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28 November, 2009

The last day of the good weather saw the re-inauguration of the Aghavannagh Bridge race to the IMRA calendar, after 7 years of dormancy. Diarmuid O?Colmain and Barry Tennyson reminisced well as they drove back to the starting point, after dropping their cars at the eventual Finish at the base of Slieve Maan, even remembering their recorded times all these years ago.

Brian Bell took the reins of race director, and duly handed out maps of the course on registration. Thankfully he had marked on strategic route choices, ?Take a right, take a left, straight on? through the forest. Then, he pointed to the big mountain behind him and said, ?Up that?. Brian had usefully marked that bit on the map as ?Very Steep?, in case we hadn?t figured out that Lugnaquilla and all those closely packed contour lines meant a 700 metre slog from the Start.

Part of the race briefing also told of the sad and untimely demise of Brian?s Leinster League Tie-and-Dye T-Shirt which has been a feature for oh so many a year... it had weathered many rips and tears, but the sleeve falling off proved to be too much for Brian to bear. Wednesday nights just won?t have the same multicoloured effect again.

Kick off was midday, and 23 lads and lassies lined up for the start. That was the first and last time we all saw Eoin Keith, who romped home in less than 2 hours. Back to the rest of us, and the pack was duly strung out through the forest in no time. Little dots climbing Lug guided the way. However, even Brian?s instructions of ?Stay Close to the South Prison? and take a right at the small cairn couldn?t stop a few belting off eastwards to visit Clohernagh rather than heading for Carrawaystick. Ye won?t be making that mistake again will ye Rene, even if the lad ahead of ye seems like he knows where he?s headed... Not even yer watch can save ye now ;o)

Luckily I had the wise words of Mick Skellet ringing in my ears from a Wednesday evening pre-race briefing who warned me to take a right on to Carrawaystick... that, and following the white dots of Viv O?Gorman?s T-Shirt and Joe Lalor?s brightly shining local knowledge in the distance helped guide me down to the forest break and on to the forest track.

The forest track eventually met the Military Road and Diarmuid was strategically placed there with the necessary water and encouragement. From there, it was Fananierin Ridge, only to be met by Aisling Coppinger, Tony, and Co. happily running in the opposite direction to the rest of us. Out practising for the Wicklow Round attempt... nice one lads!

Paul Mahon snuck up behind us all at this point, recovering from his ?boob? (quote unquote) coming off Lug, and belted up Croaghanmoira at a rate of knots. From the top, it was then a nice descent, past Henny checking for any shortcutters (!), over bouncy bog to the finish beside the tarmac road. 1st in Eoin, 2nd Bernard Fortune (I?ve got your prize for ye in the back of me car, which in your absence was unanimously chosen to be the Balance Cushion for toning belly and bottom... well done), and 3rd John Dempsey. 1st M40 was Vivian O?Gorman, and as for the ladies, Grainne and I were just out to test our new Inov-8 Roclite 315 runners... available from all leading suppliers.

Overall great old run, so let?s not wait for the 7 year itch again, and keep this route on the IMRA calendar for good!