Rene Borg

27 April, 2010

MEN
1. Rathfarnham WSAF 8 (1 Brian Furey, 2 Peter O'Farrell, 5 Aaron O'Donohue)
2. Boards AC 40 (6 Mick Hanney, 14 Paul Joyce, 20 John Langenbach)
3. Crusaders AC 42 (3 Jason Kehoe, 15 Gavan Doherty, 24 Diarmud O'Colmain)

Peter O'Farrell

26 April, 2010

Wow. What a class route.
Hats off to Paul Nolan on designing it and Niamh ni Ceallaigh and crew for organising a fantastic feelgood homely oldschool hillrun and then providing a huge feast of a picnic afterward beside her car. Brilliant stuff altogether.
The mischieveous Gerry Lalor of CIMRA showed up after the finish and gave it his irreverant seal of approval once he ensured the complete and utter lack of either laptop or marking tape.
There was Super free fast running on dry ground in the sun with the roof of Wicklow opening up in front of you, only mighty and a fine fillip to the soul. Before the race Brendan Doherty had given me the inside tips on the best line to the lake, stay high, stay high, hold your nerve whilst running on a high line away from where you think you should be and it worked, the ground was much better and even though I was on a longer line it was much faster then the one close to the lake. Thanks Brendan.
Henny at the trig point (both times) kept his arms rigidly by his side, we were to navigate out our path and sure enough both times I went slightly left and both times was dragged back on track by fine visibility. Racing in the slew and muck of a misty rainy day would be epic up there.
As to the race itself, both Jason Kehoe and myself harboured pretentions to arriving first to Niamh's feast but with Leinster Champion in waiting Brian Furey in attendance we were both left to admire his decisive surge to the front when it mattered, on the final descent. Great racing from Brian.
Great race, climb, descent, climb, descent, eat cake. great race, not one single metre of either fireroad or tarmac underfoot and short enough to go all out.

Mick Hanney

26 April, 2010

Class route, class day. Peter fails to mention in his report that he had cycled to the start from god knows where – then cycled home thereafter. I think he should have at least done a bit of a kayak run across Lough Ouler while he was at it.

We were blessed with the day for the race. Despite the fine weather we all had our mandatory kit to hand for good measure. We started bang on 12 noon and headed up the single track with the gradient nagging at the legs from very early on. Jason Kehoe went off at an almighty pace with Brian and Peter in close attendance. The rest of us followed, a bit slower, in single file fashion and many reduced to walking earlier than others such was the effect of the slope. Walking was effective at times though and you could still overtake a slow jogging competitor at times. It was hard to believe that the peak was only c. 1.5k from the start. The pains in the legs made it seem like more – still, good practice for Croagh Patrick next week. After the mandatory touching of the trig point it was off as fast you could down the far side towards the heart shaped lake. Running it anti-clockwise made a nice change from the last time I ran around it, accidentally, whilst doing the circuit of Glenmacnass 2 years ago – and the ground was a bit more boggier then than it was this time. Anyway, different strategies were employed by different people in tackling the lake route. Peter’s approach of keeping to the high ground as long as possible seemed to be the best one on the day. I myself descended earlier and found an undulating single track running along the lake which was pretty runnable. Skirting the lake – possibly the only small flat bit in the race – the daunting sight of the climb back up Tonelagee opened up on front of you. Ahead in the high distance were the leading dots (of runners) on the hill. If we all wore hi-vis vests it would have been much easier to pick them all out, but from my vantage point I could only see Jason’s white top. Back where I was it was a case of moving forward with a reduced speed – much walking employed again – to gain ground up the mountain. I lost ground to Zoran who climbed very well, but gained ground on Dan so swings and roundabouts. It was great to feel the ground level out towards the Trig point at the peak again. A ‘hello’ to Henny and you were off as fast as you could down the far side to whence you came from. The descent was electric. Grassy steep descents are great fun and we should have more of them – route designers take note. No ground gained or lost on the descent, but well happy at the finish. Route was only 6.5k but what a route! If anyone else ran the 6.1k advertised please tell me about the shortcut. I made it c. 590m of climb throughout.

A great buzz afterwards with the post-race delights on offer. A race to restore your joy of running in the hills.

Ronan Hickey

26 April, 2010

A Heart-shaped Pox!
As Nirvana would have sung about Loch Iolar if they'd had to run around the blasted thing. Missed the path despite having recced it the week before! My first ever unmarked race and what a brilliant introduction. Beautiful weather, great route, brilliant group of people, well organised and plenty of food after finishing.

I have to ask though, what is the name of the gentleman we saw thundering through the finish line holding one of his runners in his hand?! Apparently it had come off high on the slopes of Tonelagee and reckoning that stopping to put it back on might lose him two places he decided to run down without it! Savage. And he kept those places as well! As one of the lead runners clapping people in at the finish line said at the time "Man, I dig your style!"

Denis Deasy

26 April, 2010

Hi Ronan, that would have been myself charging down with my left shoe - it came off in that one bit of wet bog about 1k up the slope. As an old stager who has just rejoined the fold, this was a route & a race to bring back memories of the early days, so thanks to Paul, Niamh & the team for a great race, & great hospitality at the finish (including spot prizes for half the field!).
One reason I was determined to retrieve the shoe, was the fact that, as I foolishly recalled before the race, I had lost a shoe in what was almost certainly the same spot on the first Lug relay, but that's another story...
Anyway, having done all the hard work, I wasn't going to lose the 2 places I'd gained descending the fast dry slope in a semi-controlled fashion by stopping to lace up! Thanks again for a brilliant re-introduction to proper mountain running.