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28 November, 2009

First was Fidelma Ayres who marked the new and wonderfully extended course and did a great job. She did get some unwanted help from mountain urchins (more destructive than their street cousins) which had runners 3 to 20 doing significantly extra distance. Eoin Keith is going up again on Thursday night with some marking tape and a baseball bat.

Second was Jane Porter and her wonderful team of helpers. There was no congestion at all during registration, and considering the 200 plus numbers, this was a great result.

Third was Barry Tennyson who always does the invaluable and thankless task of keeping the carparking honest. For all the car poolers out there, hurray; for all the cyclists, kudos; for all the driver only junkies, I\'m frowning.

Fourth was the wonderful first aid response to a twisted ankle during the race. The key to the barrier was on hand for such an emergency, the President, Martina O\'Kearney on first aid, and a runner who knew where the injury occurred went to the rescue in a 4x4. Luckily the injury was not serious, but it was nice to see the plan working so well.

Fifth was John Shiels who miraculously appears at different spots around the course and speedily uploads the photos onto the website. This helps enormously to bring the website to life.

Sixth was the results team who whipped out the printout in the pub while still on pint number one. Great speed.

First to sixth was chronological order, not ranking; they all did an invaluable and excellent job. Thanks.

The race was won by Gary Crossan who has a percentage of winning time this year after the first 5 races of 100.8%. Applause. Ronan Guirey was not too far behind, with Eoin Keith finishing 3rd overall but first on the extended course. In the Female race, it was an extremely tight contest with only 15 seconds and 4 places between first and third lady. Orla McEvoy won, with Roisin McDonnell second and Zoe Melling third. Gerry Lalor is making M40 his own, Dessie was 3 minutes clear in M50 and Calvin Torrans won M60 well clear of yours truly aged 34. F40 was won by Jean Bader, Ger Power won F50 with Caitlin Bent putting in a great run to win F60.

Talking to runners afterwards, most people thought that the new course was a great success, with its many ups and downs, flat sections and fast finish. As Gerry Lalor said \"It ticked all the boxes\". Kevin Keane was less impressed saying \" it was a hoor of a race.... Waiting for everyone to finish\". The IMRA convention that your write your name on your race number is starting to catch on. It does help reduce errors with wrong numbers.

The loudest screech of the night didn\'t need first aid; it was El Presidente B Lawlor winning the first spot prize of a very nice pair of Solomon footgear form the Great Outdoors, after number 42 had gone home only moments earlier.

All in all, a great night on the hills, well organised and fun. There was a lovely atmosphere in Doherty\'s afterwards for prise giving with a run on Tayto.

2 races down, 11 to go ..