A group of running friends and I went to Ireland in May to race in the Waterville Trailrunning Festival (WTF). 6 women and 2 men. The women all ran the 43k race and the men did the 27k race.
We flew into Dublin and split into two groups. One headed straight towards Waterville and rented a car down there and the other group stayed overnight in Dublin before heading down. We walked through Stephen's Green.
We checked out the pubs and saw live Irish music.
We then drove straight down a major highway (then closer to town some roads that were about 1.25 car width-it was a hair raising adventure. With lots of sheep. Sheep is a huge export in Ireland.
Down in Waterville, we explored where the race would start and grabbed our bibs and souvenir t-shirts and got trackers attached to our backpacks. There's one aid station half way through the race and the weather was amazing the entire week, which we were told was unusual!
We got to the start line and chatted with other participants.
The race had two major hills. The first one was pretty rough and you ran from post to post, it was difficult to discern where the actual trail was. Much of our race was on the Ring of Kerry and we followed the markers most of the way. There were also stiles (little ladders to climb over fences) as much of the race was through pastures (mostly sheep-lots of sheep-Ireland is one of the largest exporters of sheep besides Australia). There was mud, sheep poop, etc. (my shoes smelled horribly).
At the top of the hill the view to the ocean was amazing!
We ran down the hill and to the halfway point where the aid station was
and then tackled the second half including the second hill. It was a more established trail but the hill seemed to never end! After the second large hill it was downhill until the finish line. Around that time I started hiking up the hill with an Irishman who chatted with me. We caught sight of an American woman and I leap frogged her several times. When we got to the top of the hill the Irishman who had completed the race the year before and helped immensely with navigating the race (every year the race is run in the opposite direction so he had done the route backwards) was hurting and we saw her back below us and it was downhill. He whispered to me, "go for it" and I finished strong down the hill, I passed lots of people on the way down.
The race cut off was 8 hours and I finished in just under 6. So I was the 54th finisher, 10th female finisher. Another woman in our group came in 50 minutes after me, then another 1 hr 10 min after me, the rest came in around the 8 hour mark. There were 112 participants-33 women 79 men. The race was hard but I was very happy with how I did.
After the race, we were given an Irish stew and potato meal. The next morning we woke up early and went to Doolin to catch a ferry to the Aran islands.
We decided the best money we spent was upgrading to ebikes on the islands. We barely had to pedal to get around. On the island we biked around and the main attraction was Dun Aonghasa, an ancient stone fort on the ocean.
Then we stayed in Doolin. Some in our group toured a whiskey distillery.
After Doolin we went to Tullemore. On our way, we stopped off at Athlone castle.
2 of us borrowed bikes from the hotel in Tullemore and rode along the Grand Canal to see church and castle ruins.
Shra castle ruins:
Killbride Church ruins,
Ballycowan Castle ruins
Then just outside Dublin we visited Wicklow forest. There's not a ton of trees in Ireland (our run was quite open and unshaded) so it was a good contrast to what we'd seen in the towns.
We took in a hurling match back in Dublin:
Back in Dublin, while part of the group went to the Guinness tour, 2 of us toured churches. St.
Michen's crypts:
St Audoen's church,
St. Patrick's Church.
Viking museum (interesting but didn't take pictures-but bought it as part of a combined ticket with the church) and Christ Church:
Dublin Castle
Trinity college and Book of Kells and library tour.
