Race 5 : Moughanmore

4th May 2006

McKibbin back in charge, Maxwell now favourite

This week in Hill & Dale news: the real mountains are back, the weather turns interesting, an early candidate for lost in the mountains, more interesting evidence of the emerging youth development policy from Mourne Runners and finally a sticky situation.

The Moughanmore race used to be the first race of the Blue Lough (www.mountainandwater.com) Hill & Dale Race Series, taking place on the first Thursday in April. These days, however, the Series organisers have moved the race to number five in the series and into May to aim for kinder weather. Once again the objective was met as ferocious thunderstorms struck the area – 181 reported strikes on the NIE network on the same afternoon. At the race base at the Deer’s Meadow, the rain had turned to drizzle, most of the time, but the mist was rolling in an out and the ground was saturated, hardly a firm step in the 3.25miles and 1,560 feet of climbing race.

Having returned for race four, Alan McKibbin was seeking his second victory of the Series in his quest to win three overall titles in a row. Looking around the field, his biggest risk tonight was the conditions. Not known for his navigating ability, McKibbin set off steadily and stayed with the leading bunch on the first climb to the corner of the wall on Pigeon Rock. Behind the group included club mates, Stevie Cunningham, who in four short weeks has shown a great turnaround in form, Eamon McCrickard and Mid-Ulster’s Jonathan McCloy. Interestingly, on a more south-easterly line, BARF’s Jim Brown was also making great progress.

Meanwhile back down the initial climb and barely thirty seconds into the race, a yelp could be heard from Charlie McAlinden as the bog captured his shoe, leaving him with the task of first finding it, retrieving it and then getting it back on – you’d think at his age that he would be able to tie his shoes properly. It didn’t ruin his race completely, however, as he still managed to come home second vet50 in 28th overall in just under 41 minutes.

Onto the first descent and McCloy chased hard to catch McKibbin with Brown’s fearless descending taking him into third place. Onto the climb of Moughanmore and McKibbin once again was wary of going too far ahead as the cloud swirled in to bring visibility down to only 10 metres.

As the runners approached the turnaround point on the summit cairn of Moughanmore, there was no sign of the marshals. Billy McNeilly had set out first, closely followed by Mark Hanna, so McNeilly must take the credit for this year’s first nomination for ‘lost in the mountains’. It’s a unique feat, for never before has a marshal been nominated in this category, after all, the marshal’s task is to be the guide… Anyhow, a nomination it is and, thankfully, thinking on his feet, McKibbin passed the first cairn and kept on running to find about twenty seconds later, McNeilly and Hanna at the secondary Moughanmore summit. Panic over and as Mourne Runners’ Bart said after, ‘another record winning time this week – at least for this course’.

Now more assured, McKibbin struck out for home and in just over 32 and a half minutes, he came in to win, nearly one and a half minutes ahead of second place. Second place, meanwhile went down to the wire. McCloy and Brown continued their excellent descending performance with McCloy looking to have second place sown up. However, it’s never over to the fat lady sings and he made the classic mistake of turning too far left after crossing the Pigeon Rock wall and as he emerged from the cloud, he could see the loping Brown over on his right and now ahead. Brown stormed home to second, first vet45 and his highest Hill & Dale placing in five years with McCloy only four seconds behind and first junior.

On reaching the finish line, McCloy shouted through the rain that he had handed his glasses to someone at the summit, but he couldn’t see who. Ever the sympathetic ear, Marty McVeigh replied, ‘if you had kept your glasses on then you might have seen who it was that you handed them to’.

Fiona Maxwell is an orienteer and lately turned Mourne Runners athlete. She is leading the lady vet45 category but much more importantly she is now also leading the Series with her third win in a row. This week she demonstrated that she is able to descend as well as climb to come home is a fast 39 minutes and 17 seconds, particularly given the extra distance that had to be covered to the second Moughanmore summit. Behind her there was a real scrap for second place, with record holder for this race, BARF’s Shileen O’Kane passing Newcastle AC’s Alwynne Shannon on the final descent to take second by six seconds.

Fourth place went to Newcastle’s Clare Galbraith with Lagan Valley’s improving Diane Wilson in fifth place. First junior lady was next, North Down’s Kerry Iveston – complete with a gashed knee that needed post-race medical attention. Spare a thought also for Gordon Stephens who unfortunately fell hard and failed to finish with a suspected broken nose.

With torrential rain falling as the runners finished the race, the finish team worked efficiently to record times and places (but bare with us if there are any errors). Initially declared in 8th place and the highest ever finish in a Hill & Dale by a vet60, BARF’s Denis Rankin, it seemed that Rankin had had a stormer. Problem was, he hadn’t even left Jordanstown and wasn’t in the vicinity of the Mournes. With Paul Mawhirt hidden under a cagoule, relying on the number calling skills of McVeigh, there was always a certain risk of a mistake. With 99 runners recorded at the finish and only 98 in the race, a review of the results followed and Rankin was relegated to the category of ‘did not starts’.

In 15th place overall, Jim Patterson took second again in the vet55 category only a few months before he makes the vet60 category. Arriving at registration, he declared that his mind was at last made up – he was moving to Mourne Runners – making him another product of their Youth Academy following on from 70-something Tom Donnelly. There is still the risk of a nine-month ban being put in place before he can represent Mourne Runners - ‘he might not make it’.

A small but worthy mention is once again due to Davy Hughes, the man who continues to insist that he is an ACKC runner and refuses to recognise the Mourne Runners name change. Hughes found himself in a sticky situation this week for which he received this week’s jar of McNeilly Honey. In a fluster to park before the race, he didn’t notice that his people carrier was positioned on soft ground – it’s even possible that his friendly Mourne Runners jumped in and bounced up and down to do the job properly, at any rate, he was up to his proverbial uxters in bog by the time he tried to leave. His erstwhile club mates had all gone to Doran’s Mourneview Pub and it was left to International Rescue’s Newcastle AC and Blue Lough Proprietor Marty McMullan to return and pull him out. For the record, Hughes was the only ACKC finisher in the race in 75th place.

Race six is over Hen & Cock over 2.75miles with 1,700 feet of climbing, please try and register before 7pm.

BOGBOY