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28 November, 2009

Wednesday night racing in the brave new world of the ARUP Leinster League.
Over 200 souls stood blinking in the unusally sunny summers evening as Laura Flynn, wearing her Race Director hat, gave the instructions through the official megaphone.
Clare Glanville was poised with the official finger ready to tap the spacebar on the laptop and start the clock. Steve Mcmullen was on hand with his latex gloves to tend to any bloody knees or sprained ankles. Fidelma Ayres and Turlough Conroy stood guard at the race turnaround points. Peter O'Farrell had pointed out to errant youths that we usually removed flags after the runners had passed through and in an ideal world they wouldn't be throwing markers into bushes. Fidelma made the same point 10 minutes later. Another five or six helpers had organised the chaos known only as registration and some of these were now ready to race. A handy way to get your volunteer requirement sorted!
As to the race itself a brutal climb up to point Fidelma at the cross was followed by flattish trail over to the trig point and a tricky short descent back to the trail and a tasty freewheely drop back to the promenade to the cruel cruel little loop at the finish where you have to run past the finish and back. Michael Kelly and Beth McCluskey showed their class in the main categories with Michael giving himself an extra 200m backtracking when he bypassed the cross and regaining the lead within a minute. Eoin Keith proving adventure racing training can't be all bad with second. Keith Daly showed his fine run in Rostrevor was no flash in the pan with a solid third place gained on the back of a very steady return from point Turlough. Another adventure racer Roisin McDonnell was second woman and Zoe Melling, the guardian of Lug, was third.
First F40 was Ann Tobin, M40 was the pirate Jimmy Synnott, F50 new homeowner and ex-president Jane Porter, M50 Brian Bell, M60 Mick Kellett, F60 Jean O'Neill gracefully modelling the new IMRA top, M14 James Alexander and on the short course Tadgh Russell and Alesa McNally won through in a competitive race of 8 juniors and Brendan Ring was 155th.
Joe Lalor was unimpressed with the bottlenecks and was seen rubbing his hands in anticipation of the free route chioce approach to the Cross that will be in evidence at the Christmas flash. Steve McMullen in his official capacity was worried at the state of the first finishers as they looked far worse than the lads finishing last. Thanks to all the volunteers and especially to Laura Flynn for a great job on the night.