Saturday 30th November saw an assortment of BARFers decent on Lamb Doyle’s Pub (53.26593, -6.24177) for the Run The Line trail race. Now in its second year, the Dublin Wicklow Mountain Rescue fundraiser has two courses to choose from, an 11.5k short or a more appealing 25k long course. We all signed up for the main event!

The weather on the day was perfect, with bright clear skies, little or no cloud, and a crispness that a thin frost brings to the air!

At 11am 191 runners set off up the road behind the pub, before turning left on to forest trails after approximately 350 metres. The following 5km raced along forest trails before a reasonable climb up to the Two Rock cairn (536m).

A fast technical descent on stony trail then led us to Tibradden forest, and from here we continued to descend on trails down to a car park and water stop (11km). At this point we climbed through Cruagh forest on the main forest track, before switching on to elevated planks for the final 500 metres of the climb. Once this tricky section was completed, we descended along wet trails, boggy fire breaks and way marked forest, bringing us back to the car park, and the 17km mark.

We then began the climb back to Two Rock and along the top of the forest. The final section was fast and technical along trail and mountain bike tracks for the remaining 3-4km, before appearing on that very same road were we started. A quick sprint to the finish line and the end of a great run.

Here’s a link to the course on Strava

Winners
1. Diarmaid Collins 121m.55s
2. Emmet Jennings 123m.20s
3. Eoin Keith 128m.01s

1. Lucy O’Malley 157m.46s
2. Laura Schwirz 165m.11s
3. Niamh O’Gorman 178m.59s

BARF Finishers
38th Colm Kelly 157m.22s
57th Trevor Wilson 167m.33s
60th Aaron Shimmons 168m 35s
61th Martin Mullan 168m 35s
126th Clarke Campbell 191m 16s
136th Al Dorman 194m.38s
162nd Fred Hamond 204m 47s

Aaron