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

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

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

Myself and Karen always look forward to the Mournes. Its one of our favourite races. This year we were entered in the B class and determined to erase any memories of last years DNF. Karen has been training well of late but I haven’t been able to do a whole pile struggling with achiles tendonites since the Rotterdam marathon earlier this year. I still managed to complete the IMRA Nav Challenges which were great preparation for the Mournes.

Preparation
We have a few Mountain Marathons under our belt and we’ve learned alot each time. As always discussions of what gear … Read the rest

First time to do this race – a lack of any real pre race training meant it was gonna be tough.  Perfect prep for our next big Adventure race, the 3 day Slovenia AR. Getting support crew was  more of a challenge than anticipated, but thankfully through our social network that is Facebook  Cormac Power came to the rescue – and I am sure I will say it as I go on, did an outstanding  job!!! My packaing was done in a rush late Friday evening. I managed to pack all the race gear  minus socks n jocks…oh  and I … 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

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