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

Deon McNeilly and Anne Sandford of Newcastle AC were the winners of the fourth round of the NI Mountain Running Championship at the Flagstaff to Carlingford race. McNeilly dominated the Armagh AC promotion across the Cooley Hills, making light work of poor visibility and wet underfoot conditions, to secure a convincing win. He clocked 1 hour 45 minutes and 11 seconds for the 11 mile course which included 3,000 feet of climb.

 

Mourne Runners Willie Marks and Stephen Cunningham finished second and third while Sandford won the women?s race in 2 hours 31 minutes 32 seconds from Jackie Toal and Jenny Black of BARF.  Mourne Runners were team winners with 14 points from Newcastle AC on 25 points.

 

Report by Brian Ervine

 

Conditions on Saturday assisted those who could navigate confidently.  Coming in a group of three to near the first checkpoint, it was interesting to see athletes running round like headless chickens, going left to the first top marked on the map whereas the checkpoint is the furthest top.  Later we heard voices in the mist in places that no one should have been.  Thinking we were last, athletes kept popping out of the mist behind us, having spent time not finding checkpoint I or II.  Others went back to get them after hearing that the checkpoints actually existed.  Although in ten attempts at Flagstaff I don?t think I have ever used quite the same route from the Windy Gap to Slieve Foye, the wet grass showed the path taken by earlier athletes and made that part of the route finding relatively easy, although we did climb to the ridge much sooner than usual.  On the way to the top, other athletes were coming down the ridge on the last leg to the finish ? much further down than most people.  It was unfortunate that the marshall could not find the summit trig point.  I have some sympathy for that ? I once went up the sharp topped Errigal in thick mist and never found the summit!  However unlike some other checkpoints, there can be no dispute if you get to a trig point.  Most people were there with others who could verify their presence anyway.

 

Without seeing the overall terrain, it was quite difficult getting the right lines to descent ? a combination of linked tracks here and there, obvious in clear weather, very confusing on Sunday.  Approaching the forest, we heard one runner calling to us, rather like a lost sheep.  At least he had the wisdom not to go through the forest, unlike the last finisher.  After most of you had gone home, the race organisers and a couple of others were circulating the roads round Slieve Foye looking for one stray, hoping that he could get to a road and was not sitting on Slieve Foye with a broken leg!  Actually he was fighting his way through the forest, with the forest clearly winning.  Eventually he appeared, much to the relief of all, and with a finishing time rather longer than that published in the race results.

 Ian