Sli Gaeltacht Mhuscrai Ultra 2019

 

  Running Again After Injury and Learning From the Layoff

The fog feels like it’s lifting. All through September to February , I felt mentally clouded,  short-tempered and  My poor family walked on eggshells around me.I had run the Kerry way ultra 200km 3 times before with out a problem but in 2018 just going down a simple hill i slipped and did good lot damaged to my hip,knee and arm.I continued for another 8 hours but the pain was so bad had to DNF (i will be back this year to wipe that off my list from last year). But, for the first time since … since I’m not sure when, probably since September, before a series of injuries sabotaged my ability to train and enjoy running … I was feeling cautiously optimistic about reclaiming the ability to run on a regular basis, keeping pain and injury in check around december.Only runners who’ve been through an extended period off can understand how out of sorts you feel when you can’t run. You miss the thing that regulates your body clock, unleashes your best thoughts and restores your confidence. You disconnect from running buddies. You put “the runner” part of your identity on a shelf, so you feel insecure and introverted. You begin to lose faith you’ll  ever run again.

So January 2019 rolled around and like all ultra runners i sat down and planned my year ahead i had already got accepted into the Lavaredo ultra trail 120 km in June so that's the main race.So all races will be planned around that for training runs.Had a look on the usual web sites and there i spotted the Sli Gaeltacht Mhuscrai Ultra in Feb and i thought to myself that's the one that's my come back trail race its a great technical race and great distance of 71km a lot of climbing but also just on my door step only 30 mins drive from my house to the start line perfect i thought signed up and i was in.

Its here i want to give a shout out to few lads Ray Lawlor,David white and Simon Kelly we ran many a recce on the course over then next few months and massive thanks to them for there patience as i was lagging along way back on some of those runs as i was trying to regain fitness and lose the weight i had piled on.But they were nothing but amazing to me and never moaned once well i didn't hear if the did lol and help me get my confidence back again and i will be for ever grateful to them and have made great new trail friends so  thank you again Boys.

Well Race rolled around and to say i was nervous was an understatement but as we gathered to sign in and get on the buses and i started to see all the old faces from previous races i have done over the last 10 years and all of them  said to me  was great to see me back out there.So you get on the bus in millstreet which is the finish line and we were shipped to the start line Carriganass Castle on the outskirts of Kealkill village, in the heart of West Cork. After a safety talk and a quick ballad from one of the locals and about 30 mins late we started at 8am.I had 3 goals for this race 1. to finish 2.don't re-injury myself and 3.11 hours 30 mins would have been a great time.

The first few km was on country road and I found myself trying to keep pace with everyone.The route turned off into a forest where it started to get muddy,and steep, so steep that there was a handrail to use! It was along the top of this ridge that i felt strong and started to push on my inov-8 trail shoes glued to the rocks mud and trail and my confidence was growing with every stride and i was passing people on the climbs and going down which is very rare for me,but at the highest point
Views across Gougane were magnificent and as i descended down into the first check point I couldn't help myself beaming all the way down and  bumped into Val O Sullivan snapping away with her trusty camera and she gave me the biggest hug when she saw me and said its so good to see me out there again.

So i arrived CP1 and I found myself at 2 hours 8 mins for that section a good 22 mins ahead off what i planned and i knew then i was having a good day now i had planned to change my shoes here as the next long sections is a lot of road and only few trails but i decide to stick with my inov-8 claws and i was so happy i did because later on in the day the trail is just muck marsh and hard going,it was also here that Simon Kelly just came in after me as i was leaving this check point i maybe stayed for 3 minutes got some water and food and went again.Myself and Simon ran together for a while but my pace was a little faster and i pushed on i would later find out Simon was suffering pretty much all the day and nearly dropped but he didn't he fought on and got to the finish strong which to me is so inspirational a legend you are Simon.

So i head out on the long roads between Gougane and Ballyvourney this section is prop the worst in the race it can get very boring but i settled in to my pace and hit Cp2 in 3 hours 40 mins and then into ballingeary Cp3 in 4 hours 54 mins i was 45 mins ahead of my time and to my shock feeling great and no pain in any of the injury's.I fueled up here more tailwind and bit of food thankfully got my liquid and nutrition bang on for this race.It was also this section that i met up with Mairead o keeffe and Jeremy Kelleher(both the first and longest ultra they have done  so impressive)we are settled into the nice pace we ended up running to finish together and later on in the.

 Denis O'Brien would join our little group, The long downhill into Ballyvourney and Cp4 was fantastic as the km just seemed to go by as we all kept pace together the miles flew by and so did the time Pulling into Ballyvourney I was relieved to see my drop bag and gang set up outside the GAA building didn't stay long here again but i ate my food and drank as i left the check point walking always moving forward. I had arrived at Cp4 in 6 hours 14 mins a full hour ahead of my planned time.

We were now on the Sli Half route. It was muddy in places , especially from the half marthon which has set of  earlier with about 100 brave souls taking part , so we hiked and ran mainly up through the hills and fields with the huge mast of Mullaughanish ahead of us. After some fire road and a very muddy fire roads and aslo where the trail is currently being worked on u sang into it big time  we enter the windmill farm, 6km of open vast running and they are enormous over ur head as you ran under them ,we all pushed on and eventually popped out on the road for a 400m steep descent which was great to stretch the legs i pished on here to make up the few mins u lose when ur climbing , then its over the style and we are finally entering the terrain of Mt Claragh, very sloppy mucky paths here, but eventually reaching the Claragh woods which are always very dark even on the brightest days so the head lights came out .It was here i finally started to fade big time i had been leading the way most of the day and it was so nice to be at the back of the 3 lads and have them pull me  along the last few km i took a gu and tailwind and started to come round with 2km to go so we stuck together and finished strong heading on into Millstreet at a decent clip touch the sign and the 71km day way done finish time of 10 hours 20mins a full 1 hour and 10 mins ahead of my time i had planned.It was the perfect day for me great trail,great views and great people to share the trails with.Will be back again.There are showers and food available at the finish line in the hall and it was great to catch up on everyone's race stories. 

Huge thank you to Robbie, Danny, Brian, Eddy, Michael, Michael, etc etc for all the time spent preparing for the race, and the hours spent during the race manning the check points and assisting the runners. I know the effort it takes

THE PICTURES OF MYSELF AND ALL THE RUNNERS BELOW WERE TAKEN BY THE LEGEND Valerie O'Sullivan 

THE REST WHERE TAKEN DURING MY RECCE OF THE COURSE OVER THE FEW MONTHS