IMRA season 2011

Slogger Jogger

Link to a post on the cycling thread just in case anyone was thinking of driving down Wicklow way for a run, walk or cycle...

Bridge washed away near Lacken...
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=75142144&postcount=1

nerraw1111

Might be of interest.

Channel 4 coverage of the Commonwealth Mountain running championship on Snowdonia, the 55 km trail running champs and the 24 hour race, all in Wales a couple of months ago.

Very good coverage of the races, particularly the 55km race. Interesting to see the different (or lack of) tactics going into such a long race.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/triathlon/4od

Dunebuggy

As we start putting the race calendar together for 2012 can people list their top 3 races of 2011 and perhaps suggest any routes they would like to see back in for 2012.


Another topic for debate on the race calendar has been the Irish Championships:

This year we are proposing

Slieve Donard (earlier in the year)
Mweelrea -
Lugnacoille
Carrauntoohil
Galtees

All feedback is welcome

nerraw1111

Favourite race this year was Annagh Hill, followed by Trooperstown, and Seefingan.

Annagh Hill was just a superb race, relentless. Special mention for the plod.

I only did the winter/Leinster league so my opinions only based on those leagues.

earlyevening

Dunebuggy wrote: »

.


This year we are proposing

Slieve Donard (earlier in the year)
Mweelrea -
Lugnacoille
Carrauntoohil
Galtees

All feedback is welcome

What about Croagh Patrick? If the plan is to sub it with Mweelrea (which is fine), it would be good if it was on the following day. I like the view.

SureWhyNot!

New route for the Leinster League... Sally Gap over Luggala (Fancy Mountain), down to Lough Dan and up the river onto the fireroad, finish 106 055

My2Cents

nerraw1111 wrote: »

Favourite race this year was Annagh Hill, followed by Trooperstown, and Seefingan.

Annagh Hill was just a superb race, relentless. Special mention for the plod.

I only did the winter/Leinster league so my opinions only based on those leagues.

+1 for Annagh hill as race of the season - absolutely fantastic - steep climbs, deep puddles, mud, crazy decents, and more mud!
After that for me, Kippure was excellent (albeit helped by a fantastic summer evening to be in the Dublin mountains), and Scarr is a great race.
Again I only ran the winter/leinster leagues this year so the selection is biased. Hope to dip my toe into the championship races next year though.

In terms of new races, the end of league handicap last year that went up through Cruagh woods and towards Glendoo was a great little run - mix of everything from fireroad to bog, with a bit of tweaking I reckon there's a Leinster League race in there somewhere!

Dunebuggy

earlyevening wrote: »

What about Croagh Patrick? If the plan is to sub it with Mweelrea (which is fine), it would be good if it was on the following day. I like the view.

Croagh Patrick may come off the Calendar this year - day 2 may still be Nephin or Ben Gorm. Good for those planning a weekend in Delphi

ocnoc

Swap the WW Relay and Stone X Relay.
Move the nav challenges to early summer

Kander

The plod and seefingan for sure where my fav.

Antigrav

I like what is proposed above for Irish Champs. Would propose Nephin day 2 of Connaught Champs.

Leinster Champs - leave it alone

Leinster League - we have to drop Prince Willies as there are access problems. How about bringing back Scalp by getting permission to park in Kilternan Sport Hotel? We could even offer to give NAMA some money

Favourite race - Circuit of Avonbeg. My first time and I survived!

Slogger Jogger

Link for feedback on the Leinster Champs.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HQ3STSX

Ar Strae

Prince Williams' is gone? Ah pox...that's my favourite LL race! Ah well..

as to the rest I don't know enough about the Irish Champs routes to know what's good...when you say the Galtees is one race...how many of the Galtees?

Leinster Champs (the 3 I did anyway) were great. I volunteered at Annagh Hill so I didn't see the full extent of the madness but I saw the runners' wild staring eyes!

I always think the WW Trail/Ultra come too early in the season...I'm never ready for them..but maybe I should just HTFU! Champions are made in the Winter after all ;-)

And what's the story with the WW Relay. With Joe and Nora stepping down, will it definitely be run this year? Does a rotating WW Relay committee need to be put in place? It must take a huge amount of effort to put the race on

So are all o' you lot running Powerscourt Ridge on Saturday? Reckon I'll give it a crack...not expecting much but good fun to get out on the hills again!

And I have to say, Niamh's suggestion of free direction choice on Tonelagee & the Lake sounds brilliant...The buzz of hitting the
trig pillar to realise that you have a new nemesis who has just reached it from the other direction! Classic!

Ronan

Antigrav

Looking forward to the Ridge tomorrow. Rain pissing down today, so may be a bit slippy coming back off Djouce.

Was surprised at all the nambies on IMRA forum wondering what to do about the bridge being out. You'd think they never forded a river before

If you are planning on doing this race for the first time, don't underestimate it. Hard pull up Maulin to start and a lot of height lost down to river before the long climb up Djouce.

Nice run back home after climbing back up the valley on the Maulin side. At least you can cool off your feet in the Dargle beforehand

ocnoc

Nimahs idea is a fantastic one though!
Toneduff and War hill. It would be far more painful.

The ground is pretty rough over that side of the world... We lost 7 men out there on a training run once

Ar Strae

Antigrav wrote: »

Was surprised at all the nambies on IMRA forum wondering what to do about the bridge being out.

Ah here!

Man the pox about this race is I haven't run in the mountains since the Sugar Loaf..so this is going to be a world of pain :-) So it's basically the Powerscourt Uphill route we ran this year except you go to the top of Maulin rather than skirt around it and you come off Djouce onto the WW via the route we did on the way up in Glasnamullan-Ballinastoe and follow the WW back yeah?

So what's the story with those sneaky little "cut the corner" paths through the woods coming back to Crone..are they legit or not? Do we have to stay on the Way? Or have I said too much....

Should be some good photos from the River Marshall!

Ro

nerraw1111

Looking forward to it, I think. I’ve done the Powerscourt uphill before so half know what to expect.

It is likely to be a muddy affair requiring mudrocs or trail shoes?

Stark

Ar Strae wrote: »

So what's the story with those sneaky little "cut the corner" paths through the woods coming back to Crone..are they legit or not? Do we have to stay on the Way? Or have I said too much....

Have to stay on the Way.

Sandwell

I'm both looking forward to and dreading this. It'll only be my second ever IMRA race and I probably wouldn't be doing it at all only for I know Maulin reasonably well from WAR. I've never been up Djouce and it looks...imposing. I think getting my feet wet crossing the Dargle will be the least of my worries!

Ar Strae

Stark wrote: »

Have to stay on the Way.

Cheers!

Ro

Sport101

Can't wait for this, the more muck the better!

ThisRegard

Same here, love the muck. Had a bad time on my first Powerscourt uphill but having been to Djouce since from the opposite side as well as crossing it on the Wicklow Way Trail I've grown to like it. The last couple of hundred metres to the summit are vicious but you do have a nice run around the back and down to the river again to recover.

ocnoc

ThisRegard wrote: »

Same here, love the muck. Had a bad time on my first Powerscourt uphill but having been to Djouce since from the opposite side as well as crossing it on the Wicklow Way Trail I've grown to like it. The last couple of hundred metres to the summit are vicious but you do have a nice run around the back and down to the river again to recover.

I assume you meant attack and not recover down one of the most fun descents in the country!

ThisRegard

Eh, yeah, that's sort of what I was getting at, recover the places you may have lost while you paused to take in the magnificent view:p

DogSlySmile

I probably shouldn't even be thinking of doing this race - I've a pain in my back like nobody's business! :eek: But it'll probably be my last race of the year, so it'll be good to go out with a bang!

And sure if I'm going to let a little pain get in my way, I probably shouldnt be running up mountains with the rest of you on a cold November morning :cool:

See you on the hills!

geld

ocnoc wrote: »

I assume you meant attack and not recover down one of the most fun descents in the country!

The descent from Maulin is good fun too!

Slogger Jogger

Super race today. Brilliant crowd. Great to see runners from Munster and the North.

Sandwell

Yeah, really enjoyed it. Glorious weather, a really tough route and quite tricky conditions underfoot after all the rain yesterday. I had one spill and a few near misses. No harm done though. I'm very happy to have gotten through it as early in the race on that climb up Maulin I was seriously questioning what the hell I was doing here. I was probably pushing too hard in hindsight. Thankfully I felt better as the race went on and managed to finish quite strongly. I'm looking forward to doing a good few IMRA races next year now that I've caught the bug.

nerraw1111

Fantastic race today, savage way to end the season under crisp blue skies. It was like a summer’s evening race. Really enjoyed it and managed to pace it well.

The descent from Djouce all the way home was something else, although I was hanging in for dear life on the never ending fire road at the end. Days like that are good for the soul, not so much the late shift right now.

First time up Maulin and it was tougher than I expected. Tricky descent too.

ThisRegard

Slogger Jogger wrote: »

Great to see runners from Munster and the North.

I was knocking between 3rd and 4th place ladies pretty much from the start until myself and the eventual 3rd place lady from Newry City pulled away from the summit of Djouce and I pulled slightly ahead of her after the view of the waterfall. I'm happy to finish within the placed ladies !

I'm bloody wrecked now, Maulin I thought was tougher than Djouce but that could be just because I'm familiar with it at this stage.