The Beast Nephin

03 July, 2024 - Andy Keeling

Day two of the Connaught champs saw us all assemble for Nephin. A mighty mountain that looks almost like a volcano with a bit of the rim cracked off. A quick stop off in the local shop in town to register. In the reg queue different printed maps of the mountain were examined for the "Best" route from the most definitely mandatory fence crossing up and around the summit and back down to fence crossing. A check of my strava on the way in the car had revealed that Graham "three runs a day" Bushe had already recced the course that morning! He was the man to ask. His advise went something like, "from the fence crossing head up the ridge to the top and then back down". Not very detailed advise. Maybe he's holding out on me.
A quick spin up the lane and we're here at the foot of Nephin. And as luck would have it it was good weather so all was visible. Every intimidating bit of it. Small grey specks in the distance that would soon become vast sloping seas of loose scree. I look down at my very hard new VJ runners and gulp. I can already feel the top of the lugs punching unpadded into the bones of my foot. And this is day two.
It soon becomes apparent that Graham's sparse advise is as good as it gets. There looks like no real "Best" route. It's just get up and get down. I console myself that this is just a short one. Maybe it's like the Sugarloaf that looks much meaner and higher than it actually is. This was NOT the case.
As we prepare to take on the beast Nephin we can see a small yellow dayglow speck creeping up the mountain. This is guardian of the fence crossing David Dinsmore. Peter gives us a very clear race briefing. Start, David, anticlockwise to and from summit, David, finish. Cool. As long as the rain stays away we should be fine.
And we're off. At a fierce pace. I try to keep momentum on the very boggy ground as it saps all remaining energy out of me. I manage just about to hang on to Liam Kenny and Eoin Syron up to point David. After this we split up as we all try to get ourselves over right to the ridge leading to the summit. I wade up through heather and desperately look for some sort of trail or signs of slightly lower vegetation to ease the climb but there is none. Slog on.
Slowly we get higher and the ridge gets thinner. The legs want to take diagonal slightly easier lines but I force them upwards. The most difficult steps will be the quickest way to the top. Eoin and Brian are up ahead already battling the scree. I stick a little bit left to stay off the scree as long as possible but my screevoision tactic can only work for so long and I hop in. Loose, tipping, pointy rocks. I'm a tired ant climbing mount sugar. On the slow stoney scree march I glance left to see the race leaders already skipping across the rim of the mountain on the other side. Jeez Louise. Think some of them must've been drinking fake beers last night.
Eventually, EVENTUALLY, the slope starts to level out and I manage to run again to the summit. I look at my watch. Less than 3 km and I'm 42 mins in. Madness.
Now for the painful bit. The ground is hard and I keep concentration up to try for the most pain free ways I can make contact between foot and ground. Hard rock with some tough, short grass soon transitions to scree. I try to Neurally block messages of pain from foot soles to brain. Times like these I tell myself "Just concentrate on where the next footsteps are going". There's enough there to completely occupy my brain neuron juices and I start to ignore the pain.
I'm lucky to still have sight of Eoin who is a solid navigator so I follow his very direct line back to David's high vis insulated wire crossing. Once off the scree it gets fun again and I enjoy the descent completely. Over the line and offered jellies and chickatees. Yum. The finish line offers great spectating as the rest of the field comes in. I pick two ticks from my legs. One more would go undetected for another day :/
Back in town there's sambos, soup, beer and certificates of summiting Nephin. This has been a great weekend with these people. Thank you all

I have to say, when I saw this race on the calender it seemed a bit short to be a REAL race. 5.7k, sure that's a parkrun. Wrong. This is a beast. Well worth it's place on the calender. Thanks to everyone local and non local for making it happen. Congratulations to the champs Becky and Matthew. See you all next year. Or, Wednesday. Probably see most of you Wednesday.

Thank You

03 July, 2024 - David Dinsmore

The story behind this year's race began after I watched last year's and innocently made a forum post querying the route. Ignorance on my part! After some back and forward, a challenge was thrown down to David Sands and I to organise a race. This we duly did in the form of a league race on the marked hiking course with David as RD and me deputy. We got the local shop on board for prizes and ran a well received event.
With the championship race coming up and David on holiday I felt I had to contribute once again. Running was out as I'm still recovering from a ruptured Achilles - not done running! So I volunteered and was then promoted to deputy RD. I had two objectives. Firstly, to bring runners into the village and try to create links. In the past the village had no idea anyone was racing on Nephin that day. With the hiking trail every effort has been made to bring people to the village, with plenty of signage and the provision of certificates for those who climb and report to the shop. The hiking trail has been very successful and many of them do come to the shop to claim their certificate.
Secondly, I was concerned that runners were clambering over barbed wire fences, not only putting themselves in danger but potentially damaging the fences and allowing livestock to escape. Having been up there I knew many of the fence posts were rotten and liable to collapse if someone climbed over. Given that there was a stile at a convenient point in the fence it seemed only sensible to use it.
But how to overcome the natural fears of those who felt it would detract from the challenge?
Peter was a bit skeptical, but came round when I told him about the fence. It also helped that my treks to the gap showed that it was actually the shortest route from the start/finish. See my Strava. I made the stile safer by adding a piece of pipe insulation to the top strand of wire, and more visible by adding a hi-vis vest which could be seen from tne start. It only remained to walk up on the day to open the stile and close it after the last runner had gone through.
I'd also had feedback from local runners that the gap was not so visible to descending runners, so I walked up about 100m so that I could be seen once runners came off the crest. This led to me being described as a h-vis speck :-) Thanks Alice! But I think everyone will agree that the challenge of Nephin was not lessened by having to go through the gap. You still had to find your way from it up the corrie to the summit and back.
Having seen runners last year in the car park after the race I felt we could do better. IMRA very generously said they'd provide cash for a post race event so I spoke to Leonard's and organised soup and sandwiches. What struck me was that people stayed around for ages, chatting and enjoying the atmosphere. Many commented on the pub - it is amazing - and i even saw some taking selfies. Lots of people also asked me about Lahardaun, especially the Titanic connection. I felt that people really connected to the village and vice versa. And handing out the certificates was a stroke of genius, one which I can't claim credit for.
So thank you all for coming to Lahardaun and for the kind words. I hope you all come again next year and bring more runners with you to enjoy the challenge and the hospitality

Peter O'Farrell

01 July, 2024

Day two of the Connacht Championships for 2024 brought us out to wild Nephin on a fine clear day for running. 30 had signed up and 27 survived the BBQ to take to the start line.

Nephin's team of helpers did amazing work with Connie Dottino and Daniela Boehm managing registration and the finish line, Mweelrea's second finisher Mark Mcadden cycling over from Westport to take on Nephin's first aid duties and David Dinsmore, the man of the moment, organising the indoor registration in the cafe, the post race soup and sambos in Leonard's pub, the gap in the fence, the manning of the gap in the fence and the wearing of the luminuous yellow top to be seen by the runners and the taking of excellent photographs for the website. The unoffical helper Amanda was a great help to Connie spotting those tiny numbers and Daniela's young Oisin did great work handing out jellies to the finishers.

Onto the race and Becky Quinn and Matthew McConnell continued where they had left yesterday to record their second wins of the weekend to take the overall title of Connacht Champion for 2024. Séan Quirke and Alan Dunne (also running his second race of the weekend - just not Mweelrea unfortunately) rounded out the male podium and Orla McEvoy and Alice Clancy took the podium in the women's race. Liam Kenny had a dramatic dive over the line, about 6 runners fell foul of the final trench. The early start worked well although Joe Lalor took the time to critique my race starting approach. Everyone finished within a half hour of each other and we made an orderly retreat to the pub to tell tales of racing.
Could I ask that some of you who raced add reports from the hill? Please and thanks. There's only so much entertainment to be had from reading about a race from a man who didn't do it.

Some? Much?? All??? pre race chat had focussed on the mandatory fence gap point on the route but in the event it was well received and very much appreciated by the runners, again thanks to David for suggesting, organising and manning it.

Overall Connacht Championship Podium 2024

Matthew McConnell Becky Quinn
Séan Quirke Alice Clancy
Ethan McMullan Clare Keeley