Team Geared Up

DUBLIN, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) Lots happening on the hills this weekend so thought I’d wish best of luck to all our internationals heading for the mountains. Firstly there’s a bunch of hillrunners heading to the WMRA’s World Long Distance Mountain Running Challenge which this time is the Three Peaks Challenge which traverses the famous Yorkshire Dales in the UK. Best of luck to those names I recognised from the start list: Moire O’ Sullivan, Rene Borg, Bernard Fortune, Kevin Grogan, Mick Hanney and Joe Lalor. I’d say the climbs are absolutley SAVAGE!

We have some Irish hill runners heading up north for the annual Knockdhu run. (I’ve done this once and said “Never Again”!!) The Irish team includes: Aoife Joyce (Crusaders, Captain), my clubmate Karen Duggan (Clonliffe), Peter O’Farrell (Rathfarnham, Captain), Ross Alexander (Coolquill), Colm Mullen (Sli Cualann). I remember being stood on the start line (think it was 2005?) as Paul Nolan described the course to the Irish team. It all meant very little to me so I thought it simpler to ask “How many Ups?” “Four” he said. As I climbed about my 7th “up” I realised that some people’s version of a hill differs from others…. ;-)
Well done on a great run on Wednesday night Paul!

And on the IMRA forum there’s a post by Peter O’ Farrel about some races up North in the Hill and Dales series on Thursday evenings in the Mourne mountains. Might be worth a trip to try out some new hills…. Enjoy your weekend!

-Aisling-

Image is of last year’s Irish team at Knockdhu.