Moxie The Lug Race Lugnaquilla advice?

Insidious

Hi,
I've never been up Lugnaquilla.. but am tempted to give this race a go. This is the route of the race... from the moxie republic website..



Have any of you run the route? What's it like? I did the 45km Gaelforce North this year and Gaelforce West also in 6 hours. I've a reasonably good level of fitness that I'm trying to improve on.. Not afraid of a challenge but am a bit unsure of whether this should be the next race to try.. If you've run this route.. Is the trail well defined? If I went to try the route out am I likely to get lost?? ;-)
Any comments would be much appreciated.

former

Don't know if this race is going ahead or not.

IMO it wouldn't be any harder than GFW so with a 6 hour time, you wouldn't have any difficulty.

Can anyone confirm whether it is going ahead?

former

The route up and down Lug is well defined. Don't do it if they are doing artillary practice!!

Insidious

former wrote: »

The route up and down Lug is well defined. Don't do it if they are doing artillary practice!!

Ha ha! It'll be like Saving Private Ryan!

Thats great the track is well defined.. I shouldn't go astray at least. With work and home stuff going on this weekend it will be Sunday week before I can try it out. So that's my plan.. I'll head over and see what it's like then.. See if I cant find someone to come along .

How come you think the race might not go ahead? I hope it does.. I was planning on making this my last big race other than 10k runs for the year.
Is there somewhere good to park near the start of the trail?

Thanks for replying so quick.. ;-)

Slogger Jogger

Ample parking around Fentons pub / Imaal bar. Fire-road from there to the start of trail, c. 1.5k away. Trail is pretty clear but if the weather is bad (i.e. clouds are down) you should have a map and compass so you can retrace your steps if visibility at the top is lacking.

DD Mikasa

This looks cool. Just how hard will that mountain run be? I'd be well able for a half marathon but running up one of the biggest mountains in the country is daunting.

Insidious

DD Mikasa wrote: »

This looks cool. Just how hard will that mountain run be? I'd be well able for a half marathon but running up one of the biggest mountains in the country is daunting.

I'll let you know what it was like next week.. ;-)

Insidious

Slogger Jogger wrote: »

Ample parking around Fentons pub / Imaal bar. Fire-road from there to the start of trail, c. 1.5k away. Trail is pretty clear but if the weather is bad (i.e. clouds are down) you should have a map and compass so you can retrace your steps if visibility at the top is lacking.

I'll take care of that thanks.. I'm pretty sure my watch has a save location setting that will point an arrow on screen to the car for me.. I'll test it before I go though.. I'll bring a compass and map too just in case.

DD Mikasa

Just how important would trail runners be in an event like this? Would your old road runners suffice or would that be a bad idea?

Rogue Runner

DD Mikasa wrote: »

Just how important would trail runners be in an event like this? Would your old road runners suffice or would that be a bad idea?

Id opt for Trail runners

Insidious

I saw on an adventure race calendar that it was cancelled. Unless that was just the original date it was supposed to be on. I'm still going to try the run though. I want to get my time down to under 5 hours for next years Gaelforce. So a bit of variety on the hills training will be good.

Slogger Jogger

Insidious wrote: »

I'll take care of that thanks.. I'm pretty sure my watch has a save location setting that will point an arrow on screen to the car for me.. I'll test it before I go though.. I'll bring a compass and map too just in case.

You might want to test that out first. I haven't used that functionality myself in that sort of situation but it was suggested to me that the 'return to start' feature does so as the crow flies which may not be best. You really want the return route to be exactly as you ran outward. Not 100% of this hence a test would be worth doing.

former

Insidious wrote: »

I saw on an adventure race calendar that it was cancelled. Unless that was just the original date it was supposed to be on. I'm still going to try the run though. I want to get my time down to under 5 hours for next years Gaelforce. So a bit of variety on the hills training will be good.

That's why I thought it was cancelled too.