Jack's Marathons - September 2012

The Mooathon Marathon, County Donegal: 30th September 2012 (Marathon No. 298): Because I was ill on the day of Milton Keynes Marathon I had to find another marathon to keep me on target for running my 300th marathon in North Carolina on 4th November. The Mooathon seemed like a fun event and I happily registered for the Full Moo (the half marathon is called the Semi-Skimmed). The guidelines for the race are that competitors should only wear black and white clothing and that ideally clothing should relate to cows in one way or another. While some runners took this to extremes I borrowed a black t-shirt with a picture of a cow on it and the words 'I ran with the herd' emblazoned across the front. 

Unfortunately, once the gun went off runners started to appreciate that this would be an extremely demanding race. I don’t think that anywhere in Donegal is flat, but this course from Kilmacrenan Town to Downings plus a loop round the coast contained an awful lot of very steep climbs, which were certainly a lot tougher than any of the hills in Snowdonia. I think that I can safely say that, whilst the scenery was spectacular, this was the toughest marathon I’ve run since Liechtenstein Marathon in 2001. In the event 5 out of the 39 starters failed to complete the race and I was much relieved to finish 25th in a time of 4:38:01. 

The rest of the trip to Ireland was not without its odd quirks. Our hotel’s address was Lower Main Street, Letterkenny. Having driven the full length of Lower Main Street we discovered that the hotel was actually located on a completely different road. Subsequently on the way to Arran Island we came across 2 speed signs facing us on either side of the road. One of these stated that the speed limit was 50 and the other that it was 60.

Jack Brooks