Donard Forest

Hill and Dale Race 11

Friday 15th June 2007

Spectacular Finish to 2007 Blue Lough Hill & Dale Series

As tradition has it, Donard Forest is the venue for the 11th and final race of the Blue Lough (www.mountainandwater.com) Hill & Dale Series. The first word must go to Marty McMullan, owner of Blue Lough, for his very generous sponsorship of the Series for the past three years – a worthy match for the endeavour shown by all the competitors throughout the Series.

The dry and muggy evenings from the earlier races in the Series are suddenly a distant past as the torrential rain of the previous 72 hours that had drenched all parts of southeast-Down left conditions, to say the least, very interesting. The treacherous underfoot conditions were one thing, but the descending darkness at only 8 o’clock in the evening in the depth of the trees also left many ‘feeling’ their way carefully around the course.

Once again a big crowd turned out with 135 souls on the start line despite the dampness and gathering gloom. With champion-elect Alan McKibbin absent (saving himself to defend next week’s Annual Classic Slieve Donard Race), it was set to be a dual-royal between Newcastle AC’s Deon McNeilly and the eternal bridesmaid North Belfast’s Neil Carty. Ladies champion-elect Newcastle AC’s Alwynne Shannon was also resting up, this time for Sunday’s Irish European Mountain Championships Trial in Wicklow, where she was travelling to compete alongside club mate Anne Sandford and Mourne AC’s Fiona Maxwell. The way was therefore open for Shalene Ward, a recent Newcastle AC recruit, to try and gain a second race victory of the Series having won well at Rocky, two weeks earlier.

The Donard Forest Race is unique in nature – a feature ironically similar each race of the Series. An early very short climb is followed by five minutes of relatively flat and downhill running that brings the runners to far end of King Street. After another short climb and bit of flat, the boundary wall is reached and the real climbing starts with the highest point reached after ten minutes in the forest emerging on the mountain ridge very much directly above the Ballagh. The next seven or eight minutes of running is on a faint track over rough, this year saturated, ground including boulder hopping and climbing up into the Donard Quarry. The race is then almost all downhill to the finish via a narrow, again very saturated, track in the forest, back to Donard Demesne.

After the early frantic ten minutes, the usual suspects settled down at the front, McNeilly driving the pace followed closely by Carty and Newcastle AC’s Dave McKibbin hanging on alongside Mourne AC’s Eddie Hanna & Stevie Cunningham and Newcastle AC’s David O’Flaherty. Also just behind was former Junior Champion Jonathan McCloy now with Armagh AC out of Mid-Ulster.

Behind, Shalene Ward was living up to her favourite’s tag and had established an early lead over Omagh’ Frances Orr.

Not long after the half-hour point was reached, the waiting spectators in the Demesne were treated to a classic racing spectacular. McNeilly rounded the last bend just ahead of Carty. “I caught him twice on the descent, just before the river and then again on the main track, but each time he surged again”, said Carty afterwards. It has been said many times before, but McNeilly is the ultimate competitor and alongside the odd grunt and groan, he was never going to let Carty past. It would probably upset the balance of the Universe if he had, because as everyone knows, Carty is the eternal bridesmaid. And so it came to pass, Carty was second this evening and you guessed it, second in the Series overall to McKibbin, just one point ahead of McNeilly, who despite his win couldn’t make it into the overall bridesmaid position and had to be content with 3rd.

As the runners came home and the gathering crowd smiled on, the midges set to work – yip the midges. Who would have thought it? The rain was still on in dribs and drabs, but nonetheless out came the biting little creatures in droves. They are definitely a modern day plague.

Meanwhile, some were making a last minute attempt at ‘lost in the mountains’, Ian Taylor and Pauline O’Hara (who won the infamous Loughshannagh race) weren’t admitting to being lost, but others thought they had been, whilst David O’Flaherty was absolutely certain he had been lost and it cost him at least two places before he got back on the correct route. Dave McKibbin finished a season’s best third place ahead of Stevie Cunningham and Eddie Hanna.

Shalene Ward confirmed her improvement this season by winning again from Frances Orr with North Down’s Stephanie Hambling in third. Newcastle AC yet again won the team race with 11 points from Mourne Runners with 24 points.

BOGBOY