Northern Ireland Mountain Running Association
www.nimra.org.uk

 

Annalong - Ervine Keeps in touch

Wed 12 May 2004 - Simon Taylor

53 runners lined up at Dunnywater for the 11:00 start on a cool and windy Saturday in May ? a change from the usual August date for this race. In the build up to this race, all the auld hands had been reminiscing about the last time this race was run in May, when a bad weather course had to be run due to a heavy bout of snow. Wouldn?t it be great to have memories before the onset of global warming. From the start the field was led by Brian Ervine, a lead he was not to relinquish as he strode around the course to finish in 2 hrs 04 minutes to allow him to lift the Stephen Darby trophy for the fourth consecutive year. The battle for second was a much more hotly contested affair, Neil Carty having his hands full trying to contain the hard charging Gary Bailie. Having finished third last year in his inaugural fell running season, Gary was determined to go one better this year and used his fast descending ability to edge past Neil on the descent of Binnian. However, on the final run in along the road, Neil was to use his superior road speed and regain second place to finish in 2 hrs 8 minutes, Gary finishing third in 2 hrs 9 minutes.


Further down the field in 8th position overall, Jim Patterson (V55) was leading the veterans home in 2 hrs 21 and assisting Newcastle to both the team and veterans team honours. Second vet in 9th position and first V40 was Jim Brown from BARF. Acknowledged as one of the best descenders in the business, Jim managed to hold off a very fast finishing Richard Cowan from Willowfield, who had reduced the deficit between them by 3 minutes from the top of Lamagan. John McBride of BARF claimed the V45 title and Mike Barton of ACKC claimed the V50 title, overtaking pre-race favourite Billy McKay during one of his many pit stops. Barbara Brown was first lady, successfully retaining her title from last year. Among the rest of the field, liberally littered with tales of PB?s and personal disasters, Barry Wells (V40) of Newcastle produced an excellent run to finish in 13th place in 2 hrs 28 minutes. Organisation by BARF, in their usual efficient manner. By the time the race was ending, the weather had changed to being very sunny and warm and all the runners were grateful for the energy drinks kindly donated by C&C.


Ian Taylor is one of the unsung heroes of Northern Ireland fell running as, in his position of Secretary of NIMRA, Ian deals with all the administration burden that the sport provides. On Saturday Ian passed a personal milestone as he has now successfully completed his 21st Annalong Horseshoe race, in fact this was his fifteenth consecutive Horseshoe since his debut in fell running at this race in 1982. Congratulations from all of us and may there be many more.


Finally 53 starters and 54 finishers? Step forward Hugh McCloy (Mid-Ulster), who reinforced our belief that the residents of Draperstown live in a different time zone from the rest of the planet (except a certain street in East Belfast!!) and turned up for a 12 noon start. At least Hugh enjoyed his (lonely) run.


Trevor Wilson

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