25km in the cold, in the dark, in the mountains. All sponsorship welcome, large or small. If I raise enough they'll let/make me do 60km next year!
I got a blister for the first time in years after about 10km, but other than that and the crippling fatigue and muscle soreness, it was grand! The dark does funny things to your perception of distance, but it made for eerie vistas of strings of floating headtorches.
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There was a bit of logistics involved first - we started at around 16:30, driving up to Kippure estate near the Sallygap to park the car, then got a bus to Dublin Castle. It's hard to tell what the Irish weather will be in six hours' time, so I brought everything. In fact, we're pretty sure I had the biggest rucksack of the runners - most people had a ridiculously tiny running belt backpack thingy, while I had my 25L hiking rucksack.
Anyway, it meant that I had plenty of choice for starting the run, but the cold wasn't as much of an issue as it threatened to be, it was a balmy 5°C once we got out of the city.
This is the route if you want to follow along:
There was a good bit of hanging around, so it was a welcome relief when the hooter went at 22:00 and a big bunch of 100 runners raced out the gates of the Castle. It was a surreal atmosphere, with headtorches and lights dancing and reflecting off hi-viz vests as we swarmed up Castle St and Bride St.
As we made our way out through Harold's Cross and through the KCR, the group started to thin out, but there were still plenty of people in sight in front and behind. We took a right turn at the Blue Haven and out through Firhouse and Old Bawn.
At about the 10km mark, I could feel a stone in my shoe so we had to stop. To my horror, I realised I had gotten a blister - my first in a decade maybe? Thankfully Kevin had a specialised blister pad, and that instantly and completely removed the discomfort. That could have been a night ending injury - with 15km still to go, I would've been limping badly by the end and that's if I managed to keep going.
Another brief stop at about 11km to don our headtorches as the street lights petered out and the footpaths followed shortly afterwards. Then the climbing began, up the steep roads of Ballinascorney. This was also the start of the darkness playing tricks, as all the usual landmarks I'd have from cycling were invisible and the distance seemed to stretch out endlessly. We just took it steady with a few other people, mostly walking and occasionally running... at about the same pace as we were walking.
The lights of the checkpoint at 15km were a welcome sight, just as confirmation we were actually making good progress. We picked up a Croatian guy called Ranko, and the three of us tackled the second half together.
At this point, we were completely enveloped by the darkness. We had no view of the city, and a misty haze had come down, obscuring any reflected light and turning any torchlight into a beam that picked out droplets (which was good for shadow puppets, but nobody else seemed to be in the mood). It was eerie, and a look backwards would pick out a string of floating beacons marking out other participants' torches along the road.
It was hard to judge with no horizon and little visibility, but this road seemed to climb constantly. We were starting to suffer by then, so there was plenty of walking with occasional bouts of running when we could manage it.
A few of the Ultra runners passed us like steam trains - they had started later but had 60km to cover and seemed eager to get it done. We also passed plenty of Trekkers, those who were planning to walk the 60km. The last person to cross the finish line in Glenmalure took nearly 18 hours, that's dedication!
It was slow going, but we just kept a steady pace and then as the kilometres were counting down(hill) to the finish we were able to get the willpower together to start running more often. We reached the junction with the Sallygap road and the illuminated red gate of Kippure Estate. As the barrier lifted, it turned green and just one last push down the driveway to run through the gantry and the finish line. 3 hours and 15 minutes and done!
There were hot drinks and a spread of food, and then the long drive home before getting into bed around 3am. I'm very proud to have completed it, and I literally probably wouldn't have finished it without Kevin and his first aid kit, so I'm very glad to have suckered him into joining me. Descending stairs is still a struggle today but at least the soles of my feet have stopped hurting. :D
Thanks for all the well-wishes and thank you to everyone who contributed to the sponsorship drive! Really makes it all worth it. DWMRT want to locate a permanent base in the mountains, and this event gets them closer every year. The page is still open at and we're over 90% of the way to raising €1,500!
The 60km event awaits next year.
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