Irish calendar fills as grass-roots come to the fore
The Irish Mountain Running Association represents hill running in all the four Provinces of Ireland (Connacht, Leinster, Munster and Ulster) yet an oft-heard joke is the inference that the association is more The Leinster Mountain Running Association.
While unfair, the majority of activities run by the Dublin-based Committee centre around the richness of hills in County Wicklow, Leinster, which its huge upland of hill runners residing in Dublin. Traditionally, the Munster Mountain Running sub-committee has run the Munster Championship and the Munster League largely autonomously with incursions into other regions of Ireland only happening as part of the ubiquitous Irish Championship series or the annual Connacht Championship weekend.
Mountain running in Ulster thrives under the auspices of the Northern Irish Mountain Running Association while there is little IMRA activity in Cavan, Monaghan and Donegal after the race up Mt. Errigal went off the calendars after 2004.
But bigger local race series need to grow from below, from the grass-roots, and last year saw the first rumblings of such activity: First in Leinster (with the Open Trail Series in Co. Wexford), then rumours of a prospective Connacht League and finally the inception of the Munster Wednesday League led by local orienteers in the area.
It’s fitting that in the 30th anniversary since IMRA was founded by a group of orienteers similar winds blow again and to celebrate this, I will write an article series focusing on these local initiatives and interviewing the inceptors starting with the Munster Wednesday League.
But first let’s have a quick look at the confirmed dates for Munster:
Munster dates
This year features 60 official IMRA races on the calendar: 37 in Leinster (this should grow to 40 with the Open Trail Series), 2 in Connacht (this may yet grow), 1 in Ulster (with NIMRA’s Donard-Commedagh a counter in the IC) and 20 for us to look at in Munster.
Last year’s Charity run up the famous Slievenamon (Sliabh na mBan) does not look to return in 2010, so the Munster season will open on the 20th of February with the first of two Munster League runs on the traily Ballyhouras course which takes you over Seefin, highest of the Ballyhoura Mts. This race also concludes the series on August 8th with the hard Slieve Bearnagh race on the 6th of June.
The provinces premier event the Munster Championship usually features one race for each of the six counties in the Province but this is slightly changed this year as the series consists of: Claragh Mtn. (Cork), Doon Hill (Limerick), Galtymore (Tipperary), The Comeraghs (Waterford), Mautherclay (Tipperary) and Mangerton (Kerry). Co. Clare is usually represented through Slieve Bearnagh which can be found in the Munster League this year. County Tipperary gets two races with the return of Galtymore after its successful outing in 2009. All races take places on weekends.
Most of the races are well-marked and reasonable climbs and distances except Galtymore which may well be the toughest climb of any on the IMRA calendar.
Normally this would be the end of the Munster review but the inaugural Munster Wednesday League debuts with 8 races running from May to August. Runners will need to complete 5 races to score. All routes are brand new and will be reviewed in our upcoming article. Distance vary from 7 to 14km (4.3 to 8.7 miles) with climbs between 180m and 470m (591ft to 1542ft.) so this series has all the trappings of a good introductory league. Maps and pictures are not yet available.
