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28 November, 2009

37 runners turned up for the circuit of Glenmalure, including 2 all the way from Scotland. What started out as a fantastic sunny morning suddenly turned into wind, mist, wet and misery!

The start of the race was the slow drag up the zig zags and a group containing Paul Nolan, Turlough Conway, Peter O'Farrell and Barry Minnock quickly built up a good lead. Leaving the zig zag track the first real climb began with Clohernagh. The mist came down and visibility was most difficult. Thankfully on the fiinal push to the summit of Lug the wind was on our back.

Zoe Melling acted as summit marshall on Lug and provided great assurance that one was on the right track. Leaving the summit of Lug required great attention to detail of direction, one chasing group of three went to far left and when the clouds cleared discovered they were in Glen of Imaal! - their identity is being protected.

After the final climb up Camenabologue, it was down hill all the way on to table track and then the forest track. The track seemed to go on for ever and provided a last opportunity to catch other runners. Paul Nolan was the first man home in a time of 90m 35 seconds followed by Turlough Conway and Barry Minnock. Roisin McDonnell was in flying form and first lady in at 118m 46seconds, 11 minutes faster than last year followed by Isabelle Lemee and Sarah Moores. The finish was at Baravore and in spite of the weather most runners braved the conditions and took the plunge into the Avonbeg river.

Prize giving and wholesome food and craic took place back in the Glenmalure lodge. Big thanks to all our volunteers Brian Bell, Dermot Murphy Ashling Coppinger and in particular our summit marshall Zoe Melling.


<b>Paul Nolan version:</b>

As the runners arrived in Barravoe Car Park the recurring comment concerned the weather and how much it differed from the heat and sunshine of the previous edition of this demanding route. It later transpired that it had been 37 rather anxious starters who had huddled in close to the wall and copse of trees that marked the start and listened to the organisers fail to generate an accurate head count before the off.

The zig zag track for all its long past designers best efforts failed to ease the burn in the quads of the initial haul up Clohernagh. Relief was not forthcoming with the easing of the gradient as now the weather in its full force came into play. As we approached the 700m contour the raincoats came out and the pattern for the next 5 km was established.

Visibility down to 20m, rain and a howling gale meant that the race split into small groups, the herd instinct of survival over riding all thoughts of individual valour or glory. I was fortunate to have Turlough Conway, compass in hand, to confirm my every navigational move, even if his face was beginning to match the colour of his very red jacket.

A very cold and wet Zoe Melling shouted her hellos from the top as she became the latest summit marshal to come to terms with pens that don?t write on soaked paper. All found their way towards Cannow and the merciful relief of dipping under the cloud before the final strength sapping climb up Camenabologue. Seeing that we were safely on course Turlough allowed me to proceed from this point alone and unsupervised.

The descent to the table track and then the long, long run in to the finish were to see some places gained or lost as the navigational partnerships dissolved and baser instincts bubbled back to the fore.

Well done to all for finishing without anyone doing badly astray. Even our summit marshal had adventures on her return to lower ground. Those of you with long memories can rank the weather of this race up with the near disaster that was the 1990 Glendoo ?River? race. That all returned safe and sound this time is a remarkable testament to the navigational skills displayed today. You can browse the results below to see all the class winners.


<b>A personal account by Barry Minnock:</b>

This was my first IMRA race where navigational ability came to the fore. Stories of lost souls were aboud beforehand as all contemplated just what to bring for the trip. Seeing myself as the modern minimalist type, I decided to abandon reason and go with a paper copy of the race route as the sole means of finding my way ...

As I climbed up the zig zags, I noticed a distinct difference between myself & others around me ? everyone else was carrying a compass. I was unfazed at this stage, remaining optimistic about the weather conditions on top of Lug. My optimism diminished with the visibilty as we approached the top of Clohernagh. For a while I wasn?t keeping pace with the guys around me, but fear of getting lost spurred me to keep up!

Paul & Turlough increased the pace slightly & within a minute they were out of sight due to the mist. Peter urged me to chase the leading group as he was wasn?t feeling in the best of form (possibly due to racing twice the previous weekend, including the energy sapping Knockdhu). The competitive part of my make-up considered making chase, but fear of not catching the guys called my pre-race tactical plan in play ? to attempt to follow Peter around the course.

Thankfully Peter was paying attention to the navigation ? I was merely there to provide some useless emotional support as the hail & wind made running difficult. I was amazed to see Zoe at the summit of Lug, battling to put up a wee tent in order to make herself comfortable - impossible I reckon given the conditions. Coming off Lug we made a dog-leg left to Camenabologue. We veered a little of course for a while, but manged to get back on track when visibility improved. We battled through the bog, with Peter at one stage going into a bog hole literally up to his neck ? thankfully his back was sitting up nicely, allowing me to use it as a stepping stone to avoid the hazard.

All hope of catching the front runners disappeared with the mist as they were well out of sight. The snake that I am continued to follow Peter?s footsteps, only to out sprint him to the finish line. A sincerely thanks to Peter for getting me around the course in one piece. Not so sincere apologies for my race tactics ? all is fair in love & war :-)

Thanks to all the race organisers, particularly to Cormac & Zoe. Fears for Zoe?s well-being were prevalent for a short while, as she still hadn?t appeared at 2:30. Thankfully all was ok, with her just deciding to take the longer race route home. Personally many lessons were learnt on this race ? in the future I will attempt to be more self-sufficient ...