Northern Ireland Outdoors Forum - Hiking, camping and more
Information => Outdoor News and Events => Topic started by: admin on November 25, 2015
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Part of the Skyrunning UK series, this 35km race through the stunning Mourne Mountains in County Down features 200 runners battling up and down the highest peaks in Northern Ireland
Watch:
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/others/view-from-the-sofa-mourne-mountains-challenge-charts-real-escape-route-from-a-world-of-mourning-a6744116.html
Further info:
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/others/view-from-the-sofa-mourne-mountains-challenge-charts-real-escape-route-from-a-world-of-mourning-a6744116.html
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I watched this a few days ago, some very impressive running especially from Ian Bailie. Sub 4 hour time for the 35 k which included Bernagh and Meelmore twice and finished with a wee Jaunt up and down Donard ???
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There was some great running but bit of a crap show. Fair enough it was squeezed into a small half hour slot, but all it did was show about 7 folks over and over with barely a mention of the hundreds of others or other parts of the course.
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If you weren't in the race then I suppose it may have been a tad boring, but I think they managed to get great coverage over the difficult terrain, and with only a few cameramen they had to leave pretty soon after the frontrunners passed to get them to the next spot, we're too used to F1 style coverage at every corner ;D Those boys had some gear to carry :o But maybe a bit of music mid way and some more coverage of the rest of the field would have been nice.
Some behind the scenes shots
(http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/dd496/landyliam/2015/P1120714%20Medium_zpsc6yqh7bn.jpg)
(http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/dd496/landyliam/2015/P1120781%20Medium_zps47h8zvss.jpg)
(http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/dd496/landyliam/2015/P1120933%20Medium_zps5vwuab0q.jpg)
(http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/dd496/landyliam/2015/P1130014%20Medium_zpsni6ccyhl.jpg)
(http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/dd496/landyliam/2015/P1130094%20Medium_zpsugxxxpxo.jpg)
(http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/dd496/landyliam/2015/P1130096%20Medium_zpstunqgl2d.jpg)
as you can see I got about the course myself a bit ;D
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I'm not sure it makes for cracking telly with the resources available for the coverage (resources that seemed to be pretty well deployed, to be fair), but both the guys I knew who were taking part were fleetingly featured and neither of them finished in the very upper echelons of the field...indeed, one of them was suitably mocked for posting a screengrab of himself on Facebook...
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I can appreciate the difficulty of filming a race like that up there and think the shots the guys did get were very good. Sadly though it is the level of resources devoted to the program I think were stupidly low. Granted this is no London marathon so you cannot expect that level of coverage, but this seemed to fall into a black hole of a gap. For folks with little to no interest in this sort of sport then the show was pityful in it's portrail of the scenery etc to attract viewers, and for those of us who would of happily watched for an hour or more it seemed to be little more than a way to say a handful of folks names over and over. Channel 4 are hardly sweeping the moths from the piggy bank yet they put out a show like this which could of been easily reduced to "here are hundreds starting, now here's ya man crossing the finish line".
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I thought I recognized my trainers! Bit top heavy yes but a good show all the same and good to see a sport like skyrunning featured at all really. I think it gives a good feel of the race and terrain.
If it inspires one person to either walk/run or cycle in the mournes then it's a winner for me.