Art O’Neill part 2 it’s really art…

…art of trail running. We were running today just one part of Art O’Neill route. I would say the hardest one (haven’t run the first bit – 30 km from Dublin Castle to Wicklow Mountains). Even that training was during day-light I found it kind of hard. Not HARD hard but still finding trail running much tougher than road running. Harder to pace yourself, harder to be sure if your feet will land on the steady ground or not. Another thing, especially now, is that most the time I’m comming back home soaked feet. And no matter how I would like to avoid streams, water, muck there is no way not to step into one of these or even better to fell into…

Anyway… Last week I wasn’t running the first bit of Art O’Neill training cause I was after marathon in Lilliput and wasn’t sure if I would manage 30 km of steady climb. Even that I’m not taking part in the race I wanted train with the group and to know better ‘trail running’. Second part of the route is not long, just about 11 km but it is kinda challanging. Incline on that part is about 350 m on the very tricky ground. Socked grass, holes cover with bushes, slippy mud. Everything adding up to very challenging course for me. Starting up slowly on the trodden path for the 2.5 km and after that muddy climb to flat bit where you starting to femiliarize yourself with grass and the wet hill side. Even that it’s kind of flat it is hard to run (at least for me, could see Don just flying there). I was lucky not to fell even once and wasn’t last one 😉 (probably cause I wasn’t run the race day before). After reaching 6 km it was downhill. Easier but still hard enought. Crossing the river. Soaked feet again. Try to run in such a condition. For me it is something new but some of the club members are really good at it. After that, another river crossing and small bit through the forest. And from there 2 km on the path to check point number 2… Really nice run. Enjoyed it very much. I hope that we will do next part, from check point 2 to finish soon (just not this weekend – Clonakilty marathon)…

One regret only. Better shoes. All I know, my Inov8 are great but not for wet mountains runs and these don’t have good cushioning in them. And the last thing caused heel pain again. Need to work on that… Gels and creams to the rescue…

Just to give you more idea of the Art O’Neill race you can follow the link –> http://www.artoneillchallenge.ie/