Run Forest Run Series – Rossmore 10k Trail Race
Sunday 2nd March – Rossmore Country Park, Monaghan
Born 2 Run events have certain traits. Well marketed events with medals, shirts and sound systems with recent pop tunes. Adhering to the term “great races in great places” theres often an initial steep climb up to about halfway to a scenic backdrop, then a slow descent back to the finish.
At the football club grounds at the start a large number were wearing bright orange shirts, which certainly drew my attention being an OG, but these were only available to those brave souls that endured the elements and committed to doing the whole 40k of forest runs in the series.
There were around 250 runners who made it in fairly wet and muddy conditions on the day with a strong presence of local club Monaghan Town Runners and pockets of assorted NI clubs. Being a more mainstream focused series of events than many there were numerous unaffiliated runners.
The race itself started off well with a flat approach into the scenic park then a steep climb up the park, a stretch past a gorgeous lake that looked like something from the King Arthur legend, then a descent back down out of the park. On the way down a pack of around 15 of us missed a sign and ended up colliding with another stretch of the course. Thankfully one of us who was a local figured out where we needed to backtrack to and rejoined the route. This added around 0.7k to the course and meant a time of 56m56s. It was an enjoyable run despite this, with some lovely soup and tea at the end.
Upon chatting to other NI club runners at the end it appears that everyone’s favourite in the series was Tollymore, so thats on the list for next year.