Mackin and McAnispie win at Gullion 2015

by rbell · March 7, 2015

This morning 49 kung fu kicking mountain goats lined up in bracing winds for the opening race of the season on Slieve Gullion. The route started from Ballard Road taking in the north cairn, south cairn, and back to the north cairn. At start Brian Valley made a point of reminding folks to visit the three checkpoints at the cairns before letting the mob loose.

The pain of the ascent

He came from the future

Paul McAnispie lead the way up the grassy lane followed by Neil Carty, Sam Herron, Willy McKee, David Hicks, Clive Bailey and Deon McNeilly. A short distance back Shileen O’Kane was the front running lady followed by Mary Mackin and Anne Sanford. You can always rely on Gullion being on the muddy side and as the race wound it’s way up the hill conditions got progressively more swamp like.

Paul McAnispie beasting down the descent

The first runner around the South Cairn was Armagh’s Paul McAnispie followed by Neil Carty. A short distance back Mourne men Willy McKee and Sam Herron were in hot pursuit with David Hicks. At the finish Paul had a good lead on Neil with the next three bunched together. In that bunch Willy took 3rd, David 4th and Sam 5th.

Willy leads in the group to take 3rd

In the ladies race Shileen had a strong run to the top and was in a winning position on the descent. Unfortunately for Shileen she was a in a group of runners who missed checkpoint 3 and were disqualified from the race. This left Mary Mackin to mop up the victory, followed by Anne and Sam McNeilly.