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

 

Binevenagh

Mon 21 February 2005 - Ian Taylor

Congratulations on Pegasus AC, Coleraine and in particular Ivan Park and Michael Henry in getting the Binevenagh race off the ground at short notice. The late permit to go ahead with the race meant that it did not receive the publicity it deserved. Some of us do not often get such a high placing in a race. The course was well marshalled and marked, as appropriate for a new route.

With a distance of 7.1 miles and climb of 530 metres over very varied terrain the event can test your current race fitness in a variety of ways. There were steep climbs, fast runable sections and boggy patches. The route climbs 200m for a mile out of the forest to the southern end of the cliffs, contours north for 1.5 miles, then climbs steeply above the cliffs and fast along the top past the lake to the trig point. Returning north, the route descents over very fast runable ground to the forest, a steep descent and a short track section with finish on grass, track and trail. This year the weather was sunny but cold with some wind on top and a shower of hailstones.

With a sprint finish Gary Bailey overtook his training partner Steve Cunningham to win by three seconds. Clearly the establised regular winners had better watch out for Gary this season. In third place Mark Alexander was not far behind while junior Jonathan McCloy needs to do a bit more work to get race fit for 2005, finishing in 11th place.

Amongst the ladies, Hannah Shields is improving with every event and benefiting from her training with City of Derry. She is currently building up her endurance for Spelga but even that might be a bit short for her attempt later in April and May to reach the North Pole. Hazel Mccausland was second lady with Norma Rea third. The latter has been out of running for a couple of years so its good to see her back. As she discovered her navigation has got a bit rusty but her race tactics and sprint finish were impeccable.