Unknown

28 November, 2009

It is becoming a bit of a regular feature in hill racing these days for the pre-race briefing to start with an apology about the length of the race. Those watching the site during the past week will have noticed that the traditional winter route changed suddenly about 8 day ago. A change brought about by the laying of tarmac on our route to the aerials and as everyone knows hill runners don’t like roads (incidentally there is a small amount of tarred road on WL5, can’t be helped but has stunning views). However an extra km was added by the fact that the forest did not open at its usual 9.00 (rather 10.00) and it was too far to carry the circus tent and accessories to the planned start.
With the registration system working well now, all 93 runners were ready to go shortly after 11.00. The route had everything good track running, steep climbs, rough plunging descents through the trees and loads and loads of glorious mud. It was a very bright day but was bitterly cold once out of the protection of the trees. It was difficult to gauge what to wear and most were possibly overdressed. That being said the wind on the exposed ridge between Fairy Castle and Tibradden was extreme and caused many problems, other shamelessly coasted behind bigger runners
Kevin Keane who had to pull up injured last time out replaced his brother Bryan as winner. It would make a very interesting race to see them both competing in the one race, a very close call I would imagine. Eoin Keith finished in his usual place. Irish International mountain biker Tarja Owens was first lady closely followed by Aisling Coppinger.
It was difficult to hear some of the announcements before the start of the race so it might benefit from repeating them. A winter league prize giving, quiz and murder mystery will be held on March 2 at 8.00pm in The Goat Inn. The corresponding event last year was very poorly supported but was retained for one more try, other events did not survive and people are asking why, now you know. From my position of assistant parking attendant I noticed many single occupancy cars, it is possible to get away with this in Ticknock but that will not be the case in Ballinastoe in two weeks, meet in Enniskerry or Kilmacanogue and travel on in numbers.