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

 

Flagstaff - Carlingford

Fri 18 June 2004 - Ian Taylor

There was a record turnout for this NIMRA Championship race - I think the largests for any NI only Long event. Race conditions were dry and sunny with good fast running underfoot. At the top end Brian Ervine needed to stay ahead of Neil Carty to stay in contention for the overall mens senior Championship. This he did with 2 minutes to spare, finishing in 1:36:03 still well outside the record of 1:27:25 set by Deon McNeilly back in 1997. This was despite a slight course revision at the start, moving it down the road to a forest track giving a much cleaner start, with a little more climb but slightly shorter. Purists may be interested to know that the track marks the NI border so that the race is now all in the Republic! Following Brian & Neil, Gary Bailey (ACKC) showed that he excelled at the longer distances being third here as well as at Annalong. Visitor Jamie Thin (Carnethy) was 8th, probably finding it a bit short after his Bob Graham round in the Lake District on 24 May.

The leaders reached the mast checkpoint in 29:32 with the last runners passing through in 49 minutes. Those with endurance improved their position from then on - Gary Bailey from 8th at the mast to 3rd finisher, Paul Mawhirt from 12th to 7th and Jim Patterson from 16th to 10th. Others who climbed well initially included Ed Hanna (5th at the mast but 11th finisher and Jonathan McCloy (11th down to 14th) whereas the other junior, Adam Mitten was 23rd at the mast and 16th finisher. Violet Linton and Anne Sandford were together in 29th, 30th place at the mast but Violet improved to 27th and Anne dropped to 43rd.

Anne and Violet continued together until the halfway stage but then Anne went seriously off course, taking too low a route from Windy Gap. Violet finished in 2:13:50, the fastest female time since 2000. Third was Joanne Thin (Carnethy) on a visit home and fourth Barbara Brown. The latter confessed during the race to being "raced out" and was going to stop at Windy Gap. However she got a second wind, took any navigation hints offered and then disappeared into the distance. Other visitors included S Sweeney (first vet 40) and N Scofield & N Brayne from the London area. Junior Jonathan McCloy improved his pb on this route to 1:59:20, just ahead of Adam Mitten (1:59:50) but outside the junior record of 1:56:45.

Again Newcastle maintained their team record with both first open team and first male vet team, despite what the results say! ACKC and Ballymena were next in the open categories with BARF second in the vets.

As usual the race was superbly organised by Brian Vallely with Armagh AC, with a bus to the start, manned checkpoints, maps if required, refreshments and prizes. It was good to see that virtually everyone was carrying appropriate gear. With the hot weather Ricky Cowan was sporting his classic "string vest" see through top. At the start one of the female competitors poked him in the chest and asked if he had plenty of vaseline on the bits sticking out. Ricky was discrete enough not to say the same to her!

Note that the recalculated team results are
Open
Newcastle 21
ACKC 37
Ballymena 71
BARF 77
VAT (??) 150

Male Vets
Newcastle 39
BARF 89

Note for the benefit of newcomers, the Bob Graham round is the classic long distance fell running challenge. It covers 42 peaks in the Lake District, with 28500 feet of ascent and about 74 miles. The aim is to cover the route in 24 hours, starting and finishing in Keswick. Pacers and support at road crossings are allowed. To the best of my knowledge only two NI runners have completed it - Denis Rankin & Jim Patterson back in 1979. Perhaps its time some NIMRA members attempted it? Read about Denis & Jims attempt