Saturday 19th March brought the second race of the 2022 NIMRA championship, the medium distance Fallows race which was held in Kilbroney Park, Rostrevor. Those who have participated in the Slieve Martin Hill & Dale race will be familiar with the beginning and finish of this race, and recall it’s sharp climb and drop from the forest to the open mountain. The middle part of this race however stretches through the wildness of Crenville and onto the fire roads towards Slievemeel before climbing back towards Slievemeen via the dreaded zig zags. Approx 16km in distance and with 800m of climbing in total

Newcastle AC had 9 runners representing on the day, which was bright and pleasant despite a westerly tracking gust on the higher sections. This proved difficult climbing around Slievemeen at the start but was a useful tailwind on the runnable path to the trig point & first checkpoint on Slieve Martin. Helicopter operations to assist with path building between here & Crenville were postponed for the duration of the race but the runners had to work around the tote bags of stone as well as the swampy ground.

Davy Hicks was first body home finishing in a great 10th position (1:24:18) amongst a very strong field. JP Gartland had a very steady run throughout to come 22nd (1:32:14). Pete Grant prefers going round a lot of the course on two wheels but made handy work of it taking 35th position (1:39:07). The experienced hands Dominic McGreevy (40th- 1:41:45) & Gerry Kingston (42nd- (1:42:33) saved their attack crucially until the zig zags and finished strong. Pearse Brogan (49th- 1:44:52) did the opposite going out fast from the start but hanging on for the finish. Declan McElroy was next home with a great run in 53rd (1:47:02) followed in by 7th lady Catherine McIntosh in 60th overall (1:53:16) and Owen Brady wrapping things up in 63rd with 1:54:10.

Thanks to Newry AC for hosting as always, especially their race organisers, encouraging checkpoint marshalls and the finish line snacks. The next mountain race for the schedule is Slieve Gullion which is this Saturday 26th March @ 11am, hosted by Armagh AC. The next NIMRA championship race is back in Rostrevor which will be our own Slieve Martin Hill & Dale race on Thursday 28th April.