Peter O'Farrell

14 October, 2024

Another lucky general!

Derek Hay follows in the footsteps of Alistair Hodgett in providing a perfect evening for racing in the dark. No pressure so for Alan Kennedy, the RD for the upcoming and final race in the night challenges league. As Gary Player said the more I practice, the luckier I get and Derek definitely put the work into crafting this amazing race and so deserved all the good luck available.

Night racing might be the perfect way to bring IMRA races back into some of the magnificent locations we've lost due to the parking issues. I'd love to do this race in daylight as even in the dark it seemed to have great views. There's something magical and different about racing in the dark. The line of headtorches snaking across the mountains, the uncertainty about who you are racing and the willmytorchbatterystaystrong anxiety all add to the pressure and pleasure.

Derek provided a super route, and one I had never found myself on. I've looked on maps at coming off that side of Derrybawn but never found myself in a position to actually run off the hill that way so it was fantastic to racing off it. The second descent seemed to go on for ever, amazing stuff and then it was onto Mikey's favourite fireroads to the finish. It can't all be ups and downs unfortunately. More duties for Derek courtesy of Lillian in giving out runner and volunteer T-shirts and then it was onto treats table. The children manning the finish treats were a credit to their parents and we headed home a happy car.

Thanks to the volunteers and marshalls for minding us.