10Km – Audrai O Driscoll

I’m looking out at the rain today (Tuesday) and thinking back to Salzburg where a few of us were sitting outside a gorgeous cafe yesterday morning with a few other club members before we were going to get the train to Munich airport to return home… sadly !

What a fantastic weekend away with a great group of Sportsworlders ! After lots of planning since late last year with the hope post covid for a group to go away for a half marathon and 10k race  …January came and Ellen Lavin was suggesting hotel names and flight schedules for the May trip to Salzburg.    There was a WhatsApp group set up by Ellen inviting anyone who may be interested going to join the group and within weeks there was a flurry of activity and hotels and flights were booked and we were all feeling excitement and a bit of anticipation!

Races over …. after everyone had enjoyed a well deserved breakfast it was time to go on a tour ! 
The hills are alive with the Sound of …. Sportsworlders ! Thanks again to Ellen who suggested we book our group in advance for those interested to do the Sound of Music bus trip! It didn’t disappoint! We met up in the afternoon on this beautiful afternoon post race all smiling and happy and relieved the races were done and dusted and now it was time to relax and enjoy the trip out into the countryside of Salzburg and see the gorgeous scenery and lakes out by the Palace and beyond.   Our tour guide for the afternoon brought back memories of the movie in his telling of the history of the story that many of us fondly remember from our younger days I for one being a big fan of it!  (Showing my age now).  New club members Belen and Fran had done their homework and watched the movie ahead of the trip so we all sang our hearts (Belen leading) out as each song was played and memories and the words of the songs came back ….  I don’t think many of us have laughed as much in recent times I certainly hadn’t and it felt good!

It was a fantastic weekend thoroughly enjoyable and thanks also to Nick and Martin who cheered us on and took some great photos.  Thanks again to Ellen & Kimberley and to everyone who was on the trip contributing to make it a wonderful weekend for all! Looking forward to the next trip already ! Everyone welcome as always !

10Km – Sean O Byrne

Sportsworlds group of runners and supporters travelled to the beautiful UNESCO World Heritage site of Salzburg in Austria for the Salzburg 10Km and half-marathon over the weekend of the 13th to 16th May. The group had been for months planning and Whatsapping this post Covid weekend. Now journey over we stood at the start line. Located in the old city centre with its fine squares, buildings and narrow old streeets and dominated by the Archbishop Princes Fortress, a relic of thousands of years of history.

It was a beautiful day, warm with a clear blue sky. The 10km race had a start time of 8.45am and the half marathon 9am. There was also a full marathon but wisely everybody passed on that distance. The 10km route took us past the half marathon start. We were cheered on by our Sportsworld half marathoners and then down through the streets of the old city. We passed a terrific drumming ensemble and then out into the countryside along tree lined avenues with a back drop of snow capped Alps.

So far so good, however that clear blue sky meant the sun beaming down and a steadily rising temperature. By 5km it was hot. Factor 50 and a baseball cap does not stop the heat rising form the road. 29 degrees. By 7km I was delighted not to have chosen the 21Km distance. Just keep going, take the water at the stops, drink some and poor the rest over your head. 8k passed and then 9k, through a road tunnel, precious shade and then we are back in the old city. Thank God for that. Around the corner was the very welcome finish area. My thoughts were on the half marathoners, tough conditions for affinados of the irish weather.

Great sound of music tour that afternoon. Great day.

Half Marathon – Belen Crocco

Salzburg Half Marathon took place on the sunny 15^th May 2022 but it actually started way before that. I registered for it on 8^th November 2021 after long chats about it with the team at the Phoenix Park. I mean… if they catch me eating my scone on Sunday after a long run, I would probably say yes to any plan. And I won’t deny how much I liked the idea of being an Argentinian woman, training in Ireland and going with the Irish team to run a half marathon in Austria, where I registered as Italian by the way (dual citizenship “glories”).

After six months, a long trip to Argentina, one unfortunate injury that stopped me for some weeks, lots of nerves and a tempting choice of going down to 10 km that I decided not to take; I found myself in Salzburg, walking alongside the river towards the starting line with other Sportsworlders. It was finally happening.

There was a great amount of people ready to race and bands with lovely music cheering up the environment. Everyone had a smile on their face and I could feel the race energy in the air, I was enjoying that moment so much.

The race started a few minutes after 9am for the ones in my time range. The course was astonishing all the way. It was really scenic and allowed the runners to see a wonderful side of Salzburg. We ran through beautiful paths surrounded by trees, green fields and mountains. Julie Andrews could have showed up any time singing ‘The hills are alive with the sound of running…’ We also went through a big part of the town where it seemed like the sun was hitting harder and it was getting warmer. The Austrian kids were waiting for the runners with water guns. I had never wished to be shot at that much!

The last 2km were the toughest ones for me. I kept on telling myself: push your head and the body will follow. And I did it! I got closer to the finish line, spotted some members of the team cheering me up, smiled at them gratefully and finished my first ever half marathon! I loved every single second of it and I am totally proud of myself. My time was even better than what I expected so I was happily surprised.

It was a perfect morning for the whole team. We had a wonderful time together and everyone was so supportive and truthfully happy for the achievements of each other. I was called a ‘tough cookie’ after finishing the race and I will not hide how much I liked the surname 😛

That same evening, we were heading to The Sound of Music tour where we were all singing and enjoying the beautiful place around us. Anyone in that bus can tell that I really knew the lyrics and seized the moment to show how much I love singing.

It was a wonderful weekend! Well done to all that raced! I am really looking forward to the next trip with the team and I am already searching for other half marathons to face this year. Dublin? Valencia? We’ll see, the world is ours for us to run on it!

Ah Sure it’s only a 5k and we cover double that distance at training sessions says Val AKA Shorty but then put that horrible word RACE into the equation and everything goes out the window!!!

Personally I find the 5k distance a hard one to conquer as being a bit of a chunkster myself I find it hard to go full throttle from the start and keep it up but it’s something I really want to work on so I said I would sign up for a few 5ks and the Athletics Ireland race series is a good one to start with.

It was an early start on Sunday morning and off I went to met Val and Breda in the visitors centre at 8.30am where I bumped into Lobby who greets me with – Well are you ready for the Hill? Thanks Lobby I didn’t even know there was a hill so the nerves were creeping in a little but sure I did 8 hills and sprints on Thursday so why do I think I can’t run up a hill today I said to myself – Because of that stupid word RACE!!

We headed off for a warm up where the three of us chatted about our tactics, mine was just get to the finish in a respectable time and Breda who is only coming back was feeling the same as me but Valo on the other hand was talking about making herself hurt and pushing it so we knew she meant business and with the way her training is going at the moment we had no doubt she would run a blinder.

The atmosphere and buzz around the Phoenix Park was great and with the Operation Transformation leaders on site Val felt like she knew them personally and found herself over hugging them – I swear to God you can’t bring her anywhere!!

It was such a lovely morning to be a part of a Championship race although there weren’t many from the club but the most important thing was we had an O50s team who were strong contender’s consisting of Lucy + Breda + Val. Anyone who knows Val knows that she knows everyone so she was pointing out the competition – She had her Game Face on now as we lined up – I on the other hand was trying to figure out how I was going to put one foot in front of the other almost like I was a child learning to walk but a few deep breaths and off we went.

The start was just insanely fast and I pretty much couldn’t see Val after the 1^st 20metres that mission she was on was truly in toe…. The 1^st 1k was nice and flat so you could figure out your breathing and legs and make sure they were both in sync and to my surprise both were playing ball for once so I kept pushing on.

At 3k there was a hill – Yes the dreaded hill but before the start we had a chat with one of the volunteers who gave us the heads up and said before the hill you have a great downhill so use it and this is exactly what I did so to my surprise I didn’t find the hill that daunting which was great.I could see Breda in my sights working hard up the hill so I tried to hurt myself a little bit more as I knew that the last 1k was a long flat straight. My goal was to get under 25mins and as I looked up at the clock I knew it was going to be – I know 25 mins ain’t any great shakes but for me personally I was thrilled and mainly because I felt so good coming into the finish and I didn’t struggle from start to finish like I normally do – Today was a Good day I told myself!!

Myself and Breda were absolutely chuffed with our runs as we both just wanted that under 25 min time which we both smashed…..Val was so far ahead of us that we had to go find her at the end – She was extremely happy with her performance and then to find out that they came 3^rd in the O50s was just great and Well done to Val + Breda + Lucy you’re just flipping amazing!!!

Just a few more mentions as it would just be rude not to!!

Well Done to Martin Doyle with his great time – Who then treated himself to a delicious sausage roll and a can of coke afterwards, that’s great training!

Well Done to John McGeown who ran a blinder and is aiming to duck under the 20 mins in the Docklands 5k – So watch this space and Zero pressure!

Well Done Katie Nugent on a great race – Oh to be that young again!

Well Done Nicola who is trying to race herself back to fitness and also had great support form Lobby!

Well Done to Sadanand Magee who had a super run and to think I was only half way through the race when he was finishing!

Well Done to Will Martin Smith for taking one for the team and allowing his lovely wife participate in the race while he played daddy and cheer leader with his two beautiful girls (Happy Birthday to them both!)

We all headed for what we all really came for which was the coffee where we met some of the Real runners who do the long run on a Sunday morning – what a way to Rain on our parade Maria Finnegan and Clare Rowley(Happy Birthday Daddy Rowley!!) us all delighted with our 5k and these wagons looking freshed faced after an 8 miler!!!

Then to top it all off Michael and Karol start boasting about their Wicklow way race the day before – Jesus could you imagine the pair of them boasting now you know I’m lying!

All joking aside it was a lovely morning with a lovely bunch of people and look forward to the 5-miler.

Over and out like a Brussel Sprout!

The national road relays took place last Sunday afternoon around the streets of Raheny. This is always one of the most enjoyable days in the championship racing calendar with a great buzz for athletes and supporters alike. You get amazing support as the race is run as 1-mile loops. The format is 121 for Masters and Seniors Women’s races and the Senior Men is 2132. This report from the sidelines by Garerth Murran.

For the attentive amongst you, a delayed 2021 road relays only took place in October with reduced numbers but I’m happy to report that this year we had a full complement of teams for both senior and masters. The weather always seems to be good for this one and 2022 was no exception. A sunny but windy day greeted the teams in Raheny and we had some incredible runs from our athletes.

First up were the Master’s women and representing the parish were Maria Jones, Noreen Brouder and Aoife Brady.  As you will no doubt know by now the ladies stormed to victory. They say talent wins races, but teamwork and intelligence win championships. All 3 of the ladies are excellent runners and ran to their strengths. An incredible achievement. The rumour is they’ll all be running senior next year.

1 Maria Jones 05:20
2 Noreen Brouder 11:07
3 Aoife O’Leary 05:28

Next to go were the Master’s men. Paul O’Beirne running his first road relays ran well, explaining afterwards that he didn’t know what to do. He executed a good race plan and should be delighted with the run. Karol was with me at a wedding until the early hours the night before so had his work cut out for him on the 2 competitive mile leg. Gavin was up last and gave it a good effort in the graveyard shift. I would have loved to be out there myself, having missed it for the first time in 7 years. The lads finished a solid 10th. Not bad for a mostly M40 bunch.

1 Paul O’Beirne 05:09
2 Karoldavid Cronin 10:39
3 Gavin Finley 05:17

The penultimate race was the senior women. I was busy serenading the Master’s Women women on their victory when Lisa Madden was spotted 50 meters ahead of the rest of the field, approaching the halfway point. I questioned if she had false started and had not heard the callback. My next thought was ‘oh she’s done it now, she’s lost her way and will be drowning in lactic any second’ incredibly Lisa kept the lead and ran the 3rd fastest time of the day. What a run by a talented runner, watch this space! Next up was Ciara Brady who had to face Sarah Healy. Ciara has run some great marathons of late and is not at her full race fitness put in a great shift. Lastly from Mayo was Maura Ginty to finish it off nicely. Maura would be better known as a 5K or 10K runner.  A very fast race with 2 middle distance UCD teams and a super-strong Rathfarnham.

1 Lisa Madden 05:10
2 Ciara Brady 12:16
3 Maura Ginty 06:07

Lastly, we had the senior men. An impossible uphill task awaited them. This race involved a glute numbing 3-mile leg.  Michael started things off with a good run in the 2 mile but next up was Conor Keating who ran a massive PB of 4:53 to add to his recent 15:59 5K. A great testament to the effort put in over the past year Conor. Well deserved, he looked like one of the milers on the day. Next, we had Sadanand covering 3 miles, a very tough gig as by this point the race leaders are starting to lap teams.. lapping only happens in the Senior men because of the extra distance. lastly we had Conor Mc Carthy to finish it out with a run that as almost identical to Micahel. Well done lads.

1 Michael Cunningham 11:32
2 Conor Ketting 04:53
3 Sadanand Magee 17:03
4 Conor Mc Carthy 11:29

Well done to every taking part and thanks to all of the supporters. I for one am looking forward to when Lisa and Conor line up for the Masters in a wee few years.  Not too long to go now, folks.

Full results available on AAI

After entering the Wexford Half Marathon way back in a pre-Covid world, I was surprised to find out last September that I still had an entry. Having been postponed several times from its initial April 2020 date, the event finally went ahead on April 24^th, 2022. If I was surprised to find out that I still had an entry, it was nothing compared to the shock Eoin O’Brien had when he found out on the Tuesday before the race that he was on the participant list. Never did a lack of training put Eoin off and he gamely rocked up to the start line ready to tackle the windy Wexford course.

Myself and my long-suffering supporter/bag carrier, Gabriel, hit the road before 8am, arriving in Wexford with plenty of time to find parking and get to the registration area for bib collection. There was a good buzz around the place as the crowds started to arrive.

The event itself was comprised of a half marathon and 10km race, with the half marathon kicking off first at 10:30am and the 10km race starting 10 minutes later. There was a small turnout from Sportsworld with all of us choosing the longer distance. The race started on the Quays in front of the Talbot Hotel, taking in a bit of the town before heading out onto the country roads.

I had initially targeted a sub 1:45 time, hoping to beat my 1:44:47 showing from Bohermeen a few weeks ago but not feeling confident of beating my 1:43:33 PB. I was going to run with the 1:45 pacer but I got off ahead of them and with too many people around to comfortably hold back, I decided to push on and run the race on my own. I felt great through the first 12km and my time was looking strong with me on track for 1:42:30 – well inside my PB! At this stage though I could feel my pace dropping. The next three kilometres turned out to be the slowest of the race for me, averaging over 5mins for each kilometre. At 13.5km I took on a gel and took two bottles of water at the aid station – one to drink there and then and one to carry with me. Despite the cool breeze, when the sun was shining on you it felt very warm. This gave me a little burst of energy and I still felt confident I could go sub 1:43. Eventually, we started to leave the country roads behind us and were making our way along the main road back into Wexford. The wind was suddenly against us but with the uphill sections more or less behind us, it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Finally, we passed the 20km mark and a quick check of the watch suggested I was still on track but only marginally so. We made the last turn onto The Faythe, and it was a straight run to the finish line. Despite being able to hear the finish line announcements I couldn’t yet see it. Another quick check of the watch showed 1:41:04 and I realised I was going to have to sprint if I was to finish under 1:43. Finding a burst of energy I didn’t know I still had in me, I took off and pushed myself towards the finish area, falling over the line with a new PB of 1:42:54.

Like the start line, there was a great buzz at the finish area. Overall, the race was quite enjoyable. The marketing before the event suggested it was a PB course which had me convinced that it must be flat. It was anything but! There are a lot of hills – both up and down, but they are quite manageable with only one steep descent. There are stretches of road where you have to run on the path and there was one section where the cars felt too close to the runners.

After the race, myself, Gabriel & Eoin headed for a post-race debrief over brunch before hitting the road back to Dublin. General consensus was that it was a good race. Not easy, not too difficult. I would definitely consider running it again another time.  Full list of Sportsworld results below – well done all!

Mark WILSON    01:31:58

Deirdre MCGING               01:42:54

Anthony FITZPATRICK      01:53:45

Eoin O’BRIEN      02:01:31

Claire HARRINGTON        02:34:46

So let me get this straight, when you have a disappointing marathon you want to run another one and when you have a great marathon you want to run another one. Seems like a scam!!!

If you didn’t know it I’m an obsessive. Once I become interested in something I have to know everything about it. The history, the how, the people, EVERYTHING. So as soon as I joined the club and signed up to run my first marathon in 2017 it didn’t take long for me to hear about Boston and the mythos surrounding it. It became a major goal to qualify and run it.
The Boston Marathon is the oldest annual marathon in the world with its first running in 1897, and is also one of the marathon majors. (Six of the world’s best marathons or a marketing ploy depending on your point of view) It’s held on Patriots Day (third Monday in April) with 30,000 runners participating. It has become known as the “runner’s” (or again depending on your point of view pretentious) marathon due to having to run a qualifying time relative to your age to earn a place. Also with it being run over such a long period it has a great history with many notable duels over the years such as Salazar and Beardsley, Boston Billy Rodgers and our own John Treacy who finished 3rd in 1988 in 2.09.
There are also the trailblazers such as Katherine Switzer. Women were forbidden to run the marathon distance as “logic” stated a women would die if they tried to run 26.2 miles. By signing her entry form “K. V. Switzer,” Kathrine became the first woman to receive a number in the Boston Marathon in 1967 and completed the race despite officials trying to throw her off the course. This year marks the 50th anniversary when women were officially allowed to enter the race.
On a more tragic note there is also the bombing at the finish line in 2013 when 3 people were killed and 264 injured.

I ran my qualifying time in Dublin in 2018 and couldn’t sign up quick enough for the 2020 edition. We really really don’t need to go into what happened next but suffice to say it didn’t happen and so I find myself writing this report for 2022.
We arrived on Saturday in Boston and as soon as you arrive you can tell this marathon is a bit special. There are runners everywhere. I’m always conscious that a lot of hype and hyperbole surround these events but the marathon in Boston dominates the whole city and weekend. I was lucky enough to do the London and New York Marathons in 2019 and they are amazing events. However with the two cities being so vast the marathons can be swallowed up. For instance, as soon as you leave the finish line in NYC you wouldn’t even know the race was happening. If you go back to my London race report you can see that I ended up in vicious duel with Elmo. There was not one person in Boston wearing fancy dress. This was serious.

The people and the city are so proud of the marathon and as soon as you put your celebration jacket on you get treated like a bit of a rock star. Everyone on the street is congratulating you and you are exchanging excited nods to the other participants. When you go out to eat, you can guarantee that the person at the table next to you has done or is doing the marathon and you end up having conversations with complete strangers from different countries.

On Saturday we arrived and went to pick up my number at the expo. I don’t like sticking around in expos as they are usually crowded and don’t really interest me. This one was no different and once I had bought the obligatory celebration jacket I didn’t hang around. We did a bit of sightseeing and had an early night. The next day I tried to stay off my feet as much as possible and did a couple of tours around the city on buses. (It’s a lovely city)
Then race day arrived. Boston is similar to New York in that it is a point to point course so you have to catch a bus to the start line and hang around a staging area for a while. Fortunately by the time I got on the bus and arrived at the start the race was only 50 minutes away so it wasn’t a long wait. From the athletes village to the start line is about a 10-15 minute walk.

After some flybys and the obligatory national anthem we were off.
If you look at the Boston course profile it looks like it should be fast. It starts at 150 metres above sea level and descends into the city with the finish line 3 metres above sea level. However Boston can be a notoriously difficult and is typically the slowest major marathon. This is generally because of two factors. First is weather. The weather in Boston is notoriously unpredictable in spring. Just ask Diarmuid O’Súlleabháin, formerly of this parish, who ran the event in 2018 with temperatures of around 4°C, driving rain and a headwind. Look it up on YouTube, it’s mental. (He still ran 3 hours) Luckily, my race conditions were pretty much ideal apart from a bit of a headwind which picked up during the race.

The second is the course itself. While downhill is good, Boston has a lot of sharp downhills followed by climbs, which beat up your quads. Then the infamous Newton Hills, a series of 4 climbs, which come just at the wrong time at miles 16-21 when you are traditionally starting to struggle in a marathon. My plan and the general perceived wisdom was not to go too fast in the first half but take some advantage of the downhill before you reach the Newton Hills. I wanted to come through half at 1.28 and make sure I came through the hills with a chance to go sub 3. However I found it difficult to get into a rhythm with the constant ups and downs and came through in 1.29. I managed the Newton Hills pretty well and ran by effort eventually cresting heartbreak hill where it is downhill to the finish. I took off but after an initial burst I struggled to hold the necessary pace. Even though I was slightly off pace I was still passing a lot of runners who had blown up their legs on the downhills. It’s a great feeling passing people in the last miles of the marathon. I eventually got to the famous turn of “right on Hereford, left on Boylston” and gave a bit of what felt like a sprint (it really wasn’t) to come in with a new PB of 3.02. While everyone knows my mission is to break 3, I was over the moon to run a PB at Boston.

Trying to describe the atmosphere during a race is difficult as it can all become a bit of a blur but the crowd support was phenomenal. But more than that, there is a real sense of camaraderie and appreciation between the runners. A lot of people work very hard to get to Boston so the race itself is a real celebration.

I don’t know how to finish this report and I’m leaving out loads of stuff but I had an amazing time and would love to do it again some time. I would encourage anyone who has the opportunity to do it. I also want to give a big thank you to my wife and trusted Sherpa, Martina. Running can be quite a selfish pursuit and training takes up a lot of time coupled with taking annual leave days to accompany me on these trips. I really appreciate it. Before you ask I have said this to her but want to commit it to print so I can use it as evidence in any future negotiations in respect of holidays.

OK so I’m sitting here thinking how the hell am I going to make this interesting,  this event was the first of its kind in Ireland so I signed up after being talked into it by a fellow RUNKIES as ultra-distance runners like to call themselves, the training involved long days split into 2 or 3 long runs or a marathon plus long evenings walk/ run and another early morning,  was the way I decided to prepare my body.

This went OK until 3 weeks out and I had a bad marathon in Clontarf. Rain, wind, got soaked, then went out again that afternoon. Picked up a nasty chest cold 🤧, that never really cleared. Still headed up determined to do at least the marathon. It was for charity and I knew a lot pulled out. So simply put we started at 6 pm Friday around a 400mt track timing mat laid out changing direction every 2 hours, you could stop as often as you want but had to keep the chip on throughout, whoever covered the most distance wins.

We had drizzle, to begin with then it lashed heavily into the late evening. I changed clothes shoes twice and was already feeling sore on this concrete track, still, the time passed and in the marquee that was set up, we had music throughout. The local cafe, the main sponsor, provided lovely cakes bread etc. We were lucky we had the camper parked right beside the track the others had tents, so only a few joined in Friday evening as there were options 1, 6,12, 24 hours,  it got very cold during the night and had a cough and high temperature didn’t help, so I took a few hours rest, got hot food, changed. Saturday morning was at least dry and more runners joined in. It was great to see old friends as I was making new ones. Saturday went by slowly I needed a few painkillers, got the terra gun out, the hip flexors were very sore at this stage I was doing more walking than I hoped for. Saturday night we had a yellow wind warning for around 9 pm so chatting amongst ourselves we decided this would be our long rest time,  I knew when I nodded off in the portaloo.,😉 however this happened earlier than expected about 6 pm rain hail and high winds greeted us, and so I was called in, to warm up with hot soup & toasties,  took a while to get warm I tried to sleep,  only the 2 hours.

Wednesday saw a number of Sportsworld runners do the midweek IMRA (Irish Mountain Running Association) race. This week it was the Belmont and Little Sugar Loaf, 8.6Km long with a climb of 360m.

After months of anticipation, IMRA summer races resumed this week with Belmont &“Little” Sugarloaf.  Launch evening is perfect; sunny, mild, windless and in the beautiful setting of Belmont Demense.   I find Deirdre and Eoin (fresh-ish from his car-nap) in the registration queue.  Neil mooches along after a few minutes, looking far too relaxed.  I’m keeping the head down and having a little panic as my phone (emergency navigation aid, registration details and camera for my first IMRA race) has randomly crashed and to my surprise, rubbing the screen and holding down buttons isn’t fixing it.

10 minutes later,  we find Tim at the early start line – a cluster of friendly people in the long grass at the top of a field beside the car park.  People seem to have come here of their own free will and are in good form.  Anthony has arrived but he’s still in long pants and a jacket and doesn’t have the same fear of losing daylight that has some of us itching to make a start.

I kick off cocky enough. I’ve done longer runs and how bad can a few hills be if I take my time?  We jog a decent pace meeting some downhill on the woodland track early on.  I’m not sure how to run downhills yet but letting loose is the chosen technique this evening – relatively effective speed wise,  but an absolute jackhammer on the body.

Within the 2nd km we start a climb and though it’s still a nice gravel track, my good feeling gets erased by the unbelievable calf burn on the climb.  To add to the evening, my phone has somehow resuscitated itself on full volume and the calm lady in Garmin Connect is keeping anyone within 5 metres regularly appraised of my heart rate and average speed.   Sunglasses on, head down.

The gradient eases and I stop to take a photo of Neil coming up behind but then I’m too tired.

Eoin eases past in power walker mode. Deirdre keeps glancing back at me with mild concern…like she’s trying to remember the emergency procedure should she be stuck with the task of getting me off the mountain. I’m consoling myself with the amazing views but really having doubts if I’ll get down in daylight.

The track ends and, after an oddly easier climb o

ver rock steps, we summit. I take some more photos to stretch the recovery moment then commence the bum shuffle over the short steep descent on rock and scree.  It’s a relief to find a grassy path. Deirdre tells me it’s all downhill from here but also that she got lost on it last year.

Armed with new enthusiasm, we fairly “steam”

up the grassy path but that bubble bursts when the flags indicate another steep incline. Reluctant to follow any flags that don’t work in harmony with our current preference for downhill, we consult with some ladies trotting along behind.  “The fxxckers!” someone exclaims, a reference to the designers of this trail who we will later be thanking for a lovely evening on the hills.

The fading light and tangible chill to the air push us on so we actually do ok on this bit and soon we are looped back to the calf-burner of a gravel track.  Happily,  this time it’s upside down so we can lash into it.

I carry on with the jackhammer technique of downhill running as if I’ll never need these knees again.   I’m too knackered now to stop my legs flailing about anyhow. We traverse a field of unimpressed cows. Despite what I think is my blistering downhill pace there is no sign of Eoin or Neil, nevermind Tim.   They must’ve been even more blistering.

The last 1.5k is more undulating than expected.  Deirdre cruises past me while I struggle to stay moving at all.  I finally fall over the finish line,  last of the sportsworlders,  in 1.09, narrowly missing out on being overtaken by 7.30 starter Anthony Gillen. (50 mins).

Much more challenging than anticipated but worth it for the views and the experience and if I recover in time I’ll be signing up for the next one.

The midweek races are an easy way of getting away from work, into the mountains and get a work out in some of the nicest scenery around.

To do an IMRA race you have to pay the annual registration fee (€10) and then each race is €7. You can enter online and you are given a chip at the race to record your results.

As well as midweek races there are weekend races too and the website gives the details on the length, amount of climb and difficulty of the race so you can start with an easy one.

https://www.imra.ie/events/

Next IMRA evening event is Scalp

DATE:Wednesday 27 April, 2022TIME:19:30

https://www.imra.ie/events/view/id/2210