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

 

Future Events

Sat 13 March 2010 - Ian Taylor

Over the next month many of you will be honing your speed and hill climbing abilities for the Hill & Dale series, starting on Thursday, 8th April.  There are lots of short fast races to improve speed or test your training eg QUB 5k on 31st March, just a week before Hill & Dales start.

 

European Masters

This event, being held outside Barcelona on 16th May is for all masters age categories.  Entry must be via a Governing Body rather than as individuals.

IMRA is organising a trip - see their web site at

http://www.imra.ie/events/view/tab/details/id/782/

where you can see the entry form and details of the IMRA contact, Ed McEntee. 

Apparently its a joint North-South team, which is news to me!  The closing date is 1st April.  There is no standard on entry to the events so all veterans 35+ can take part.

 

Endurance Events

However others of you will want to extend your training runs and develop your endurance for longer challenges.  Events you might consider include

Larne half marathon - 20th March

Omagh Half marathon - 27th March

Wicklow Ultra (31 trail miles) and half (15 miles) - 27th March

Maunturks Challenge, Connemara 3rd April  (about 18 miles, with navigation)

Connemara Ultra Marathon (39 road miles) plus marathon & half marathon, 11th April.

The Wicklow Ultra is being used by IMRA to help select athletes for the WMRA World Long Distance event on Pikes Peak, Rockies, USE in August.  Its also possibly a counter for the UTMB.  Various athletes from NIMRA have done it, including Dale Mathers who was second last year.  The route is out and back along the Wicklow Trail so is mostly on runable forest tracks and mountain paths.  The route has been extended to ensure its over 50 km.

The Maunturks event is a Challenge Walk over some very rough country, with difficulty navigation if visibility is poor.  Denis Rankin did it a few years ago in just over 4 hours.  More recently in 2007 Trevor Wilson completed it in 7:12 and was third fastest.