Tibradden returns for the Winter League!
Eoin Brady
The flat reddish hulk of Tibradden Mountain has been known as a vaunted ‘ankle-breaker’ in hill-running folklore, strewed as it has been with loose rocks and scree. In later years, heavy erosion of the central trail had forced the route out of circulation for a while…
Last year, restorative works on the main trail over the rocky 1532 ft. peak finally completed and opened to the public as part of the new Dublin Mountain Initiative.
IMRA have not been slow to capitalise bringing the route back for both the Winter and Leinster Leagues and so runners set off over the abrupt climb to Tibradden summit and across the flat top to one of its sisters in the Dublin Mountain: Fairy Castle (1753ft.) before a short loop leads runners back over the same brown plateau speckled with white frost they on the journey out.
The Winter League saw an astonishing (and very likely unprecedented) triple today as young Eoin Brady of UCD became the third man in three races to gain a debutante victory on the IMRA competitive circuit. And you cannot blame him for not warming up properly, having finished 2nd and 3rd in the two previous league races.
Last week’s winner, Jason Reid, did not compete today and Paul O’Connell faded to twelfth, leaving Philip Kolgannon of Sportsworld as the closest man and behind him another newcomer to the hills: North Laois’ David Finn. Sli Cualann’s men had 3 men in the top-10 to take team victory.
The ladies competition had the green clover stamp of Raheny Shamrock’s written all over it as Kate Cronin was first lady home and led her team mates, two Niamhs (Garvey and Kissane respectively), to Raheny’s first team victory in the mountains.
Kate Cronin
With her victory she turned the tables on Karen Hanlon who had defeated her at Annacurra. Karen Doyle finished 3rd after her runners-up run at the opener at Ticknock. With the winner from the first race, Catherine Devitt, in 5th, four ladies find themselves within three points of each other for the title with two races to go and best of three to decide.
As this race marked the first on the new course, the records to break for the coming years are: 47:46 for the men and 53:41 for the women.
Full results and photos over at IMRA.
