Friday
After two weeks of our honeymoon in NZ we finally arrived in Queenstown the Friday before the race. After months of emailing it was great to finally meet Ian and Wendy. Its fair to see we hit it off immediately and we were on the same wavelenght. That night we discussed important topics like race food, sleep strategy and race gear. Myself and Karen learned we would require a trip to the MacPac shop to pick up some gaiters. We’d never done a race before that required gaiters!

Saturday
Saturday morning we went to race HQ at the school in Queenstown. There was a real buzz of activity. All the top teams were there Seagate, Subway, Blackheart… I was pretty awe struck when we joined Seagate for a demonstration of the Yellow Brick GPS tracking device we would be carrying during the course of the race. We collected our race bibs, completed the mandatory gear check before having our team photo taken. At this point we received a sheet of paper outlining the overall course. We wouldn’t receive the race maps until late Sunday afternoon en route to the overnight camp before the race. The course was made up of 11 stages. Each team had 4 gear boxes labelled A,B, C, D and we would have access to different boxes at the end of each stage. Some boxes we would see many times, others only once. We would have access to our bike boxes at the start and end of each bike stage. We could also store additional gear/food in the hold of our kayaks. It was going to be an interesting race logistically.

Before leaving registration we got our first look at the kayaks for the event. These were brand new kayaks build specifically for Adventure Racing and this would be the first time they would be used. They were slightly narrower than what myself and Karen were use to. Ian and Wendy were more use to racing on the edge of a razor blade so they were a good deal wider than they;re usual boats. We also got a look at the canoe’s we would be using.

We picked up some fresh bread and other food items before returning to base for the rest of the day. After digesting the race plan we set about packing gear and food into each of the boxes. It was slow and deliberate process to ensure everything was in its rigth place. Any mistakes made at this stage could cost us dear during the race. As the day progressed everyone had a clear picture of what lay ahead. It was largely a trekking race. The stages were as follows:

Stage 1 Kayak “Milford Sound” – 15km
Stage 2 Bike “Milford Road ” – 49km
Stage 3 Canoe “Eglinton River” – 36km
Stage 4 Trek “Dunton Range” – 54km
Stage 5 Bike “Oreti Cromel” – 81km
Stage 6 Trek “Eyre Mountains” – 48km
Stage 7 Canoe “Mavora Lakes” – Stage Cancelled
Stage 8 Bike “Thomson Mountains” – 129km
Stage 9 Trek “Earnslaw Burn” – 24km
Stage 10 Bike “Rees Valley” – 21km
Stage 11 Kayak “Lake Wakatipu” – 46km

WILD RACERS – Full course fly through from NothinButShorts International on Vimeo.

The real “meat” of the race lay in stages 4, 5 and 6. Stage 4 was estimated to take anything between 17:00 – 24:00 hours. Stage 6 estimated to be 22:00 hours. Stages 1,2,3 were nothing more than a sprint out the gate for the top teams, stage 4 would shape the leaderboard and the rest of the stages would test each team differently according to ability, fatigue, injury and mental toughness.

Sunday
While the race was based in Queenstown, the actual start line was at a secret location which we would spend most of Sunday being bused to. We handed in our bike and gear boxes in the morning before boarding the bus. We still hadn’t received any maps. We all presumed the race start would be somewhere in the magnificent Milford Sound. Without the maps we were free to kick back, enjoy the journey and chat to the other teams. It was a nice relaxed atmosphere (no sign of “the Bull”). We stopped off in Te Anu for some lunch where we were I had the pleasure of chatting to Nathan Faave as we queued in a pie shop waiting for lunch.

WILD RACERS – GODZone Pre-Race Journey from NothinButShorts International on Vimeo.

At 4pm during a short stop we received the maps and returned to bus. The race start was indeed Milford Sound. Before reaching the overnight camp we stopped off to assemble our bikes in preparation for Stage 2. We were given 30 minutes to do this. It was getting dark when we reached the overnight camp but there was still enough light to take in the magnificent surroundings. The remoteness of the race start meant teams needed to be self sufficient providing their own food and accomodation the night before the race. We quickly located a good spot to pitch tent before moving to the ferry terminal where we set about marking our planned route on the maps and have some food. Stages 1-3 were relatively straightforward. Most of our time was spent contemplating the many route choices available on the long trekking stages. We generally opted for a safe route. The safest route not necessarily being the easiest navigationally we needed to consider other factors like terrain, team safety and available daylight. With 11-12 hours darkness each day the going would be slow on some of these stages. The NZ landscape offered many route choices and the organisers made no attempt to force teams down any particular route. I really, really liked this. There would be no “cotton wooling” of competitors in this event.

Stage 1. Kayak “Milford Sound” – 15km (Monday):
4 am and all teams were packed into the Milford Sound Visitor Terminal. We were all waiting to board a cruise ship to the start at Bridal Falls. When we got to the bay we were brought to shore on a small rib. Still dark at this point I was having trouble believing my eyes. The whole thing felt like a dream. The shoreline was alive with head torches like fire flies. You were surrounded by large columns of rock illuminated by moonlight with Bridal Falls in the backdrop. We sat in our kayaks staying warm before being allowed on the water. Richard Usshers team were first onto the water. Again I was a bit awe struck as a the Coast to Coast champion and his wife (another coast to coast champion) paddled in front of me. Then it was our turn. We moved out onto the water with Wendy and Ian in the front of our boats dictating the stroke. Conditions were choppy and only for the pressence of Ian and Wendy myself and Karen would have been uncomfortable. Instead we were confident and calm as other teams struggled around us.

The hooter sounded signalling the race start and we were off. Immediately Ian and Wendy went up a few gears. Our first task was to paddle around the cruiser before turning and paddling down Milford Sound. It was a little frantic and congested at this point but Ian and Wendy had us in good position. So much so we bumped into Team Seagate and Nathan Faave’s boat. That doesn’t happen everyday As we rounded the cruiser we were now exposed to some very choppy conditions. The boat was totally submerged at points. Teams were struggling to stay in close contact with eachother. The video footage on 3 News gives you a good idea of the conditions. We had no such problems. We now had a tailwind, some big waves and more importantly ace paddlers in Ian and Wendy to take advantage of the conditions. We surfed wave after wave and held 4/5th place for the entire paddle. Myself and Karen did our best match Ian and Wendy’s cadence and follow their instructions, these guys were good…very good! Approaching the first TA and to cap off only what can be described as a sureal start to the race we were greated by a pack of dolphins. They were within touching distance and playing with our boats for the final km of the paddle. An experience we will never forget.

Stage 2. Bike “Milford Road ” – 49km (Monday)
We forgot to checkin immediatly at TA1 when we came off the water so unfortunatly our 4th place did register on the leaderboard. Still that was our blaze of glory and now it was time to settle down and focus on what lay ahead.

After a slow transition we were on Milford Road and settled into formation. The climb out of Milford was long and steady until we reached the Homer Tunnel. During this time we were passed by a number of the stronger teams and we took up our true position in the pack somewhere around 20-25th. Cycling through the Homer tunnel we then began a fast decent in the direction on the Upper Eglington river. It was cold and we were well wrapped up with gloves, hats and jackets. The road was wet and myself and Karen struggled to keep pace with Ian and Wendy on the descent. They’re 29 inch Gary Fisher MTB’s definetly rolled better than our KTM’s. As we reached the end of the stage we were comfortable and in good shape.

Stage 3. Canoe Eglinton River – 36km (Monday)

Entering transition we immediatly set about breaking down our bikes and packing them into their boxes. We grabbed the opportunity to take some food on board as well. Before we could get on the water for the canoe stage we had to collect and inflate the canoe’s. This took some time and meant another relatively long transition. After inflating we had a short portage to a put in on the Eglinton River. This stage contained the only dark zone of the entire race. We needed to be off the water by 19:00. The water level was very low and the race organisers even started the race ahead of time in fear of teams being caught on the water after dark. We paired up for the paddle the same as the Kayak (Ian & Karen, Wendy & Finbar). Wendy and myself struggled to gain control of the boat early on this stage so we changed the pairs to be (Ian & Finbar, Wendy & Karen) Wendy’s boat was now alot lighter and easier to control now that I had been evicted. We wasted sometime coming to this conclusion but from that point on we made some excellent progress. It was still a very slow paddle but we had other teams like Hard Yucca’s and ProActive Physio for company during this stage. The canoe’s which were meant to be self bailing were anything but. We found ourselves pulling over to tip out water every 15-20 minutes. We also had to reinflate the seats on the boat on a good few occasions. Late on in this stage we would enjoy some deaper waters and rapids.We reached the end of the stage around 18:00, comfortably ahead of the cutt off for the dark zone.

WILD RACERS – GODZone Day 1 from NothinButShorts International on Vimeo.

Stage 4. Dunton Range – 54km (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday)
Exiting the water temperatures had dropped as evening had closed in. I was cold and shivering along with a good few others in transition. Ian took care of deflating the canoes before returning them to the organisers. We changed out of our wet suits and into our trekking gear for the first trek of the race. We completed a mandatory gear spot check just before exiting transition after dark. This would be our first night on the course.

We set off for CP4. We could see headtorches in the distance and behind us in the early stages. As we got closer to CP4 we ran into ProActive Physio and Team 215. They were having some trouble locating the CP. I knew we were still quite a bit short of the exact location and we moved on to find the clearing where the CP was located. The navigation was tricky but nailing the first CP was a good boost for confidence especially after passing a few teams along the way. We now had a long trek to CP5 with some challenging nav. We covered as much ground as we could that night safely. Around Dunton Ridge we encountered some strong winds and were faced with contouring along a steep bank of scree in darkness. We decided at this point to drop down into the tree line and take our first sleep. The ground was uneven which meant the quality of sleep in the tent wasn’t great. After 2 hours of sleep it was now bright and after some food we were better equiped to tackle the immediate terrain and progress to CP5. We ran into “Asses Ears Bites Back” briefly before pushing on and following a creek down to Upukerora river. The terrain was steep but once we entered the creek we were happy with our route choice as the descent to the river was relatively easy. We were making good progress and our navigation was spot on as we got closer to CP5. At this point we were passed by “Shakespeare & Co” exchanging some friendly banter. The terrain at this point started to become very difficult. Our chosen route involved traversing some major windfall and bushwhacking down to a stream where we would ascend and follow a ridge to CP5 located on the second summit. The descent to the stream was the most physically challenging terrain I have ever encountered in an adventure race. We were literally crawling under and climbing over windfall for hours. Once we hit the stream and saw the ridge we were confident of finding the CP and we did. Careful navigation was becoming critical. It turned out that many teams struggled with CP5 and missed the cuttoff of 23:00 on Tuesday night at CP 6. The route between CP5 and CP6 again was long but we reached the manned CP6 at the Hunters Hut around 21:30 on Tuesday night. The hut was jam packed with teams huddled around the fire. Some teams suffering with injuries and others who had failed to pick up CP5. It was a cold night and no one was in a rush to leave the hut. The next stage of the Trek was up over Snowdon and navigation wise was a very tricky leg. Teams were given instructons that we would be sent an alternate route and be unranked if we did not leave the hut by 23:00. We still had another 8-9 hours until sunrise and we were reluctant to head over Snowdon in darkness. We left the hut but made a tactical decision to set up tent only one kilometer away. This confused many who were following us on the GPS tracking but the race organisers knew exactly what we were doing The ascent of Snowdon was a very steap climb which navigationally wasn’t too difficult. We estimated it would take roughly two hours and we should aim to hit the summit around sunrise. We set our alarms for 3:30am and settled in for a slightly longer sleep than planned. That night temperatures went to as low as -3 and the following morning we awoke to find our shoes and socks frozen solid. Shivering in our tent we used our body heat to warm ourselves and thaw out our shoes. Luckily we had the steap ascent of Snowdon to keep us warm that morning. As we reached the summit the sun was just rising. Perfect timing. We took the safer route contouring left around and down to the stream before moving in the direction of TA5. We covered alot of ground this day and were happy with the tactical and navigation decisions that we made. Later in the afternoon we bumped into “Rogue Samurai by Macpac” who had experienced some problems during the night. The remainder of the Trek took us into late afternoon/ early evening before we finally reached the TA. This stage took us a whopping 46 hours. The terrain and tricky navigation had claimed many teams. We managed to get through the stage on 24 hours food and were in good spirits. The scenary was spectacular especially as we summit Snowdon as the sun rose.

WILD RACERS – GODZone Day 2 from NothinButShorts International on Vimeo.

WILD RACERS – GODZone Day 3 from NothinButShorts International on Vimeo.

Stage 5. Oreti Cromel – 81km (Wednesday, Thursday)
It was a beutiful evening and entering transition we received a round of applause. Well deserved we taught after 46 hours of treking! We were all starving having got by on just 24 hours worth of food in the previous stage. We weren’t alone in transition, our friends ProActive Physio were there and so were Rogue Samurai by Macpac. We got some hot food in and assembled our bikes for the stage ahead. At this point the stage had been shortened slightly for teams. We would skip CP’s 8, 9 and 10 and take a more direct route to CP 11. After receiving our instructions we set off just as it got dark. We would cycle 21km before turning off a gravel road and down towards the Oreti river. It was very dark and our first challenge was to find a good crossing point on the river. After pacing the river bank for a while we picked our spot and crossed. The water was cold but somehow we managed to stay warm. On the other side we were greated by long grass. It was difficult to pick up any sort of track but we made good progress. We would cross another river before reaching CP11 at the entrance to the Exotic Forrest. CP 12 wasn’t far away located at a track stream junction.
The nav proved tricky as we missed a turn off for a path to our right as we climbed from the Oreti River. We were quick to spot that we had climbed too high after checking the altimeter. Returning to the correct altitude we found the turn off and the control at the end of it. Everyone was getting cold and tired at this point. We had a quick pitstop for food. It was 02:30 and we had a long cycle to CP 13 but I explained to everyone that the navigation was easier and we should try and get as much of it done in the dark saving the daylight hours for more tricky sections that lay ahead the following day. Everyone dug deep and we hammered out a large chunk of this section before finally setting up tent for 2 hours sleep. The following morning conditions were thankfully alot milder. Just as we packed up tent we were joined by Shakespere and Co. CP’s 13 and 14 we picked up with relative ease. CP 15 proved very tricky. We failed to pickup the correct path and as a result were too low on our approach to the control. After some major bushwhacking we finally picked up the control. It was late afternoon and the sun was beating down on us as we rolled into TA.

WILD RACERS – GODZone Day 4 from NothinButShorts International on Vimeo.

Stage 6. Eyre Mountains – 48km (Thursday, Friday)

Shakespere and Co were there having avoided our problems at CP15. Breaking down the bikes we began contemplating the Trek that lay ahead. It was every bit as challenging as the first Trek we did and our timing meant that we would have some very difficult night nav. We made sure to pack plenty of food before departing on this stage Exiting the TA we made a conscious effort to pick up the pace and hit CP17 just past Mansion Hut.

WILD RACERS – Stage 6 Mansion Hut from NothinButShorts International on Vimeo.

We managed to do this before nightfall and locate our attackpoint up the western side of the mountain just before dark. It was very slow going at this point, surrounded by thick forrest as we ascended the ridge we were very careful not to leave our bearing. This of course meant loads of bushwhacking and climbing through windfall. Add to this the fact we were all suffering with the sleepmonsters we took a couple of power naps along the way. Once we hit 700m we changed bearing to continue along the ridge and up to a height of 1100m were we would finally emerge above the tree line and get a view of the night sky. Visibility was good and we could see our route along the tops before descending to CP18, a hut at Irthing stream. We could see the lights of a number of teams ahead as the exited the hut and made their way to the next CP. We were greeted at the hut by Hugh who had been manning the hut for a number of days now. It was roughly 5-6am and the time was right to get some sleep before pushing on in daylight. We took a short sleep of about an hour but the relative luxury of the hut meant it felt longer which was a bonus. We had been passed by a team as we slept and now we were the last team on this stage. Hugh was now free’d of his maning duties and joined us as we departed the hut on the remainder of the Trek. CP19 had been dropped and we would now have a more direct route to TA6 (CP20) at Black Spur Creek Hut. It was still along way but we were blessed by clear sky’s and some absolutly breathtaking scenary on this day. We were treated to some amazing views as we crossed over Shepard’s Saddle and descended towards Shepherds Creek hut. We now had a clear view of our route up Eyre Creek which lay ahead. We would follow the creek all the way to a saddle before descending and joining a stream on the other side which would lead to TA6. There terrain was good and we had a nice track to follow up the creek. Once the track ended we were left with numerous stream crossings as we followed whatever paths were available. The terrain was beginning to deteriorate and we were left to follow the stream bed. We caught up with another team at this point, the “Stunts”. One of their team members was suffering badly with injury. We kept eachother company for the remainder of the stage. We were now climbing over rocks and wading through rock pools. The water was cold and we were running out of daylight fast. We were anxious to get over the saddle before dark and down the other side. Up on the saddle, in fading light, we managed to catch a glimpse of the view back down Eyre Creek. It was pretty special. The remainder of the trek was relatively straightforward. We arrived at Black Spur Creek hut around 23:30 were we received some warm soup and bread. It tasted soooooo good. We built our bikes for the next stage before catching a few hours sleep in the tent.

WILD RACERS – Black Spur Creek Hut from NothinButShorts International on Vimeo.

Stage 7. Mavora Lakes – Stage Cancelled

Stage 8. Thomson Mountains – 129 km (Saturday)

We had been on the go for 5 full days and the organisers were now routing teams back to the finish in Queenstown. Our route involved cycling down the Vonn Valley picking up CP30 before making our way to Walters Peak where we would get the ferry back to Queenstown. The views on this shortened stage were absolutely stunning. The descent was very cold in the shadows of Pasture Hill and Mount Nicholas but we were greeted by the sun as we approached Lake Wakatipu. Distracted by the views and suffering with tiredness we overshot CP30 slightly. At Whites Bay we turned right for Walters Peak and the home stretch. We still had to push hard but arrived at Walters Peak in good time for the 10:45 ferry. We were now slowly re entering civilization and the restaurant at Walter Peak was busy with hungry teams looking for scones and coffee. After boarding the ferry this theme continued and the coffee dock on the ferry being raided by hungry adventure racers. I enjoyed my first cup of tea in almost a week and I have to say it tasted alot better than the hot water and Nuun tablet combo I had been drinking as a “fruit tea” The ferry was busy with tourists and it was strange to be surrounded by so many “ordinary” people after our adventures in the wild. The cruise back gave us time to reflect on the race and determine our final race position. We worked out that we had finished 19th out of 31 teams! We never set ourselves a target in terms of the leaderboard knowing that if we focused on “our race” that our final position would take care of itself. Arriving in Queenstown we disembarked and had a relaxed cycle through the town centre before crossing the finish line. We finished ranked on what many considered to be one of the toughest courses set for an adventure race. We felt pretty good about that!

Aftermath
GodZone was an amazing experience for both myself and Karen. We were very lucky to find two excellent teammates in Wendy and Ian. The gamble paid off and we gelled well as a team. We all had our ups and downs but we pulled together and got each other through.

We would like to thank the race directors for staging a truly epic adventure race. I hope we can return to NZ in the future and do it all again.

Finally we would like to say a big thank you to our fellow competitors. We were blown away by the friendliness of the other teams.

Other Race Reports and Interviews
Seagate Part 1, Part 2
One Square Meal
Subway
Nathan Faave – Team Seagate
Adam Fairmaid – Event Director

Lost Worlds 100k Race

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 with Event organisers from Primal Quest, Extreme 26 and our friend Duggie it was bound to be a blast and if I didn’t finish I knew that the lads would look after me. So on that it was off to Ballintoy way up there on the Antrim Coast.

Registration at Ballintoy, (near the famous Carrick a rede Rope Bridge) was manned by Ian and Rowan good to see friendly faces in a place what looked to be a crowd of Tourists all round getting stuck in to Pasta. A second glance told me it was racers and their families all sitting together in a friendly atmosphere. There was a new race start time announced for 6:30, which meant a liein til 5:30a. Met Taryn McCoy (Team Mate)  who had come down to help out with the race, and we got registered for our next adventure Terrex 2012, best to get that done in case not finishing my first 100km race put me off.

5:00AM rise and I went with Taryn to the start line – a convoy of cars and a mini bus droped us to the start Glenarm. Well a place from where we could walk to the start. People took photos of the sunrise as I nervously mingled talking to a few of the racers where making comments on my Art O Neil t-shirt. A great race and this was the perfect one to take the t-shirt on its first outing. Off we walked and I have to say this was a surprise for me and some of the international racers who were thinking we were walking a very long mile. Comments like that they hoped they had used a different course designer to measure the 100km kept us in high spirits. Here I chatted with Paul Nesbit and Allan Boggle on the way out. Allan had great food stories while I wondered what damage the previous weekends wedding would have on my race. The 30 minute walk got us to the Start line where Ian Cummings sent us on our way. We headed up a road for around 500 meters where we then headed into the left.

We couldn’t see too well but someone had given it welly and was gone bounding down the road at a very fast pace. We headed into the glen to follow the Moyle way up the side of glen through a forest. We were at a walk shortly and already the calfs were burning. The cruelness of the race had started early, and I was happy to hear Matty Hewitt and Paul Nesbitt beside have  a similar complaint. We power walked up the hill passing Diane Roy, UK entrant who wasn’t enjoying at all the early calf burn. We were walking up vertically to get up into the hills – the views were incredible with the mist and early sun coming through across the hills. We ran on a few miles to be met by Ivan who had that evil smile on his face and warned myself Matty and Paul that there was a nice Irish Bog ahead waiting for us. Where Ivan is concerned you know this is bad news.  However we had a feeling that we had the advantage of local knowladge here and it gave us a spring in our step as we approached another runner, Tod a Canadian chap. Tall and not liking the terrain at all. I took the lead into the forest of the four of us as I felt I was better equipped to navigate our way through the path less forests. The forests made great running hopping across streams and over bolders while looking for our next marker. The guys had marked the trails well and we joked as we imagined Rowan dragging his Bike through some of the quiet challenging terrain. It wasn’t long again before we were out onto open bog , slieveanorra mountain ( I think)  – similar to the back of Mount Brandon (Dingle) and we moved at a pretty fast pace down to where we could see the first sign of like we had seen for around 16km. Ivan Greg and Rowan were there comparing Race Organiser Bellys as we grabbed Cake filled water and ate bannanas as we ran on down the road. Again we disappeared into a forest with a pretty wicked climb up onto  “Trostan” another wicked climb before the long decent down to the next checkpoint. This was perhaps the 25km mark – but I think there as some confusion as we were only at 20km on the Garmins – we ran on following trails along until we were out again around the 32km mark. Here we followed roads for a bit in the direction of Ballycastle here we were passed by 4 other runners as we walked some of the uphills. We were holding back as we thought of the long journey ahead of us. We took our time so as not to get pulled in by Helena Dornan,Declan Falkner,  Christian Lewis and Todd.  Back on to the trails with the guys ahead in site when Diane Roy came from behind having passed us an hour earlier. Diane had taken a wrong turn and was now playing catchup while shouting at yellow arrows on the ground. She wasn’t happy !!

After a while we were back on the road again down into Ballycastle, I was starting to feel good, but we were all in need of water and food. As we pulled into the village Helena’s sister had come out to greet her with Water and treats for everyone. Jaffa cakes, madrains, snickers all inhaled with 3 cups of water and we were off down the road.  Here Matty and Paul began to move off the pace slightly. I don’t really know what was up – but the lads were going steady and as neighbours in their own home town I knew they would look after themselves. I went passed  two runners(Declan Falkner,  Christian Lewis) as they remarked that I must have got a second wind I hadn’t but had the halfway mark in sight, it was 10km and I needed to get there as I needed proper refuelling before I started to really drop. I needed to go steady and the time for chatting was over.  Diane and Helena were at the halfway in front of me and Christian and Declan came in shortly after. Diane and Jason headed out before me. I changed my bog drenched socks and shoes made sure to drink a liter of fluid before I left and ate an oatmeal bar for slow release before I left. Ivan kindly filled my bottle and I was ready to go. Matty and Paul arrived in I was happy to see the lads in and had expected I would see them later. On exit I was surprised to see Helena still there but a quick transition was required and I walked out drinking as I went. I caught up to Christian who told me he was going to walk for a while and so I headed off on the part of the route I knew. I had run the causeway coast marathon previously and didn’t remember any major challenges. Diane was ahead of me but she seemed to take another wrong turn to get on to the beach. The sun shining, the wind coming in off the sea and the sound of the waves provided the perfect background for what was now the 54km mark. I was comfortable to be in the second half of the race and mentally was trying to treat it as a new race.

Even with the renewed energy in the legs I knew there was still a long way to go and the 60km mark took along time to come. I was surprised on approach to see the 50km lady approaching (Winner of the 50km) she was gliding around the horseshoe shaped cliffs. I asked how long was it until the turnaround, receiving mixed answers in miles and kilometres I left with my head down into what was now becoming a strong wind. On across the Cliff tops I walked the uphill’s and steps as I could feel my legs aching and my body with it. I slowed after 5/6 km to get some Gel Shots into me, I was starting to fade out here on the cliffs alone and was wondering why I still hadn’t seen any runners coming in the opposite direction, another Kilometre they started to arrive and it was a welcome distraction to what was becoming tired legs. I had to be careful not to push too hard as I could feel the energy streaming from me when I upped the pace – it was hard to keep a rhytm with the up and down of the hills on the cliff tops. It wasn’t long before I saw the Giant’s Causeway. Floods of memories of myself and my then pregnant wife came to my mind as I approached the causeway. It was tough avoiding the human traffic with 65km in the legs. All taking photos across this moving bag of bones, as I walked up a hill I heard a child say to his dad, why doesn’t he just jog its not that steep. I remember feeling that I needed to get out of there as I passed other runners how far the turn at the castle was. 5 miles Noooooo!! That was longer than I thought. The mind was wobbling as I looked at my watch and started to wonder if I would make it home before Dark. Then I saw Goeff smyth heading the opposite way after I passed the causeway arch. A quick keep her lit, and at last I could see ultra runners returning to the finish.  At this stage I was welcoming the hills so I could get a breather. This section seemed to go on for a very long time. After another KM a man asked me was I sure I was running the right way, everyone else was running the opposite way. So discouraging 74km into a 100km race J who paid him to say that, April fool is tomorrow !!!

Diane passed me at around the 72km Mark. Even her compliment of trying so hard to catch me back since around the 53km mark were not enough to lift me. I was fading and told Diane that I was looking forward  to sitting down for a minute. She was bouncing and her reponse of being watered out was one I hadn’t heard before. She was full of beans and she stopped after the turnaround to point me out the place I so needed to get to. As I pulled in I was greeted by Duggie. Always a welcoming face on that man. Duggie took great pleasure in telling me I was 6^th. I didn’t believe him been honest, I told him it was impossible – but another lady confirmed his comment. I reloaded and I have to say it but a real bounce back in my step. I was a different runner on exit. I was bobbing along thinking to myself can I really be in 6^th . I didn’t expect it to last long, and anticipated that I would be overtaken several times in the last 25km but thought I could get top 10-15 which would be some achievement from a guy that thought he may come last in his 1^st 100km race. As I went back down the road I passed the competition. I cheered them on as I checked to see if they were feeling as bad as I was. Helena, Christian and then the two lads – Matty and Paul, still chatting !! Two boys who grew up in the same town what could they still be talking about at 75km J There was high 5’S and I was sure Matty a sub 32 minute 10k cross country runner was going to get us soon. It was downhill back into Giants causeway; I had to slow myself down so I would keep enough in the tank to finish the race. I had a good rhythm and now I was just thinking about the climb back up to the cliffs from the Giants Causeway – those steps were coming. I climbed and had already decided on a sit down at the top. When I got there I didn’t need it and walked away drink in mouth and applied the gel shots liberally. I had 4 left and was keeping them for the last 10km.

As I headed back to the 90km mark I met a few ultra runners, I shouted words of encouragement and pitied them and the Journey I knew they had a head of them. I got a big cheer from the volunteers at the 90km mark – thanked them all for volunteering on such a long day and headed off for the last 10km dreading the beach section. It came, I stumbled, it was easier than I thought it would be but hurt none the less. The beach section seemed to go much longer on the way back!! It was tough but I was knew we were only 3 to 4 km to the finish. I climbed again walking up the long road and them out along the cliff tops wondering where was the finish as I passed the edge of Ballintoy. I was listening for music but the chances of me hearing a speaker 2km away is impossible. Then I saw Taryn and Molly and the Dog from the famous 5ish. I was walking up the hill but then knowing I was nearly there, picked up the pace for the last 2km home !! It was awesome I hadn’t been overtaken and I was going to get home before Dark, I ran down into the valley of loud music to be greeted by Ivan and Ian and done it !!!! Completed my 1^st 100km race – and I had my 1^st 2 points for UTMB. The damage I have done I wont know for a few days. But feel I may now have a good chance to achieve my goal, 7 UTMB points in 2012. Well done to the organisers for an absolutely brilliant but tough course and Congratulations to  Geoff Smyth, Allan Bogle, Ivan Saddlier on coming 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd and to the Ladies – Jen Seger, Diane”worse than childbirth” Roy and Helena Dornan and lastly to Paul and Matty for some really good company during the warm-up 40km section and to Taryn for her support out there.

Racing on the other side of the World has presented many logistic issues for myself and Karen but Wendy and Ian have been of great help. Many of the large items on the kit list are being provided by the guys and the race organisers are supplying kayaks. The largest items we will take with us to New Zealand will be our KTM mountain bikes. We’ve had to purchase two bike boxes but these will be an investment for hopefully future races like the Adidas Terrex later this year. We’ve upgraded other items of gear and once again reviewed the food strategy for the race. The mandatory kit requirements are not too extensive but this will be the first Adventure Race where we will have carried a tent and sleeping bags at all times.

The schedule for the race is setting us up for an epic journey around New Zealands south island. Registration, gear check, team photos and other formalities are taken care of on the Saturday. Sunday teams will be transported to an overnight camp 7 hours away. Teams will be self sufficient for this period sleeping in their own tents, cooking their own meals the night before and breakfast that morning. Its sounds pretty remote! The race will then start at 6:30am on Monday morning. The top teams are expected to finish sometime on the Thursday and the course will close on Saturday at 3pm.

Training for the event has been a challenge. The winter months in Ireland arn’t exactly the best time to prepare for an Adventure Race… or maybe they are. We’ve focused alot on the bike and our overall fitness is good. We’ve also managed to do some good work on foot taking advantage of local Night-O events, some trail runs and long treks. Kayaking has been limited to once a week. We’re happy with where we are.

The team list is intimidating including teams like Seagate, Blackheart and Subway. Its one of these races where you can expect to find yourself 12 hours behind after only 24 hours of racing. Sounds crazy I know but these guys are so far ahead of the game. It will be great to see them in action if only for a brief fleeting period at the start of the race. They are phenominal athletes. There will be many races within the race itself. We will have our own race in here somewhere and we look forward to the banter amongst these teams.

One of the great things about the GodZone race is the Live Coverage that will be available during the race. Its so important these days and allows racers to share their experiences with friends and family. The organisers have assembled a strong media team and we expect the quality of the live coverage to be excellent. More details should be available on the race website closer to the race: http://www.godzoneadventure.com/live-coverage/

Check out the promo video:
Orion Health GODZone Adventure 2012 Promo

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 to wear, what food to eat and how much to carry started weeks in advance. The weather forecast in the days leading up to the weekend indicated that we would experience some showers and temperatures wouldn’t be too cold. The mandatory kit for the event was pretty small so we had no problem packing everything into my 22ltr Inov8 and Karens OMM rucksack. If I get the chance I will do a follow up post on exactly what we carried for the weekend. We travelled light and in “comfort”. Its hard to get the balance right but we were pretty happy. Our bags were packed the night before as we had an early wakeup call Saurday morning.

Day 1
We left Dublin at 6:50 and headed for Attical, this years event HQ. Breakfast was eatin en route in the jeep. No penalty points for driving and eating bacon butties at the same time bombing down the M1 We arrived early, registered and said “hello” to a few friendly faces. Our official start time was 9:33. A small trek to the start before we dibbed, collected route cards, marked up our map and were off! Day 1 was made up of 12 controls including 4 controls in a cluster.

CP 1 was straightforward a path track junction up along Pidgeon Rock river.
Cp 2 was located at a quarry. I took a bearing from the wall but we ended up high and left of the quarry. As we dropped down from above we met 4 or 5 teams struggling to locate the control. We had no such problems and were in and out pretty quick.
Cp 3 was a gully along the ridge heading up Slieve Muck. We crossed the road at the car park and I took a bearing right of the gully. Plan was to follow the ridge and pick up the control but we were too far left and missed it. Quick to realise our mistake we headed back along the ridge to pick up the control.
Cp 4 We continued along the ridge and contoured around Slieve Muck crossing the wall before dropping down to cp 4 which was located between 2 streams.
Cp 5 We climbed to the col before crossing the wall and contouring around Carn Mountain. We then headed straight for the stile below Slieve Loughshannagh where cp 5 ws located.
Cp 6 This was the start of the 4 controk cluster. We took a minute to examine our route choices and decided on an anti clockwise loop taking in what trails were available. We were moving fast at this stage and happy with the pace we kept pushing. The recent rain meant the trails were very wet and mucky as we went around Daon and headed for a crag on the south west side of Ben Crom. The climb to the control was steep but it was easy to spot the control.
Cp 7 Up over Ben Crom we headed for the north west corner of the Reservoir were cp 7 was located between two streams at the shore. We picked up water at the gully along the way. Karen almost lost her water bottle over the edge but I managed to catch it. The descent to the shore line was steep and slippy. We took it easy remembering my rollercoaster ride down Spelga last year. The control was easy to get.
Cp 8 As we exited cp7 and climbed toward cp8 I spotted a team fast approaching cp7 at the shore. A little worried I pointed it out to Karen but she reassured me it was an all male pair. Its always hard to tell when they’ve got 3/4 lenghts on It turned out to be Jonathan McCloy and Patrick Higgins who were on the Elite course. Patrick was powering up the hill but “McCloy” as his teammate so affectionatly called him was dieing. After a long tough climb we finally reached the control located at a path on the col between Cove and Slieveamagan.
Cp 9 we headed north contouring around Cove and Slieve Beg before a short climb to the Brandy Pad picking up cp 9 at the gully. The lady at the tent asked us for our team number and course. We were then informed “ye are doing well”. We didn’t inquire any further.
Cp 10 We now faced a long leg to cp 10 which was located in the same place as cp 5. It was all on paths and trails. We kept a good pace the whole way pushing hard back to the stile where cp 10 was located. The trails were extemely mucky and it was energy sapping stuff.
Cp 11 From the stile we blazed our way down passed Ott Mountain toward the road picking up cp 11 at the wall along the way.
Cp 12 Crossing the road we climbed a little before contouring around Slievenamuck. We were a little high but dropped down to pick up the control easily. From there it was a short spint downhill to the finish.

Midcamp @ Spelga Dam

We downloaded for day 1 and to our surprise we were 3rd overall on the B course! Our late start of 9:33 meant not many teams started after us. When all teams on the B course finished we found ourselves in 4th place overall and 2nd mixed behind Ciara Largey and Declan McGrelis who were lying 2nd overall behind Barry Tinnely and Peter who had a great first day. We knew we had a good day but didn’t expect to be so far up the field. Navigation wise it was a great day despite small errors on CP2 and CP3 the rest were clean.

As we expected Declan and Ciara were out of sight but we still had loads to fight for. We were 5mins 30secs up on the 5th place team and 29mins behind 3rd. Maintaining our 4th place standing overall was the priority. After some food and the customary banter we hit the sack for a well deserved nights sleep.

Day 2
It rained alot during the night and we were greated the following morning by a heavy mist on the hills… so we packed up our tent, got the bus back to race HQ and went home NO CHANCE!

We dibbed, collected route cards, marked up our map and were off again. This time however the mist was down, it was raining and we needed to warm up fast. Day 2 was made up of 13 controls with no cluster.

CP 1 was a long trek to the summit of Rocky Mountain. The cp was just west of the summit. I followed the tree line and continued along the fence before hitting the path. Following the path to the end I then took a bearing for Rocky Mountain. The mist was heavy so I was very careful and deliberate with the nav. If the conditions had been clear i’d have taken a more direct route. As we climbed Rocky Mountain we had to make a brief pitstop to remove our waterproof bottoms. We both decided on wearing shorts for day 2 to save some weight in the bag. After an easy enough climb we hit the control.
CP 2 We dropped down off the summit heading south in the direction of the forrest for cp 2. There were loads of teams around at this point, a mixture of the B class and C classes meant it was difficult to determine how we were doing. I did spot 2 Barry and Peter coming out of cp 2 with Ciara and Declan in hot persuit and I reckoned we were about 5 minutes down at this point. Cp 2 on the edge of the forrest was a no brainer with so many teams around.
CP 3 leaving the forrest edge we hit the path and maintaining a steady pace picked off some teams. Just before leaving the path on a bearing for cp 3 we caught Richard Campbell and Mark Hanna who little did we know had finished 3rd place ahead of us on Day 1. The lads taught we were doing the Elite class and got a bit of a hop when we told them we were B’s I reassured them by saying “don’t worry lads you’ve got nearly 30 minutes on us”. We went into cp 3 together in a heavy mist. CP’s 3,4,5 and 6 were all at streams and with hardly any other features to work off good navigation was required.
CP 4 Despite reassuring Richard and Mark they had 30 minutes on us Karen proceeded to hammer her way up between Shanlieve and Eagle Mountain in the direction of cp 4. This was fun! Crossing the wall at the col we took a bearing down to the stream were the control was located on the corner. I aimed off making sure to hit the stream and finding the control was easy.
CP 5 As we exited cp 4 Barry and Peter were just coming in behind us. They had some problems but we were happy to be in such good company I decided to drop down a little and come at cp 5 from below which was located between the source of 2 streams. Too high and we would have missed it. We hit the stream and climbed and the found the control easy.
CP 6 Contouring around and maintaining the height we headed in the direction of cp 6 on the corner of a stream north east of Finlieve. Aiming slightly off we hit the stream and found the control on the corner.
CP 7 We joined the path and contoured around Finlieve before dropping the other side to the path where cp 7 was located. We overshot the path and the alimeter indicated we were too low. We climbed back up to the path and proceeded to the end of it but we found no control. I knew it was the right path even though it extended further than suggested on the map. We met a number of Elite teams who had failed to find the control also. After about 20-30 minutes we decided to abandon the search and move on.
CP 8 We dropped off the path and took a direct line to cp 8 located on a small island between 2 streams. The mist was now gone and it was easy to spot the orienteering flag from distance.
CP 9 We climbed out of cp 8 and joined the Cross Water before reaching cp 9 which was now manned. Both CP 7 and CP 9 had been lifted during the night
Cp 10 contouring around before joining Red Moss River we had a short climb to cp 10.
Cp’s 11,12,13 We were now on the home stretch and it was all downhill. The controls were all straightforward and it was alot more about speed now. We descended Slievebug as fast as we could and joined the Sandy Brae for the sprint home. Dibbing at the finish we were shattered but delighted with our days work.

Result
Conditions were very different to what we experienced on day 1. Navigation took priority over speed. The mist didn’t clear until well into the day and there were hardly any paths. Most of the tricky controls were at stream junctions, stream sources and stream bends (cps 3-6). The tricky navigation leveled the playing field and we were able to keep up with some of the faster teams which was great. The legs were ok after Day 1 but the rough open mountain terrain took its toll on Day 2. We were the 2nd team to finish on day 2 but when the time for the missing CP7 was discounted we finished 5th on the day 19 mins behind Ciara and Declan who were winners of Day 2. We were happy considering we hadn’t seen either of them all day! That meant that we maintained our 4th place standing overall in the B class and we were 2nd mixed team. Ciara and Declan’s amazing day 2 performance meant that they were now the overall winners of the B class ahead of Barry and Peter. Mark and Richard were 3rd. We’d raced hard all day against these guys and the lads even commented at the end that Karen seemed hell bent breaking them on Shanlieve

With Ciara and Declan awarded with first place overall in the B class we were awarded the prize for the mixed category. Well done to Ciara and Declan, Barry and Peter, Mark and Richard. It was great fun out there. Looking forward to next year!

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 over the last few months getting to grips with rollerblading so hopefully it won’t slow us too much. The kit list for the race is coming together at the moment and we’re pestering everyone for the loan of gear. Thanks for the help guys!

At the moment 26 teams have registered and looking at the list there is a good mix of both novice and experienced teams. Its great to have so many taking part so it should be alot of fun. The race format is made up of multiple stages, each one consisting of multiple control points (cp) covering multiple disciplines. All cp’s are optional with the exception of those located at the transitions (ta) between stages. Each cp has a number of points associated with it and the winner is determined by the number of points accumulated during the course of the event. In the event of teams having the same points then time is used as the basis of determining final position.

The race this year will have live gps tracking so you’ll be able to follow us on our journey.

Check out the race webite for more details: http://ars.adventurerace.si/

You can also follow us on Twitter: @getnosleepar I’ll be tweeting in the run up to the race.

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 forgot my cycle jersey but luckily Finbar had a spare Trailbadger.

We only managed one proper training session on the bikes for this race. That was a 48km cycle  out to Blessington the weekend before to check out our new boat for the race. Thanks to Eoin/  Brian we had the Elio. The rudder was banjaxed but we fixed her up and finally got the hang of  navigating it around Blessington lake. Another 48km cycle home after the paddle, our minds  now at ease after getting to grips with the Elio, we were ready for the C2C.

Friday night came quick and we set off in the direction of Sligo at 7:25 to make the Race Briefing  at 10:15pm. We arrived late to be greated by a large crowd at race briefing. Race numbers were  certainly up this year… should make for some good racing Rowan and Ian were in full swing  and with the briefing out of the way, some quick food, we were checking into Iasc Na Mara B&B  (thanks Ivan) for 5 hours sleep.

Up at 6:00am it was onto Enniscrone Beach for the 5km run. At 7:15am the horn sounded and we were off to a run straight into a strong head wind – the first battle with the elements of the day!!! The wind blew but it didn’t stop the race setting off at a pretty fast pace. It was nice to see Marty running with his normal race ethicate – sprint start It wasn’t long before the  crowds started to draft off Finbar and I, well maybe just Enda. Thoughts of how we were going to cycle 107km in this wind was all that was in our minds at this point. The 5km on the beach seemed to go quickly but the 6:00am Fry wasn’t happy where it was sitting. I was happy to get onto the bikes and it wasn’t long before Finbar was in Time Trial mode beating down the road in the direction of Easkey. There was no early morning surfers about as we cycled out the road and into the wind.

Halfway point seemed along way away as we headed to Dromore west. Although we had come off the beach run in good positon we know it wouldn’t be long before the Cyclists would pass by – I kind of hoped we wouldn’t have to many as I knew Finbar would be in pursuit and I wasn’t sure I was ready for the injection of pace. First to join us was Mickey but we settled and began pulling away from him. Next to join us was Enda and a lad from West Cork. They were moving well, using one another for wind cover, swapping wheels, it was a lesson for me as I tucked in behind Finbar. We chatted to one another checking pace and we were going well. Finbar had one eye on the clock and the other firmly planted on Enda (rather than the road) we had them in site for another 10km or so before we were over taken by a big lad on one of those Tri Bikes with a milkshake on the front. He had a big smile for us as we panted into the wind. 30KM in a group of bees assceded on us – well it was 4 cyclists – two to our front and two behind before  eventually taking off ahead of us. Finbar set off in pursuit as I busted a gut to remain in tow to do the same. We seemed to race up and down hills at a pretty fast pace – the race was on and we weren’t letting go!! We peddled hard with this group and before we knew it we were at the half way. Cycling in the group made it go from pain to being there in a flash.

A quick dib at the halfway cp and a bottle swap with Cormac we were off again. Enda left transition at much the same time so smiles alround. He was impressed to see us making up such ground on the bikes. The group got separated at the transition – some just stayed there to put on their windblockers as we raced off in pursuit of the nearest rider. Enda had headed off but we could see him trying to group with another rider. This wasn’t working for him so after about another 20km of riding in the wind and the rain we caught up to him. We rode the last 30km of the day together still moving at a hard pace – faster than our Adventure Raceing pace but I guess we were on roadbikes for a change. Team Get No Sleep were now in motion (without the girl) The rain and cold got worse as we approached the end of the cycle leg. Our hands and feet were getting really cold!!! We turned on to the Kingfisher Cycle trail and cycled over the speedbumps in the direction of the kayak transition.

At the transition we needed a quick change of gear as we were soaked and numb. We pumped the food in as we scrumaged for shoes and bouncy aids. Cormac already had the boat next to the water. My back was crippled and I needed to stretch it before getting into the life Jacket. We sardined ourselves into the boat and wobbled out into the middle of the water. The wind was minimal an we headed off for the first lock gate.

As we hit the  gte, we tucked in and had our first experience of carrying the boat out and over the  gates or “Portage”. Luckily for Enda he had his brother close by and we gave him a hand in the first one. I don’t know how Enda did the 26km in a single in that wind. Fair play lad!!! As we headed toward the gate there was another double kayak in front of us.It was Mark Young and Paul Cole. We’d meet up at each of the lock gates but the lads would pull away slightly in between. They reached the  lough Gardice before us and we followed them out into choppy waters in the middle of the lake. The wind howled across the lake as we continually re-asserted ourselves on the water. Our steering was good and we followed the others out across the lake passing two singles. At this point we noticed a buoy off to our left, we had been warned in the briefing that nav was tricky at this point. We had made a small error but quickly corrected ourselves. The only problem now was the waves were coming to the side of the boat so our momentum was much slower as we took great care not to topple – middle of the lake isn’t really the best place for this. Other racers weren’t as lucky. We heard stories of at least 5 people taking the plunge!!

We hit the halfway point on the paddle with the other pair who had broken their rudder and were struggling to keep control of their boat. Luckily for them the hardest lake was behind them with only 3 small lake to battle with. Cormac was at hand again, bananas, oranges, dibbed and we were off again. This was the last 13km and the longest 13km we have ever kayaked. The lads pulled away kayking out of sight as we started to fade a little – our lack of kayaking over the winter was starting to kick in. At this point I was bursting to use the toilet and being surrounded by water wasn’t helping my mental state!! Eventually after passing multiple ports we hit Ballyconnell to be greeted by some Cavan supporters!!!! Finbars parents!! We hadn’t much time for chit chat. “Mam we’re on the clock, chat to you at the finish” We jumped onto the bikes for a cold cold cycle across the border into Fermanagh reaching the finish of Day 1 at the Share Centre after almost 8 hours racing. We finished in 4^th place overall and we’re 10 minutes down on the second pair of Young and Cole. Pauls brother Peter was well out in front along with Peter Crommie. No one was touching these lads! A quick massage, a trip down the chipper (food of champions) and then off for a much needed shower. That evening we had a huge meal, good craic with fellow competitors and support crew. At the meal positions and start times were handed out. We were 4^th last to leave the following moring. After a lot of tactical conversations the heads were put down.

The following morning we were up at 6:45 with a lot of anxiety on how the body was going to perform. But everyone was in the same situation. After a fry we headed off for a 7:40 takeoff. Our exit strategy was to save ourselves on the bike and try and pull back whatever time Mark and Paul would put into us on the bikes.We were hoping to hold out until the half way point on the bike before anyone caught us, and when they did we were going to hang on to them, I think that plan went out the window after about 2 minutes. We put the boot down and sped off The wind was less but the course seemed to have a lot more hills compared with the previous days racing. Could have been tired legs also. As we passed through Aughnacloy and Caledon we could see the different support crews coming in and out of the laybys. As we approached the halfway point we were moving well, swapped bottles and told Cormac we would not be requiring a refill until we hit Kilbroney Park. It was a sign we were feeling well. Around the 70km mark we caught up with Sean McFarlane, He was in 2^nd position in the individual race. He asked could he jump on and we said no problem as we headed into Armagh. In Armagh came a long  climb – as we started the climb we heard the noise of Peter Crommie, Cole and Antoine upon us. Peter Crommie was in front with Antoine stuck to “his wheel” reminding me as we tried to duck in behind Peter Cole. These guys were moving at a fair pace and we tucked in at the back. I wasn’t able to hold on as we climbed further and further up the hill out of Armagh and so we eventually had to leave the leader group go. It wasn’t worth killing ourselves as we still had the Mountain Run to go.

Soon after, Antoine pulled to the side of the road with a punture. His support crew were on the scene immediatly switching wheels out and he was back up and running. We passed  surprised by what had happened…. support being received outside a an official support point? It wasn’t long before Antoine was passing us again… this time stuck to the wheel of the support van drafting?..or maybe it was just the traffic

At the 80km mark the Mark and Paul were still 3 minutes back, and at this stage they weren’t going to catch us. Ivan was encouraging us along and we knew it wouldn’t be long before the transition. It was a killer hill into Kilbroney, a quick change, food and runners on we set off up the hill stuffing our faces as we went. We didn’t rush the first 1km, settling ourselves for the long run ahead. The beginning of the run was mostly fireroad and it was nice on the odd downhill. 32km wasn’t really on our minds – more that we knew we had a 4.5hr run ahead of us and we were doing good. As we hit the first CP, we met Cormac and Ivan who were able to tell us that we were 10 minutes ahead of the lads. We were movong at a good pace on the hills. It wasn’t long before we were on Sandbank Road and heading up the hen track where we needed more food and a gel to get us on to Spelga Dam. Here we met Cormac for the last time in the route. Finbar had a shoe change – he knew what was ahead, although we had only 16km left 10km of it was pretty horrid to have at this stage of the race. We ran on down the road reminiscing of the Cooley Raid race which passed through the same area. As we got to the end of the road , Rowan pulledup informing us that we had put 25minutes into the lads in 3^rd. This gave us a good lift and we headed into the mouintains in high spirit. We moved at a good pace over the hills until Hares gap, this is an awful climb at this part of the race – but because we were prepared it really didn’t seem that bad. At the top of the Gap the wind was there to greet us and we ran along the brandy pad until we came to the Castles and then it was up over the col to the stile and the end of any climbing.

Downhill from here but what a descent, 4 billion steps as we Irished danced our way down the hill – its hard to concentrate when your tired. Again we had been here previously, but in the opposite direction for the Cooley Raid. This descent went on for a long time, but the legs didn’t mind too much. From there it was the final descent and on to the promendade!!! Reality!!! The run along the promenade is a little surreal after two days hard racing!! We were happy to see the large black arch in the distance. Finbar managed to lift us one more time with a sprint crossing the line to finish in 2^nd place?…. fingers crossed. We had an anxious 16 minutes to wait before we knew for sure. A few wind up merchants playing games but we were happy with our performance no matter what the result! 16 minutes later 2^nd place was confirmed.

All in all 2 great days racing and excellent preparation for our next adventure in Solvenia !!!

Big thanks to Cormac for being a super support crew . Ian and Rowan and Volunteers for a super organised race!! We had a great weekend among friends and look forward to doing it again. Finally well done to all that competed, and to Peter Crommie and Peter Cole on a fine WIN!!!

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 it was really in t  the hands of Chris to get us to the finish line J

Saturday morning the place was buzzing, it was good to see so many friendly faces and good teams out today. We got the maps and route book at 9:00am and were in the kayaks by 9:55. We had put seats into the sit on-tops the night before. The difference was huge and it wasn’t long before we were off Mark and I , Chris and Taryn in the other boat. The argie bargie start had “Bridie Rovers” out in front and then a mix mash of teams between, Army AR, Multi sport Adventure Ireland” and ourselves. The front four teams were hitting the controls in much the same time with the Bridie Rovers edging out in front and gaining ground as we got on. The front four teams took the same route  picking up the Bonus sections as Chris yeld em… encouragement at Mark and I who were paddling our wee buts off to try and stream off the back of them.  We hit the shore position along with the Army and MultiSport Ireland. Beth and Peter came in after us – as we got ready to head off we turned to find Beth McCluskey, falling weak with the cold – she was passing out and Chris and Daniel and Paul were all just piling the clothes on her – as Paul asked us to head off that he would see us on the hills – I remember thinking I doubt it dude she looks bad !!!

Argie Bargies were gone out on to the hills ahead of us, with ourselves and ARMY AR in pursuit, off on to the hills Via Seans house –it was uphill in seconds and we climbed on in the direction of CP3 – This was a hard climb up on to the side of Moanbane. As we climbed up on CP 3 I could see MAI pass underneath us and they were approaching as we pulled away across the side of the hill. As we contured across we could see team Argie Bargie and MAI had went back down off the hill instead pof contouring around. They were moving quicker. As I looked down on them I hit the deck, stepped into a bottomless hole and whacked my jewels off the ground. Luckily Taryn heard the yelp and waited rather than continuing over the hill.  Winded I scurried across the hill where the lads were waiting and watching team MSA pass us on by. We hit CP 4 and they moved off up the hill in the direction of B2. It was now like a game of chase as we went after them as they moved off over the hills in the direction of Billy Byrnes Gap. We had been out the week before and the recce of this area was starting to pay off and we knew where B2 was in terms of Navigation. We moved passed team Argie Bargie sharing painful and friendly banter as we passed through. We hit B2 and then crawled up to B3.. It was a hard hard hike up must have been around Mulaghcleevaun.  As both teams climbed up the hill it seemed like we were catching MSA, but it was just the steepness of the Mountain – we climbed up and over it and were looking forward to some downhill that had to be on the other side –We moved pretty well across to B3 hitting it around a minute or 2 behind MSA. It was a close race and we were moving at full pelt – There wasn’t much time for idle chat as it was a case of myself and Taryn trying to keep up with Chris and Mark who were chasing down MSA.

After hitting B3 we moved across the big bog stacks – we were weaving in and out of the Turf stacks stepping in and out of the bogs as we moved. As we moved out of the stacks we picked up speed and moved very fast down along the Brook in the direction of the forest. We came down to almost the forest but hadn’t realised we had taken the wrong brook down.  From the bearing Chris had took and from looking at some of the features around us we headed for what should have been the second brook – we had to work our way back up the hill and across. As we did we could see people in the distance. We hiked across to hear someone calling out looking for Beth. We were confused but as we drew closer it was peter. They had lost Beth, but we hadn’t seen her and we went in search for the Bend in the Brook. We had to hike back up further up the mountain – Argi Bargie passed us saying they all start to look the same – At this stage Army AR were out in front, Argie Bargie in Persuit, TEAM MSA in persuit of Beth and we were looking for the CP 5. We had lost around 20 minutes – But keen to recoupe the wasted time.  We hit CP 5 and then raced toward TA2 where we transferred onto our mountain bikes

We went from there onto St Kevins way which was a nice bit of single track from there it was onto CP8 where we were provided with 3 Bonus bike loops. We had to mark each loop on our bikes which was a bit frustrating as the gridlines and references were a little unreadable on the copied maps. We eventually marked all Controls  on the map for the 3 bonus loops – we decided to go for as many as possible –and then at 4:30 see where we were in terms of making it back to CP8 before 5:00pm. The rain came down hard as we circled around the Controls – we had passed through Team Argie Bargie into second place and didn’t really know where the Army AR were at that stage. We just need to go all out and pickup what controls we could – we raced hard and decided with two Controls to go to head for CP8. Chris as usual was shouting encouragement as it pelted down rain – as we flew down the fire roads the dirt water mud could all be viewed close up !!! It wasn’t long before we were down into ballyknockan whre the lads managed to shoioirt cut it down to CP8. At CP8 we dropped the bikes into Brians Van and moved off in the direction of the beach for the final 2km beach run. We knew that the Army were only ahead – they were actually 2 minutes minutes ahead – We ran hard to see if we could see them on the beach – a beach was a bit of an understatement. It was pretty hard terrain, avoiding rocks and rock pools. It was hard going after over 7.5 hrs racing. Chris egged us on and we moved in persuit of team AR. Team Army AR Made it ahead of us with only 1:38 seconds ahead.

Another year another  great race course from Sean and Brian , thanks to Brian, Kipper, Sean, Danny, Lee and all the other volunteers that make this race a huge success.  Well done to Team Army AR – look forward to racing ye again. Thanks to Chris, Mark and Trayn, really enjoyed racing with you folks, I had promised Taryn we would be a fun team – but that’s probably the least amount she laughed in any race J

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 of the foot orienteering and finally onto the bikes for MTBo. All the bonuses were on the MBTO section so it was going to be a course suited to the bikers.

We lined up at the start and waited our turn to dip before collecting our maps. The race was packed with strong teams so it was going to be fast and furious from the off. Map in hand we raced down the hill and across the road into the forrest. Teams were closely bunched together for the first control but the soon spread out. Myself and Karen settled into a comfortable pace well up the pack. We found ourselves sitting in third place arriving at the kayak section. Before we hit the water we had our first special task of the day. Each team had to eat half a packet of cream crackers. This was feckin tough and everyone struggled… some more than others. Some teams had special magical powers that could make crackers vanish into thin air? Karen was doing alot better than me and in the end I resorted to regurgitating the final few crackers.

In the kayak and on the water in good position we found ourselves in hot persuite of “5 Minutes to Midnight” (Andreas and Mel) who did amazingly well on the cracker task. The paddle was a straightforward out and back. Not fans of sit on tops we just wanted to get the paddle out of the way. We had a bit of a ding dong battle with Andreas and Mel all the way on the paddle and this resumed when we got back on foot. We pulled ahead but made an error almost missing CP10. We backtracked undoing all our good work but more importantly we got the “mandatory” CP. We had no idea what the penalty would be for missing it but it cost us 10 minutes going back for it. We raced to the bike transition were we completed a short obstacle course before getting to the bikes.

Changing into our SPD’s we were joined by “Bikedock Belle-ettes” and “Mr. & Mrs.”. I think “5 Minutes to Midnight” were already out the road. It was a real close race. With all the bonuses on the MTB section it was going to be difficult to compete with Melanie and Ryan but we’d give it our best shot We followed the “Bikedock Belle-ettes” out of transition passing them once we hit the main road and off in search of CP12, the first bonus control. We were moving well on the bikes and picking off controls with ease. Karen got her first taste of Cavan’s rolling hills but didn’t let them slow her down. We passed “Seans Team” (Sean and Mark) who were in the process of fixing a puncture (the first of 4 they got on the day!). Bonus controls complete we were now back in the forrest for the remainder of the race.

Someone described the forrest as a rabbits warren it was so difficult to navigate around. Everything looked the same. The map board was covered in muck and it was tough going. Alot of attention was paid to every turn we made. It slowed us down but I think everyone had slowed at this point. We picked off the controls fairly fast some requiring a little bit of searching but they were all in their correct place. Another special task. This time it was following a rope through the forrest while blindfolded and identifying objects attached to the rope. There were 10 items. We got 8 so we received a 2 minute penalty. Back on the bikes for the remaining CP’s and we were meeting teams coming from all directions. It was difficult to tell who was ahead of who at this point but it was funny watching teams go in opposite directions. Alot of teams were getting puntures throughout the day and we had been lucky enough to escape up until now Karens back tyre went flat and we lost a few minutes replacing it. As we did team “Mr. & Mrs.” whizzed by. Punture fixed we set off for CP28 which was back at the start of the Kayaking leg. Here we had our final special task of the day to fill a pipe with water and retreive a ball. As we were completing the task team “Hollywood Heroes” (Mick & ROse) were completing the kayaking section. They had missed the first kayak wave but made up considerable time on the bikes. Interresting! We joined them on the bikes and raced off for CP29. They pulled away from us as we left CP30 but we later passed them fixing a punture. Bad luck! Still CP31 was very difficuly navigation wise and a long way away. We wasted some time searching for it distracted by some tape leading us astray but we got it in the end. Now on the home strecth we picked up CP32 and raced hard to the finish. The final climb to the finish was lovely

It was a great race in difficult conditions. The course was excellent with loads of concentration required for the nav. Team “Dogleap” with the 2 Peters were well out ahead at the end with 20 minutes to spare over closest rivals “Passing Wind” (Billy & Gerry) “Mr. & Mrs” finished an excellent third overall and first place mixed. Team “No race for old men (Enda & Sean) following closely in 4th. We finished 7th overall and 2nd mixed team. We were delighted! Fair play to Melanie and Ryan they had a great race and were worthy winners. Thanks for bringing tubeless tyres to our attention, I’ve identified a conversion kit for my DT Swiss Rims! “Hollywood Heroes” finished 3rd mixed and were hot on our heals with less than 2 minutes to spare! Well done lads it was fun racing with ye.

Thanks to Ivan and crew for an excellent race. It was great to see such a large turn out. Joanne, the buns were savage! The only thing we would ask for is a few bonus controls on the run section

Four Rounds of Adventure Racing for teams of 2 which are suitable for novice to experienced competitors alike. Karen, Finbar and Enda will be making an appearance. There are 36 teams registered to take part in Cootehill Co.Cavan.

The format  has competitors starting on foot and will cover appox. 9.3km loop on forest trails this will bring you back to the event centre were they will pickup their bikes up for 38km worth of biking, 9km of this will be a bonus option meaning that you can shorten the bike section/sections to 29km, you’ll find out what the bonus is on the day. Most of the bike route will be on forest trails, some better that others and a little bit on roads some worse than the forest trails, not much single track to be had in the area and even if there was Coillte wouldn’t be so keen on us using it, which brings me to another point Coillte have said that we need to raise the point that the cycling section with-in the forest is under permit and as such you should not cycle in the forest/forests we use outside of the event.
Bike equipment can be left with the bikes but you will have to carry all other equipment with you on other sections.

Due to the good turn out and the bashing the kayaks have taken over the last few events we’ll be spliting you lot when you do the kayak section, the fastest teams will kayak 1st during the run section with the remainder doing the kayak during the bike section.

Also don’t forget about the sercet tasks which could be just about anywhere, another thing or person that could be just about anywhere will be John Shiels fromAction Photography (Deserting the IMRA racers) so remember to keep an eye out for him and make sure he gets your best side. This man takes some of the best pictures of Adventure Racing in Ireland and we’re happy to have him along to this event.

We all piled into the shed and the tea and sausages were a perfect start to the day. Chris Caufield kicked off proceedings tracing his journey from an idea born in a Naas carpark with his drinking buddy Denis all the way to this years Adventure Racing World Championships in Spain. Chris touched all the bases in his presentation and had some very interesting tips on training and diet. I’ve learned a lot from Chris over the last year and he’s a great source of advice. Today he showed me a coat hanger some teams were using as part of a bike tow system at this years ARWC. Simple idea and very effective. Brian followed up Chris with some good advice on equipment and gear. It was nice to see him skip the trivial stuff and cover items like map boards, different types of bike tow and proper footwear.

Sean was busy in the background making out the teams. The teams were announced at 10:55 and the maps handed out. I think there were 6 or 7 teams in total. I was paired with Cormac Power, Roisin Hickey and Caroline Reid. We were the strong team according to Sean so no pressure Finbar. My new teamates assembled we set about marking up the maps. Cormac identified the the cp locations on the map and Roisin marked them up. I took a back seat and chipped in when it came to pinpointing the exact locations. We then set about our route choice. The kayak was a no brainer so we focused on the foot orienteering. 5 cps that we would need to complete in order. The lads choose their route and I was happy. On to the MBTO and the lads had a route pretty quick. They were getting the hang of it. We assembled our bikes and changed into our kayaking gear. Brian gave the race briefing and straight away we were hit with a change to the race. The foot orienteering could now be done in any order. The lads were all over the maps like a rash and had an alternate route within minutes. Cool! My job would be easy

Brian started the race with a blow of his whistle and we were off in the kayaks. It was a pretty short kayak stage and we settled in second or third closely monitoring the leaders. They lead us to all the controls so nav wasn’t an issue. Cormac had the map under control anyways. We came off the water in third or fourth place but I think Andreas’s team had skipped a control. Cormac had to change into bike shoes for the mtb stage but we were through transition pretty fast. On the bikes I got the lads into a train pretty quick and we moved well as a unit. We quickly caught Karen’s team. She had managed to skip the Kayak stage and seemed pretty happy about that Obligatory slagging as we passed bye we headed up the Gap Road. A nice climb but we were moving well. Fair play to Roisin she was happy to take push up the hill from myself or Cormac. It was about sticking together and moving as fast as we could. Into the transition we headed for cp2 at the ride track junction, finding it with relative ease. A short trek across open mountain and we hit the track for the summit of Black Hill for cp1. The lads were making good nav decisions by themselves which was great to see. We hit the summit passing Andreas’s team on the way up. Then off down the track to cp3 at the memorial. Caroline was enjoying the downhill and flew off. Cormac was wearing a pair of road runners and the slippery conditions were slowing him down but not too much. We hit the memorial and then we went for cp5. This was our only real error of the day. Instead of heading back up the track we took a bearing and crossed open mountain down to the stream. After a bit of bush whacking we evently got the stream. Roisin’s legs were taking a battering as she only had 3/4 lenght leggings.Quick to improvise she took her arm warmers from bag and used them on her calfs. Good thinking! Up the stream we hit cp5. We lost some time here and Karen and Andreas’s teams had a good laugh at us as we crossed paths again. Eager to make up the lost time we ran to the forrest and picked up the ride to cp4. We punched and got out of there asap running down the fireroad and back to the TA. We had 1 hour and 30 minutes to complete the rest of the course. I encouraged the lads to look at possibilities for cutting cps if we were stuck for time. They identified cp9 and cp10 as canditates.We could skip cp9 immediatly and go ahead and complete the rest of the course or get cp9 and cut out cp10 if we needed later in the course. The lads decided to go for cp9 and eveluate the situation later. An excellent choice. We zoomed down the hill to cp9 and were well on our way to cp6 (i think, i wasn’t paying much attention,the lads were in control). cps 7,8 and 10 were all got with relative ease. We were on our way home now and still moving well. Coming down into Lacken we were first team on the road. One final push for Roisin and we all raced hard to the finish where Brian was waiting for us. We completed the MBTO with 30 minutes to spare.

I was really happy with the lads. They wern’t afraid to make decisions fast and stick with them. We made a mistake at cp5 but big deal no one was complaining, they just got on with it. The attitude was brilliant! They weren’t afraid to race fast either. My job was easy I really didn’t have a whole pile to do. I may have asked the odd question to get them thinking about certain things but they focused at all times and in race mode for most of it.

Well done Sean and co for an excellent event. Adventure Racing in Ireland is a small community but events like this will give people a taste and hopefully the community will grow. It would be great to see a few more teams next year at the Beast or Cooley Raid.

The stew was lovely