Diarmuid O'Colmain

05 May, 2011

How do they do it?! I ran about 50 metres and looked up to see the leaders about 200 metres ahead of me. It is just absolutely disgraceful. No consideration of the wounded pride of those of us further down the field.

In truth, the conditions were perfect, no excuses allowed, and the new route is a good one. There are attractions to the old downhill route, but sooner or later some innocent 3rd party was going to be clobbered and that would be the end of the race.

Knowing how hard the uphill part of the race is, it seems that I paced myself too gently, reaching the top 5 minutes slower than the last time. Glancing back, there was nobody in sight behind me; no need to kill myself on the initial very stony part of the descent. Two people in sight in the distance ahead of me seemed too far to catch.

As I headed up Ben Gorum (yes, on the 'descent' from CP), I glanced behind me and was confronted with the fearsome sight of Paddy Syron in full flow sprinting up after me - well ok, maybe sprinting is a slight exaggeration, but it sure got me moving a bit faster, and gradually I began to gain on the two ahead. But anytime I looked back again, I couldn't see Paddy - I recognized the old tactic of hiding in the slipstream, and expected him to power past me near the end.

Happily it was not to be; I held off Paddy, passed the two ahead of me and made it safely to the finish injury free. The gods were looking after me following my race report of 2 years ago.

What a day! What spectacular views (or so I'm told)! What organization! And as for the gogeous First Aid person - sure the race was worth running just to see her waiting at the finish; and with nary a scratch or a bruise to tend to among all the runners.

Thanks a mill to the stewards, markers and other helpers. Apologies to Vivian for this rather late and somewhat lacklustre race report. Hopefully better late than never.

Dermot Murphy

05 May, 2011

Summit times - thanks to Joe Lalor

Number Name Time
889 Robert Malseed 32:10
577 Brian Furey 32:44
891 Jason Kehoe 34:04
337 Bernard Fortune 35:05
286 Peter O'Farrell 36:02
28 Zoran Skrba 36:37
1502 Tom Blackburn 37:42
897 John Shiels 58:00
894 Brian Mullins 40:48
748 Pat Lawless 40:41
47 Damien Kelly 41:05
892 Mick Hanney 41:28
717 Brian Wilson 41:30
109 Alan Ayling 41:53
295 Dermot Murphy 41:57
135 John Ahern 42:05
10 Eamonn Hodge 42:48
900 Cathal Kearney 43:01
1601 Joe Aherne 43:48
893 Diane Wilson 44:02
890 Kevin Murdock 44:20
423 Vincent McGuines44:40
53 Charlie Lyons 44:42
189 Pat Breen 44:47
214 Sean Burke 45:42
269 Cormac O'Ceallai46:15
899 Sean Nee 46:57
1546 John Foley 48:38
1508 Loretto Duggan 49:16
83 Diarmuid O'Colma50:30
212 Justin Rea 51:32
71 John Greene 51:36
901 Paddy Syron 52:01
1558 Majella Diskin 52:56
20 Brendan Lawlor 53:23
81 Tommy Galvin 54:25
59 Paul Whyte 55:29
261 Niamh O'Ceallaig56:49
371 Eithne McShane 57:45
896 Colum Lynch 58:59
33 Colin Doyle 60:22
895 Brenda Gannon 61:58
807 Martin Sweeney 66:29
898 Audrey MacMahon 67:49

Robert Malseed

03 May, 2011

After defeating the Formorii the Tuatha De Dana sent messengers throughout the land and to rejoice the victory over the 12 principal mountains of Ireland with the first mountain being that of Croghan Aigle, thus now known as Croagh Patrick. The mountain that we call the Reek was closely associated with the Sun God Lugh with the Rolling of the Sun Phenomena as seen from the Bohea stone and for the seems of Gold in the area. But, unlike our ancestors of the mythological past our ascent and descent up such heights requires our physical ability and no divine power. The Tuatha De Dana had the power and ability to arise and overpower nature and her tempest fury, whereas we mere mortals struggle as Hemmingway's Old Man of Sea - not to conquer the natural adversity but just to survive it - well survive it enough to get to Campbells for a well-earned pint.

Sun Tsu once wrote that preparation is half the battle, but he was writing about tackling the enemy foe, here on the Reek, nature has no care or thought for how well one's preparation and training. I know well on previous attempts to train on the Reek that

1. it is an uncomfortable climb from the start, with the stride breaking steps to the saddle, an uneven build up to the cone.

2. Coming down is far more difficult for a twinkle-toe tender foot as myself especially on the scree.

3. That it is inevitable that if the weather and conditions are nice I will get stuck behind a fat arse that resembles two badly parked double decker buses.

So the only thing to do was to run up hard from the start and hit the uncomfortableness as soon as possible, as there is no point in delaying the inevitable. So off we went and luckily I was able to maintain form all the way to the top, and then the erosion of confidence on the descent. I though initially I was descending pretty well until Brian happily tiptoed by. My language improved when Jason ambled by, and three times I caught him back on the following up sections only to see him slip away. Then on the final section losing more ground...I do however ask for forgiveness to everyone for my language - but the King of Mountain is a consolation prize for "good going up - shite going down." So my hat goes off to Brian, Jason and Bernard for having the good grace to smile when passing me on the way down...

Rene Borg

01 May, 2011

TEAM RESULTS

MEN
1. Boards AC 45 (11 Mick Hanney, 14 John Ahern, 20 Eamonn Hodge)
2. Crusaders AC 49 (2 Jason Kehoe, 20 Sean Burke, 27 Diarmuid O'Colmain)

Dermot Murphy

01 May, 2011

A new course this year in order to avoid the pilgrim route on the descent. On a glorious sunny day, 44 runners lined up to try this new route, would it turn out to be a success?

Robert Malseed took off like a rocket at the start and left everyone else trailing in his wake. He was comformtably in the lead lead at the summit, but how would he descend? I found that the sun made this tough climb even tougher, as I struggled to get my legs going - I would say I was not the only one. To see Joe Lalor at the top was a welcome relief, and Joe had done a great job marking the route on the far side to the new finish. Anyone who thought they would miss the rocky descent from the summit were quickly reassured that the new descent is just as rocky and just as tough! Except there are no pilgrims, and from that point of view, I reckon the new route was a great success.

Meanwhile at the competitive end of the race, Brian Furey started to eat into Roberts lead and had passed him by the end of the rocky descent. The route then went up and down across the ridge before the final climb up Ben Goram and then descent from here was on grassy/boggy ground - still difficult to run on but little chance of injury in case of a fall. By this stage, Jason and Bernard had also managed to get by Robert to mean the top three in the men were Brian Furey, Jason Kehoe and Bernard Fortune. First in the women was Diane Wilson, the Lagan Valley runner in her first IMRA race, followed by Loretto Duggan and the evergreen Majella Diskin. As in last year's race, my descent was rubbish and I lost a few more places. The new finish has great views of Clew Bay which all the runners enjoyed while waiting for the bus to return to the start (apart from Bernard, who ran the course in reverse!).

So all in all, a resounding success for the new route!