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

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

I needed to do something while Karen and Finbar went on their super adventure to “Godzone”  adventure race. They had got married on the day of the Wicklow Ultra so its their fault I had to go and look for something else to occupy my mind. Having completed the Art O Neil and looking at the footage of UTMB last year courtesy of Eoin Keith I decided 2012 was going to be the year to pickup 5 points for the UTMB. This has now changed to 7 points in 3 Races maximum. Lost Worlds looked like a really awesome and … Read the rest

Its just a month now until the first GodZone Adventure Race in Queenstown, New Zealand. Myself and Karen will be taking in the race as the final week of our honeymoon. We’re both extremely excited and looking forward to the race (and the wedding of course!) GodZone has been put together by highly experienced adventure racers Warren Bates and Adam Fairmaid. Along with the help of some other highly experienced racers the event promises to be a true XPD adventure. The event team lineup is impressive in itself: http://www.godzoneadventure.com/the-adventure/meet-the-team/
In there own words:
“The races of yesteryear were often raw … Read the rest

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 busy … 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 will … 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