On Sat 13th July at 2am five hearty souls stood under the arch in Donard car park at the foot of the Mourne mountains ready to take on the Denis Rankin Round, this magnificent course has been hot over the last few weeks with some great attempts ending both with success and failure.

They say a true challenge is one that completion is never guaranteed, and with only 24hrs to traverse all of the Mourne mountain peaks over 400m it would take a lot of skill and luck to complete the 90km course, with over 6500m of ascent strong navigation skills would be required to ensure success.

The team was made up of Sean Nickell the key lead out man and navigator who has more miles under his belt than the proclaimers, Marty ‘Chipper’ Campbell and Barry McCarroll all three of which had competed in races such as the 108 mile Donegal Hero, Keith Clarke Deca-Ironman and Mark Weir who’s experience racing through the Mournes would become invaluable.

We take a different angle this week and sit with the entire team for an open group discussion on what it takes to succeed in Denis Rankin Challenge, I hope you enjoy my being back on the podcast, if so why not drop us a line on our face book page and let us know.