News Item

Committee Spring Update Report

Tuesday May 6 - Miriam Maher

As we head into the summer months, we are now fully into the rhythm of our racing season across the country.

The first few months of the year is always a very busy time on an organisational front for IMRA. As you might expect there is significant amount of preparation work done behind the scenes to ensure that we can safely and effectively deliver on the racing calendar for the year.

Race routes have to be finalised and recces carried out. The storm damage from the winter storms impacted some of the planned routes significantly and resulted in extra work by the race organisers to plan alternative routes. Thanks to all involved for the extra volunteering work.

Race permits must be applied for with the relevant landowners and stakeholders. We don’t go where we haven’t secured advance permission! Relationships are established or maintained with all those involved. Liam Vines, our races co-ordinator, continues to work tirelessly on this hidden but vitally important aspect of our race preparations. In all the regional areas we look to the volunteers living locally to explore options and permissions for the routes. Robbie Williams and all those involved with the Munster Regional Committee ensure that we can get access to the many hidden gems covered by the IMRA Munster races. This work is replicated for the Southeast League, led by Niamh and Paul Kelly and in the Northwest League led by Turlough Conway. Liam has also made several trips to Galway county to work with local parties, ensuring that we have an exciting set of races for over West this year! Where access issues arise, which unfortunately has been the case with Carrauntoohil this year, we keep working in the background to explore long term options and we never close the door on these conversations.

Alan Ayling, our safety officer, organised specialist first aid training earlier this year. This well attended event ensures that a key volunteer role (without which no race can take place) has a widened pool of trained IMRA members available to fill the roles.

Already we have in excess of 2,800 members registered for this year and over 45 races have been held. These races included leagues in Leinster, Munster, Southeast and the very popular women’s trail run series in the Northwest. The regular distance, half marathons and ultra length races held so far have all been delivered to great success. We had a great turnout for the women’s trail runs, with over 100 women taking part across the three events held. A special thanks to Theresa Killgannon for all her ongoing hard work in this area and the support of the Sligo Sport and Recreation Partnership in holding the series.

But the stats only give a small part of the racing experiences for our members. The women of IMRA spoke up recently on the forum, providing interesting and nuanced perspectives on what can limit them from participation in the longer distance races. 6 of my 16 ultra races events have been IMRA races. I was glad to read the many accounts provided that spoke of the welcoming and supportive experiences of other women in IMRA ultra distance events. These echoed my own experiences. Life events, time available to train etc can often get in the way of ease of participation in longer distances but the most important element of the feedback for me was how welcoming and inclusive the women experienced the IMRA ultra events.

Speaking of inclusion and ensuring a good welcome at our races, the races held to date have continued to foster the IMRA sense of community. You just have to look at the enthusiastic comments on the forum post races to see that reflected in our members’ experiences. That said, we are conscious of the need to ensure that newcomers to IMRA have all the information they need to participate and enjoy the races. The communications group, led by Kate Flynn, continue to promote and highlight all aspects around the IMRA races through News items and social media posts.

Kate recently carried out an overhaul of our Beginners FAQ on the website to ensure all the information is current and in line with our existing race practices. These are worth checking out, even if you thought you knew it all...

Long term IMRA member and volunteer, Alice Clancy, turned a recce run for the first race of the Leinster League, Belmont, into a meet and run for all newcomers to IMRA. She also made a specific focus of promoting the race itself as a welcome event. We ended up with over 270 runners on the long course and over 60 runners on the short course – a Leinster league record! It should though be noted that the particular venue for that race facilitated those numbers. Environmental issues over route erosion and car parking limitations can and will result in some of the races have capped numbers for entries.

This year also sees the rollout of a junior runners’ league! Phil Behan worked with our Junior Development Officer, Elizabeth Wheeler, to launch this super new initiative. We’re hoping this will encourage greater numbers of juniors taking part in the races. Thanks Phil for all your work on this. Elizabeth also developed and held a junior development day in Glendalough in April. This well attended event was supported by many of our senior high performing athletes, giving back in a very meaningful way to IMRA.

On the high-performance side of activities, we have already held trials and selected teams for two upcoming internationals – Trofeo Nasego in Italy in May and Trail de Guerdelan in June. Congratulations to all those selected, wishing them every success in representing us and our country. Next up for trials will be the WMRA U18 Cup trials next weekend in Slievenamon. Details on the website. We’re looking forward to seeing what our juniors have to offer this year! The races are being held in Bratislava, Slovakia this year.

In February, Richard Nunan, WMRA and AAI representative on the committee, and I met with Hamish McAdams, CEO, Athletics Ireland, and his colleagues for our annual review meeting. We are pleased to confirm that we have recommitted to the Memorandum of Understanding in place between AAI and IMRA. This relationship with AAI is a very important one for IMRA and their support of our high-performance activities is much appreciated.

Louis Mullee, ordinary member on the committee, continues to explore and promote sustainable, accessible and inclusive measures for us to incorporate into our activities. The carpooling focus is now heavily emphasised for all our races. Monies collected from the car parking charges either cover costs we are incurring for those locations or, in many cases, form the basis of charitable donations to local causes. Due to the nature of mountain racing, events are often held in places that aren’t easily accessed by public transport. However, we endeavour to highlight what options are available for getting to the races other than relying on driving only. We will continue this focus throughout the year and will avail of every opportunity to maximise ease of access to all for our races.

We held the first of our charity races, the Killiney relay race, with proceeds going to IMNDA. This will continue throughout the racing year, with specific races already identified as fundraiser events. A nice feature of these races is that members can donate by buying an entry even if they can’t attend the race in question.

I’ve had the great pleasure of being able to present the specially commissioned volunteer T-shirt for those members who have volunteered in excess of 50 times for IMRA a few times already this year. The ask of all members is to volunteer once for each 10 races you do. That is plenty enough and much appreciated. Some members continue to go above and beyond that contribution so it’s good to recognise their generosity in this way.

A date for the diary is our AGM. This year we are holding the AGM in Munster on November 22nd. We held the AGM in Munster a few years ago and welcome the opportunity to do so again this year. We’d expect that it will be held in conjunction with a race on the day too. Details of venue, race etc to be confirmed nearer the date.

The racing year continues with so much to look forward to. It never ceases to amaze me how much gets delivered week in week out by IMRA members, all giving of their time, expertise and commitment for free. This enables us to plan, prepare and then deliver on the most prolific range of mountain and trail races in Ireland for the price of €10 annual membership and a race entry of €7 for most of our races.

So, a huge thank you to all of you. I look forward to seeing you on the hills soon.

Miriam Maher

President, IMRA Executive Committee