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28 November, 2009

On a warm , humid evening the Leinster League reached its penultimate stage and the traditional toughest race , which has become the Paul Mahon creation into and around the forest and through the mud at Ballinastoe. Despite all the warnings on the website 143 folks came out ready to run.
The route never climbs very high and never gets out into open mountain, however, it derives its deserved reputation due to the fact that it never offers a straight smooth place to run until the final 300 meters. The passages through dark-forest and all the twists and turns make for a disorienting experience and did I mention it also is quite long. The course ascends and then twists down through dark forest and mud , goes up a bit more and then comes down some more, before you cross a stream, at which point you are very close to the finish as the crow flies. However, you will not be travelling as the crow flies, you will ascend past Jean O'Neill playing her flute and on a track that zig-zags back and forth over a ditch, so often that you can get dizzy. Eventually you reach the track you came in on and have a long, steep descent to the finish.
Eoin keith led wire to wire , from the sweaty ascent to the swift descent and had a two minute win over Richard O'Donnell. John Farrelly, showed he is no mere road runner by handling the rough stuff and finishing only 2 seconds behind Richard for third overall and first over 40.
The women put on a more exciting battle and I was well placed to see it as Hazel Thompson took off from the start and held a big lead up to the halfway point. Roisin McDonnell and Vanessa Lawrenson, both very visible in red, swapped places several times with Roisin better on the descents and the real gnarley bits and Vanessa pulling away on the few semi-level bits. It wasn't until the final freedom from the woods that they both got by Hazel with Vanessa in the lead. Roisin went by on the descent , but then Vanessa took her on the run in, with Hazel finishing soon after for third.
Gerry Lalor took the M40 prize(took the wine though he does not drink, very strange) and Eddie Reid showed remarkable speed on the downhill (I got to see this up close and personal as well) to pull away from me for the M50 victory. With Roisin figuring in the overall women's results , Paula O'Donnell Rea took the F40 prize and Jane Porter took her normal first in the F50. Caitlin Bent added to her record number of wins with a first in the F60 category. Mick Kellett excelled in the rough stuff to take the M60.
That some people started early was very much appreciated by the midge ravaged folks at the finish, led as always by Cormac Corrigan and a special thanks to Barry Minnock for giving up his run to do the computer. Paul Mahon and his crew did a masterful job marking , so there were very few physically lost souls, though many came across the finished line with a look in their eyes that said perhaps they were not all there. And as the exhausted sweaty crowd retired to the beer garden in Roundwood for a spirited few pints to top off a great evening, we passed a burned out car, perhaps , as one wag suggested, foreshadowing what may happen to single car drivers under the new get tough policy.