IMRA - West Dublin Peaks

Back in Ireland for a family visit when my brother informs me of the inaugural running of the Leinster Championship  "West Dublin Peaks" mountain race.  The race directory Ken Cowley was selling this race by stating that there was "almost no fire road". I assume from  that it must be an issue in Irish races:). Like many IMRA races it is basically an "out-and-back" race. With the tiny running community they must struggle to get the necessary volunteers so out-and-back routes are much easier to manage which is a very understandable consideration.  In my first IMRA race (this is the second) on Galteemore a couple of years ago a runner missed the left turn off Galtee Beag on the return leg to go very badly off course and overdue. The race organisers had to take on the responsibility to go and find her. The West Dublin Peaks race was been run on-trust due to the call for "non-running" volunteers failed to get the required bodies to man the summits.

West Dublin Peak "lay by"

Up at 7am for the 2 hr drive to South Dublin to get to some middle-of-nowhere lay-by on the edge of a forest. It was 9:30 with a race start at 11 but my twin brother John was on Laptop duty so he would be taking the runners details before heading off for a warm up himself. IMRA have a very successful Leinster League that runs on Wednesday nights over the summer months. They are even starting to get into the same issues as many FRA race organisers are only too familiar with  limiting numbers. No such issue exists with the Leinster Championship, John had a look at the previous races in the championship and reckoned 30 would be a good turn out.  It is a regular occurrence (that FRA race organisers should use more) in IMRA races - an early start. By 10:30 registration for the 26 runners was nearly complete and about half the field headed off. John had meant to go with them but laptop duties prevented it so at 11:am about 15 of us headed up the fire road through the commercial forest. I dropped into my customary last position as I forgot to set my watch going and I was holding my arm out to get a GPS lock! Very quickly we left the fire road to begin a climb on a reasonably path though the trees. After a couple of hundred metres we hit another fire road went  across it and straight into the trees. It was a bit different trashing though the dead branches with bodies heading in every direction trying to find a decent line. Broke out of the trees to hit an area of "felled trees for a 100 metres. This was hellish and a bit funny seeing people scattered all over the place trying to find a decent line through the stumps and abandoned branches. As I knew that we would be returning back the same way. I looked back over my shoulder  to identify something to aim for on the return leg, but it was all very "samey". I found a broken fence and and old stream bed which was ideal so followed that up to the first summit Seehan. This area is completely new to me I have only had the one outing in the Dublin Mountains which was the "Run the Line"  trail race  last year. I was told that this race would be a right "bog trot" but the weather had been very dry recently so I was reasonably confident that it would not be so bad. After the first summit we swung South to head to the second summit Corrig and then onto Seefingan.

 This was brilliant as  expected the ground was perfect for running on, pretty decent footpaths/trods that were quite spongy underfoot. After Seefingan we swung right for the 1.5 km out and back to the outlying summit Seefin. Between the early starters and leaders we were meeting loads of people coming in the other direction. I got to the summit and there was a massive pile of rocks. I stopped for a second to grab a quick photo, that I don't have along with many others that day because I did not know how to use the new camera app on my phone! A another runner arrived and said "have you ever been inside? but today is not the day". What was he on about? I went up for a closer look and there was a narrow opening. The pile of stones is in fact a 5000 year old neolithic tomb! Had a look then turned around for the return back to Seefingan.

Got back to Seefingan OK and now this was the key part of the race the 5 km over to the furthest point at Kippure. The col was a challenge it very heavy going and involved a lot of jumping and climbing back out of deep peaty holes. Eventually got to the Kippure trig point that was tucked away against the fence surrounding the TV transmitter station.

Kippure trig point

 I said to myself I need to find a different way back so I kept well to the east of the way I came up. It was not going so bad but I could only see a drop down to a valley in front of me. I veered left as I could see that I was too far east. I don't know what I was thinking but I kept contouring and ended up travelling about 3 times further that I needed to and ended up well west of the way I came out. I got the compass out and I could see that I was travelling 90 degrees to the the direction I need to be so another hard right to head down to the col.
A late course change removed Seefingan as a checkpoint on the return leg that allowed for an alternative to contour east around it. I knew I was heading straight back to the very area I was trying to avoid and it was my intention to bypass Seefingan so I steered off east again to try to get around the col. By sheer luck I found an old stream bed (we call them "gruffs" in the the UK), which was perfect.

An "Irish Gruff"

It had a lovely sandy and grassy floor and went around all of the difficult ground I passed through on the way out. I was not the only person to find it either as there was a single pair of running shoe tracks through it as well.  Before the race I had decided to follow the stream bed "Turrachawn" around Seefingan but on the day I decided to just gain a bit more height before starting the contour. It turned out to be a good move as the heather was pretty stunted so it was possible to keep running while circling around.

The "Sugarloaf" in the distance

Regained the main track and I could see three people scattered ahead of me I thought that maybe I could reel them in but they were a bit too far in front. Straight forward return to Corrig and then onto the final summit Seehan. I spotted the peat bank I identified on the way out and headed to it as I knew that would lead me to the stream bed. Down to the "felled" area and just had to be careful climbing over all of the branches. I actually found a much better route down through the trees to hit the fire road. I could not see the next track that I needed but I guessed it must be to my left and so it was. Down that and then the short run-in to finish in 12 place my highest ever finish! (2:46 for the 20Km - the winner was 1:57). Don't need to mention there were 26 runners. I actually overtook two of the people in front of me by returning down through the wood as they took a longer track back to the finish.

John & Annette - two happy campers!

Really enjoyable day out in perfect conditions. Hopefully I will be back in Ireland again for Galteemore.

Strava plot!