Race 5

Moughanmore Glory for Carty & McBurney

Summer is over and on cue Moughanmore arrived, the 5th race of the 2003 Acheson & Glover Hill & Dale Series. Moughanmore with its start at the Deer's Meadow above the Spelga Dam has a reputation of being a cold race. The start is at 1,000 feet above sea level and climbs steeply to the top of Pigeon Rock, dropping south and climbing Moughanmore before returning to the Deer's Meadow. Underfoot conditions were very wet, after the very dry spell, which had seen many mountain fires, the rain was back with a vengeance leaving running conditions treacherous.

Contesting for most unpopular race organiser this week was Kevin Quinn. Laid back and relaxed, Quinn lives to a 'just in time' dogma, which tends to mean everyone else shoulders all the concern, while Quinn is quietly effective (or not as the case might be). Despite some runners resting up for the weekend trip to Scotland and for the Belfast Marathon, Quinn strolled home comfortably with 97 runners turning up.

Records were never going to be in danger this week and North Belfast's Neil Carty made it look like a walk in the park pulling away from the start to romp home easily by nearly two minutes. Carty has now won two in the series, the same as Robbie Bryson with Deon McNeilly on one victory.

The ladies race was not as clear cut with runaway series leader Ballymena's Sharon McBurney finding the going tougher on the rough mountain than on the forest tracks. Alwyn Shannon lost ground on the first climb, but closed on McBurney on the first decent before losing out again the climb of Moughanmore. Eventually McBurney pulled away to win comfortably and making it four wins so far.

Other notable performances came from Jim Metcalfe, first veteran 70, Desi McHenry first veteran 55, now reaching a peak for the World Masters Triathlon Championship in Ibiza this month. First veteran 45 was Francie O'Hagan of Team Purple in 4th place overall in 33 minutes 39, just missing out to Simon Taylor for a top three place. First veteran 50 was Albertville's Billy McKay, who is in for the Belfast Marathon as well, 7th overall. First veteran 40 was Jim Brown of BARF in 10th overall. Albertville's Davy Allen damaged his ankle and had to pull out, once again illustrating the respect that the mountain terrain deserves.

In the team race, Team Purple stormed home ahead of BARF and Ballymena Runners with Newcastle relegated to fourth.

Despite organiser Quinn's easygoing attitude, he did manage, somehow, to dispatch the McNeilly clan to the top of Moughanmore for the summit checkpoint. Checkpoint marshalling is a job, which deserves much respect, with wet feet, on a cold night like this one; the marshals spend at least an hour checking the runners through. The finish line, with Frank Morgan decked out these days like a 'country gent' in his green wellington boots was once again decked out in red and white tape, which this time seemed to distract the runners away, instead of towards, the officials. One by one the runners dived under the tape with the best show from Charlie McAlinden reaching a 10/10 performance in terms of gymnastics as he landed gracefully at the feet of Morgan and Quinn.

There was yet another warm reception at Doran's near Hilltown for the prize giving with Quinn at his enigmatic best. Next week is the last race before the one week break, Hen & Cock with registration at Hen Car Park from 6.45pm.

BOGBOY

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