Quote Originally Posted by Derby Tup View Post
Nice post Conor
Thanks! But it does make me think about the sport, and why I was drawn to it. And seeing English runners here in Kerry brings it home. We none of us are professional, we do it at considerable personal expense...and a trip to Ireland can be particularly expensive. But it's all about tackling that mountain, that route, it's about that shared pain...it's not like road runs where one tarred stretch is much like another. And at my ability I'll never be selected for my country, but when I'm standing in a river afterwards picking off the mud with runners from Cumbria and Yorkshire it's probably the closest I'll get to that level. I feel it's it's almost...unfair...when I pass runners wearing the shirts of UK clubs on climbs like Carrauntoohil. They are probably far better athletes than me, they may be tired after coming off flights and ferries, and I have the sneaky advantage of knowing exactly what's ahead, where I can cut loose. Those runners are from the home of mountain running, where men like Bland and Stuart learned their trade. And here we are very proud of John Lenihan, who beat Stuart in Snowdon many years ago. So I'm getting drawn or the idea of a run in the fells.