Report & pictures below

Spelga Skyline. AL. 13m / 6175’. British Championship Race. N. Ireland. 2.4.05

Three Harriers made the trip to Ireland for the first British Championship Race of 2005. We all congregated in the car park beside the Spelga Dam, on a fine day in the beautiful Mourne Mountains, greeting familiar faces in the large crowd over from England, Scotland and Wales. This is the first Fell race I have started where the start line was a quarter the way up the first hill. At 11am we began running up the first climb, no one walking until we passed the TV camera, over the top and a fast decent to the road and ahead towards c.p 1 on Slieve Meelbeg. We didn’t know at the time but that decent would be the only proper running we would do for the next three and a half hours. After crossing the road the terrain became very boggy and difficult to run over and the climb to Meelbeg steep and slippery under foot. On Meelbeg you follow the Mourne Wall down hill, until about half way down you clamber over it and contour around the next hill to again follow the wall on another steep ascent to c.p 2 on Slieve Muck. From here it was an energy sapping decent on boggy, heather covered and rocky ground to the road crossing. Once at the road it’s straight back up again using the wall as a handrail to help on the climb up Slieve Moughanmore, I was beginning to fade and the terrain was starting to wear me down. We were now out in open country with no paths and had to heather bash over more boggy ground strewn with grit stone boulders and peat hags making sustained running impossible.

I begin to catch fellow runners struggling and tiring over the rough ground as we headed towards the next c.p at Pierces Castle. It was now getting really tough and I struggled up the steep slopes of Rocky Mountain but managed to pass more runners who were struggling worse than me. From Rocky Mountain the hard going continued and I found it difficult to stay on my feet and kept tripping up, as my spirits were very low. The thing that kept me going was the sight of everyone else in a similar state.

I finally reached the second last climb and began to catch more runners on the steep ascent of Cock Mountain, some laid out in the heather resting. My spirits began to rise as I caught some runners who are usually well in front of me in fell races. With only one climb and about 1.5 miles to go I was moving quite quickly even thought the ground was still difficult to run over. Finally I reached the last road crossing on the Spelga Pass and when I saw the last climb, described as the steepest in the race, my spirits were dashed, crampons and ice axes wouldn’t have gone amiss to get up it. Some runners retired here, as they hadn’t the energy to go up. It was a real struggle to the top but once at the c.p its amazing where you find the strength to race down the final slope to the finish line and complete the toughest fell race I have ever run in, it was after all a British Championship race. Well done everyone who completed and commiserations to Nicholas who aggravated his injured leg and wisely pulled out.

Once the black bog muck was washed off in the stream we retired to the presentation do for a well-deserved pint of superb cold Guinness. We had a great weekend and the hospitality was excellent, hopefully we will return next year with more harriers and start competing in more English and British Championship races. If Bowland can have twenty runners in Ireland why can’t Preston Harriers??

Results: -

1^st. Rob Jebb. Bingly. 2 : 26 : 40 He made it look easy.

109^th. Michael Mcloughlin. 3 : 42 : 06

120^th. Steve Foster. 3 : 48 : 44

Nicholas Conlon dnf

Report by Mick Mcloughlin. Pictures below from his brother Noel.