Carlingford race

12 September, 2024 - Brian Furey

3rd time doing this carlingford race. For years it was the forgotten last race on summer calendar which I always meant to get to. It's a nice part of the world and nice to break out from the glenmalure valley :)

First year I had not got a recce in, there was no East West and I took a bad line on way back! Which cost me alot of time. I got familiar with the course last year with a recce and even though it was misty last year i came prepared with compass and bearings. Which I used (correctly)!

I noticed when driving in with Ciara and little Liam there was the sheep sale on. Same as last year. Pedigree by all accounts. I could hear the echo of the auctioneers commentary drift up the mountain side as we warned up. 240, 240...245. Decent prices :) I was warming up with Graham Bushe on the side of Slieve Foye. This year was a clear fine still day so no problems with navigation if you knew it. I knew the lines I wanted to take.

From the off it was Con out front. Andy K followed and I was just behind. Bernard not far behind The climb up Slieve Foye is a tough one. It just keeps getting steeper as you go. I hung in there as best I could.
It's funny i made exact same mistake going through bracken path as last year ... ended up in narrow path and had to correct to get back onto main path.
From the top of slieve foye it was Con and I pushing the pace. Made good ground there most of it apart from last bit going around Eagle rock. Rough enough going. We lost the track.
Anyways by turn around Bernard not too far behind. I got a better line going around Eagle rock on way back and converged back with Con again just after that on the flat ground going across the plain towards Slieve foye. At times I was pushing the pace other times Con was breaking away. In any event we got back up to Foye on way back and he was a couple of meters in front of me. There was cloud on the summit at this stage. Con made a surge forward. Last minute I just spotted a path over to the right and recognized the gully descent id done the year before on the recce. Some times it works out , sometimes not but reckoned I come down over to the right of the bracken path I needed to be on.

As it turned out the descent was good ground and went quick enough. Just to be sure I ran over onto the main path to ensure i wasn't going wrong. I probably could have cut down a more optimal path, there's sort of a stony bracken path. Anyway from there I ran down through the grassy path and down onto the road to the finish. I was sure I lost time and might be 3rd. I was delighted when Turlough was said I was first back.

It a great championships - the Leinsters. Started back in wintry conditions in Dargle four peaks on side of Djouce/Maulin, the marathon effort on Circuit of Avonbeg 3hrs of hard racing, the Stranahely was a solid new addition with some route choice. Ballinedan is a fantastic new route, my favourite of the year and Costa del Carlingford race on a hot day in September for the last one. Steady enough for the race. It was very hot conditions so slowed the race pace. Well done to Con on a great race too. Thanks to Andy K and Ian Bromley for lending me kit as I had left my main bag at home so was scrambling stuff together. Thanks Donal and Turlough for organizing. Thanks also to all helpers and Shane Lynch for the photos and summit Marshall on the turn around point.

Angela Flynn

09 September, 2024

-Carlingford -Foxes Rock

Well, what a day for it – summer arrived in Ireland on Saturday, 7th of September and stayed all day. The drive north was smooth and conversational. Arriving at the registration desk, I spotted Jody – oh great ! ‘Hi ya, are you doing the early start ? Yep, grand I’ll follow you so (whisper it quietly). Final kit check-map, compass etc and off we set 16km in glorious sunshine with views over Carlingford bay and the lough to look forward to,

Meeting Liam and Andy on their warm- up descent we checked our nav with them and decided that their route choice was probably better than ours (ahem..)

‘Right Jody, did ya get that? Up the coll where the sheep are… contour right and hit the trig I’m following you Jody, remember?’ ‘No Ange; I’m following you..

The ascent free route choice was horrendous – legs screaming- heat relentless – another false top and on and on it went. Conversation died – however, Jody did manage to suggest that we might have been lied to ‘coz clearly the route was impossible and the fact that we were struggling could only be accounted for by the route and not our fitness. Well, OBVIOUSLY, I agreed with him that in fact we had indeed LIED to and we would have to have words with above mentioned not mentioned names upon our return.

The internal dialog continued ‘will I switch to the short course? – finish with a lunch and swim? and sure I’ve done it loads of time and sur’ I wouldn’t want the family to be waiting too long for me and sur’ it’s a fabulous day, don’t want to be wrecked tomorrow.. blah blah blah...

Eventually, we got to the first summit and the marshall there gave us great encouragement along with a crowd of walkers who were amazed to see runners.. ( a loose term at this stage)

Ahh.. a descent – now what was I saying about taking the short course?. The mind really is a funny thing- curiously, both Jody and I had had the exact same thoughts on the ascent – did I mention that the ascent was horrendous?

The race is a free route choice to Foxes Rock and it is a spectator sport in itself seeing all the runners spread out on the open mountain – no 2 taking the same choice.. ‘Oh look there’s Liam-lets follow him Jody coz he’ s done loads of those long races and would know the best route’ –‘oh look there’s Orla/Terry/Stuart lets follow them ‘coz they are all good navigators, hang on where’ Graham? Well, you get my point -it’s impossible not to doubt yourself that the route you’ve picked is the better choice.

We did make it to Foxes rock turn around and got to do it all again on the way back. Out of water -out of energy- out of chat we huffed and puffed our way back to the first trig point. From memory, I knew that the best route after that was to follow the path which feels counter intuitive, but is all runnable and therefore better suited to tired legs and numbed brains. Paths are paths for a reason, which I now accept after 200 plus races.

Reaching the finish in the inspirational time of 3 hours and 30 minutes for a 16 m run with 800m of climb. ( sorry Jody), we thanked the RD and crew and apologized for keeping them waiting for us even though we had taken the early start to find out we were not last…huh?

My daughter who had done the short course and had gone to meet up with family for lunch in the village- answered the phone to me when I had the energy to get up off the chair a very kind little boy had given mher response when I rang her to meet up was: ‘did yis get lost?’ Not, ‘oh well done mammy, Jesus that was tough, fair play to you ‘ I only did the SHORT COURSE and found that tough’ that’s impressive, ‘ No, No, No just….’did yis get lost ?’

And no we ACTUALLY DIDN’T.

Carlingford is a special place – I first did the run when said above daughter was a child and now she is driving me to the races and apparently she does some yoke on the internet to do with promoting IMRA.

What a location, what a race- we did it Jody and so what if it wasn’t pretty- Go yourselves and discover a beautiful part of the world if you haven’t yet.