Sunday August 5th;
Last Sunday I went with Kevin Ring to do the Galtymor Run. This is an Irish Mountain Runners Association event. About fifty turned up for the run on a cloudy muggy day. All the recent rain ensured that the mountain (boggy at the best of times) would be really wet and slippy. The route was a tough one. Starting in the Clydagh Valley it went up over Cush, down again then a long steep pull to the summit of Galtybeg and then along to Galtymor. Then turn around and retrace your steps back to the finish. 12Kilometers and over 1300mtrs of climbing. Kevin was struggling a bit with the effects of a cold and was still with me when we reached the summit of Cush, then though he started to feel better and took off and the next time I saw him was at the finish. He finished in an excellent sixth and I was very pleased to come in fourteenth in 1hour 58mins. From Galtybeg to Galtymor and back was horrendously slippy and mucky and just staying upright was a real challenge. I did have one fall coming down towards Cush when I went head first into a roll and sprung back to my feet all in one motion. It was fun. Back to a pub for tea and sandwiches afterwards ended a nice outing. I think Kevin has got the bug and I'm sure we will do more of these events.
On Tuesday with James Moore I went for another trail run over Bweeng Mountain. This was a 10.5 mile run with about 400mtrs of accent. We had had torrential rain overnight and about half a mile of one section was completely flooded and we had to splash through nearly a foot of water. Still it was good fun and we really enjoyed it. James is really coming on in fitness. The day is not far off when I will really struggle to keep up with him.
Thursday August 9th;
I decided to take advantage of a rare beautiful summer day and went for a bike ride this afternoon. I took my trail runners with me with the intention of climbing Mushera Mor and making a biathlon of the outing. It felt great to be out on the bike. I'm not a great one for cycling in poor weather but on a day like this with no wind and glorious warm sunshine I was really enjoying myself. I took the road to Banteer and then the big hill up into Lyre and from there up to the large and impressive wind farm above Kilcorney. Here I left my bike and set off along the "Duhallow Trail" which wend its way through the woods and way down to the road to Rylane. From here it was another big pull to the pass at the top of the "Butter Road" at 460mtrs. Off road again here and across open ground with great views to the west and back to the bike. From here it was steeply down to Nadd and another hill and home. All in all I was out just over three hours with the run taking me 1hour 15mins. It was just great to get to enjoy the outdoors in glorious weather.
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