Luggala

28 July, 2025 - Liam Mooney

As per usual, I was flying by the seat of my pants, with no recceing done or any race description read, so left myself a bit tight to get to registration. Some chats and laughs about the Church race on the trot to the start. Briefly spoke to Con and Alice about their recces, trying to gleam as much information as I could about where we were and what we were doing. Brian warned us in his race brief of the live electric fence up Luggala. Head immediately starts going into over drive, and didn't hear anything else after.

Off we go. I go with the majority towards Knocknacloghoge. As we cross the wooden bridge, Maike jokes that we only have 20 seconds before we can walk, as we see the start of our climb ahead. I was thinking exactly that, as straight from the go, I knew I hadn't brought my climbing legs today. Determined not to be the first to break through, I trudge on up the hill through the gate, and thereafter I'm intermittently walk/trudging towards the top. Had been advised before the start that the direct route across from Knocknacloghoge to Carrigvore was rough with no trail, and the preferred option was to hit Luggala twice as there was a good trail out to
Carrigvore from there. Concluded on my ascent though that since my legs are going slow anyway, that my ignorance might be a strength going the direct route, and I'd follow someone out that way if I see anyone going that direction. I was too far behind the leading group though, and couldn't catch sight of anyone from the top, so followed Michael and Eoghan down a trail towards Luggala. Hiked to the top of Luggala behind Michael, who told me he had done a bit of recceing and this was his favoured route option.

As we come off the top, I open up the legs a bit and pass him on the descent, with a tinge of guilt, having just free loaded off his navigation. A few minutes later I see Bernard coming towards me about 50m to the left, and I'm wondering is he on the home straight already?! Pass Conor just before the road crossing, and with no idea where I'm going, I choose the first trail I see at the carpark, with Conor following behind. I'm running for a minute or two and doubts start to creep in...we're not gaining much elevation here, maybe even losing some. I continue on in the hope that the trail is about to take a swift swing to the right to meet the runners I can see coming down the ridge about 150m to my right. Then my fears are confirmed as I see Michael sail by us 150m to the right, and think, well there's a bit of karma in that! Trudge back up to the correct trail, and Conor powers by. Eyes are stinging from sweat now, and I conclude I'll reserve whatever powder I have left until we turn at the top.

As soon as I turn though, my legs are like jelly and stumble and fall twice within about 50m. I pass Michael and my legs are finding themselves again, and have soon chased down Conor. Briefly stop on the road to consider route choice after my earlier mishap. The climb to Luggala for the second time isn't too bad, and as I come over the top and briefly choose the wrong trail again, I decide that I'll look at this map thingy that I've been carrying around in my hand as a prop since the start of the race. Back on course, I'm relieved to see the flags after a few hundred metres. Soon I'm coming down an Ayling Abyssesque type slope, only without the comfort of trees to help slow you down, and conclude fairly quickly that my descent legs haven't come with me today either!

Cross the line to be greeted with a nice cool beer and grub. Great chats after about people's race woes and route choices. And all for €7...where would ya get it?! Thanks Brian and crew for a great event.

Luggala – A recce to regret your life choices – a race to enjoy?

27 July, 2025 - Maike Jürgens

Luggala – A recce to regret your life choices – a race to enjoy?

5 min to write a race report … The route wasn’t announced until about 3 weeks before the race. Mike was looking for something to do so he went out with Graham for a recce and shared his wisdom (don’t go cross country). I went out the weekend after (when it was incredibly hot) and 10 min in (starting from the military road over to Luggala) really just wanted a sit down and ice cream. I kept going towards Knocknacloghoge and really didn’t like all that heather and was wondering, would I ever find that trail again back up towards Luggala on the return? Saw someone in the distance and figured it could only be another runner mad enough to be around this area … turns out it was Andy whose advice was that no matter what the little bit down off Knocknacloghoge to the river (once you run out of trail) is terrible no matter which way so just stick to it. Met two more recciers on the day.
Then back home to do the maths on all the route options comparing climb, distance, ground conditions, estimations of how long it would take. And decided visiting Luggala twice but sticking to trails was going to be my route.
Thankfully, Andy offered lifts and Orla and myself hopped in with him. Much chat in the car about the Wicklow Way (well done Andy) and the Slieve Blooms (we’ll see who ends up running it – and yes if you walk with an average pace of 5.83 km/h you’ll walk the 70 km in the 12 h time limit …).
Plenty space at the car park, some organising and off towards the start. A lovely marshall saying it was a 10 min walk but really it was 20 min with a jog. Met Alice on the way down. Some organising and signing in but it was all very efficient – So efficient Brian had us chat for 90 sec after the race briefing to make sure we wouldn’t start early. Then off we went. A good few heading towards Knocknacloghoge, but a few went up Luggala first. Well, either way there was some power hiking coming very swiftly, mixed with jogging when the gradient allowed. A bunch of us followed Clare who led us off trail for a while until there was a few false summits before we met Liam and his surprise (jellies).
Well, 5 minutes wasn’t enough.
Off we went down towards Luggala – or so I thought, after Claire, Jason and Lesleyann had gone out of sight and Stephen had nearly caught up, I realised Stuart’s route choice differed and he had gone cross-country. Well, the race is on (though hold your horses because it is a long way to go yet). I lost about 2 minutes on the downhill but had caught up with Stephen and Lesleyann by the time we got to of Luggala. Then off we went towards Carrigvore and it was nice to meet people with different route choices coming towards us. All looked very strong but at different degrees of happiness.
At the road I was about 9 min ahead of the time I had predicted for myself. With some apple juice for fuel I figured it was a good idea to run up Carrigvore and overtake Stephen only to stop 5 m later because I had to redo my laces. Ah well, I managed to overtake him again but not so sure I managed to put any sort of gap. As I approached Carrigvore, a few runners including Stuart approached from the left. Interesting. So it seemed going cross-country vs going over Luggala twice is much of a muchness (just as my math suggested) and really would/could come down to ground conditions/route choice cross-country and individual running ability over varied terrain. Off we went back down to the road, it felt somewhat endless but then the road appeared out of nowhere. Back towards Luggala was a bit of a slog (somewhat at the start mentioned the ground was dry – but lads, the ground was wayyyyy drier 2 weeks ago), some more apple juice and I figured I had enough energy to make it to the finish. Stephen caught me at the top and after some deliberation we decided on a way downhill … eventually we found the odd flag (wasn’t it to be marked? Had I relied too much on that and too little on actually checking it out? A junction threw us of and Stuart who should have been miles ahead appeared after going off trail. Well, we stuck together for a minute until the two guys politely asked to overtake and were gone. My head went and I stumble tripped the last section down the hill. With the finish in sight I realised I was 20 min or so faster than my time estimate which was nice.
Welcome watermelon and 7up as well as the raffle where despite really trying number 325 didn’t win any prizes for me, we shuffled up the hill back to the carpark with plenty chats and catch-ups.
Thanks Brian and team for a lovely day in the hills, thanks to Andy for the lift. Well done all the winners.