The best day.

04 August, 2024 - Miriam Maher

A long overdue trip to get one of the West League races in.

I’d wanted to get there last year, but injury got in the way of a lot of fun, including getting to one of the races in this league. Timing worked out better this year to head off west with Grace and her daughter Ciara. Ciara bore the ordeal well and with great patience. Like my Luke did many times over his teenage years, she stoically stuck the headphones in and blocked out the mammy chat that took place all the way down and back in the car.

Arrived at the start, a group of smiling welcoming people gathered already. Nice to get to put faces to the names of some of the volunteers that have made the West League such a huge success story. It has gone from 5 races in its inaugural year to 11 this year, spreading the reach to firmly establish it as a West of Ireland League. Turlough Conway has played a blinder in driving this success, but Ruth Candon (yesterday’s RD), Rosy Temple (yesterday laptop operator) and many others have done so much to ensure that the races have been delivered so well. Great to see we weren’t the only ones making a day of it, Vivian and Tommy turning up and showing how they manage to have such incredible races ran stats!

Yesterday’s race was also a fund raising for Sligo Leitrim Mountain Rescue Team for a very poignant and sad reason. Ocky Job, SLMRT crew member, had taken part in some of the West league races this year. Very tragically, Ocky lost his life on the side of Ben Bulben on July 2nd. IMRA decided to donate the race entries from yesterday’s race to SLMRT in a gesture of condolence.

Conal and Pete from the SLMRT came to the race yesterday, supporting and taking part. Getting to meet them and chat with them and to say a few words to acknowledge their loss at the start line of the race itself, was my privilege.

The race itself, Queen Maeve’s, was quite simply one of the nicest, varied and enjoyable routes I’ve ever ran. 7km, 370m elevation. Packs a punch. Steady climb along the rocky path, before heading off into a twisting grassy trail, followed by a steep climb up to Queen Maeve’s Cairn to be greeted by Bill, summit marshal at the cairn. Off we went then down a helter skelter gully descent to take in the back of the course. This part of the loop around the top sent me into warp levels of happy pills. A grassy ridge path winding around the headland of the back of Knocknarea and back up around to Queen Maeve’s resting spot. There was a touch of an alpine feel about it, without the soaring alpine peaks to look at. But all the while getting spectacular views of the Sligo coastline and surrounding mountains, including the iconic Ben Bulben.

Past the cairn again, to be greeted by Bill again and then down the way we came up. Sounds simple enough, but the route was just so cool and with so many variations that it was an adrenaline rush from start to finish. I was euphoric to come down along the rocky path towards the start/finish without face planting or doing my regular trick of ripping open my knee, again. The last 200 m, bringing us back up to the finish point, was a sting in the tail but ensured I can now establish what my max heart rate could look like.

The lingering injury from last year, plantar fasciitis (in case you’re one of the fortune few that I haven’t managed to moan about this to), continues to affect my scope for running fun this year, having moved from one foot to the other. So, I had decided in advance that Queen Maeve’s would be my last run of any type for a bit while I try to sort this out once and for all. I could not have chosen a better race or event. The weather gods kept the rain off until we’d finished and ensured that we got the benefit of all the views.

Dip in the sea, fish and chips down at Strandhill and back on the road. Rumour has it that Ciara had a blast and Grace and myself had the best day. If Carlsberg did days out…