By Douglas Barry
The Kerry valley of Glounageenty is steeped in legend. Mighty
figures in Irish history have left their mark on it and it, in
turn, has left its mark on them. Its solitude ensured that the last
of the Geraldines - James the 16th Earl of Desmond - eluded Queen
Elizabeth's forces during his rebellion in the 1570s. 1916 patriot Roger
Casement's ally Monteith also hid there, moving from house to house,
after the botched version of the Easter 1916 rising in Kerry.
The name Glounageenty means the "glen of the mourning".
It probably got its name from the bloody deed that occurred there
in 1583. The rebel Earl of Desmond was surprised and captured. His captors
dragged off the badly wounded Earl to claim the reward. Worried
by his slowness and the nearness of the Earl's followers, the soldiers
debated the fact that the reward for a live Earl was double that
for a dead one. A soldier called O'Kelly cut the argument - and
the Earl - short with a swipe of his sword. The body was left
behind and they claimed the reward with the head.
But now, mourning has broken. They've been celebrating in the
glen for some time. For in Glounageenty lives a legend of the
Irish hills - John Lenihan. The former World Champion, winner
of the Carrauntoohil race for the past eleven years, four times
winner of the Croagh Patrick race, and a multi-time Irish mountain
running champion now farms high on the hills there. The amazing
Kerryman trains for his record breaking achievements locally.
His long haired figure is a familiar sight on the roads and hills
that mark the glen and its surroundings of Ballymacelligott and
Castleisland.
On these training runs he is often joined by his wife Mary - now
no mean athlete herself. A Castleisland girl, she met John unsurprisingly
on a walk up Carrauntoohil. Things progressed romantically and
athletically, and aside from getting married to John, Mary also
took up running and became good at it. She finished 7th
in the Dublin Mini-Marathon - the biggest women's only race in the world - and even represented Ireland in Edinburgh
in the World Mountain Running Championships.
Mary likes the race climbs, but candidly admits that she's no
expert on the descent. "I've left that to John" She
laughs. And undoubtedly, John is a flier on the descent. Seemingly
fearless, his effortless plunges down the rockiest of slopes are
awe-inspiring to watch. When he won the Croagh Patrick race in
mid June, the sightseers and pilgrims burst into spontaneous applause
when he swept into view - arms akimbo - on the edge of control.
I was watching and the question I was most asked was "Who
is that amazing guy?"
Lenihan has won all but five of the mountain races he has entered
in Ireland. One was his first race in Kerry, the others were early
season ones when he wasn't in the best shape. The last race he
lost was in the mists of the Dingle peninsula when he and many
others went astray on the descent and he finished a bemused 13th.
He recced the route the following year and smashed the record
by over 2 minutes. This year he has had straight wins on the Nagles,
Carrauntoohil for the eleventh time, Doon, Croagh Patrick, Nephin,
and the Ballyhouras.
His eleventh appearance in the World Mountain Running Championship
beckons in September. It's on the sun kissed island of Reunion
in the Indian Ocean. This exotic island near Mauritius is dominated
by its extinct volcano up which the uphill only course heads to
finish on its rim. While John has a preference for up and down
courses, he has finished fourth in an uphill race - his first
World champs - in Italy in 1986. But his peak achievement
was his win, ably backed up by Robin Bryson in 4th
, in the Worlds in Zermatt, Switzerland. He led the Irish team
which also included Tommy Payne and Eamonn McMahon to the bronze
medals.
Kerry went wild for John then. Huge bonfires blazed in the streets
of Castleisland. A local bard Peter Howarth even penned the following
ballad lauding his hero's achievement in the Swiss mountains.
"Who is this famous runner that wins every race,
And puts all his competition in disgrace
He has raced all over Ireland, in Britain, and in France
No other athlete ever gets a chance."
It goes on for several verses, one of which includes the immortal
lines.
"When our friend is training, he runs to work and back,
Carrying his sandwiches in a small pack.
And on such a morning while running at his ease,
His bottled milk got shaken up and turned into cheese"
Whatever you may think about the song, John Lenihan is still the
big cheese both in mountain running and in Glounageenty.