John J Barry

09 July, 2012

“There be monsters in there them hills and mist" - and so there was....

Slippery rocky types, muddy sticky types, deep hidden hole types and four wheel drive types.

To Brian – The shoes you want are “Inov-8 MudClaws” A very apt name indeed. I have a new pair winging their way to me and they will get introduced to Galtee Mór in August!”

I wish to also congratulate Jane and Graham on the organization which was spot on. From Jane’s direction(instructions) to the smooth nature of the registration and to Graham telling me to now "P*** Off" (back down the mountain :-) ) after he registered my reaching the little yellow flag he was manfully guarding beside the cairn. After the race, they also provided a lovely fast flowing river of the right depth in which to wash off a half-tonne of bog of my shoes and legs :-). That’s two rivers between Wednesday and Sunday, the bar is been seriously raised with in IMRA!

Mount Leinster was my second ‘championship’ race after Knockmealdowns earlier in the summer and I could not have found two more contrasting runs. In theory Mount Leinster was supposed to be easier with less distance, climb and angle of ascent. But yesterday once again showed don’t take everything written down at face value. The route was tough, really tough but very enjoyable. I have to thank the Porters for their route marking. For me, it was critical since I was not familiar with the route. Because of the small field once again like the Knockmealdowns I found myself on the descent with nobody to follow so I was relying on the little yellow flags as a beckon to follow. Jane also got the mandatory coats spot on since it was quiet chilly “on high”. Maybe jackets should also be mandatory fluorescent as they are so much easier to spot in the misty conditions we had yesterday.

Hi-lights of the route included the not too much fire road at the end but I do like a bit at the start since it’s a great warn up before the mountain proper… The boulder field near the top added a nice feature to the route but I see Stephen Marry got a little too familiar with the rocks. :-). I saw Stephen passing at the end a bandana around his head and red stuff oozing everywhere and I thought of RAMBO!.

On writing this I also remembered my own close incident where I was on a pretty good track on the descent and moving quite nicely (for me!) when my leading foot landed on the edge of a deep nasty hole on the track. It could have been a leg breaker. A real close one for me.. Reminder to self “concentrate during descent”. Been more used to the Leinster League I definitely found it a little harder to keep up the concentration over the longer weekend runs. One of the guys at the end said to me he spotted the hole on the way up and registered the fact to watch out for it on the way down. That’s a usefully piece of advice to make away with me for the next mountain adventure

Another amusing hi-light was watching a fellow runner overtake me on the descent only to take a stumble 20 metres in front of me! He was down and out and rolled over and back on his feet running without losing a second on the lead he had gained on me.

So again well down to all and hope to do it all again soon.


John

Brian O Murchu

08 July, 2012

Mount Leinster

Having run 8 of the first 10 Leinster League races, I decided to take a mountain running night off (Trooperstown Hill). But come Wednesday evening, I was already having regrets as withdrawal symptoms were setting in. With Ballinastoe too far away to wait, I had to find a race before then with Mount Leinster fitting the bill nicely. I almost didn’t make the race with only an 11th hour arrangement for carpooling, kindly offered by Gareth Little (at about 11:30pm Saturday night).

Race registration had the use of a camper van providing ‘office space’ for the laptop operator and first aid officer. The camper van’s awning provided shelter from the drizzle during registration. Is it just me or does this happen to other runners: after the car journey by the time I register and start pinning on my race number I am very often shivering with the cold. At that point I start thinking about wearing layers, until I start warming up and then I realise it’s not too bad/cold.

The cloud was down over Mount Leinster and visibility was poor. Jackets were mandatory and the race director announced that the course was marked where it needed to be. I can say that it damn sure was. The early part of the race was straightforward enough, we followed the 4 x 4 tracks up and up the hill. I was running the early part with Bernard Fortune and another runner (whom I will identify when the photos go up). About half way up the mountain, it was just me and Bernard, and when the visibility dropped the yellow markers appeared to guide us through what was becoming very boggy and misty terrain. Bernard helped me up after my first fall (on the ascent), and then pulled ahead of me disappearing into the mist. By the time I got to the summit marshal I had fallen twice more. On the turnaround I was in 5th place and glad to see I had a sizeable gap over the next few runners.

On the way down having fallen another x 3 times, I was soaking wet and I was starting to suffer from anticipatory anxiety as I was sure the runners behind were going to catch me at any moment. Near the bottom of the hill, Martin Francis and Barry Moore caught up with me to witness my 7th (and final) spill, and probably the most spectacular fall of the seven. They quickly went by me, but when the descent levelled off a little I started to reel them in. I was in 5th place for the majority of the race, and I wasn’t going to let it go without a fight. I caught Barry and coming into the finish straight I caught and passed Martin, but Martin impressively had one final sprint in him and nipped ahead with meters to spare.

A great race with thrills and spills (at least for me). Anyone recommend more gripy shoes? One less fall might have enabled me to hold onto 5th place...