Trade descriptions act
| Author | Date | Message |
|---|---|---|
| Alan Ayling | Aug 7 2025, 12:09pm | Now don't get me wrong, the finger food after Bray Head was tasty and plentiful. But if you're gonna bill something as a "BBQ" I expect a steak, or at least a burger or some overly charred chicken ;-) |
| Andy Keeling | Aug 7 2025, 1:16pm | What is the literal meaning of abyss? a deep, immeasurable space, gulf, or cavity If you're going to bill it as an Abyss you'd expect a percentage of runners to dissappear into it every year never to return...... |
| Brendan Lawlor | Aug 7 2025, 1:21pm | Now don’t get me wrong but if you are going to put up a cheeky, ungrateful post on the forum you can expect a few good slap downs to put you back in your box. Well said Andy! Back in yet box Mr Abyss!! |
| Alan Kennedy | Aug 7 2025, 1:48pm | Touché Andy! But I did miss the steak :-) (and you for that matter??) |
| Warren Swords | Aug 7 2025, 2:18pm | To be fair to Alan, he's fair too modest to name the race after himself. I believe it was James Cahill that came up with the name, replacing the previously catchy "Djouce (New Route from Djouce Woods)" I'm fairly sure we've lost runners to the abyss over the years but it's something we don't talk about. That said, I did leave hungry and disappointed that there was no bbq. Bring back the Big AL burgers in a car park. |
| Louis Mullee | Aug 7 2025, 2:35pm | To the BBQ "Big Beautiful Quorum" of hill runners last night. - Big: The vastness of the hills, the ambition of the climbs, the size of the challenge. - Beautiful: The landscapes, the camaraderie, the sweat-soaked sunsets. - Quorum: A gathering of like-minded souls—runners who show up, push each other, and make the journey meaningful and share a plate of fine Bray style canapes together. |
| Jeff Swords | Aug 7 2025, 3:20pm | Well I did call it a soirée but it didn't catch on. |
| Turlough Conway | Aug 7 2025, 3:32pm | Limericks had their day over in May, But by jaysus they're called for today! With mucho Brown Swiss, Coming out their abyss, These complainers missed their ice cream in Bray! |
| Mikey Fry | Aug 7 2025, 4:23pm | Does this mean we can complain about fire roads with burnt chicken burgers on the last uphill of the abyss. Wow Alan your the best:))))) |
| Lillian Deegan | Aug 7 2025, 8:21pm | @Alan A - In hindsight, with the number hitting the Martello for a finish last night, maybe we should have sought a permit to use the bandstand off the prom with a catering company to do a full blown BBQ for the end of summer session and just hoped the weather played ball for us. When I saw your headline forum topic earlier today, my heart skipped a beat. I thought crikey, this one sounds ominous! Thankfully it turned out to be an out ‘n out Ayling sense of humour one - Phew! And come ‘ere when you say plentiful food - does this mean you were one of the people who managed to land a whole dish of food all to yourself :) @Warren, reading your post I’m motivated to add in a little background on how “replacing the previously catchy "Djouce (New Route from Djouce Woods)" race route renaming came about. With IMRA having such a jam packed events listing year on year, when calendar planning back in 2018/19, Committee gave the ok to rename/ tidy up that particular catchy (as you call it) race title. For me, I found it a bit of a head wreck having to bounce all those words for one event (too many) - “New Route from Djouce Woods” - around the summer events calendar till it landed on a date that worked for the distance and known difficulty for all runners to take on for a Wednesday night outing. The new name we landed on came from your very own race report - https://www.imra.ie/events/report/id/1446/ - much to Alan Ayling’s surprise. Back then, the bush telegraph had whispers of Alan voicing something like - such favours of having a race named in one’s honour were reserved for IMRA members who have left the land of the living - But in the case of the Ayling Abyss (along with Alan pinching himself to be sure he was alive), it definitely felt like the right call to make renaming the race route as we did. I know it myself as simply the AA. @Andy K - I do like your diversion tactics ;) Bravo! It sure does seem like the race team from ‘14 had an issue around disappearing runners back then. Having gone back on the history of the Abyss event to see what year it was when we replaced the catchy race route title. By all accounts reading the 2014 forum posts, things were tricky enough on the maiden outing - https://www.imra.ie/events/forum/id/1129/ @Mikey, keep on fighting the good fight not sure about the burnt chicken bit tho. Too many midges by the AA finish line ;) I have every faith in you mind - your dreams (and mine) could well come through if you keep at it. I’m imagining a time where we can all legitimately say with 100% certainty that Mikey Fry does indeed love fire roads. That last fire road climb for the finish on the AA is an absolute shocker. To anyone who missed food last night, have a word with Alan Ayling next time you see him. It sure sounds like he gained well on the nibbles side of things. |
| Mick Hanney | Aug 7 2025, 8:58pm | For those who crave accurate event descriptions, Annagh hill(s) live up to their billing and in previous years they even got the rare Alan Ayling and Warren Swords stamps of approval. |
| Stuart Scott | Aug 7 2025, 11:46pm | It wasn't a bbq Alan, it was a "soirée'! I missed it unfortunately but I assume the cucumber canapés went down a treat. |
| Warren Swords | Aug 8 2025, 11:24am | @miriam - I have no memory of writing that race report or suggesting the name change! Gas. Surely a sign I post too much. I hereby submit my application for Race Namer to the committee. Perhaps we can change Bray to "Hamburger Hill" |
| Dara O'Brien | Aug 8 2025, 1:31pm | Sorry Warren but that name has been trademarked by Brandon Hill !! |
| Alan Ayling | Aug 19 2025, 7:02pm | (Pokes head furtively out of box to make sure no one is looking)... Hopefully if there aren't any more storms we can have the real Abyss route back in use next year. It's all clear now, with a couple of very minor re-routes around the worst of the fallen trees. Might even manage to eliminate what I regard as "The Abomination" (the few hundred metres of fire road climb that got tacked onto the end). Anyone remember the first running of that route? The army guys were organising, I had marked the route but relied on tape not marshals, I think 9 runners ended up in Crone, several more finished from what should have been impossible directions. Then the next year the entire early start went the wrong way around the route after misinterpreting my taping. Kinda surprising the race survived at all after such an, errr... abysmal... beginning ;-) I've learned a few lessons about race marking since then! PS Turlough I did get an ice cream in Bray, it was lovely! |
