IMRA Season 2018

Neady83

Has anyone here done the Glendalough Clover?

It's coming up on Feb 24th and I've signed up. Have read the really detailed race pack but has anyone any pointers on the route etc. I've not been on St. Kevins Way and I've little recollection of the WW. Cheers in advance.

DubOnHoliday

james quinn wrote: »

So its Trooperstown Hill this Saturday morning. One of the few previous races I did back a few years ago but dont remember specifics. I recollect it as being a constant but gradual climb for the first 7km with about 1km of flat / downhill in the middle until the final last few km all being downhill.

https://www.imra.ie/events/maps/id/1567/

its rated as more difficult than Mullaghmeen but has less climbing and is shorter? Is this due to the technical decent?

It’s more or less 5k up with the first 3 being toughest. Then 5k back down...there is a difficult stretch of the descent -25% or something but it doesn’t last too long.

Djoucer

Mullaghmore is comparable to Trooperstown in difficultly. Think there's a typo there in terms of grade.

TTown is hard as it's fast from start and completely runnable. Last climb is tough and the descent tests the legs immediately afterwards. It's a great route. Plenty of places to be made on descent.

james quinn

Looks like we wont get the majestic snow falls we had the pleasure of running in Mullaghmeen last weekend for tomorrows Trooperstown Hill. Sunny and a balmy 6 degrees is predicted!!! Might make it slightly easier :-)

seamusk84

Best of luck to everyone doing Trooperstown tomorrow.

james quinn

Leinster Championship

https://www.imra.ie/leagues/view/id/282/

Obviously tougher than the Winter / Spring League with distance and climbing? Whats needed to take these on? Navigation wise its states they are typically not marked. As the majority of venues I would be unfamiliar with and unlikely to have a chance to travel and recce in advance is it realistic to think you can show up on day and follow the trail?

Hurrache

There's no real trail to follow on a lot of the championship courses. You really should know the course well or be able to navigate by compass and map and shouldn't bank on following others or a trail.

Even knowing the course may not be good enough once the cloud and mist come down, which seems to be more of than that not around Lug for example. (Although having said that Log Na Coille this year is out and back and there is a bit of a track to follow, compared to the Fraughan Rock Glen race ).

Djoucer

You would need to be able to use a compass and map for champ races.

Some of them are fairly straight forward in good conditions but you'd be screwed in poor visibility.

Baby75

Neady83 wrote: »

Has anyone here done the Glendalough Clover?

It's coming up on Feb 24th and I've signed up. Have read the really detailed race pack but has anyone any pointers on the route etc. I've not been on St. Kevins Way and I've little recollection of the WW. Cheers in advance.

The Leg 1 the red route is one of my favourite walks in Glendalough ( all though I prefer to do it in reverse) , you start in the carpark and head back out the gate turning left onto a forest dirt/stone road you are sheltered by the trees and it is flat for about 2km running with the upper lake to your left. The path does narrow and is wet in spots as you make your way through the old miners village and then it does start to climb but nothing to steep just more rock and winding as far as I remember, watch out for mountain goats you might see a few here on the left . The path continues on till you reach a little bridge and cross over the Glenealo river and start the climb up towards the spinc.

It is mostly grass and dirt underfoot and hopefully not slippy as you make your way up towards the planks which you will stay on as you cross over the spinc and glenealo valley .if it is any way windy it will be worse up here like any mountain :P and some some of the planks are very close to the cliff edge on your left .but I think you will move fairly fast along the planks, it's more rolling hills with a nice bit of flat section in the middle and some epic views hopefully the weather is good with clear skies so you can enjoy them, you descend down from the spinc via more plank/ stairs back on to the forest path and down hill past the Poulanass waterfall to through the car park and across behind the toilets and cafe to follow a path on more boards through the Glendalough Monastic site through the stone arches on to the road cross over the bridge and you join the wicklow way again on to a trail leading you on to a dirt road along ST Kevins way. I have never walked that way myself but you pass where they filmed Reign of Fire and you will be climbing again as you head up to the turnaround point which I think is the car park at Tourlough Hill
I hope that helps a little and someone else knows the other two routes its been years since I was up near Mullacor or Lough Dan

james quinn

Trooperstown was another well run event this weekend gone. Conditions were great and huge work by volunteers and organisers. The initial 5km of gradual climbing for me, seemed to go on forever! The pace set by the top twenty not to mention top 3 as they disappeared to the horizon made it tough to deal with. Don't think i really ever recovered enough to make any significant gains on that wonderful decent.

grahamor

Really enjoyed Trooperstown too, nice Spring like conditions and a challenging route. I tried to run all the uphills which worked out OK but gradually made my legs feel numb when on the flat parts of the course! Played cat and mouse with a lot of other runners who took it easy on the uphills then bombed the downhills.

There's some great photos on the IMRA site and their Facebook page.

stampydmonkey

Ssme as above for Trooperstown. Really well organised as usual. The course was tough for me as all was runable. A lot more training needed as was really feeling the pace. The downhill was brilliant tho. Passed a few that passed me on the uphills. These races are so much fun. Nice dip in river after too.

james quinn

So Maulin in up next for the winter/spring league!! Looks like the first 2-3 km is all ascending with some sharp inclines in spots? Hands and knees stuff?!?! Never easy to tell by the graph whats its actually going to be like on the ground.

With the weather ever topical at the moment - have there ever been any postponed events or is it likely to have an IMRA race postponed? Obviously hard to tell at this point in time but just wondering what the norm is?

Hurrache

There's a wall after about 2k that lives up to it's name, hands and knees, and all fours in places. Would certainly be very tricky if it's snowy or icey.

Races have been ran in snow and ice before but I suppose it's down to the weather at the time, a couple of years ago the then Wicklow Way Trail/Ultra was ran in some pretty vicious conditions, there was a decent attrition rate amongst the ultras.

Djoucer

It'll be postponed if people can't make it/parking or roads are dangerous.

Howth was postponed a few years back as parking/ref was like an ice rink.

Maulin is hand and knees for a fair whack. Fast descent. Back up another wall, then fast descent. Then another wall.

james quinn

Thanks Djoucer from the sounds of it its a tough slog. Looks like the hardest part might be just getting to the start line!

jamule

Raced changed to Bray Head, good decision, getting to Crone on Saturday would not have been fun.

Hurrache

jamule wrote: »

Raced changed to Bray Head, good decision, getting to Crone on Saturday would not have been fun.

Bray Head is relatively short in comparison, handy for those not fully back in the swing of things.

james quinn

looking at the summer Bray route which i presume will be the same its 6km roughly? It did note that everyone should still monitor the forum as further updates may come. Could be still difficult travelling sat morning if thursday and friday bring further snow. Would hope its doable do as it will make for savage racing!!!

Hurrache

Race director may drag the route down towards Greystones and back to lengthen it, otherwise yeah, summer route is just shy of 6km.

Enduro

Race now cancelled, due to current weather outlook.

seamusk84

Can't argue with Maulin being cancelled. Sure we will be all fired up for Annagh Hill now...Love that race. Pint in the pub afterwards naturally

Only a month now until the Maurice Mullins too! Opted for the half last time I did it but this year I'm doing the Ultra...Lets see how that works out :pac:

james quinn

Looks like the organizers are hoping to reschedule Maulin for Saturday 17th March. Would be great if they could, missing this Sunday in Annagh Hill due to clash with Debra Ireland Half and would love to get another race in for the Winter / Spring
league.

james quinn

Maulin confirmed for 17th March :-)

Kurt.Godel

Annagh Hill race is unfortunately postponed. Very deep snow up there, and much as we would have liked to host something, there are no alternate trails without snow. Further details on the IMRA forum.

Djoucer

Fair play KG. Cheers for doing pre-race check. Was planning on running it. Hopefully it can be re-arranged.

Kurt.Godel

Djoucer wrote: »

Fair play KG. Cheers for doing pre-race check. Was planning on running it. Hopefully it can be re-arranged.

It wasn't a decision that came easy- the first wall climb took about 40mins, we thought "thats the worst of it over", but the ridge was a different matter... snow banks over 2m in places (Mick has photos up on IMRA), any "running" was knee deep at best. We thought at first it just meant an alternate route but even the lower trails were unrunnable, and unlikely to thaw significantly by Sunday (North facing). It would have made for an epic race, but foolhardy if anyone got injured and needed assistance.

Ah well, hopefully we can get another date!

jamule

Wasn't going to make it so secretly happy as I now have a chance to get to Maulin on paddys day for the o40s winter league battle!

Slogger Jogger

james quinn

there was mention of a possible alternative for Sun but id imagine this would be very difficult with permissions at this stage not to mention trying to find an alternative that hasnt been impacted by snow! The Debra Half scheduled for Sunday is also postponed due to the lack of thawing on route.