Game 5 of 6...

Thursday, 22nd August, 2013 – 12.1km Mountain Run - Slieve Foye, Carlingford

Met Felim after work in Malahide and droveonwards to Carlingford for a go at Slieve foye - Co. Louth's highest peak. No huge reason we choase this apart from getting a peak that wasn't in the usual Wicklow Mountains. En route the weather was perfect but when we got to Dundalk we could see low cloud over our mountain. By the time we got to Carlingford 10 mins later the cloud was almost on the floor!

Regardless, we decided to forge onwards. Felim had an idea of the route and after a couple of wee misdirections by us we were on the trail heading up the mountain. A brief moment of clear views allowed us a glimpse of Carlingford Lough and some of the Mourne Mountains across the way.

As we got closer to the top the cloud had really gathered in so we had a quick double-check off the map and compass and 300m later we were at the peak. There were brief views of the countryside but mainly we were looking down on a blanket of cloud for miles around us. I'm pretty sure this would be a great viewpoint on a clear day so I'm sure I'll be back but this evening failed to deliver on the vistas!

Trig point atop Slieve Foye (Highest point in Co. Louth).
(Try not to think of "I'm a little teapot"!!)

We continued on after a while and after we noticed the dark evening was beginning to close in we dropped down along the gully from Eagle's Rock to the former forest. A dodgy fence crossing eventually got us out onto the trail proper and an easy 3km run back down to the village under the guidance of my head torch. All done it was 12km but a bit stop-start and really shouldn't have taken the almost 2hrs we racked up! Enjoyable evening out and the plan is Slieve Gullion in Armagh next up.

Friday, 23rd August, 2013 – 7.4km Recovery Run (5:40/km)

I was a little bit stiff after the trail run last night so just a slow recovery run this evening. Still looking to keep the recovery days very relaxed.

Saturday, 23rd August, 2013 – 26.5km LSR (5:07/km)

I met up with Philip in the Phoenix Park at 8:30am for this run. Plan was to get a decent run in before Philip called over to the start of the Frank Duffy 10 miler on Chesterfield Avenue. This portion of the run lasted 10 miles and was done at approx 5:00/km which was a good decent pace for me but a very easy pace for Philip!

After catching the start of the race I continued on my way for a few more miles. I stopped off for a few minutes to catch the race leaders pass through mile 8 and then ran to the finish line to catch the rest of the crowd coming home. All done it amounted to 26.5km. I was hoping to rattle a few more off to get to 30km but the rigor mortis had kicked in by the time I restarted so I just jogged it back to the car. Pretty confident about this weekends LSR though where I'll be aiming for 30-32km @ 5:00/km.

Sunday, 24th August, 2013 – 7.1km Recovery Run (5:23/km)

This was just a short run to get the legs moving as I had to be in Croker in time to watch the Mayo Minors beat Monaghan. The day was completed with the Seniors beating Tyrone so onwards to 'Game 6'! Big loss with Co'C dislocating his shoulder again but Freeman stood up to the mark in his absence. Over to you Dublin to set up the match everyone's been waiting for!

The Eircom 'Were you there?' app question answered!

Week 34 Summary:

RTW: 7 from 7 days

DTW: 91.0km

DTY: 2,722.0km
Chicago - 49 days (7wks, 0days)