Lough Musky and Galteemore or (Galty More)

Back in Ireland for a few days and I decided to repeat the Galteemore race route again. This time I thought I knew where the start point was but yet again I went wrong trying to get there. Got to Bansha OK but I think I took a left turn afterwards that was a mistake. Yet again more driving around county lands (there are just too many "pokey" little roads in Ireland!), while recognising nothing. Finally I came across a sign for Lough Musky and thinking to myself that is in the foot hills of the Galtees so it will do. So at delayed 6:45 I was off up the forest road on a glorious morning. A 2 km steady climb up the forest road, passing a couple of dead sheep on the way, to the lock and when Galteemore came in sight I realised that I was a bit further away from it than I expected, no harm, I will just get to run along the ridge for further than intended. I broke right off the footpath to the Lock to begin the grassy climb up a spur onto the ridge.

Looking back to Lough Musky

It was not too bad as there were a lot of sheep trods about that, for a change, actually went in the correct direction. Up onto the ridge and a lovely grassy run to Galtee beag. I only had 3 hrs this morning so with the delayed start and extended approach I decided to contour around Galtee Beag and attack Galteemore directly. I must be getting fitter as I did not find the steep climb too bad this time and actually ran quite a bit of it. Got to the summit at 08:45 and needless to say I had it to myself.

Summit Cross on Galteemore

 In-fact beside the race day last year I have never met anybody in about ten visits to the summit. Glorious morning so time for a couple of photos and then keeping well to the right got a lovely descent to the col between Galteemore 'agus' Beag. The short climb to Galtee Beag and then that long steep descent down to the col between Galtee Beag and Cush.

The south face of Galteemore down to the corrie lake.

I was now on about 2:15 and I decided that talking in Cush would add 25 minutes to the run so I veered right around the flank of Cush to head for the gap between two forests. I passed another few sheep on the descent to the river crossing. I was surprised to see so many on a run. Down the gap between the two woods and to pick up an indistinct path for a couple of km back to the forest road leading back to the car. I must have passed at least 15 dead sheep along this couple of kilometres, which must have been over 30 in total. I had heard on Irish radio that the farm animals were suffering very badly and starving to death due to extended winter weather this year. The vast majority of sheep I passed were still relatively fresh so they would have been victims of that late winter. If I saw 30 odd on my 18 km run how many must there be on the entire mountain range that is 20 miles long? Have people experienced the same thing in the lakes or Snowdonia? I got back to the car, a bit after 10am, to meet a couple blokes preparing for their walk. Received a comment about my work being done for the day then back in the car feeling very satisfied about the morning's run.

Pennine Biannual Runner vs Bike

First of the Pennine Biannual runner vs bike. It is a great little fun handicap event with "social" runners heading off first, followed 5 minutes later by the "competitive" runners, who are then followed five minutes later by the bikes.  It's an excellent route taking in the 2.5 Km climb up the snake path to the shooting cabin. This climb gives the runners a good chance to put considerable distance between them and the bikes so it needs to be taken as hard as possible. There was about 4 bikes and 15 runners tonight. At about 7 pm somebody shouted go (which I missed) and the social runners group of about 7 were off. I tore off after them to hear a couple of people shout my name. I take it they did not think I should be in the "social" group, which I suppose I should be flattered about, but when I knew who was in it with ChrisL, Sevie, and Simon, no way I was going to head off with them, I would be last by a long way.

Snake Path to the Shooting cabin

After my slightly delayed start I had to catch the other runners and  soon I was in the lead. The snake climb is a regular run for us (plus a strava segment to give it extra impetus) I stretched my lead to about 40 metres by the shooting cabin turn (and set a PB on the segment to jump about 4 places in the strava league). It is now the long descent down to Car Meadow. My target tonight was to try to get to Car Meadow before the fast runners caught up with me. I was only 500m into the descent, having crossed the stream when I hear footsteps coming up behind me, then Simon shot past. I could not believe he had made five minutes up on me in 3km, that is absolutely incredible running. I was nearing the bridge over Hollingworth clough, when Sevie shot past and my fellow early starter Rosie also overtook me as I done my usual struggle on rough ground, which is a bit of a problem for a fell runner. I lost another place on the short section of road, before the long climb up to Lantern Pike where I regained my two places. I knew Rosie was a faster descender then me so I needed a good cushion before the long Sunny Side descent.

It is amazing how competitive I get in what should be a fun event! I really pushed myself to the limit to the top of the climb to be caught by another of the fast runners (Noel I think) out side Sunny Side. When I saw how fast he was going I just let go and bombed down the hill after him. There seems to be some debate about the best way back once we get to the bottom of the hill, some runners continue on down the Pennine Bridleway (the bikes have to go that way) while others turn left down the road and then cut down through the fields by Lower Cliff. Personally I think this way is faster and I actually got ahead of Noel again when I got onto the Sett Valley Trail. It is then a two Km run back to the finish, which hurts like hell! Running as fast as I could as I could see John in front and I set a target to to try to catch him. I finally overtook him very close to the bus station when one then two bikes overtook me. Another bike overtook me when crossing the bypass so that was pretty good handicapping to get us so close! I got home in 52:26 for the 9.7km which I am pretty happy with. The order of finish was Bike,Runner,Runner,The three bikes that overtook me, then me. So possibly I should have started with the faster runners.

So Relieved to see that gate at the end of the Sett Valley Trail

Overall a very enjoyable night in lovely conditions. The next novelty event will be the extremely popular Pennine Relay from Ladybower Dam back to Hayfield and then the runner vs bike Mk2 in September.