The Slovenia Adventure Race is just 2 weeks away now and the team are busy preparing. We’re pretty excited about the race and the challenge ahead of us. With no Terrex this year we had to look further abroad in search of another multi day adventure racing fix. The race itself, although maybe a little early in the season, looks like the perfect opportunity for the team to gain some more experience. The race is run over 3 days non stop covering roughly 350km and many disciplines: trekking, mountaing biking, caving, swimming, kayaking, canyoning, abseiling and rollerblading! We’ve been… Read the rest

This year saw a disjointed team as Finbar and Karen were tapering for the    Rotterdam marathon (Finbar 2:49, Karen 3:15 BTW awesome times!!!)and Enda was  hauled off to India courtesy of his co-workers to help out on a project there. Many  teams had a similar experience but  yet 16 expert teams made it to this year’s TEAR  event. This is the 1^st 4 person adventure racing event on the  Calendar every year  and doesn’t disappoint.

This year our team consisted of Chris Caulfield, Taryn McCoy (Belledock biker babe)  Mark Walker and myself.  We hadn’t raced together previously and… Read the rest

Despite being from Cavan and running cross country races at Tanagh Adventure Centre down the years I had no idea what Ivan had in store. Nothing new there so!

We arrived before 9am and the place was buzzing with activity. Everyone busy preparing their bikes, organising race clothing and food. 34 teams had entered for the race. The shorter adventure race format appealing to the masses. We registered and Ivan gave his race briefing to a packed audience. The start would involve a foot orienteering section followed by a short kayak. Then we’d be back on foot for the remainder… Read the rest

Causeway Coast Adventure Racing Club presents Ireland’s ONLY Adventure Race Series. This is an awesome race series. All of us took part in some part of it last year. Its a must for all those who want to convert from those multi-sport races plus Ivan always manages a couple of very Special Tasks along the way. Along with Joans fine Buns a good day is to be Guaranteed for all !!!!!! Best of luck to all !!

Four Rounds of Adventure Racing for teams of 2 which are suitable for novice to experienced competitors alike. Karen, Finbar and Enda… Read the rest

When Sean put out the call for this event I was more than happy to help. Adventure Racing in Ireland has been crying out for this sort of thing and fair play to Sean and the Total Experience lads for putting it on. There was a great turn out of experienced adventure racers there to help out and plenty of new faces which was good to see. There is a hunger for proper Adventure Racing. One lad travelled all the way from Cork this morning!

We all piled into the shed and the tea and sausages were a perfect start… Read the rest

Again it was onto the bikes still in the lead  but uncertain for how much longer. From here it was a cycle to TA3, where most of the teams skipped the 4 CP’s en route, MA were the only team to pick up one CP along the way. MA had pulled back an 1hr 40minutes back into us at this stage and were moving well on the bike. We arrived into Surf n Dirt (TA3) Ahead of AJ’s and a slow transition had them out in to Tollymore ahead of us.

We spent 1:50 minutes running a lot of this… Read the rest

Note to self, when competing in 36hr races take the Friday off or at least a half day so as to have plenty of time to make the issuing of the Maps at 6:30 in kilkeel. Five weeks from having taken part in the Addidas Terrex 4-day , a couple of races like Achill Roar, Ballyhoura Mountain Bike marathon and the mourne mountain marathon here we were again on our way to another long race J. 36 hours doesn’t seem as bad compared to 96 hours, and we were really looking forward to this one. Packing was done the night… Read the rest

What an awesome adventure race. This was our first time to race together and we were all pretty excited at the taught of spending another 36 hrs in Lu-la land. We arrived pretty much together and with Team Irish AR we started to unpack the Jeeps and vans and prepare for 36hrs racing. First it was the bikes. Yep 1st dilemma, i had only SPD’s, never used them before. I had a borrowed bike and lets just say even the fire-roads were a challenge but more of that later… So the lads went on flats with Power Grips and we… Read the rest

Went to the pub last night after a visit to Brian Keogh who was perparing for the Wicklow 200. So I was on my first pint when I decided I’ll do the fecking 200 as well. I’ve never really given it any respect as it’s a load of roadies blocking up the road on a Sunday, so didn’t think it deserved the training, carb loading and a good nights sleep before hand.

Seeing I was in the pub as planned, I stuck it out till 1.45am and had 3hours 20 mins sleep and was on the road for 6am. The… Read the rest

It was a warm summer evening, yes the kind we haven’t had since the great Sun, the type of dry night that never seems to occur during a 24hr 36hr or soon to be a 96hr Race. It was a pre-planned training night. Tonights agenda was testing lights over technical terrain and originally a bit of night Nav a le Finbar but it wasn’t to be. Finbar had been summoned home to translate some Scottish rants from the weekend before on his mothers mobile. So while he was gounded he took the opportunity to rest a wounded knee.

Another strange… Read the rest