Team Geared Up

Jerry….. Jerry….. Jerry….

I have to confess, I used to be guilty of similar thinking re “roadies” when I was a young mtb nut. Then I discovered the joys of cycling touring and have been toying with buying a road bike and joining the peloton ever since.

Essentially, the idea that any sport, and therefore its participant, is any more “hardcore” or exciting is just snobbery, and should be treated as such.

Cheers Fearghal, I so agree. All sporty people should be treated like buddies (maybe we could leave out Darts players or something).

I see from your website you’re a “Tough Guy”. Kudos to you!!

Asphalt Sniffers!

I really enjoy trail runs for the beauty and the low key atmosphere at the start and finish of the races. Like you I also enjoy road running and the rush associated with working your way to the front of the pack. Trails have kept me healthy with the softer surface. Having run a couple 50 milers on pavement. I’m not a big proponent of distances on pavement over the marathon distance due to the pounding one takes.

Other than friendly smack talk we don’t see much “Tude” at the trail races. We still deal with a lot of twitchy amped up runners at the start of our road races. I like beating those people to the finish the most.

Eric Barnes - Washington State USA

Hi Eric, thanks for that, sound words!

cheers for the kudos Aisling. Tough Guy comes highly recommended, great craic.

What I really meant to say Fearghal was : It looks crazy, ya lunatic!!

I’ll start by pointing out that I do huge amounts of road running, quite often in the one sitting, so I feel I can speak from experience if I make any comparisons between the two sports.

I have no problems with road runners and their sport. I don’t hold them in any kind of contempt whatsoever. I’ve done lots of road races, Connemara included, and will continue to do more.

I do howerver prefer mountain running as a sport. I get a bigger kick out of it. There is a buzz you get from tearing down extrenely technical terrain, on the edge of control, taking huge risks to keep the speed up, that I certainly don’t get any equivalent of from less technical running. I don’t regard myself as being in anyway superior for being a mountain runner. I simply find it more enjoyable.

I do however have a huge issue with people trying to take the mountains out of mountain running. It is the Irish MOUNTAIN running association, not the Irish trail running association or the Irish slightly more inclined cross country running association. If you don’t like running in the mountains on mountainous terrain then don’t do mountain running. Please do not try to soften mountain running into a slightly hillier version of cross country running.

It bugs the crap out of me that we’re softening mountain running to accomodate anyone, whoever they may be. I don’t go around trying to get more hills put into road/track races, just because it would suit me better, or because I’m less used to running on the flat. I simply wouldn’t expect it to happen. Yet the converse does seem to be happening at the moment.

Ireland has produced world class mountain runners. I never recall them looking for easier races, or less technically challenging races. They actually seemed to relish the technical challenge, and not run scared that they might slip and hurt themselves. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if their ability to handle technical terrain in races was actually a major factor in their success! I don’t anticpate that we’ll have anything like that level of success with runners who have to have mountain races softened to trail races before they’ll risk running in the race, no matter how fast they are on easy terrain.

So Aisling, do you think we’ve been doing badly internationally in mountain running then? What results would satisfy you before they would be deemed worthy of being regarded as successful?

What really really really bugs me is people who think that Irish International mountain runners, who go out and run their very best, are some sort of failures for not being up to some mythically high standard. Its like the idiots who’ll be moaning when the olympics come round because our competitors aren’t winning medals, when the mere fact that they’ve got there to compete at that level is a huge achievment in itself. This is Ireland. We are 4 million people out of a world population of around 6 billion. If we place anywhere near the top in any of these competitions its statistically miraculous.

Hi Eoin! Well done today.

I have no issues with people who either love or hate the roads or mountains. I have a problem with snobs and elitism. The attacks that show up on the forum if someone mentions cross country or putting race dates on a calender can only be described as such.

On the international issue, I was on the receiving end of many nasty comments in the Summer in relation to poor performances. I was on two international teams and was accused on a public forum of not training hard enough. Obviously by someone who has never met me. But you’ve missed my point. If these people who accused us of performing badly want better international hill runners then they would want to start courting the fast road runners. But if we’re treating road runners with disdain then…..

On the issus of softening up the mountain runs. I fail to see how that’s happened, has the committee been asked to do this by over zealous track and road runners? ;-)
The international races are all on trails anyway. Every single race can’t be rugged mountain terrain. There’s enough of every type of terrain out there for all types of runners.

That kinda wasn’t my point anyway, I’m only b*tchin’ bout the snobs!!

Was it soft enough for you today? ;-)
(Well done again, it was incredibly tough but really enjoyable!!)

It would be hard for anyone who mountain runs and road runs to be able to see it from the point of view of someone who just sticks to the one flavour.

I’ve heard roadies in the MMM and 77’s (I’m a Northerner)question the logic of running up to a summit to come back down the same way, likewise I’ve had mountain runners question the logic of doing 40 miles on the road (I’m doing Connemara for the first time 08) - apparently it’s boring.

Each to his/ her own - personally I’m for both.

However,

I haven’t got past the hurdle of being able to see things from a Roadies point of view on a bike - MTB all the way - even on the roads….
“Yes I know commuting 52 miles a day would be easier on a road bike dressed in lycra, but if I wanted easy, I’d take the bus!!!”
No offence to any Roadies - I’ll get there eventually…

Hi,

as someone who does road, track and mountain running (the broken ankle has healed and I am just getting back), I would say that both all three are as good as each other, but very different. In mountain running you get great views, crazy conditions and really tough running. In road racing, you get closer competition, more entries in a race and, I find, it’s tougher to get good results given the numbers. Running on the track is the most competitive of the three in terms of all-out going for it and the closeness of the conditions

One thing I have noticed about mountain running in Ireland which seems strange to me is that some of the runners consider the IMRA to be their club. You see on the entry forms of other races where runners put IMRA down as “club”. This means that when all these runners line up at the start of the IMRA race they see themselves as running against team mates and not competition. The IMRA, I believe, should be viewed by runners as an umbrella organisation like Athletics Ireland and there should be more of an emphasis on club running. This would require the establishment of a number of mountain running clubs or, possibly, just the introduction of more club-based prizes in mountain running. Nothing spurs a person on in running than to compete as part of a team. You may be finishing in the middle of the pack or at the back but at least you know that every man counts for scores and if there is someone in front of you with a different colour singlet on you have to chase them down for the team. From my albeit limited experience of mountain running in Ireland (about 6 or 7 races) I think it would be really good to increase the competition, to have more of an emphasis on club results and not just individual ones.

I would be interested to hear what people have to say about this.

Dave best of luck with Connemara. I’d never describe it as boring. There are lots of “peaceful” sections early on in the race and it’s just beautiful.

Richard they introduced a club element to the main Summer League last year and some of the other races (clubs being regular athletic clubs) and it was very successful in heightening competition. The idea was I suppose to get regular club runners involved, a good step in my opinion. The club element continues now in the Winter League.

They even introduced a county champs for one race last year:
http://imra.ie/?sec1=newsitem&news_item_id=350

hey,

didn’t realise that - it’s a good development - the county champs is a great idea too -