We couldn’t have asked for a better day nice and sunny and clear skies just the way we love it! so we started off at 9am from the Glendalough Hotel. for the 1st part of our run which was a great 18k route with nice tough climbs at the start ( GOOD WARM UP ) this route takes about 2hours with stops for pics and chats. but with the ice all over the place which slowed us down a lot we came home with just under 3hours but still having lots of fun!!!
Once at top of Derrybawn Summit most of the faster runners ran ahead while I held back for the other runners to chat and take pics but soon catching up with few of the runners ahead of me on Mullacor so we re-grouped and made some films and took pics etc on such an great morning, there was so much fun going on with the group I just wanted to stay up there all day you can see all round you for miles BUT thats fine when you have the day to hang around etc and I didn’t as in the back of my head I had to be back to meet the 2nd group at noon!! So running down of steep Mullacor summit which was little tough again with the Icy trails my friend John Buckley had a bad fall as you might've seen in my film, thinking hat on here and time to slow down!! thanks John and hope your OK..
So passing the Wicklow Way sleepers at the end of Mullacor heading up the next hill to Lugduff and heading for the Spinc thats just one of the best routes up there you can run it all with out hiking and the faster the better! even the views are un-real!!
So I had stopped to take few pics of the lads running down the packed up snow trail which am sure was great fun after all the falls people were having today!
most of us made it down this trail nice and safe in till we met up with the Spinc Sleepers! I had got a call from my good pal Chris as he was a head with the faster runners thanks for that call dude, he told us the sleepers were VERY bad and very slippery which really was covered in ICE! so we had to run along side the sleepers in the freezing cold mud and very wet trails in till getting off the bad slippery sleepers ( at this time I was thinking about calling the 13k loop off ) and did in the end to be safe!
So then coming off the sleepers meeting the rocky path all the way down to the bridge then little stop for pics and ran off again as we were running out of time with only like 40min to get back in time for the 2nd group run!! the pace had getting little faster but finding that hard on the Zig Zags as black ice all over the rocks!! soon came to the end of the Zig Zags and I had told the lads I've to run much faster now as only have little time to get back!! so the talking ended and race pace on on haha was good!.
So back in time for BIG GROUP PICS! can’t miss them. few of the 18k runners went home and the rest of us got warmed up again after group pics was taken and started the 2nd group run. now I had called the 13k Spinc loop as it wasn’t the best to take a bigger group up there, so I had made a good route which was 11k and great views of Glendalough lakes and mountains with still few nice climbs to be done!!
So we'd started running along the Green Road and many hikers were taking pic's of us cause were all in some xmas dress up etc which must have been so funny! I had made a film at this point you might have seen it on FB MSR page was all good fun!! our MSR team girls were also on route taking pics thanks girls, so our 1st climb started on route to Camaderry such is a great hill!!! but few of the 18k runners went back to the hotel for early beers!! so the rest of us ran on meeting the St kevin’s trail, Wicklow Way and soon Brockagh woods to lower and higher view points and back to hotel with a great 11k run and happy faces all round!! I was feeling the cold at this point but my day wasn’t over as some of us went for recovery dip in the river WOW that sure was freezing!!! but I didn’t mind to much as the party wasn't far away…..!!!
So back to the hotel and WOW thats another story to tell !!!!!!! but a great one!!!!!
thanks to all that made it to the MSR xmas runs and sorry for those that didn’t make it with work etc hope to see you all next year!!
Peace and good JuJu!!
Pics and films on link below...
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