IMRA season 2011

T runner

GoHardOrGoHome wrote: »

Personally I think Croagh Patrick and Carrauntoohil are sacrosanct. Nothing else! Not that the dates are untouchable. I would hate to see Croagh Patrick off the calendar but I don't mind it not being part of the Connaught Champs!

Sacrosanct is a word used by pro CPers for many a year. Going to look it up now to try and find any weaknesses in the definition!

I think thats a good idea about having CP as IC only. Connught Champs would then have the choice of all those grassy routes!!

Antigrav

I also support the idea of opening up more routes in Connaught. I've been lobbying for Mweelrea for the last few years and am glad it has finally been figured out.

Some good stuff in the Twelve Bens too. The descent off Bencorr into Devils Col looks like one for ocnoc! Or a similar scree fall off Benbreen as part of Glencoaghan horseshoe. Plenty of scope if we can work out the access logistics.

T runner

Antigrav wrote: »

I also support the idea of opening up more routes in Connaught. I've been lobbying for Mweelrea for the last few years and am glad it has finally been figured out.

I think having Mweelrea as a venue for a race has always been acceptable in principle the problem has always been finding a route. Thats why there hasnt been a race there: there has been no accessable or safe race route available until now. Any attempt at a horseshoe route as a race could only be attempted on the calmest, clearest blue sky day and that is simply unfeasable.

The only feasable route from the beach side had been cancelled as a race route before due to access issues. These issues appear to have abated, which is graet news.

I spent two weekends trying to find a route on Mweelrea (no joy) and the alternative on Bern Gorm. Again there was no chance of a race on Mweelrea once there was no route.

Peterx

Local Organisation is the key to expanding the Connaght Championships to 5 races, it is no coincidence that most of IMRA's races take place where people with passion were close to.
John MacEnri on his holidays found our newest route, imagine a John or a Turlough actually living in Mayo, our cup would overflow!

T runner

Peterx wrote: »

Local Organisation is the key to expanding the Connaght Championships to 5 races, it is no coincidence that most of IMRA's races take place where people with passion were close to.
John MacEnri on his holidays found our newest route, imagine a John or a Turlough actually living in Mayo, our cup would overflow!

I agree, local organisation is the key.

Theres a couple of hillrunners there who are organising Galway centric summer trail and hill runs . That would help to create a base for the parallel expansion of the CC.

Dunebuggy

Slogger Jogger wrote: »

Any hints on the expected overseas runner? Hope they measure up to Croagh Patrick the previous day too.

Nothing confirmed

Slogger Jogger

If you fancy doing the Wicklow way trail race (25k) on March 26th you can reserve your place on the imra site by booking into the car pool. See here: http://www.imra.ie/events/view/id/824/

donothoponpop

T runner wrote: »

I agree, local organisation is the key.

Speaking of this, is there anyone Dublin or further north based, willing to RD for the Carlingford, Slieve Foye race, in Louth on 10th April? The league director is looking for someone on the imra forum, would be an awful lot easier to RD than a League race I'd imagine. As T Runner says, local organization is what its all about.

Krusty_Clown

Slogger Jogger wrote: »

If you fancy doing the Wicklow way trail race (25k) on March 26th you can reserve your place on the imra site by booking into the car pool. See here: http://www.imra.ie/events/view/id/824/

Damnit.. Decision time.. Trail or ultra..

Slogger Jogger

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Damnit.. Decision time.. Trail or ultra..

If you do the ultra you'll be doing well to have a smile on your face on the boardwalk on the return leg

Krusty_Clown

Slogger Jogger wrote: »

If you do the ultra you'll be doing well to have a smile on your face on the boardwalk on the return leg

Smiling is for people who are not trying hard enough.

Mac Cormaic

Antigrav wrote: »

I also support the idea of opening up more routes in Connaught. I've been lobbying for Mweelrea for the last few years and am glad it has finally been figured out.

Some good stuff in the Twelve Bens too. The descent off Bencorr into Devils Col looks like one for ocnoc! Or a similar scree fall off Benbreen as part of Glencoaghan horseshoe. Plenty of scope if we can work out the access logistics.

That looks like a very impressive place to go running. Once you get over the uphill bit, there is a great sense of freedom running along the ridge of a mountain.

thepassanger

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Smiling is for people who are not trying hard enough.

i will do my best to smile on the boardwalk, also @slogger jogger, do we have to pre-register for the ultra?

Enduro

thepassanger wrote: »

do we have to pre-register for the ultra?

Currently you don't. For the trail we're asking people to book a space on the bus, but no bus is required for ultra racers

Krusty_Clown

Enduro wrote: »

Currently you don't. For the trail we're asking people to book a space on the bus, but no bus is required for ultra racers

You mean we have to make our own way? :eek:
Favouritism.

donothoponpop

I see Kiwirunner kept alive a strong Rathfarnham tradition today, good man . Anyone else with the scores on the doors? What was the race like?

ThisRegard

Race was good as always, very misty near the top but I liked that. At the beginning I thought I wasn't going to enjoy it but that changed once we got onto the mountain which was very wet and boggy in places which got very heavy on the legs near the top. I got caught out on the descent though. I had read it got steep but I didn't see it coming due to the weather, I was descending nicely and then the ground just fell away from me so I had no choice but to keep going faster and faster there was no chance I was stopping on my feet ! It got a bit hairy but it allowed me to put a gap on the group I had been with. Plus with my intent of self preservation I almost lost track of where I was going until a helpful hiker pointed the way for me.
The big plus for me though was the fact this was the first IMRA race I ran the entirety of without coming to a walk in places.

T runner

donothoponpop wrote: »

I see Kiwirunner kept alive a strong Rathfarnham tradition today, good man . Anyone else with the scores on the doors? What was the race like?

Yep, the 1,2 in the ladies was same as Annagh HIll: Suzanne Kenny, Karen O'Hanlon. Looked like a gap of 30s - 1 min theer although Im not 100%.

Liam Dunne, second in Ticknock, won. Possibly under pressure keeping up with Kiwirunner, he fell somewhere on the loop to the second summit. Kiwirunner checking to see if he was OK and then pulled away to a huge lead. I think there are two sharp turns on the descent: one left from a tarmac road and then a right onto the forest trail to home. Kiwirunner was expecting a right off the tarmac road and missed the hanging tape on the left denoting the exit from the tarmac.

It was a pity he had the race wrapped up without ever leaving second gear and was dissapointed to miss a good assertion of his fitness from Kenya.

He must be delighted with that fitness though, he seemed to be joging up the hills.

Anyway Liam Dunne toughed it out after his fall and held on by 15 secs or so. Peter O'Farrell, who cycled to and from teh race from Rathfarnham, was second and closing fast at the head of a posse: top 7-8 runners within or close to a minute of eventual winner.

Ill try and do a report for IMRA if i get chance

Edit: Misty conditions, wet under foot, but good temperature for racing and moderate head wind traversing the hill initially.

T runner

PICS OF TROOPERSTOWN HERE

ThisRegard

Was talking to Liam Dunne afterwards and he said he was surprised when he was told he was first when crossing the finish line, he was sure he was second.

donothoponpop

T runner wrote: »

PICS OF TROOPERSTOWN HERE

Saw the pic of Jason coming in the lead, noticed he had a knee cut- nothing compared to Liam's though:eek:! Hope he's all right (are they road shoes he was wearing?)

JeffonTour well up there again, flying form!

ThisRegard

donothoponpop wrote: »

are they road shoes he was wearing ?

They were indeed.

Slogger Jogger

Liam's knee in its bloody glory is there in the actionphotography. Ouch. Heard from him earlier this evening. He got stitches and painkillers in A+E. Hospital visits are becoming sadly regular at recent imra races. Road shoes wouldn't have helped though.

Wide open for the winter league. Peterx has crept into the lead.

Peterx

Another great IMRA race yesterday, thanks to Rachel and all concerned. First 7 runners finishing within a minute and placings chopping and changing right up to the finish line makes it all nice and spicy.

Liam Dunne will win the Winter League with a top 6 finish at Maulin if his knee recovers in time. Eoin would win the winter league if he is back fit which is unlikely.

It gets slightly more interesting if I race and finish ahead of him but even then I need a top 4 finish with him at least 2 places back, if he finishes right behind me we're on the same score but he will have beaten me twice and presumably wins on countback.

All this despite my misgivings about the actual existence of the feckin winter league, ho hum:rolleyes:

jeffontour

Dear God, what a leg buster of a race that was! I was trying to hold onto a group including thepassenger for the first half of the climb but couldn’t seem to bridge the gap. Once we got over boots I got sight of the passenger and this spurred me on to catch them. On the final climb we had a group of about 5 or 6 of us battling away. Martin Francis was literally pushing the passenger I believe at this point, he never offered me any such encouragement but my time was to come.

When we got to the descent I hit the ground running and can safely say I’ve never let go as much, spurred on by Martin shouting at me from behind I over cooked it a bit. I stayed upright but had to scrub speed, Martin passed me on the right and Dan Morrogh took off like a bullet. Note to self, pick where you let yourself go on the descents, the steepest most technical bit may not be where the best gains are to be made. Dan picked his time very well.

I had trashed my legs way too much on that decent and they felt a bit flat from the off, the result of two high mileage weeks(for me anyhow) back to back. So I got overtaken on the never ending fireroad into the finish. Disappointed to let hard earned positions slip but happy enough considering I had a drink related accident Friday night which left my right foot bruised and tender. Downhilling is nothing relative to drinking!

Hard luck to kiwirunner, I’m sure he’ll turn up and win one very shortly to make up though. Couldn’t face the pub or the planned 10k cool down afterwards. I mostly sat on my backside for the day and feel better for it today.

nerraw1111

Great race yesterday, proper lung buster.

Was happy enough with my race. Decided to throw caution to the wind and stick with a group of runners from the start who are usually a minute or two quicker than me.

Was feeling good throughout most of the race but fell off the pace on the Little Boots and decided to let them go. Found this part of the race frustrating as I could get feck all traction on the mud and had to watch a couple of runners disappear in the clouds (which looked spectacular). Had earlier decided to go with Colombia Ravenous over a pair innov8s which i was now regretting.

The descent was great fun until the really steep part which I only spotted when I was half way down it. Felt strong on the never ending fire road and enough in the tank to make three or four places. Ravenous were great on this part.

Pleased to see that I was down only 50 seconds from the group I tried to stay with. Really enjoyed the course

thepassanger

jeffontour wrote: »

Dear God, what a leg buster of a race that was! ...... Martin Francis was literally pushing the passenger I believe at this point, he never offered me any such encouragement but my time was to come.

.

as much as i wish i could have raced better yesterday, i am ecstatic with the days results. Martin was offering great motivation and i apologise if i let him down! sometimes people say they are feeling 'light and strong'- this time i was feeling 'heavy and weak' hopefully its the last time i feel like this.
definitely a race where lessons learned are valuable.
good luck to everyone until Maulin! see you then.

Timmaay

thepassanger wrote: »

as much as i wish i could have raced better yesterday, i am ecstatic with the days results. Martin was offering great motivation and i apologise if i let him down! sometimes people say they are feeling 'light and strong'- this time i was feeling 'heavy and weak' hopefully its the last time i feel like this.
definitely a race where lessons learned are valuable.
good luck to everyone until Maulin! see you then.

Yeh Martin is great craic to run with, always entertaining, just don't let his mind tricks get the better of ya ha, he'll eventually have you knackered from making you push the pace, and then just push on by ya in the final few hundred meters:D, He seems to always have a strong finish in the bag, hes only getting warmed up at the end of a 10k or so race!!

T runner

Trooperstown Report

Slogger Jogger

T runner wrote: »

Ticknock Report

Eh, you mean Trooperstown. Nice report T. Good running. Next time stay with that fella Peter