Championships sun sets at Mt. Leinster
Colm Hill on Carrauntoohil, 2010
Colm Hill had done his best to keep the Leinster Championship alive into the final round at Fraughen Rock Glen before being undone by Brian Furey late in that race. On the slopes of Mt. Leinster he proved a man on a mission intent on securing victory, runner-up in the league and the course record…
Gerry Brady reports:
Great race and the weather just about behaved. What I remember most from the race is the thousands of little yellow flags, I kept thinking they are going to run out of them and wondering who the kind soul who made them was! They led us all the way to Graham at the summit and then back to Jane at the finish. Nice varied course, quite similar in profile and length to Black Mountain. Lots of twists and turns on the ridge run meaning you had to keep a high concentration and alertness to stay on course.
Up front a small group moved away early on and then Colm Hill and Aengus Burke went off for a head to head tussle. Martin McDonald running his third race in around ten days chased valiantly after them!
A fast descent by Colm to break the hour barrier and the course record; he probably turned for home in around 38 minutes so back down in 22 minutes. I use an average of around 60% of your time for the climb and 40% for the descent. Between Colm being a good descender and the wind against us on the way out, Colm had a relatively fast descent. In 2009 Tom Hogan had ascended in 36:40 and descended in 23:48 for an overall time of 60:28. PJ Carroll ran one of his best races in finishing fourth.
The win sees the podium finishes in the Leinster Championship go to Brian Furey, Rathfarnham WSAF (first), Colm Hill, CNOC (second) and Jason Kehoe, Crusaders AC (third).
North Laois pack a punch
Packing well as they did, it was inevitable that the North Laois runners would take victory in the team competition and they duly did ahead of the local outfit Slaney Olympic, led home by Martin Monaghan, whom readers may remember for his victory in the Gibbet Hill trail race earlier in the year. Final team over the line were the orienteers of GEN.
Tom Hogan may have lost his record on the day, but wife Dena Hogan ran home to win the ladies ahead of Raheny’s Niamh Garvey whose second-placed finish delivered her the Leinster Championship title. Niamh had several good runs on the way in a ladies’ competition that featured five different winners in the five races. Newcomer Tina Gomez finished third lady on the day.
The Leinster League and Championship titles have now been decided but still a good bit of racing left after a day that, to borrow a line from winner Colm Hill, featured “Mud and Mist on the Mount”.
Full results at IMRA.
