The Path to Healing

11 August, 2025 - Liam Mooney

A check of my past results on Friday reminded me that it was 2016 since my one and only previous running of Annagh Hill. On that occasion I had rocked up to registration just before closing having had a lazy morning and a fry up (there have been some advances in sports nutrition since those days!). I'd long suppressed most of the memories of that day deep down inside me, but I do have two vivid memories of the day.
1.) crossing the finish line, looking, feeling and moving like something akin to a zombie having been comprehensively chewed up and spat out by the mountain
2.) sitting in my car, shook and dazed for about half an hour after the race trying to get a lucozade and a bar of chocolate into me so I'd have enough energy to tog in while I tried to process what the hell had just happened

Having lived with the trauma for 9 years, I thought it was about time I faced up to my demons and go back to confront the mountain that had assailed me so badly in the past. Rightly or wrongly, I read through the reports of that harrowing day back in 2016 to try to mentally prepare for what lay ahead. It seems I wasn't the only one to have found it a challenge that day at least.

Having not been at the sharp end of proceedings in races this season, I had tempered my ambitions for this race to just get around in better shape that the last time I was here, and on arrival at the Gap Pub to see Rob, Peter, Bernard and Donatas milling about, I was fairly content not to be worrying podium aspirations. Bump into Mick before the start and he tells me that himself and Bernard have made the course more difficult since I last attempted it. Thanks Mick!

Off we go, and the legs feel like concrete to start, but warm up and start moving after a couple hundred metres of fire road. Turn up the infamous wall climb with about 6 or 7 in front. I'm trudging up as fast as I can go telling myself the sooner you get to the top, the sooner this pain will be over...then about a third the way up, Caroline shoots by me like I'm standing still! About a third way from the top, Bernard passes, and I'm convinced he must've started near the back so that he can feed on the crushed souls of the broken bodies he's passing. One or two more pass before the top, but eventually this part is over.

I can see Bernard about 150m ahead and I decide to try hang onto him and if I can keep him in view for most of the race I'll be doing very good. After a while going along the top, my legs decide they can run again, and I pass Robin and Stephen and am soon bearing in on Bernard as we start the gradual descent out the back. I'm having a debate whether it's worth my while bothering to pass him on the descent if I get an opening as I know there's a steep ascent coming once we hit the turn around point, and he'll just mince me on that anyways. We pass Caroline and are soon at the top of the steep descent, just behind Kevin. The three of us descending together for a while, but eventually I decide to open up and pass the pair...but then the descent ends only about 50m later. FFS... I've only put about 5m into Bernard, and succeeded in poking the bear while I was at it!

At the turn, I can see Peter and Rob just ahead starting the climb, and as predicted, before I'm any more than about 5m up the climb, Bernard has turned on beast mode and I catch his blur passing me, with Caroline not far behind. Kevin retakes me then, and I feel like I'm a concrete block after been dropped in the ocean. If I'm going bad on the ascent however, Peter is going worse, and I had to jump out of the way to avoid him free falling like a boulder back through the field! Knowing the ebbs and flows of mountain running though, I'm thinking I'll be probably be seeing him again before the finish line.

Get to the top of the climb and Kevin is not too far in front of me. I'm shuck at this stage though, and decide to forget Bernard, and Kevin is my new target to drag me to the finish now. We proceed on for another while on relatively flat terrain and soon I'm moving good again and I'm right on his tail. He offers to let me by, but I decline as I don't think I'm going that much better than him at this stage. A few hundred metres further on though, a gap appears, and I think feck it, I'm moving ok here, and see open track in front of me, so I take the pass and open up the legs to put a few metres between us. Then suddenly, I see an arrow pointing us to the left...ah FFS...not another steep climb! I battled on gamely for about 30 seconds up the shaley ascent, catching a glimpse of Caroline up ahead, before giving up the ghost again and standing aside for Kevin to pass.

Reaching the gap in the wall at the top of the climb, I'm about 30m behind Kevin who has gone right, but I can only see an arrow pointing left. We couldn't be going back out that way could we?! They wouldn't do that to us would they?! I pause to consider, I can see no one ahead of Kevin, and I'm trying to recall anything from Imogen's briefing, but I'm kidding myself...I can never make it past the first turn in those things. I turnaround and Stephen is coming through the gap, and decides he's going to the right too. Still not convinced we're on the right route, but since it's the shortest route to home to my knowledge, and my less than battle hardened mind is in a fragile state at this stage, I follow.

After a few hundred metres, I catch a glimpse of what looks like Bernard and Caroline off in the distance, so we're obviously on the right track. My mind has decided my goose is cooked however, and any fleeting aspirations I had at various stages earlier in the race of a possible podium finish had well vanished at this stage, so when the slightest incline arrived again, I was back walking while the others powered on. Robin passes me, and I'm thinking Peter couldn't be far behind now. I'm thinking, like the sprinters in the Tour de France whose GC hopes are well gone on the most grueling mountain stages, I'll sit up and nurse my way to the final descent with him, and we can have an aul sprinters finish off the top.

He never came though, and as terrain levelled out on the top and became more runnable, I could still see two or three ahead within striking distance. The mind sensing the worst is over now, and with a few targets ahead to aim for, my legs start moving again. I pass Robin just at the top of the descent, and then I'm thinking great...still plenty of time to catch the others. It's not a fire road you can turn your brain off and just bomb down though... it's windy, rough and technical and requires all the concentration and energy my mind can muster that is not already been used by my weary legs. I don't catch a glimpse of Kevin until near the bottom, and pass him just before the last turn left to the finish line. I know as I pass him though, that I haven't done it with enough gusto to strike a fatal blow. I can feel him just on my heels as we take the turn. Well it looks like I'm going to be having my sprint finish after all. As I try to find another gear however, I discover the leg speed of 12 months ago has deserted me, and Kevin passes with ease to put a few metres into me by the finish.

Exhausted at the line...Foxy tries to revive me with water, but he'll need better stuff than that to get me going again. I lay down on the only bit of grass I can find to recuperate, and must be there for the guts of 20 minutes before Rob, who has been treated for a bad summersault injury, comes over and asks am I up for joining a search party for Peter who hasn't returned yet!!

Great chats, laughs, sandwiches, pizza, and theatrics back in the Gap Pub afterwards. Well done to Imogen, Mick, Bernard, Niamh and all who made that race happen. Epic stuff. Still 2 - nil to Annagh Hill, but at least the mauling wasn't quite as severe for me this time around, and there were worse victims out there.

Long report...It's been a long flight, but my therapist said it would be cathartic and beneficial for me to get it all out there in a report!

The hill that keeps giving

10 August, 2025 - Mick Hanney

Annagh 2025 was the 11th iteration of Annagh races. If memory serves its only the 2nd summer version of the race.
Annagh at any time of the year is tough. A summer version is drier underfoot so it has arguably less menace.

This year's event coincided with the Gap arts festival around Ballythomas so the carpark was busy on arrival. As ever the Gap pub was great for reg and post-race and as always they are very supportive of IMRA events on their doorstep. A big thanks to Sean & co..

Imogen took the RD reins this year and steered it very well. Same route as last year, with additional marking to avoid the detour taken by some last year on the return leg. Bernard did a great job with the marking, with additional IMRA arrow signs at major junctions.

Numbers were down a bit given summer event congestion. A respectable turn-out nonetheless toed the line for a 12 noon start.
A steady run to the wall before the gravity defying climb up along the wall reduced most everyone to a forced march. Was that a drone I saw in the sky at the top of the hill?

Steady run out the ridge. Stayed in sight of Becky onto the steep down and back on Connahill which was very dry this year and without the drama of previous years. Turned at Syl at the bottom of the course, now the hard work begins, to get the legs working for the return leg. 2 steep climbs to attain the ridge once more. Past Peter Bell who later said he was content having taken Warren Swords strava crown on the Connahill descent. . Another climb on the ridge, struggling to keep the legs turning over. Past the pond and then onto the zigzags. The addition of steps on 1 section not being conducive to speed. Down the last descent, turn left and over the finish line.

A few runners did an alternative back half of the route. So much for turning back if you haven't seen marking for a while, or even for 5k?

A fine spread of food awaited back in the Gap pub. The winners of the day were Donatus and Caroline. Rob and Bernard and Becky and Joan took 2nd and 3rds respectively. A couple of visiting pirates along for the arts weekend gatecrashed the prize giving but it was treasure they were after and they would leave empty-handed.

Annagh continues to be tough but enjoyable. Thanks to Imogen and all the volunteers who made it happen.