Written by Robert Jones - http://ultrarunningphoenix.blogspot.co.uk

Last year I fell out of love with "fell running / skyrunning" and the 2014 version of this race was one of the reasons why...

Let's get things clear right from the off - the Mourne Skyline is a stupid race - c. 35km in distance with c. 3,370m of ascent and descent squeezed in, across what can only be described as "technical" terrain! And yet whilst it is stupid... I love it...

I had a terrible outing at this race last year - mainly attributable to poor shoe choice and forgetting to eat anything from halfway!

Some points to clear up about the Mourne Skyline now for those that are considering it:

• Probably only about 50% of the course is "runnable" for normal human beings - albeit you need to have a fairly loose description of the term "running". 
• Given the above, most of the climbs / descents are actually on gradients of 20% +. These hurt - a lot. 
• The weather will be cold, wet, windy and rainy. You may in fact see sleet and snow (if you can see at all). This is Ireland... 
• The ground (and rocks) will be slippy. You will fall over - repeatedly. 

Training for this race had actually gone pretty well. In the last few weeks running up to the event I had spent some time practicing in the Mournes and Peak District (invaluable given I live in Essex which is as flat as a pancake) and hit a new 5km PB - I felt in great shape.

Two weeks out from the race - I crashed! I have become a lot better at reading the signs of over-training and learning to give my body a rest when it needs it. In this instance I ignored all the warning signs...

You see the major problem is that I also love cross-country racing and the XC season was upon us. I had recently joined Springfield Striders and wanted to take part in the first race of the season. It was only 5 miles - how much damage could it do? Turns out a lot.

The week running up to the XC race on the Saturday came on the back of the heaviest period in my training plan; I had a cold; was working late and generally just felt tired. However I was determined not to miss XC - my mind was set! The day of the race I just felt low on energy and grumpy (my wife can testify to that). I completed the race and it was great to meet a few of the other Striders - but it is safe to say that it did not go to plan. I felt like I was running in treacle and felt rubbish at the end. Surely this was the time for rest then... no a late Saturday night dinner with friends and early Sunday morning run put the final nail in the coffin! Sunday afternoon was spent in bed unable to eat and completely wiped out - I had well and truly overcooked it.

Luckily I had two weeks to recover before the Mourne Skyline - including a weeks holiday with the family in Ireland the week before the race. Thus ensued two weeks of eating (lots), sleeping (as much as time and baby permitted) and very little running. My sole aim was to get to the start line fully fit.

Given the appalling weather for the race last year - I had one eye on the weather forecast during the week building up to the race. Sun, snow, sleet, rain, thunder and lightening all appeared in the forecasts at some stage (including one forecast with all of them in one day). Sure enough, after some fine weather earlier in the week, as the race approached, the temperature dropped and rain / winds started. It looked like it was going to be another testing day in the Mournes!

For 2015, I had managed to convince both Simon and Michiel to travel across the Irish Sea to join me. This was despite the war stories from last years race - they had been warned!

As we lined up at the start in cold and rainy conditions - I was keen to get started. Armed with the knowledge that Channel 4 were filming the race, I had pushed my way towards the start and planned to start at a lunatic pace to ensure my face was on TV. It seems like lots of other people also had the same idea...

I am not going to go through the race in full detail as I would encourage you do it for yourself and learn. However some highlights for me this year were:

• The Start - the pace was higher than I planned for the first few km's, but I felt ok and went with it - gradually settling into a rhythm. As we started to approach the Donard-Commedagh col I was concerned that I had not seen any familiar faces - no sign of Phil Hodge, Simon or Phil's friends Stevie, Dom and Mark. With fears building that I had set off too fast - sure enough at that point Phil and Simon caught me. Simon and I settled into a gentler pace to climb the last bit to the col - whilst Phil went flying off ahead. That was to be the last we would see of Phil until the finish!
• Meelmore - shoe choice is massive for this race. It can make or break you (as Simon discovered this year). Last year I wore Inov-8 X-Talons and they had zero grip on the wet granite rock, such that I basically tip-toed down the "rocky" descent of Meelmore on the reverse loop. This year I went for VJ i-Rocks - and they rocked! They were amazing on the slippery granite rock and I cannot recommend them enough. I felt like a mountain goat coming downhill and overtook about 5 people on the descent of Meelmore alone. 
• Catching Simon - after running together in the early stages, Simon had disappeared off as he usually does. I caught him as we started the climb of Commedagh towards the end of the race. It was good to run together for a bit and catching him up gave me a little lift just as I was entering a small low patch.
• Bum sliding - I fell over about 10 times during the race. Turned my ankles and my knee quite painfully at one point. The best fall was running alongside Simon coming down off of Commedagh - I slid on my arse downhill for about 30m. I can testify to the fact that this is a quicker method to get downhill than running (albeit you need to watch out for rocks). 
• Donard - before the race I had run / climbed Donard on 8 separate occasions and not once had an visibility from the summit. As we hit the summit of Donard towards the end of the race, the cloud had finally broken and I was finally rewarded with some amazing views (just a shame I did not have time to stop and properly enjoy them)! 
• The Final Sprint (and cramps) - I had practiced the descent off of Donard whilst in the Mournes a few weeks before. It is c. 5.5km from the summit to the finish and in training I had done it in just over 29 mins on tired legs. I enjoy running downhill and the finish to this race is one of the reasons I love it so much! As I reached the top of Donard I knew that Simon was c. 90 secs ahead of me and Mark was c. 60 secs ahead. I felt confident I could close the gap on both. In the end I just caught Simon and finished narrowly behind Mark. My descent was slightly impeded by cramps in both my legs which caused me to slow down / stop on a couple of occasions (such that the final 5.5km eventually took me 36 mins). 

I eventually finished in 50th position with a time of 5:31:56. At the start I had targeted a time of 5:15-5:30 and Top 50 - so overall I was pretty happy.

This was the last race of the year for me (before XC season). Overall I have raced less this year - but, those races I have done, have been better. Am sure there is a lesson there.

The calendar for 2016 is already looking full, but am already pretty sure that I will be back in the Mournes for 2016... just need to find 45 mins to catch Mr Hodge!

Big shout out at this stage to my coach Robbie Britton. I have been working with him for c. 2 years now and have seen huge improvements in my running performances - such that I now enjoy running even more than before. I like to give him a bit of stick every now and then (e.g. for being small, wacky haircuts, failing to finish races etc.), but as the end of the year draws to a close he deserves a little credit and recognition. Good job coach.

Thanks also to Caoimhe (the wife), Úna (who waited around wrapped up like a giant marshmallow at the end) and Ryan, Justin and the wider race team (including the ladies at the end with the cakes)!!! 

Roll on XC season...

(Photos courtesy of Jayne Bell and Billy Mol).