My alarm went off at 12:30am. I had 30 minutes before I would need to be on the road to Carricklittle Car Park in the eastern Mournes. I was to meet my friend Colm Kelly. He would start the round with me at 3am, a further 30 minutes down the road in Newcastle. Colm and I would run the first 3 hours together before I would continue on for another 16, whereas he would go on to work!

The Denis Rankin Round is an ultra endurance and navigational challenge set in the Mourne Mountains. It’s a clockwise or anti-clockwise self-navigated route, following a list of 39 peaks, all to be completed in under 24 hours. In total, it covers approximately 90km with 6500m of elevation gain. The route was devised by some members of Denis Rankin’s fell running club, BARF, in memory of Denis, a pioneer in Northern Irish fell running. Continue reading →