Rene Borg

11 May, 2009

The Open Trail Series finished its maiden voyage by casting anchor at Gibbet Hill. "Gibbet" is the English word for a gallows situated on a hill for public executions, and while the Wexford hill was presumably named after a hill in England rather than because of historical executions taking place here, this acted as a pretty grim omen for runners going into the race.

Great injustice would be done to Jane and Graham's races by describing them as grim, however. Once more they had procured perfect weather and once again a nice relaxed buzz seethed at the start about half a kilometre up the woodland hill.

Indeed even the usual pushing and shoving at the start remained absent, instead everybody seemingly tried to get as far away from Keith Heary as possible (clearly no offense to him) and a quick contest about best excuse for not running well ensued: "Hangover", "age", "knackered" where heard, and temptation arose to chip in with tales of my cut knees. In the end I just tried to flaunt my white bandages as I stepped up behind Keith.

As the Carlow man went off in the lead, the field and I tried not to be caught up in the slipstream that had forced such a fast start at Little Sluibh Bui. Stephen Tyrrell, one of 8 Slaney Olympic runners in the field, sprinted out in second spot with me close behind.

The first mile featured only tiny ups and downs, then a short steep descent followed by a short steep up, "No time to settle here". I had intended to just test the knees for Ticknock, but after about half a mile, had found myself galvanised by suddenly being in 2nd spot! As Keith only stayed in sight for the first 2 miles I wondered for the next 8 kilometres if leading a race felt like this, that is, you are the hare all the hounds are chasing!

The organisers described Gibbet Hill as having "longer more gradual" climbs and I suppose you could call them this compared to Whernside, Knockdhu, Slieve Donard and other such horrors, but as they hit us in the race they seemed anything but gradual. The first 4 kilometres led us over two short sharp climbs before dropping down to the route's lowest level, at 140m, around the 5k mark.

Here the real work began, but luckily the plentiful trees cast a welcome shade. Jane and Graham had placed a full colour route-map and elevation profile at the start, and had I studied this in more detail I would not have been as coy as I felt going up this. I was climbing at a decent pace and thought "put full effort into this climb and 2nd is in the bag". Jane had cheerfully informed us that the last mile was a cruise, so when I saw a sign saying 4 miles, my heart sank for a moment. The steady feet of Edward White kept tapping behind me...

Our climb took us from 140m to about 275m elevation, and the usual cat and mouse played out: I forced my way over just ahead of my pursuers then burst off on the descent hoping to create enough of a gap for the next climb. What hill runner has not played this game?

An open stretch on dusty fire road leads you downwards, towards the end, or so I thought. Instead, at the 8.5km the road rises towards the top of Gibbet Hill at 296m, and gradients reached as high as 22% here.

At 9 kilometres out Edward White got his just rewards for plugging away on the climbs and not letting go on the descents as he passed me out. Second thus relinquished I thought a "podium spot" would be worth fighting for but barely had I pondered this there came Frantisek Neupauer, who would go on to clinch the M40 category, right behind Edward. My movement ground to a complete halt at this stage, and only a burst of anger (apologies to those who heard my yell a common explicit!) held off Chris Squance who was only metres behind on the final stages of our last major uphill.

As you pass the top, the route is indeed all a cruise, a reasonable steep but technically easy descent on a broad rocky trail (with two nice winding corners for variation). This did lend itself to fast descending but it was difficult to make up time here. At the finish line Graham described the beautiful bluebells and the view of the valley from the top, strangely, we hadn't noticed them!

In the end Edward hung on to 2nd with Frantisek 18 seconds behind him and yours truly a further 19 seconds adrift. 23 seconds later came Chris Squance, also of Slaney, and then local woman Aoife Joyce another minute and a half later. In this comeback race after long injury, she had watched the battle in front of her all the way. Next behind her came Ironman athlete Sue Redmond (who had sprained her ankle that same morning) as 2nd woman, while Janka Sobekova was 3rd (and first F50)

Greatest cheer of the day went to Diarmuid O'Cholmain, the M60 winner, who finished 9th overall and had a good gap on rival Brendan Doherty. Joan Stapleton was first F40, but winner of the day and of the Open Trail Series 2009 was Keith Heary of Carlow Runners, fresh from his close battle with Aaron O'Donohue and Kevin English on Wednesday, he had demolished the field and finished 5 and a half minutes ahead of our small chasing pack.

Graham revelled in the race's international line-up: "We got a Romanian, to Slovaks, and a Dane!" The course certainly was no pushover, while not as technical as Howth, the ascent grade of 6.5% on average compares well to Howth's more meagre 4.7%.

Once again there were prizes for everybody at Ryan's Moss House in Bunclody and elegant crystal trophies for the overall winners to take home. "Shall we do it again", asked Graham, and the cheer greeting the query left no doubts of the crowd's sentiments.

Even thoughts of expanding to 5 or 6 races next year were mooted, and Graham appeared not all uninterested, when I suggested, in jest: "Soon it'll be the South Leinster League!". Now there's an interesting thought.

Thanks to Jane and Graham and volunteer Brendan for another splendid event! We'll await the Open Trail Series 2010.