Report by BOGBOY

After a successful racing weekend in Casto, northwest of Brescia, Dromara and Newcastle & District & Salomon athlete, Zak Hanna decamped Monday to Chiavenna in the Val Bregaglia, in the Italian Alps only 14km shy of the Swiss border.

He had built further on his reputation as a Vertical Kilometre specialist with a superb 2^nd place in the Vertical Nasego just 35 seconds behind the Italian number one, Henri Aymonod. However, he had taken the scalps of world class mountain runners including 2019 World Cup Series, Scot Andy Douglas and Tim Beçan of Slovenia.

Like a kid in the playground and the sweetshop all at the same time, Hanna couldn’t resist running and jumping around all week exploring the steep sided valley where the mountains soar to nearly 3,700 metres (from only 350 metres altitude in the village of Chiavenna). At the same time, he knew he had to recover, so after the minimum of tapers (much reduced climbing on Friday and Saturday), he declared himself ready to do battle on Sunday morning.

Looking closely at the profile below tells a story – it looks a steady enough climb but it starts steep and goes on steep – 1,000m of climbing (from 352m to 1,352m above sea level – nearly 3,300ft) in only 3,030m of distance (less than 2 miles) – average gradient is 33% or 1 in 3 – now that’s steep. Continue reading →

Report by BOGBOY

Since some club members ventured to Down Royal on 22 August for the ChampionChip Ireland series of road races coming out of lockdown there has been one common theme – autumn has been upon us. 7 weeks further on, the day was definitely autumnal with strong gusty winds, rain and the temperature not yet reaching 10C – but that didn’t stop some stalwarts putting their run of consistent training to the test.

Connaire McVeigh, Ashlene Mussen, GMAC, Ernie Hall, Niall Goodman & Frank Cunningham.

First up was the 5km with some back to try and improve on their recent performances and others putting themselves to their first test since lockdown.

Connaire McVeigh was a promising junior and produced a lot of good racing into his 20s and now he has turned 40 he has been contemplating ‘releasing the beast’ again and moving his running onto a different and higher level. Today he achieved that, coming home in 16 minutes and 26 seconds a massive 26 seconds inside his personal best – congratulations. Continue reading →

Race Report by BOGBOY

The Italians were worst hit at the beginning of the emergence of COVID-19 in Europe back in February. They emerged into the new norm and out of that they have managed to run a 2020 Italian Mountain Racing Series and Championship races.

Local Dromara lad, Zak Hanna, Salomon and Newcastle & District AC, arguably the best mountain racer of his generation used furlough to his advantage (see the ‘Furlough Pro’ on Fast Running https://www.fastrunning.com/fast-10/2020/zak-hanna/the-furlough-pro/30385) increasing his weekly mileage to around 95 and alongside some significant climbing on the slopes of Slieve Croob, he never lost touch with his ‘top end’ with plenty of threshold sessions at the lake in Castlewellan.

In July he won the Lugnaquilla Mountain race in Wicklow by 8 minutes and got within 4 seconds of the legend John Lenihan’s course record. His first sortie to Italy was over the first weekend in August at the Piz Tri Vertical Kilometre in Malonno which included 1,000m of climbing in 2.5km and a 47% finishing gradient where he finished an excellent 3rd. The following day finished 5th in the Fletta Trail over 20km and 1,200m of climb and descent. Continue reading →