Graham K. Bushe

02 August, 2024

Matthew 5.1“When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him.”
Well, Father Mooney climbed onto a rock and told the crowd that they would have to run up the mountain.
Reading from the Book of Hardship to those gathered, he told of the great deeds of Prophet Vines, who would ultimately lead the IMRAites to the promised land and away from the persecution of the NPWS-ians.
We heard of the great race between Palladius and St Patrick… that must have been a really dedicated summit marshal! And probably ultimately lead to the idea of the early start.
Worryingly there was more than one mention of burning Bushes…
The cowbell rang out as we all headed up the fireroad, not knowing what relentless grimness lay in store. My plan was to go out hard, then try to hold on for as long as possible. While the great Alan Ayling describes it as a “largely runnable climb” I had to take a fair share of walking breaks. I did manage to squeeze past Alan and Becky before the summit though…. Pressure on. The run off Church was fantastic, keeping a bit to the right for slightly firmer going. As all mid-race descents do though, this came to an end. After a small section of fireroad we turned into the forest. Ducking and diving our way through I longed to be out the other side. Then, there it was, but wait, how am I supposed to run through this. I was all too aware (from a snatched over-shoulder glance) that Brian Kitson and others were closing. Try as I might, I just couldn’t get going through the heather on this narrow weaving trail. My left foot found a hole and I nearly went snottin’. The legs were burning. Perhaps this is what Father Mooney meant when talking about burning bushes! It was not long before Brian passed me so I tried desperately to hang on. He had won the downhill between us on Lug last Saturday, so I knew I’d have a tough job to keep up. At some point we turned right and started down a steep boggy, grassy bank. Brian slipped, and was on his feet again in a heartbeat. I tried to watch my footing, which is difficult, in full chase-mode. Brian then did a full forward-roll and still managed to hit the ground running. He didn’t miss a beat. As the ground levelled a bit he moved to the side, I assumed to fix his runner, and I took my opportunity. I knew we were on the final descent, and was expecting to hit the fireroad for the last km or so. But it didn’t happen. Suddenly, as we descended the narrow trail through the woods, I noticed the puddles I had spotted on my warm-up… meaning it was only about 200m to the finish. Time to drop the hammer and I soon found myself in a sprint finish with Pat McKernan.
What a super race, route, brief, refreshments, everything you could wish for and more. A huge thanks to RD Liam and the team of helpers who all made it such a great event.

I made extra sure to obey the 11th commandment, being super excited hearing about all these “kissing gates”… I carefully passed through them all… but didn’t get any kisses…

PS a BIG thanks from Ben, Max and Pippin. While I didn't win it in the raffle, the "Postman's Leg" was donated... and accepted with wagging tails :)

Roll on Trooperstown...

A spiritual experience

01 August, 2024 - Alan Ayling

It started with a reading from Scripture and ended with a bag of shite.

Extraordinary scenes indeed tonight at the penultimate round of the Leinster League in West Wicklow. We hadn’t just come to the mountains like any regular Wednesday – we had come to Church. And things were going to be done with the proper degree of reverence and ceremony. No bog-standard race briefing here.

The congregation was called to order by the ringing of a bell. Father Mooney stood atop a rock in his cassock and pulled a scroll from the folds thereof. He proceeded to deliver a lengthy reading from the Book of Hardship – all about the history of how we came to be where we were, the plight of the IMRAites, cast out from their spiritual home of Sorrel Hill going forth in search of a new place to run, how they came, following the Prophet Vines, to the hallowed slopes of Church Mountain. We were reminded of the Ten Commandments of IMRA (# 10 is particularly poignant, the one where the Lord forbids urination in public view). There was even an 11th commandment specific to tonight’s race – thou shalt not climb over gates or fences. Even the safety briefing was strategically woven into the oration. Paradise was promised to the faithful – in the form of the last 2.5 km of glorious descent. A second ringing of the bell signalled the end of the opening service and the start of the race.

The course didn’t disappoint. The early fire road climb certainly lived up to the grimness foretold by the Prophet Vines. A narrow singletrack section provided some respite before the long, gradual, largely runnable climb to the summit of Church Mountain. A wonderful long descent followed, all the way down to the back fire road. Just as it looked like more grimness might be setting in, we were directed to the right, into a section of forest and heather and general randomness that’s clearly seldom visited by human beings. Yet it was cool – a real sense of remote mountain running… the antithesis of the fire roads that Mikey so loves. And surprisingly dry and runnable. Eventually we did pop back onto fire road, but only briefly; another solid climb up close to the top of Church, and then… Paradise. The descent really did live up to the prophecy. Huge kudos to the two Liams (Prophet Vines and Father Mooney) for coming up with that course, so much packed into 9.3 km… epic stuff.

Mark McAdden took the honours in the men’s race and Becky Quinn added to her pretty much biblical tally of wins in the women’s race.

Not that the proceedings were done at that point. A church service is often followed by a bunfight in the parish hall. Ours took the form of a big feed of tasty sandwiches and soft drinks at the finish. In such good weather it’s a beautiful way to round off the evening – and the midges were benign enough until late on. The raffle presented one final opportunity for Liam and his crew to deliver some eccentricity. The traditional wine and chocolates were there of course, but also a bottle of whiskey, a bottle of brandy, a “postman’s leg” (a bone for giving to a dog) and the piece-de-resistance – a bag of horse manure. Someone’s roses will appreciate it. No longer can the toilet brush or the can of 3-in-1 oil claim to be the wackiest IMRA spot prize yet.

A huge thank you is due to the various people who made this happen. “Father” Liam Mooney, our race director who took it on and made it such an exceptionally fun night, even including the grimness… ably assisted by his core of volunteers from Lakeshore Striders – you guys really delivered tonight. And not forgetting “the Prophet” Liam Vines who put massive amounts of time and unseen work into making it all possible – from concept to negotiation with landowners.

This one really deserves a long term place on the calendar. Super course, big parking field nearby, great club prepared to put in the work, and a chance for us all to appreciate running in the hills of West Wicklow.

The opening service was apparently videoed – hopefully it’ll become available online. Watch it if you get the chance. The spirit and humour of IMRA captured perfectly. Thank you, Father.

So good lads:)

31 July, 2024 - Mikey Fry

Wow up that steep fire road don’t go to fast ah just lash it up boom left off onto the unknown through a forest track nice up up up Bernard some other dude go past I keep up the hill never ends I eventually back off a bit we get to the top lots of rocks I open up and past Bernard and unknown boom it’s a fast down hill I probably went to fast on the turn left up hill I slow down Issac is in are sites Bernard passes again I try keep up it’s an endless hill of hills some other guy Nearly knocks me over passing I keep up boom through the last gate boom my shoe comes off slightly Rory passes me boom it happens again basically it came off 4times school boy error he’s still in front I’m wrecked on the down hill which was amazing just kept going boom over the line so wrecked great food and drink thanks again Liam and co go an amazing race well done mikey:)))