Hill and Dale Series
On the first Hill and Dale there were 5 OAC – How bad can it be its Castlewellan Forest Park??!!…..and so it began….each one stepping up the ante for the trail runners. At this stage the out and out favourite was Tollymore with a lovely wee foothill above the Drinns included. With more OAC joining in to see what the adrenaline rush was all about. Then then came the brutality of Rostrevor and Slieve Martin…burning calves and stretched achilles on the climb. Now hear me when I say OAC can climb.…..it’s the descents where the real trashing occurs and there was worse to come, but Mr T Leitch was holding his own within the M40 mens rankings.
Just as 3 semi trail races went past with a taste of the mountain it was off to heather, peat and rocks on our first uphill race….lungs burning…hearts pumping in our heads…we were down to 4 OAC, with support crew. Getting yourself off the mountain proved somewhat challenging for one Ian Grant who slid down the mountain side……
With No 4 bagged we all chickened out of the championship Donard race, feeling it was outta our reach, but watching it from Twitter….deffo one for next year.
We were down to 3 souls with 6 races left who was gonna give in – not likely!!! And so it continued our Thursday night Jolly…….Amongst these last fell races what can I say each contained 2-4 mountains all summited, water holes and bogs, we even had poor visibility to deal with and a championship race on OTT….but all suitably dealt with in a professional manner – a conversation recalled by many between two OAC – ‘I wanna go down on my bum??!! Just do it!!!’ was the response. Each drive down started with – is it as bad as Rostrevor? Having inside knowledge of the routes was no advantage. This band of runners move like there’s carpet underfoot and descend like they’ve stole something!
A special mention must go to Thomas Leitch who finished 2nd M40 overall and Ian Grant 25th in MO overall amongst some very talented fell runners who only use tarmac to drive on. I placed 4th in the F35 but just doing the races is all the accomplishment you need everyone around you demonstrates pure determination. I ‘Loved it’.