by Rónán Davison-Kernan

The Laugavegur is a 53 km trail in the Icelandic highlands, an area almost but not quite entirely unlike its Scottish namesake. It connects the ridiculously beautiful geothermal area of Landmannalaugar with the ridiculously beautiful valley of Þorsmörk (pronounced “Thorsmerk”). Most things in Iceland are ridiculously beautiful, except the weather, which given its North Atlantic location is uncannily familiar to anyone who has spent any time in Donegal.

by Andrew Tees

I’d had my eye on the Wicklow Glacier Lakes race for while. As the name suggests, the objective of the race is to visit a set of 7 lakes (touching the water in each), with the route between each lake being almost entirely up to the competitor, returning to start/finish in Glendalough. The race can be run as a 4-leg relay in teams of 2-4 people, or as a solo event. Solo runners are also required to pass through the relay changeover points. Depending on route choice, the course measures approx 42km with 1700m of ascent.

BARF hosted the annual Annalong Horseshoe on 21 May. Trevor Wilson has made sure this race has gone smoothly for a long time now, but unfortunately, he slipped up this year in that he didn’t arrange the traditional Horseshoe weather of low cloud and poor visibility, with the 63 runners having to settle for perfect visibility and light winds. The race returned to its new home of Carrick Little for the 2nd year in a row and the consensus has it that this works well but Newcastle AC’s Pete Grant was adamant that “there’s no call for Donard on that course” and that he would “have words with Trevor” but he may have been suffering flashbacks from the sweatbox of the Donard race the previous week. Without the Pinnacle of Mourne sure, The Horseshoe would be a medium race, and when else do you get to race up the South side of Donard?

Admin first – we’ll be doing Monday night social sessions around Belfast instead of Thursdays for the duration of the Hill and Dale series so keep an eye out for locations on Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram.

2022 has seen the full return of the mountain racing calendar and it’s been a busy start to the season with BARF very well represented.