Get No Sleep Adventure Racing

The race came kind of out of nowhere – Eoin 2 weeks previously had won his national title for the 24hour Ultra running race, Finbar was spinning up some great podium positions on the bike, Taryn had actually answered emails and filled out the kit list and I was arriving on the back of a ligament tear, damaged on a Bob Graham attempt.

So we picked up from the previous year really and from the Tuesday before the race we got all the kit list and gear sorted. The team hadn’t seen too much of one another, having met up … Read the rest

I think it was last March when Avril mentioned that she and fellow team mate would like to race at the World Championships in Ecuador. I was enroute to Banf on a snowboarding weekend which I thought would be a good opportunity to ask permission, while Eoghan had just come back from GodZone. Having broken his leg, I felt he would be easily persuaded and that it would be a good time to ask him.  Before the Costa Rica mud had time to disappear, it seemed we had a team and would need to get a plan together. A lot … Read the rest

This weekend finally sees an opportunity for us a race as a team together at “The RAID”.  Our Costa Rica Team gets an opportunity to race over the Sperrins which are the largest and least explored mountain range in Northern Ireland. With some of Ireland’s most spectacular and stunning scenery as a backdrop, and although the weather isn’t looking to be anything like the swelter we will get in Costa, it’s the perfect location for the Causeway Coast Crew to give us another great weekends racing. With 2 international Teams competing, Skandia Adventure Team and Team Merrell Denmark , a bunch … Read the rest

Descending from the Stars …..

168KM, 9600KM, 3 country’s,  the Ultra Trail Mount Blanc, it has been called the Olympics of Trail running, one of the hardest runs in the world,  but more the attraction was really the Helicopter shots that we saw off the Croix De Bon Home or the Grand Col Ferret in 2011. It was then I decided I wanted to run it. It was a race we dreamed of, imagine the UTMB that would be incredible, Karen , Finbar and I would discuss and be in awe of those who had ran it previously and still … Read the rest

The Wicklow Round isn’t a race report, but a report of a challenge course of 26 peaks totaling over 120K and over 6,000M climb inside 24 hours. This year it was a much easier call. With zero growth up to the end of March and low temperatures in April we were guaranteed no growth and with following weeks been so bad the grumblings were around that another year would pass. Recce’s done for last year’s attempt had made it far less stressful, and around the 21^st of May the weather Models looked as if they would deliver the normal … Read the rest

Having had to withdraw from the Wicklow Round this year at the end of May, the Morenic Trail was the only other UTMB 3 Pt Race that I could fit in this year. After the Wicklow Round it was time to get ready for the 5 day expedition Terrex Adventure race in Sterling at the end of August. Giving a month to recover for this one. A week in San Francisco with work meant flying home flying on Friday morning with little sleep and flying out that afternoon at 4:00pm. Arriving in Milan it took along time to pick up … Read the rest

Adventure racing can often be about getting to the start line and then to the finish line. For us both were challenging. First Taryn McCoy had to withdraw due to tearing tendon in her foot in June. Lucky for us Mary McBride who Finbar had met at Godzone was coming to Ireland to spend a month at home and was willing to race an expedition style race with a crowd of strangers J.  Then Enda tried to pull out two weeks before as he was struggling with his Achillis for over a month but as we couldn’t get someone at … Read the rest

Its just days to go now until this years Adidas Adventure Race in Stirling Scotland. We’re all very excited to be taking on what is shaping up to be a great race. The race will be made up of a broad range of teams from elite teams containing ex World Champions to novices taking on their first expedition race. The schema for the race was published earlier this week and we got our first glimpse of what lies ahead. We won’t recieve the race maps until closer to the event but we now know the structure of the race:

Stage … Read the rest

The Wicklow Round had been lurking in the back of my mind for a number of years. Its something different, a challenge, not a race, an itch that needs to be scratched. These are the main elements which attracted me to the “The Round”. Only now did I consider myself equipped to take on the challenge. The experience gained over the last number of years through Adventure Racing, Mountain Marathons, Navigation Challenges and Orienteering led me to believe I had what was necessary. Thats the logic anyways… funny enough how it would turn out to be my first proper Ultra!… Read the rest

I’m not sure where to start this report. I guess I have to go back to December 2011 a month after myself and Karen got engaged. We were busy with wedding arrangements and planning our honeymoon. The destination for the honeymoon was always going to be New Zealand. It just turned out that the GodZone Adventure Race fell around the same time. We both agreed that the return of Adventure Racing to New Zealand was too good to miss. We still needed to find a team. I contacted the race organisers and posted on a number of race forums in … Read the rest