by Trevor Wilson

^{Having finished in 189th position in my last Hill and Dale race over the Meels, I deemed myself ready and headed off to the Alps to undertake the Zermatt marathon. As the name suggests, a full 42km with a climb of 2400m, mostly uphill, with a finish at the height of 2,585m.}

^{I did briefly consider down grading to the half marathon but when posed with this question, the organisers replied ‘Sorry, but this category is fully subscribed’, or in Belfast parlance, ‘Suck it up, big lad!’.}

While BARF hosted the Spelga Skyline last weekend, 3 BARFers headed West to take part in the Mweelrea and Nephin IMRA races in Mayo, together comprising the Connacht Championship. Report by Jonathan McCloy.

It’s the first time I’ve been to Mweelrea and Nephin but it felt so familiar, like races did 20 years ago. A small field of mountain runners, courses which were still rugged, not worn down to bare rock or bog and a good sense of community. Everyone chatted away and it would have been easy to yarn at everyone, yer man with the bright yellow shoes getting the brunt of my low quality humour (he beat me, so I don’t feel bad about it).