Since watching the Mourne Skyline race when it was broadcast on Channel 4 in 2015, I knew I wanted to do it the following year. It was really well filmed with an international field traversing the majestic looking mountain range. At the time it seemed impossibly difficult with a distance of 22 miles, 10 peaks and 11000 feet of elevation. I couldn’t get my head around having to basically go up Donard twice and Bearnagh twice, as it appeared at the time. That year I’d done the Hill & Dale Slieve Donard race. It took me 2 hours and I felt properly busted at the end. If I was going to tackle this challenge I’d have to raise my game. Usually I don't care that much if I’m one of the stragglers at the end as I was at Donard as long as I can finish the race and get the medal/ finishing beer. However, on the Skyline race website it mentioned 2 cut-offs, a “hard” cut-off at 3h 15m at the most distant point of the course, Fofanny Dam and an implied softer one of 8 hours at the finish. If it took me 2 hours to do the 5.5 mile distance of Donard alone that appeared tricky.
In a way this guided my events strategy for 2016. I’d already got through the ballot for the Highland Fling in April but I didn’t have any particular goals for the latter part of the year. In 2015 I’d done the London, Berlin and Chicago marathons and felt a bit burned out by the hyped world major circuit with their expense, crowds and flat hemmed in circuits. The Mournes were still a bit of a mystery to me right on my doorstep and I wouldn’t have to worry about lotteries or hotels.
In the new year I joined the local mountain race organising body, NIMRA. Because I didn’t live in the mountains and my navigation skills were rubbish I wanted as much experience of running in numbers as possible. They had a series of races varying from short ones like Glenariff to the famous Seven Sevens, which would offer nearly as much challenge as the Skyline. I ended up doing The Fallows (Great) Annalong Horseshoe (Brutal with bad conditions), Spelga Skyline (even more brutal) and the mighty Seven Sevens which was very difficult, especially as I got lost and ended up doing 24 miles. In addition to these, some recce runs of the Skyline course, some 26 Extreme events and most of the Hill & Dale races I felt I’d got some decent mountain miles in.
In the immediate run-up to the Skyline itself I’d done the Monaghan Marathon, Causeway Coast Marathon, Irish Three Quarters Marathon and lastly The Wall Duathlon, also in the Mournes. I found that in my experiences in 2016 my fitness was pretty good, and I could churn out a sub 4 hour marathon without killing myself. I had a lot of endurance, meaning I could still run after being on my feet for over 6 hours, and I could run up something like Knockagh Hill without stopping, but I wasn’t improving massively as a fell runner. I was close to being last in all the NIMRA events barring Annalong where a lot of people were even more lost than I was. Still, I’d give it my best shot.
On the day of the race I got there reasonably early. There was a lot to do. I had to have a thorough kit check at registration. For this race I needed a compass, whistle, waterproofs, food, water bottle, mobile phone, head torch and for the first time for me, a foil survival blanket. I then had to collect my race number and my shirt. Then I had to assemble my drop bag for halfway and deposit it. I also had to collect the dibber and register that. We then proceeded to the race start on the beach. Numbers in this race were capped at 200. The majority would have been experienced fell runners from across the British Isles. There were also some hotly tipped French runners from Team Garmin. There were several who looked more like hikers judging by their outfits, but of course looks can be deceiving, especially to a relative newbie like me.
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| The stone path up to the Donard Col with Donard Forest behind |
It was a pretty quick start up the mountain. The initial stretch of the route was very familiar to me now. Up through the forest, up the granite steps and then up to the Glen River path towards the Donard Col. On the way up it started to rain quite heavily. We’d been reassured by the forecast that there would be a light shower which would ease off shortly, but it rained quite heavily for over an hour. This was fine when going up the steps to the Col and then onto the Brandy Pad stone path, but it would cause problems for the descents from Bearnagh onwards.
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| The mighty Slieve Bearnagh from Slieve Meelmore. Easier than it looks but not by much. |
I was making good time so far. I got up to the Donard Col in just over an hour. It then took me 50 minutes to go along the Brandy Pad and scale Bearnagh. Because I’d already done the recce run the month before I knew as long as I didn’t stop I’d make the 3h15m hard cut-off. The route wasn’t congested and the marking of the route was good. The only real problems emerged on the descents. The first sign of this was the descent from Bearnagh where I couldn’t get a good enough grip, but didn’t fall. The next descent, from Meelmore was a lot worse. I fell onto my knee and grazed it. I then did the same thing a second time almost immediately after. At this point 3 of the front runners were on their way back sprinting up Meelmore. They had already hit the halfway point, gone up the road a mile and gone up and down Loughshannagh and Meelbeg while I was still stuck on Meelmore. This didn’t help morale much.
With my leg covered in blood I picked myself up and finished with Meelmore. On going over a grassy section in the Happy Valley I slipped again. This time a full frontal collapse with my shoulder taking the impact. I should point out that I wasn’t being reckless with the running. I was being cautious and was wearing trusted Inov-8 X-Talon fell shoes. I think I’d only ever fallen once wearing them before. It’s just the conditions were slippier than I’d ever faced before on a mountain. The shoes aren’t as aggressive as the Mudclaws I have, but the problem with Mudclaws is that wearing them on road or hard ground is agony for me due to the large protruding studs and minimal cushioning, and this route contained a few stretches of that. I didn’t want to be running the final stretch in Donard Forest feeling like I was stepping on hot coals.
I soon reached the cut-off in 2h 45m and immediately headed to the paramedics. They applied water to my knee and said I’d be fine. Was kind of expecting antiseptic and a plaster/bandage, but it wasn’t affecting my running. It just made bystanders ask questions about my knee. At least the bleeding seemed to have stopped. I then strolled up the mile to the Ott car park while eating a pulled pork bagel, chicken noodles, crisps Lucozade, a banana and a raspberry smoothie. I seem to have picked up the ability in these endurance events to stuff my face while walking without indigestion. A useful skill when you’re out for 8 hours or more and are in a hurry. Upon getting to Ott I dumped my excess in the bin and tackled the next round of summits.
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| Bloodied, but I could still raise a smile |
I’d got some of my mojo back and climbed Loughshannagh, Meelbeg and Meelmore in reasonable time. I hit the summit of Meelmore at 4h 10m, so it took just over an hour to do all 3. The descent back down Meelmore got on my nerves as I had to concentrate on avoiding the rocks on the way down. I nearly fell on this section on the recce run and it would have been foolish not to have learned from that. There was little I could do about the grass sections which were like ice, but I could avoid rocks which were dangerous regardless of the conditions.
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| Easy to get distracted with views like this in abundance. |
At this point and the gruelling climb back up Bearnagh I’d started to fatigue. I started to hear the clacking of walking poles behind me. There were a fair number of people in this event who hardly ran at all. They were just exceptional climbers and deadly with the poles. They wouldn’t win any prizes, but it was awesome to witness these people who you wouldn’t think were competing athletes gently gliding past us tired fell runners in our club vests and Salomon gear.
I was so relieved to reach the top of Bearnagh again, but then followed the trickiest descent of the day. I exclaimed out loud that I fell for the 6th time that day and a cheery English girl behind me said “seventh!” as I fell again. I just slid down on my back after that and did some more swearing.
Once off Bearnagh it was back down the stone “evil staircase” as recce guide runner Amy called it, through Hare's Gap and this time, instead of going back along the Brandy Pad it was up a few more mountains starting with Slievenaglogh and Slieve Corragh. These are fairly non-descript mountains with no discernible summit or features apart from being next to the Mourne Wall, but they did offer amazing panoramic views of the mountain range.
Before long it was time to tackle Commedagh, the second tallest mountain in NI and the penultimate mountain of the day. As with Donard this is where a lot of tourists congregate and they were offering lots of support on the way up. Commedagh also offers a spring to refill the water bottle. Another useful tip from the recce runs. I reached the summit at 6 hours exactly and felt elated, as I would easily get past the next cut-off time of 7h 30m at the col between Donard and Commedagh which was almost within view now.
I was just going through the motions now. I’d been up and down the last 2 mountains so many times before and they’re much more accessible than the likes of The Meels with walkable surfaces and stone path. Donard felt like it went on a bit as I ascended further into the mist but I reached the summit in 6h 35m and it was downhill all the way from there.
The prescribed route from the Donard summit along the Glen River stone path, along the fire road to Newcastle is only about 5k and downhill the whole way, but it is quite technical and requires a bit of skill to do quickly. Top runners can do it in under 30 minutes, but it took me over an hour. There is a much faster route from the summit down the “Black Stairs” and straight through the forest, which top runners can do in 15 minutes, but considering the conditions I’m not sure I’d want to do that even if it was allowed under the rules.
Once I’d got to the fire road there were cheering marshals round every corner and I could start to hear John Glover’s booming voice from the top of the forest. I could even see the finish line from nearly 2 miles away. Because the field was so spread out and the winners had finished about 4 hours ahead of me there weren’t many at the finish line, but I dibbed my dibber for the last time, got my results print-out and picked up my lovely medal and got a nice reception from the organisers. My time was 7h 38m which was slightly better than my expectations. I was expecting to finish slightly after 8 hours amid worry that I wouldn't get a finishing medal.
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| Finish line with the flags of all the participants countries. |
I’d have to say the event was one of the highlights of the year for me. Great route and well organised, up there with the Highland Fling as an endurance event borne of passion for the sport rather than commercial reasons. However, unlike The Fling I’d only recommend it to people who are able to run reasonable amounts of miles of training in the mountains, preferably those mountains due to the route's technical nature, whereas The Fling just requires you to run many hilly miles in training as the event is, with the odd notable exception such as cowpoo alley, all solid path.
Thanks to Jayne Bell and Johnny McKinley for the photos.
