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28 November, 2009

2002 Races
Errigal (summit) race - Report by Joe Lalor
Errigal 17/3/02 dry ,but very windy on exposed ridge
Less than 24 hours after Glengesh, most of the same crew assembled in the walkers carpark at the base of Errigal for an up only race and the first of the year in the revised King of the Mountains competition. The arrival of the Temple family from Mount Charles (who went on to win 4 category prizes) and Martin Bonner from Letterkenny put an end to any hope Alan Cox had of repeating his first local resident feat of the day before.
With warnings of high winds on the mountain and to keep warm on the out of race decent the runners started at sensible pace up the track towards Altan Farm. The route was marked with several items of discarded clothing with must have been sorely missed later on. After about 500m of track the runners headed across bog toward the summit of Mackoght, most runners being veterans of much worse bog the day before were not daunted by this but after Mackoght presented its third false summit the strain was beginning to tell.
At the summit runners had to clip their number with an orienteering punch to prevent any short cuts. This was a total waste of time since it is a well known fact hillrunners like to take longer routes than intended and this race was no different. Several runners ignored the ample tape leading the way down off Mackoght towards Errigal on a steep but grassy slope rather preferring the longer much more precarious decent through a boulder field.
On the steep climb back up on to Errigal ridge the wind became a serious factor and on reaching the exposed ridge anyone under 13 stone was in serious danger of being blown off. The worst of the wind was on the shoulder near the Joey Glover memorial. Beyond this the wind was less but the already nervous runners had several patches of snow to cross on the narrow ridge.
On reaching the summit most runner were very cold (mainly hands) and were glad of the mandatory long sleeve rule and delayed no longer than to record their number and descend. At least one runner braved the narrow one man?s pass to the second cairn but it is not know if this well known bird watcher recorded any new finds.
Robin Bryson had his second win in two day, Vivian O?Gorman his second vets win while the ladies prize was reversed from the day before. The most notable results on the day was by Patrick Temple (16), first junior and third overall a name to watch for the future. Local newcomer Martin Bonner got no time to relax after the race as he was called out on mountain rescue duty as soon as he was down, hopefully we can get to meet him properly at some other race in the near future.
All in all the Patricks Weekend Hillrunning Festival was a success even if the numbers were a little disappointing. The weather was substantially better than most of the rest of the country and traffic was not as bad as predicted. With such a positive start it is hoped to keep these events on the calendar but we will not always have the luxury of the extra day to the weekend. Those who ran on Sunday got some soft King of the Mountains points (first 10finishers)