open nature of the course meant collisions were unlikely and the loops of earlier races weren?t required to spread the field . For those of us struggling up the steady incline the there and back approach really showed the class at the front as John Brooks was on his way down a long long time before the others, and this included his stop to read a WW directional pole!.

Faster then most, Paul Nolan71 was out on his own for a fine 3rd place while a ding-dong battle developed amongst the ladies with Zoe Melling, Roisin McDonell and Emma Sokell striding hard at the finish. Zoe took the bronze voucher and Roisin perked up a bit upon realising she was first W40, having beaten the local queen of the hill -Joan Flanagan - into second in the W40 category.
The corresponding male M40 of speed and skill was Eugene Coppinger, in the M50 Bruce Shenker shaded Henny Brandsma whilst Jean O?Neill won the ladies W50 category. Danny Toye won the M60 with another battle of the ding-dong variety emerging in his victorious wake as Eddie Hughes surprised renowned former serial winner Mick Kellett with a finish that put at least 24 younger runners in their place(s). Speaking of juniors, two hardy young fellas competed with Conor Fennell arriving home in front of Eoghan O?Gorman - no doubt a chairman of the future.
Thanks are due, as always, to the stalwarts manning the registration, starts and finishes. The midgies had their ardour dampened by the ?brisk? conditions of the evening making for a less thigh slapping/Aussie salute finish chat then in years of yore with tall tales and prizes dished out afterwards in Lynams of Laragh.

NOTE:Due to a bit of a mixup we didn't get to record times.