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

 

IMRA Race Results & Other News

Fri 16 November 2007 - Ian Taylor

IMRA Result
Congratulations to Mourne Runner Gary Bailey who was third in the IMRA Powerscourt Ridge race in the Wicklow Mountains last weekend. The race is length 15.54 km with 918 metres of climb. The winner new discovery Ondrej Pij?k took 75:39 minutes, with regular Barry Minnock second in 75:53 and Gary in 79:44. Brother Clive was next NI representative in 10th place (87:00). BARF was well represented by Dave Ewart (12th in 89:16), Jackie Toal (56th in 114:26), Norma Rea (57th in 114:32) with Andrew McGibbon just behind in 62nd place in 118:46.

Next Events
The next IMRA race is a relay event on Saturday 8th December in the Wicklow Mountains. Closer to home the UK Masters Cross Country takes place this Saturday at Stormont, with an open race at 11 am, Womens event at 12 noon, Men 50 - 65 at 1 pm and men 35 - 49 at 2 pm. Events are open to all but some NIMRA members are on the various NI teams. Billy McKay runs for vet55s and Jim Patterson & Jim Hayes are in the vet60 team. Amongst the ladies are Stephanie Hambling (F35), Hannah Shields & Anne Sandford (F40), Alwynne Shannon (F45) and Maureen Oliver (F50). Best wishes to you all for the event.

New Record
Three UK Mountain runners, Mike Hartell, Stephen Pyke and Lizzy Hawker, recently attempted to break the record for the 188 miles from Everest base camp to Kathmandu. Starting above 5200m, its not downhill all the way and much of the first 100 miles is unrunable. The trio went off course at one stage, losing much time and Mark pulled out to support the others. Stephen & Lizzy continued and broke the previous record of 3 days 7 hours with a time of 3 days 2 hours 36 minutes.  In 1987 a previous record for the route was set by Uk mountain runners Helene Diamantides and Alison Wright in a time of 3 days 10 hours 8 minutes - leaving a team of Sherpas to finish 12 hours later.

Mark Hartell holds the current record for most Lake District peaks in 24 hours. In 2005 he was only the second Briton to complete the Grand Slam of four classic 100 mile trail races in the USA in an 11 week period - and trekked the 220 mile John Muir trail in the middle just to acclimatise. Stephen Pyke broke the record this summer for the Scottish 4000 foot mountains, taking 20 hours 23 minutes for the 83 miles with 17,000 feet of ascent - the previous record of 21 hrs 36 min set way back in 1986 by Martin Stone. Not to be outdone, Lizzy Hawker is a former 100 km champion and last weekend, just after arriving back in the UK did the 15 miles Roaches Race, finishing as first female.