IMRA 2010 Calendar announced
Carrauntoohil, 2009
This year’s IMRA calendar was released over the weekend and it proves one of the most innovative in years. While several old classic have returned, a surprising amount of new races will be inaugurated.
The Leagues and Championships
All the classical IMRA competitions return. On the introductory side of hill-running, the Winter League returns with 5 races but with a very different line-up than last year. The Wednesday evening Leinster League returns with another 13 races, one being held on Saturday 22nd in celebration of the 30TH Anniversary of the first hill run organised by the Irish Hill Runners Association (IMRA’s forerunner which was officially founded later the same year). The small Trail League also returns with 3, as yet undisclosed, races at the end of summer.
The weekend Championship races also see a number of changes: The Leinster Championships will be longer, tougher and require more navigational ability than in any previous year. The Connacht Championship remains untouched with the two staple races of the last 3 years: Croagh Patrick and Ben Gorm. One of the boldest changes occurs within the Irish Championship but let’s have a look at the year in good order.
Winter
On the surface all looks familiar: The Winter League runs from January to March and features 5 races. Last year’s new one-lap version of Howth Winter kicks off the season followed by another classical location Ticknock Winter south of Dublin. The third race of the series is the Annacurra races, a perfect race for beginners on very good trails, which was used for the first time in 2009. The scenic Trooperstown Hill has been “promoted” to the Leinster League and replacing it as the long race of the League is a new course on Tibradden Mountain.
Tibradden used to be a true ankle breaker but restoration works on the hill have left it almost unrecognisable, a fact that no doubt led to the resurrection of this race after a two year hiatus, and should prove an interesting acquaintance for newcomers to the sport and a welcome reunion for veterans. The Winter League ends once again with the University Championship being held on a course in Crone Wood below Maulin.
Spring
Bridging the gap between winter and the summer competitions is the popular double-fixture of the Wicklow Trail (22k) and Ultra (44k) on 27th March. Entry is as always somewhat limited for these races so prospective competitors will do well to keep an eye on the IMRA forum over the coming months.
April sees two “warm-up” events, first the traditional GOAL Charity fundraiser: A 3-person relay over the hill in Killiney Park in Dublin. Second the Leinster Championships opens with its North Leinster fixture of the last few years, Black Mountain, a long race which is half-part trail and half-parts open mountain.
The May Bank Holiday once again forms the setting for the Connacht Championship with Croagh Patrick (also a counter for the Irish Championship) and Ben Gorm posing two difficult back-to-back fixtures.
Leinster League
For most fans of the IMRA calendar, the Leinster League is the main port of call, and 14th of April will mark the beginning of another series of IMRA’s largest competition. Most of the oft-called “untouchable” races have been retained: Bray Head, Howth, Prince William’s Seat, Brockagh, Scarr, Sorrell Hill and the end-of-season “The Sugarbowl” at Great Sugarloaf Mountain.
It has also been tradition to include at least one race at Ticknock area and this year the area is especially honoured by hosting an exact rendition of the original first official hill race in Ireland: The Fairy Chase, a 7km race summiting at Fairy Castle, one of the most prominent peaks in the Dublin Mountains. Finally, Tibradden, long a classical route, also returns for the Leinster League giving runners two opportunities to test themselves on the course in 2010.
Two “neo-classics” also survive into this year’s Leinster League: The very challenging and popular Powerscourt Uphill (the only uphill only race of the League) taking runners to the top of mighty Djouce., and the Hellfire and Brimstone race in South Dublin is the only race of this year’s series that could be considered a trail race after the congested route at the Scalp was axed for the upcoming season.
This makes this year’s Leinster League not only slightly rougher but also slightly longer on average helped along by the decision to move Trooperstown Hill into the Leinster League for the first time and the “rebranding” and extension of the short and fast Corrig route to “Seefingan” in honour of its new third peak.
The traditional end-of-season handicap race will not take place at Kippure this year but instead on a new as-of-yet-undisclosed location.
Leinster Championship
While the Leinster League has moved more out on open mountain and away from races on forest trail, true purists will still look to the Leinster Championship for fulfilment and they will not be disappointed. This year’s line-up looks rougher than ever by the look of the three intermediate stages of the Championship: Tonelagee and the Lake, Circuit of Avonbeg and Fraughen Rock Glen. The two former are new routes. “Tonelagee and the Lake” will take the field over the steep tough slopes of Tonelagee twice (for good measure) in what is otherwise a short race (6.1km).
Circuit of Avonbeg occupies the spot always reserved to the traditional circuit races (Glenmacnass, Glenmalure, Aughavannagh and Glendalough) and is anything but short at 25.8km and taking in some of the highest and hardest mountains of Wicklow among them the Lugnaquillia and Clohernagh. If you haven’t had enough of those two peaks after your Avonbeg ordeal, you get another chance in the Fraughen Rock Glen race: The very technically challenging 10k race designed in 2009 by former Irish International Paul Nolan.
The better trails of Black Mountain and the crowd-pleasing up-and-down joust to the top of Mt. Leinster serves as the start and finish of the Championship.
Long Distance Challenge
The Long Distance Challenge was dreamt up in loose conversation between yours truly and race organising pioneer Joe Lalor but has struggled to find its feet so far. This year it looks to be getting a better chance than ever. The Wicklow Way Ultra is the first counter in the race series followed by the new Circuit of Avonbeg race (a double-counter for both the LC and the LDC). The series final race, once again the 32k Dublin Peaks, takes place much later in the year, providing more runners with the opportunity to compete effectively in the race or even use it as a warm-up for the Autumn marathons.
Summer
While the Leinster League and Championship rage on a few independent fixtures run in parallel. Prime among them is the Wicklow Way Relay which this year falls in the same weekend as the European Trial. This is bound to be an unpopular choice among the aspiring internationals that, like their non-internationals peers, look at the Relay as the festive highlight of the season but with a packed calendar this may not stand to change.
Towards the end of summer the end of league handicap race will take place and early indications are that the not universally embraced Kippure route will be replaced by a more popular choice. As Summer hands the baton to Autumn, the Trail League fills late July and early August. While the races are not yet decided, potential routes include the popular Earl’s Drive, Glen of the Downs and Devil’s Glen races from previous years.
Irish Championship
After two years of trying to rebuild the Irish Championship into Ireland’s premier competition, this year’s Committee look set to bring this vision to fruition. Five races and five major peaks. The series starts with Croagh Patrick in Connacht (not the highest peak there but undoubtedly the most famous), then Carrauntoohil (highest peak in Ireland and Kerry), third is Leinster’s highest peak Lugnaquillia, and then Galtymore (possibly the hardest climb in Ireland).
Croagh Patrick
The big surprise springs at the end with the inclusion of the Slieve Donard – Commedagh race into the Irish Championship. This not only makes the competition the first truly “All-Irish Championship Series” but means all four provinces of Ireland contribute a major peak to the competition (Munster contributes two with Carrauntoohil and Galtymore).
It is hard to imagine a more fitting setting within which to select the Irish Champion 2010 and hopefully top runners from North and South of the border will come out and vie for the title.
A long review and a long season ahead and this is before we consider the many races from Munster and Connacht that will be added to the calendar over the next months as well as the mountain and trail races that are organised without IMRA such as the Mourne Way Marathon. To the hills then!
