Rene Borg

10 June, 2010

MEN
1. Rathfarnham WSAF 20 (1 Peter O'Farrell, 4 Aaron O'Donohue, 15 Colm Moran)
2. UCD 26 (7 Greg Byrne, 9 Niall Fox, 10 Zoran Skrba)
3. Boards AC 31 (3 Eoin Keith, 12 Mick Hanney, 16 Eamonn Hodge)
4. CNOC 44 (2 Seamus O'Boyle, 17 Hugh Cashell, 25 Ruairi Short)
5. Sli Cualann 75 (14 Jimmy Synnott, 19 Martin
Francis, 42 Cormac O'Ceallaigh)
6. Crusaders AC 76 (13 Shane O'Rourke, 23 Niall Heffernan, 40 Gavan Doherty)
7. Kyrgyz Freedom Alliance 130 (18 John P O'Regan, 43 Viv Lavan, 69 Brian Storan)
8. Donadea AC 253 (70 David Maher, 78 Joe Smullen, 105 Brendan Cummins)
9. Glenasmole 300 (82 Thomas Galvin, 107 Ercus Stewart, 111 Mattie O'Malley)
10. GEN 316 (27 Alan Ayling, 144 Ted McCormack, 145 Brendan Doherty)
11. Raheny Shamrocks 400 (125 David Brady, 146 Ciaran McGrath, 149 Mike Gomm)

WOMEN
1. Crusaders AC 33 (9 Roisin McDonnell, 11 Emma Boland, 13 Eva Fairmaner)

Peter O'Farrell

10 June, 2010

We need more laptop operators, apparently it's not as hard as it looks either.
Thanks again to the few who week in and week out keep these races going. I'm as guilty as the next man at racing and not helping but I strongly feel the running volunteer is a ridiculous concept.

And back to the race :)
A lovely blustery evening without a hint of sunshine or summer heat, my kind of conditions. Off up the initial fireroad with everyone feeling their way into the race checking how the head, legs and heart feel today. Eoiny Beany smiley Keith sets a steady pace that seems to please the assembled front runners for a while. I spend a few seconds wondering what endurance antics he was up to at the weekend, probably a 50m run or a cycle to Galway. A while in this case lasts about 500m then Seamus O'Boyle drifts to the front with Eoin smoothly shifting gear to sit on his heels. Hard left onto the firebreak between a forest on one side and fireproof deforestation on the other side, probably a mere path now only so, the EU firebreak grant aid scheme will be withdrawn. My little leggies are feeling good, way too good for someone who was at 1034m on Sunday. Some mental self-flagellation and disgust at my obvious mental weakness on Carauntoohill leads to my old friend angst making a return and firing the legs into action and all of a sudden I’m flying. This is the dark side of the force but it’s working. I can’t believe how good I feel, all systems are go, it’s like I have 10 litre lungs, a heart as big as a head and legs as light as butterflys and only the nagging knowledge it’s 3 days too late (or too early says Gerry Brady  ) drags me down.
Eoin, seamus and myself hit the top of the ride and float along the edge of the forest on nice dry grassy ground with Eoin upping the pace again which had relaxed somewhat with the view of Sorrell hill looming in the distance acting as a subconscious brake on the earlier exhuberance.
My angst poked me in the arse again and the legs started turning away, I was determined to run every step in atonement for walking back up Cahir and as a brucie bonus that sets you up nicely for strong running once the ground levels out. Into the mist and soon enough a vision of Lalors swam into view with race marker Gerry and WWR supremo Joe standing station at the top. I desparately wished for something witty to say to the lads as I rounded the cairn but had to settle for a banal howarya, poor show O’Farrell..I blame the altitude..
Running back I saw the 3 lads (Aaron has joined the fray) closely bunched and it would be interesting to see how they descended. I started to regret choosing the white singlet, I may as well have painted a target on my back and sure enough all three were closing me down with Seamus having the strongest descent and finishing only a few seconds back. Nice to win though! Angst levels have dropped thankfully..

Jeff Fitzsimons

10 June, 2010

Feeling like I'd put on a poor show in Kerry at the weekend I arrived parked up in the field last night and set off on a bit of a warm up. Chatting to John before the start he asked me was I going to beat Eamonn. I think my response was something like I'd be happy to hang in behind him on the climb. Off we went and I soon realised this was not to be. I settled in up the fire road and through the trees sitting in behind Suzanne. No shame in using a girl who's recovering from injury as your pacemaker is there?

Anyhow, got out of the trees and pushed on a little till we hit the climb to the summit. I'd a bit of a stumble early on which knocked me out of my stride but it was a fairly slow stride so not to worry. Suzanne passed me at this point and I decided not to try keep her paceand run my own race from here on. I passed Martin shortly before the summit and had a quiet chuckle to myself as I thought of how he'd blast past me on the descent very shortly! Oh and thanks to Peter for the shout as he descended and I blindly watched the 8 inches ahead of my nose. Eamonn whizzed past with between 20 & 30 seconds lead on me, I was happy to be sticking that close.

The descent was a blast. Sat in for 30 seconds to recover some energy and then followed Martin after he blasted past. Didn't manage to keep up with him but had an absolute blast on the way down. The descent off the top was just technical enough to provide some squeaky bum moments but not that much that I couldn't let the legs go. Once we got back onto the smoother ground back towards the tree my real race began. I cleared some ground on Ruairi on the climb but my shorty legs struggled with the barbed wire crossing so this was quickly eaten up. Then it was a footrace across the raised ridge down to the fireroad, I was a bit wild there but managed to keep my nose in front. Some gentle requests of the lads on my shoulder to please go away fell on deaf ears. With about 600 metres to go I stuck the boot down hoping they would settle for where they were. Alas they were bigger men than that and I think it was Ian who got in front of me before one of the final bends. Ruairi used his long legs, using the shortass line as an excuse again you'll note, to full advantage on the final sprint to the line. On reflection I think I settled a bit to soon and should have given him a better run for his money but I was just happy to be feeling good about my run which goes some way to making up for my disappointments from the weekend. Here's looking forward to the relay on Saturday.

Eamonn Hodge

10 June, 2010

Weather-wise it was not a lovely day.

I was a little bit tired from Carrauntoohil and was thinking about Wicklow Way Relay coming up this Saturday. I wanted to put a good performance in for that so I thought about just volunteering for the Sorrell Hill race and saving myself. Really glad I didn't! :)

Suzanne Kenny joined me for a recce. We met Mike Gomm coming back down and he confirmed that it was pretty cold and that visibility was poor. He wasn't joking. When we emerged over the stile we came up against a wall of mist. We could not see very far to the left and couldn't see Sorrell Hill lurking in the mist. We were jogging/walking and it got really cold. I had my fleece on but could have done with a winter duffel coat. We turned back after about 3.5k and we still couldn't see Sorrell Hill.

Back down at registration I chatted to Rene and Aidan Roe about races, training, physios, injuries etc. The usual running topics!

Now though, what to wear? Aaargh! It's bloody baltic. It's like a January winter league race. Bloody singlet?! Is that all I had. Other people were producing various technical rain jackets and I'd say Jenny Kilbride may have sold some warm tops to freezing runners. As it turns out the singlet was grand. It wasn't as cold during the race as it was during the recce and thank God it didn't rain. It also helped that I stayed clothed for as long as possible before the race. I kept my jeans on until about 7:25. I kept my long sleeved top and fleece on as Dermot was saying his race director thing and managed to fling them aside just seconds before we were off.

Peter didn't tear off immediately like he did at Scarr although he may have put in some speed on the uphill single track sections. Knowing there was a tight little left turn up through what used to be forest but was now the tree line with a bit of a razed tree graveyard to our left I tried to get out in front of the pack. I overtook Mick Hanney on a flat section which I'm sure gave him a little bit of a shock but he soon rectified matters by skipping comfortably in front of me as soon as we got to single track. Ginger CNOC lad (just checked his name: Hugh Cashell) passed me here but nobody else which was great. There were three sections to be covered mostly on narrow trail separated by fire roads before we got to the stile. This was quite nice to run on but would definitely have been frustrating to be behind people that you're faster than. (this was not a problem for me). If this is happening to you in races then you should make an effort to get out in front and not get caught behind people.

After the stile I knew it was going to be fairly runnable and I knew I would have to try and run well here and try to solidify my position and maybe even catch a couple of people?! I was fairly sure they would overtake me on the descent so I didn't want to make it too easy on them. On this runnable section I overtook Hugh and Rene and tried to close the gap on Mick. Didn't work. Mick passed a couple of people. We got to the tough climb up Sorrell Hill itself.

A guy in white gave me a shout of encouragement. It was Niall Heffernan - good stuff! You could see that he was neglecting his Monday night Rene hill sessions! Ah no, he must be tired from something. He's very strong on the uphill and a very strong descender. "Pillar of strength" was the phrase Rene has used in the past. Still though, I'll take a scalp any time I can get one!

I heard a race number flapping behind me and I was sure it was going to be the Great Dane himself Rene Borg putting me in my place for having dared to pass him on the (relative) flat. I loved running along this section. I didn't think it was a descent but on the way back it looked like a massive climb. The chasing runner turned out to be Hugh again. The wind on the ascent was mental. It was blowing a gale but I didn't get cold and I was delighted I wasn't wearing my cotton long sleeved t-shirt which was my other wardrobe option for this race as I had (unusually for me) cleared all the various gear out my car the previous day.

Was absolutely delighted to find myself fairly high up the field at the turn around point. I counted in the low teens people coming against me. Savage!

It was very nice of people to step out of the way of this capricious, almost tumbling, certainly barrelling Hodge coming towards them. Good idea for race director to highlight this narrow part of the course and to advise both ascenders and descenders to keep to their left. There could have been some serious collisions there! I heard a couple of shouts of encouragement and tried as best I could to say hello to the ascenders. It was just too risky! I think I might have had my serious face on during that descent. Pretty happy with that descent. Some people opted to run through the heather. I didn't. Better the devil I know and can attempt to run down than the devil lurking underneath the heather which could *easily* twist an ankle. Followed Hugh down the steep stuff and passed him just as it levelled out. Jimmy Synott passed me reasonably comfortably but not with the "whooosh!" I've become accustomed to.

On the way back the seemingly flat section alongside the forest had turned into a seemingly epic climb. I could see Mr. Alexander, just beside the sack covered barbed wire fence. He was magestic this "Billy in the Mist". A silverback in charge of Alexander the Younger, James who may have picked up an injury in this race.

Colm Moran in a Rathfarnam top just caught me before the stile but nobody else came with him which was a relief. Hugh wasn't going to make me pay for overtaking him just at the bottom of the descent. The Rathfarnam vest opened up a huge gap on me. Nobody behind us though. There was one little drop of about a foot and I decided not to break my stride and go for it, nearly went over on my left ankle. (not strong enough yet to do that sort of thing). Discretion is the better part of valour.

I was waiting for the lads: Amidou, Alans plural, John Ahern to attack. I reckon Alan Ayling had left everything on the field at Carrauntoohil to borrow a GAA saying. He beat me by a significant 5 minute margin which was not like our usual tussle for the finish line. But no attack came this time! Alan Collins I thought would be smarting from our Carrauntoohil race but again no attack came.
Amidou had me down as a target he informed me before the race. I was wearing a very visible white singlet and what was termed by Jeff Fitzsimons as my "Daisy Duke" red shorts. I prefer the label "Tom Selleck-style awesome shorts". Who likes short shorts? Everybody: WE LIKE SHORT SHORTS! Anybody? No? Just me? Some of my friends won't run with me as they fear I might scare the children. My protests of "but they're RUNNING shorts" fall on deaf ears. "Tell it to the judge" they mutter. Amidou has a serious downhill advantage on me so I expected to see him cruise by me and I was ready to try and keep with him. He stayed behind.


Where was Martin Francis? Lately he's given me a little bit of confidence allowing me to get to the top before him on one or two races before humiliating me by coasting by me on the fast and furious descents or the technical, tricky descents or the loose rocky descents. Any descent really is what I'm getting at. Maybe there wasn't enough continuous descent for him to catch me. At the finish line I saw Mike Long finishing AFTER(?) me! Two experienced scalps that I was delighted to take! Probably my best race of the season and I really wasn't expecting it to be. My placing was much higher than normal because there was a drop in numbers of the really fast guys but hey I'm not complaining. To have come 117% of Peter O'Farrell's time with O'Boyle and Eoin Keith coming in quickly after is a huge achievement for me. Delighted with that!

Two of the stronger ladies Rosalind Hussey and Niamh O'Boyle were not racing tonight although Niamh was volunteering. They had done the Women's Mini Marathon in Dublin on the previous Monday. This is what they call a "road race". Which they do on foot with a large crowd of people. So in a way it's a little bit like the real races that we do on a Wednesday evening or weekend.
Except it's on a road.
Flat.
No hills.
No mud.
No muck.
No stiles.
No barbed wire.
Very little bloodshed.
Hmmmm.

I don't get it myself but I'm a tolerant guy so each to their own I suppose. We use roads to get to races not to race ON them. Bizarre. Niamh seemed to see the error of her ways and vowed not to venture onto the roads for a "road race" for another couple of years. God knows what possessed her in the first
place. It wasn't the novelty factor. She had done a 10K "road race" before. About 3 years ago. Maybe it's just to remind her how great the hills are.

No Jenzerwoman McCauley either to hassle Suzanne Kenny who got her fourth win of the season with a taped ankle. Kate Cronin also coming back to fitness after injury did very well coming in just around 40 seconds behind Suzanne. Hazel Thomson had her first podium finish in a while edging out Emma Hand (who has a marathon PB of approx 3h20 I think). Emma hasn't raced much this year but could really threaten the top girls if she can get an injury free run at it.

Aoife Cruise decided to take a night off having hurt her ankle slightly on Scarr. However she was fit enough to play Tag Rugby last night(!). Aoife was relaxing with a hot chocolate with Baileys. Now doesn't that seem like a great way to relax?! Ah these Celtic Tiger cubs. Next it'll be hot chocolate and cocaine. Hmmm, I think I'll add some Baileys to my chocolate milk recovery drink.

Cliona Langford and Sile Loughrey were the 3D-tri representatives for this race. No Tara, no James, no Aoife? Poor show people. Back to the hills with you. Get off them tri bikes and out of that neoprene clothing. Let the hair grow back on your legs (that's just for James, not the girls, you can stay silky smooth). Mountain running is much more fun than the clinical precision sport of triathlon. You know it. Don't be ashamed to admit it. You can still wear your trisuits to the mountain races to maintain the vestige of loyalty to your ahem, previous, favourite sport.

Jeff Fitzsimons still has tiredness in his legs from his Malin to Mizen cycle (and Carrauntoohil on Sunday) and yet turned out a great performance with 119% of Peter's time. Stephen MacEoin did very well on his first mountain run having not run (at all) since January when we went for a jog around Carton estate. I thought he had been running twice a week since then. Not so. Lazy so-and-so turns up and runs 133%. These army lads eh?!

At the top of the field Peter O'Farrell was leading at the half way point and managed to hold off (just) Seamus O'Boyle by 10 seconds. Well done to Seamus O'Boyle for coming second ahead of Eoin Keith. Seamus and Colm Hill had a bit of a battle at Scarr last week in which Colm prevailed. Was this the race that Colm could have taken the scalp of the mighty Eoin Keith?! Oooh, I'd say that's driving you mad Colm! :)

Thanks to Dermot Murphy for race directing and especially Richard Nunan the laptop operator who was determined to cycle back to Leixlip from Blessington
after all the pub activities as he had his cycling training cut short by a puncture. Madness.