Cyber Mountain Running
John Lenihan - one of the 'fast lads'
We have our fair share of fast lads alright on the Irish mountain running scene, ones that top the results table race after race. But to be fair, we also have loads of not-so-fast lads, the ones who consistently turn up to each and every event.
These guys mightn’t be the quickest or most agile, but they still enjoy a good battle out on the hills.
IMRA is the principal body that organises mountain races in the Republic of Ireland. To keep everyone’s racing spirits high, the IMRA website provides each individual runner with their own profile page. Simply press the ‘Me’ option on the main page to go runners, in and see all the races you’ve ever done, as well as your position and time.
To help compare race performances over a variety of terrains, the site calculates for you your percentage of the overall winner’s time. There’s in turn a graph to see how these percentages have gone up or down throughout your racing season. There’s even a feature to ‘mark’ your opponents so that, when the results get loaded up, a little star lights up beside you and your adversary to reveal the winner of your weekly battle.
A hugely popular part of the profile page is the photos and slide shows of yourself in all your racing glory. Avid runners and photographers like John Shiels selflessly hang around scary summits and doggy bogs to catch mountain runners in full flight. Thanks to members like John over 15,000 photos have been uploaded and tagged to runners within the site revealing all the mud, sweat and tears spilt in the pursuit of mountain running.
Not so fast, but happy!
Justin Keatinge is an avid mountain runner and the designer of the IMRA site. Recently the site won the coveted Sports and Leisure website award at the 2008 Eircom Golden Spider Awards. As Justin rightly states:
Those who have never tried mountain-running typically think it must be a cruel sport for elite athletes only. What the website has done is dispel these myths by showing photos of kids, elites and over 70s all competing in the same race… where the runner who comes last often takes three times as long as the winner, but still finishes with a smile.
That’s the spirit alright – let the fast lads tire themselves out, whilst the rest of us enjoy the views, the run and the website!
