In The Hunt for Redemption

Brian Furey may now be crowned the Leinster Champ but I sure as hell made him work for it.

The morning dawned early, 0700 is an ungodly time for an alarm to go off. Up coffee, rush to pack kit and out the door. Got dumped off at the Red Cow and luas into town, followed by a rasher sambo, picked up by Shane and off to the steep steep slopes of Glenmalure. Again.

We arrived and I was disgusted. Not a cloud in the sky again. It was hot and zero wind. It was going to be a tough day at the office. Bouncing around the start there was the usual gathering of hikers shiver. Brian, Jason, Aidrian, it would be fast at the start. I got changed, slapped on the factor 30 (missed a small bit on my shoulders) and got pumped. Running up the hill away from the start of the race, I got confused and couldn't work out where we were meant to be going. I decided I'd sit in and wait. It would be a long way to the top.

Back on the start line, 4mins till start. I dumped my left over pre race water onto my buff, necked what was left and went over a few scenarios in my head. Cover the breaks if they look serious, leave em go if I know I can reel em in slowly.

And we were off, 1200 on the button as usual. The nervous feeling has set in. I was keeping my wits about me - people are known to do crazy things in the heat!

I was covering Brian and Jason. From Carrauntoohil, they were the guys I had my focus on. We tipped along the road until the turn off across cleared forest. I upped the pace slightly and happly skipped across the felled area. Up past the building and I froze, I wasn't meant to be leading, I didn't know where to go! Brian ends up beside me, he looks at me as if to say "your the navigator, which way do we go!!", my look is a blank one, I had no idea. Neither of us is sure where to go, Jason is beside us. The 3 of us have stopped like stunned rabbits in a set of headlights. Zoran breaks left and we take off after him. Up a small track, following Pauls well placed tapes. Zoran, Jason, Brian and myself. It has a ring of the Euro Trial to it. Up a narrow steep track, not much space to pass. No need to do anything crazy yet - thats for the descent...

We climb up the switch backs, passing hikers. A few nice roots on the ground. The climb is pretty constant but its all runnable. After what seems like an age we pop up onto the fire road. I look up away from Brians heels and take in my surroundings, I wanted to spot a feature for when we'd turn back in on the descent. The ground was more open. A large earthbank with a boulder. Bingo. Can't miss a boulder 1oft in the air.

The pace ups, I focus on Zoran and slowly set about reeling him in slowly. No point making a sprint and wasting myself. Zoran is passed as Brian and I battle it out. Brian keeps the pace steady. I sit right on his shoulder. I want him to know I'm going to be right behind him on every step he takes on route to the highest point in Leinster. At present there are alot of bodies around us. Taking that sneaky glance over my shoulder I can only see Jasons top but I know that there is more than that. Too many clattering of feet and studs on the fireroad. The road contuines to go up, suddenly it dips dramatically - take note for the descent, have something left.

The fire road eventually runs out along with the clattering of studs. The sound of the studs is now a faint distance sound. Up the gravel track, feet sliding a wee bit. Not too worried. Up the final piece of track and we're into the serious climb. Brian keeps a constant pace and gets a gap. I settle into my own slower climbing pace and begin to plug away. The aim is to not give away ground. Keep it simple stupid. Turn the legs over. Jason passes me by and hangs onto Brian. I'm sitting in 3rd and the climb isn't letting up. I'm down to a hard walk. Up in front so are Brian and Jason. Possibly the past 3 weeks racing is taking its toll. I have to keep them as close as possible on the climb. Can't afford to lose too much ground. As we go up, Des catches and passes me. My focus is still on Brian and Jason. I've never seen Des, his shoes don't look good for the descent. I'd take him at the turn.

The climb flattens out (550m up). I open up my stride and get the shuffle going as try in vain to open up my stride into a run. Upfront, Jason has legged it off across the marsh. He's flaking it. Des follows. I look up and catch a glimps of Brian off to my right heading for the spur. I assumed Brian recced the route so I follow him off right. Jasons route is tempting, a brave one. I put my faith in Brian and go after him.

As I chase Brian, I see him struggle in the rough terrain. I suffer up each step, its just like that bitch of a climb that O planners love to throw in for no good reason. I can see Brian hurting so I put the head down and get on with it. Just getting one foot in front of the other. My route choice of up the spur, contour into the re entrant and then up the "wall" seems like a good one.

I shuffle up the spur. I look behind me and I see Aidrian about 100m back. Too close for comfort. I force my legs to get running. I have no idea where Brian has gone. He drifts from my mind as I get stuck into the job at hand. As I climb I see a ROAR top ahead. I have a pulling feature. I make a bee line for it, assuming Paul Mahon will give me dog abuse. Turns out to be John Shiels clicking away like mad as usual. As I near John, I hear none other than Don shout out abuse from above.

I run hard wanting to get a gap on those behind me. I reach the wall. Its fecking vertical. I can't wait to come down this! I start into it. Its one foot in front of the other. I can't see any other climbers, I wonder where Brian, Jason or Des have ended up...

By this stage I'm using my hands. My legs are coping well but my brain needs blood. Don shouts up from below "get a move on, your meant to be proud to run in a CNOC top". This makes me get the finger out and I up the anti as much as I can. My hands are grabbing at the tuffs of grass as I use every means necessary to drag my sorry ass up the wall. In hindsight it has a sence of pure beautiful maddness to it.

As I near the plateau, I look left and see Des flying up along the flat(er) ridge coming up from Arts Lake. I force my legs to get running as it flattens out almost immediately. Up in front I only see hikers. I wonder where Jason and Brian are. I can't see anyone. That split second of elation. First to summit - SWEET! I have a spring in my step as I bounce towards the cairn. Over to my right, I see a runner flying. It appears to be a black top. I can't believe it. I grit my teeth, put my head down and force myself to run harder. The mystery runner does a lap of the cairn and begins to descend towards me. My thoughts are one of, whoever you are, you better descend hard, because I'm hunting for you. As the mystery runner nears I realise its Brain Furey. He is bouncing. He looks comfortable.

This look of calmness incises me. I gun it for the cairn. As I run the lap of the rocks, hikers seem horrified. I get a nice smile inside - can't let it show on my exteriar. Its war face time.

I sprint off the plateau. Jason comes around the South Prism as I head for the drop. I want, need, have to catch Brain. Losing again wasn't an option. For descending you have to believe you are the best to have good technique. As I hurtled off the flat summit, heading for the drop. I was oozing with confidence. Brian was mine. I didn't care how hard I had to run.

I looked up and spotted my sheep - my marker for where to descend. At first people might think thats crazy, sheep move! Well my logic was that the runners were coming up to the left of the sheep, so that means that the sheep would go further right, away from the runners. By aiming for the sheep, this shortened my descent distance.

I hit the vertical drop and I let go. I was keeping my weight back so if I fell I'd only slide on my arse. My legs turned over as quick as I could. My eyes began to water so much I couldn't pick out my foot placings. I used my sweat covered buff to try wipe my eyes clear - it did enough that I could see.

I could see Brian further down the slope. I was gaining on him. I could feel my legs take a hammering as I dropped. Studs at there limit. Waiting until the slope was no longer 80% so I could open up my stride and let it loose. I aimed for the ridge and ran hard. On reaching the ridge I went to its tip and let gravity do its job. I passed a marsh I remembered on the way up. I hung a right after the marsh and ended up in the re entrant, the same one I chased Brian up. This time, he was only half way down. He was mine. By the time he reached the bottom, I was ontop of him. I went for the river and got across before him. On the far side of the river, I got cragged out. It annoyed me as I should have remembered it from the way up.

I ran around and began to push the pace. I had to get to the second drop first. Get my preferred line coming down. I was bouncing through the marshy bogy crap. It was a perfect day to be shin deep in crap.

I made a bee line for the tip of the river, where it vanished from sight over the edge into the Fraughen Rock Glen. I was making good progress. I looked up and saw Brian, he was licking it along the track I was hoping to hit. A few minor expletives to myself and I made my way across to the track. I was on his shoulder as he begun the descent. This was make or break. I tracked his foot steps the entire way down. Picking 6 steps ahead and keeping the steady fall controlled. I didn't feel as comfortable as I did coming down the wall but I was keeping up with Brian. The race was gone purely tactical.

I noticed Brian almost take a slide on a root, took note and avoided it. We dropped down to the final flatter section and it was game on. Brian hit the rough track and he upped the pace. I tried to go with him but the legs wouldn't/couldn't respond.

I attempted to make deals and barters with them but they were having none of it. My legs were just heavy. No spring in them. With out the bounce I usually have at the end of a race I was paranoid as hell that Jason or Aidrian would be hot on my heels, ready to pounce at my first sign of weakness.

I kept the gap constant between Brian and myself, or as constant as I could. He seemed much more relaxed, bounding along. He disappeared around the final bend of the fire road. A few seconds later I went around and began to drop down. The sight that met my eyes shocked me. Brian was running back up the track towards me. He yelled wheres the track. It my shock I said keep going. Its miles down. As we descended side by side. I was looking out for my boulder. Brian was looking for the tapes. Catching a glimps of the boulder, I looked left and saw the track. Brian almost went in too early, I gave him a nudge to keep going and he took the lead into the switch backs. He took a tumble, bounced up quickly and resumed the descent. I was about 1m back. He had maybe 20-30m on me before his error.

We dropped down through the first turn, then the second, onto the final piece of track. I catch a glimps of Izzy leg it off to tell Paul that runners were on route. I followed the tapes wide and ran back through the felled stuff the same way as I went out. Brian went straighter.

He got out onto the fire road first for the last 200m. I was just behind him. He kicked. I tried to go with him but the legs were shot. Completely empty. I gave chase but he wanted it more. 2nd place, 5seconds down.

If I said nothing, and got into the switch backs first, who knows - maybe I could have set up a grand final on Mount Leinster, winner takes all. However this year it wasn't to be.

For the Leinster Champs next year, I'll be stronger and there will be a hunger. Bring on more open mountain routes!!

My Runners Up Mug :)

(coffee wasn't included)

Winning feels great, but its your loses that motivate you and get you out the door when its the last thing you want to do. To lose every now and then keeps the hunger alight.

Lugnacoille, Take 2, July 3rd. We'll see who's running scared.

Once wounded, Twice as dangerous.