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

We spent 1:50 minutes running a lot of this section, and we needed to get out into the mountains as it was going to be a long long dark night. We eventually headed out into the mountains at 11:10 that night, an hour behind MA team, who we were now narrowly still ahead of aswell as been ahead of AJ, RNR and NN. The exit out on to CP 19 was fun. The gate on the fence was a bit if fun and then it was up into the dark and windy Mourne mountains.  It was a long climb up to CP 20, we were quite close to the moon according to Karen , we hit a mist and visibility was pretty poor. We searched for the path going backwards and forwards and after a while we manage to find it –  we then headed toward the Mourne Wall, and followed it along in the howling wind. Along the wall was no mean feet, as many times we were wading through pretty boggy soft ground, up to our liathroidi in places. The Bulls balls were wet, so we mounted the wall. We ran along the wall fro nearly a km with the wind trying its best to blow us off – it was really an adventure, wall, wind in the dark avoiding the loose pieces of wall on the downhill, but we were certainly moving faster. C21, CP 22 were hit pretty easily. We came onto the Controls with little searching, things were going well on the nav and the team was feeling pretty good at this stage. We moved along swiftly to CP23. We came up CP 23. We travelled up the right side of the river, Enda recognised where it should be on the map. It had been part of the mourne way marathon. We got to the Style but no control, called Ian to clarify, it was on the other side of the river, the left side.

From there it was on to the rope section, as we approached we could see lights like stars way up in the sky, we had no idea how wewere going to get up so high !! As we go closer and closer we could see some glow sticks to direct us where we were going. Two teams were ahead of us at this stage, team AM 1HR 40 we had put 10 minutes back into them over that part of the mountain. Team AJ had put an hour into us on the mountain. The local Knowledge was paying off . We had no idea where the two teams behind us where, as there wasn’t a light in site. We met our man on the mountain, the lad from Terrex, (Tony ?) he put us off the clock and explained what we were about to do – This was a great section of the race, a rock climb up through a set of caves and then an Abseil down off the mountain. We were met going up the cave by happy steve, poor lad must have been freezing. The lads fired ahead I stayed behind Karen to provide a bony landing if she fell. It was slippy in parts but a good scramble, I don’t know how we all fitted through the hole on the top, but after a few minutes we all made it there safely. We were met at the abseil by Greg, (safe man, a man whos abseil you can trust), it was cool gliding down the cliff face in thee dark and it wasn’t long before we all had descended safely.  Time was pushing on now into the tired hour of the morning and one of the hardest parts lay ahead.

We headed back down to our bags where we were back on the clock, we kitted up and headed back across the mountain, as we were up high it seemed the right thing to do to keep the height. The wind howled and the mist settled and visability was very hard in places. We made a decision to go up over the Cove,  the paths that were on the map were becoming difficult to find and in looking for them we grew slightly disorientated. We then followed a path in the wrong direction before discovering that we were heading in the wrong direction. We took a bearing and headed slowly in what was the correct direction, we came across a difficult part of ground sop movement was very slow. There wasn’t too many paths and so there was a certain air of uncertainty about our direction. We kept In search of paths and covered a lot of rough sometimes paths with steep drops off the side. We were sometimes hesitant and as a result of moving slow over difficult ground, poor weather conditions and double checking rather than making errors we moved very slowly.

Several bearings were taken and we made careful progress back to where we needed to be. After around 2 hours we were back on our way in the direction of heirs gap. We had got safely down off the mountain but there was to be no dash this time to make the cutoff. We all knew how far we had to go to make it back, and we were starting to fade. We had roughly 4 km to make back to surf and dirt once we got off the mountains. The team was starting to slow, as tiredness crept in I suggested a 20 min power nap at surf n dirt. Nav man was becoming zombie man and within 2 km he was walking with his eyes closed been lead along by wonder woman. They kept it going finbar mumbling and stomping and then silence. It was cold, dark we a cutoff penalty was looming, the race was changing and the lead slipping away. We needed to take 30 minutes out and we did, finbar cuddled a box of pringles and we let him off to sleep as we got hot water, food and got changed, it was savagely cold but at least the brightness was coming. It was back on the bikes moving much slower than we had before. John Sheils was a welcome site along with the odd tow to get us ypo over some long hills. As nav man battled with his map you could tell he was a tired tired boy, but he soldiered on.

With tired bodies we decided to hit PC 31 and PC 32 only, the drive was wilting and we needed to hit the kayaks soon. As we got there the mountains looked bigger on the other side. Frustration was creeping in as the bull wrestled with his spray deck. Not sure if John Shields will be publishing that pic on his facebook. As we moved across we estimate it would take 3 times that time to get back. On the oither side the mountains were high, it would have takin longer to complete the 4 controls than the 4 hour penalty we were to receive for not getting them. So we decided to make a break for it. We kayaked back better than expected, getting across in 40 minutes, there was still some new found energy lurking, but not enough to get us to hike over those hills. We were in good spirits as we climbed out of the kayaks  and onto the bikes for the final CP 39 on the way home. We were going to get home around 1:30, again we moved good on the bikes with our last burst of energy home. Kilkeel came quick. Normally the last leg of the journey goes on and on – but we had raced well.

Rock an Rollers were already home ahead of us, as we zoomed in John Shiels was at hand to welcome us home along with Joan and a few other well wishers. We crossed the finished line smiling, dropped the bikes helmuts and had a team hug !!!!! It had been a brilliant race, we had raced well together and were happy with the output. It was a great experience and we certainly had put it up to the other teams in the race, the training and Terrex had stood to us and we really are looking forward to our next race as once again we have things to learn that we will use again.

Hats off to Barry, Paul, Peter and Taryn.. great race lads and we look forward to racing ye again, well done to Paul, Brian and Peter and a Huge well done to Betty in her first race !!! Awesome!! Made hard work of it lads…. Well done to Rock and Rollers, last time ye will think I was admiring your shorts when I was talking about the Cut-offs being tight J. And to the Teenage Mutent Ninja turtles !!!! thanks for smiling the whole way round ye did what ye set out to do. Have Fun !!!!!

Thanks again to Ivan, Joan, Duggie, Shirley Steve and sorry there are others – write your name on my head the next time.  And of course  Super Photos from John Shiels, great great memories !!!!

More again soon

We met in kilkeel around 6:15, but eh no maps, route books etc.. so we went for the last supper in a nearby hotel. Yes we took along the lonely urchin Caroline for company as her team were lost. Yes even before the Nav got under way the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle had directed his team to Derry or somewhere where in search of mountains of pizza as race food.

Then it was back to the bowling center were progress had been made by Ivan, Joan and co and the route books and maps were available. There was the usual banter, only 5 teams I will refer to them only by abbreviation for the rest of the blog. So Team No Name (NN), Rock and Rollers (RNR), Multisport Adventures (MA) and Average Joes (AJ).

We broke up the tasks marking the routes on the maps, planning out our race, looking at the bonus points and checking the route book for cutoffs !!!!  We were racing from there on really J We agreed with Ivan that he would pick us up at the hostel, and so it was off around 11:00pm for a nights sleep. When we reached the hostel em there was no one there… but someone found a side door, so we all slipped in and found a room to get the heads down for 5hrs. The following morning, Ivans crew couldn’t find the hostel and so a 6:00am pick up turned into 7:30am – another hour and a half in bed would have been great.  As we travelled north you could hear the wind howling, the sea looked pretty rough and it was going to be a very interesting kayak, especially since it was 24km long. We had made the decision not to hit the first bonus point as it would be rough going and the second bonus point looked as it would be more sheltered and would enable us to move quicker. We would also now how much time we would need to make it back to the cut-offs at that point. We had estimated around 1:30 minutes, so we knew what time we would need to leave the bonus orienteering point at. That was the strategy and at 9:06:31 we were in the Kayaks and heading out into what was looking like  avery rough sea in the distance. Enda and I were first off , there is always the crash bash sprint off in the kayaks, it wasn’t long before the 4 of us were together making good progress across the water. Half of AJ and MA were a little ahead of us, and were called to stop by the race officials to wait on the other half of their teams. For safety reason its better to paddle in 4’s. This was our first time to go into the lead, which was a real boost as we have put time into paddling over the last 6 months in preparation for Terrex. Well with the exception of poor aul Enda, 2 kayaks in 1 year, and here he was on a tough 24km rough sea paddle. (He did awesome)

As we pulled away from the other 2 teams we checked to see where they were off to now and again, over across the water it was clear they were headed for the 1^st bonus, The maximum gain was 30 minutes there, we estimated 45 min gain at the orienteering as the better option, we put the heads down and went for PC1. As we pulled in we were met by Greg who asked where the other teams were, I had remarked that we were heading for the orienteering as the other 2 teams had gone for the bonus, he also felt we had taken the sensible option. On we went down another 6km to PC2 the wind was howling as we went, bobbing the boat up and down making the time pass quickly. And then a further 5 km to PC3. We were moving well and we had allowed ourselves 45 minutes only to clear this section, we tried to move away from the kayaks as quick as possible, nearly killing poor aul Karen as I wrestled her to the ground to pull off her Bouncy Aid. There wasn’t much time for laughing as picked up the map, marked it, and stuck bars in our pockets. Finbar took the Nav , I called the time, we all ran like crazy up the hill J up the hill we were moving like we were at the start of an IMRA race. Eventually we copped ourselves on and slowed on the uphills – Finbar navigated us very well through this section, we ran a lot of it and made the decision on the way round that we would that we would not be doing the 2^nd bonus section (CP2) in the kayak. The wind was too hard, we weren’t moving as fast as I thought we would be and we knew it was a long kayak back. We hit 45 minutes on the button and were back in the direction of the kayaks, we had hit all the controls and were off out in the sea when we could see AJ and MA return to their boats, we had put some time into them and I wasn’t confident if they would make the cut off as we were out a bit on the sea as they were approaching their boats. RnR had also arrived on the shore and the 3 teams headed out together. As we kayaked on we turned around to see no teams behind us.  I was half expecting to see them come out from “Launches log” but still no sign. There was no teams behind, we assumed team no name had skipped the orienteering. It was a blunder on the other teams part and we knew once we made the cuttoff we would be the leaders. We paddled really really hard into the wind. The marshals in the rib, advised us to tuck into the coast, but there was no sheltering from the wind. The Boats were rising all the time and the wind was blasting stronger and stronger as we headed into an 8km head wind. While Enda could tow us all collectively up a hill on his mountain bike, he was starting to fade, but fair play to him through harsh conditions he ploughed on. He attempted conversation but it was culled by the roar if “just paddle”. (Poor man) As we rounded the head we had 10 minutes to make the cutoff and we calculated it to be 1 km in. The heads were down and everyone paddled as hard as, we saw John Shields in the way in, he told us we were 2 minutes from the CP, We paddled harder as it was 4 min, at last we saw Greg on the shoreline, we were racing hard so hard that Finbar almost harpooned Greg with his paddle as he launched it away from the boat as he released his spray deck. Greg was roaring calm down ye have made it !!!  We were relieved to have made it to TA1 2 minutes under the cutoff, we wanted to know what the penalty was to have not made it. Ivan asked us to move on across the next orienteering section and we would know on the way back. This gave us a real boost. We haven’t been in the lead before ….

Again another cutoff we had to have done the orienteering be out of this transition by 2:30 and had a cutoff to make TA2 for 4:30.Things were going to be very tight. I had looked forward and you could see Cut offs and transition exits were going to be carefully planned until the mountains at 8:00pm, mountain time. As we came back into transition we learned that the other 3 teams had received a 2 hour penalty, it was nice to be referred to as the Race Leaders J…. So our hard work had payed off but we knew the race was far from over yet. In the back of our minds was the Nite Mountain section, and I know that Brian and Paul would have been pretty confident that they would claw us back in. It was smiles all round between the teams, I think although teams had got a penalty they didn’t begrudge us the lead in the slightest – it was quick again through the transition and back on the bikes. Again we had to judge the time, we made the decision to hit CP3 see how well we were moviong on the bikes, again into the wind, and decide on CP4 or CP6. CP6 was the result if we were going to make TA2, Coasteering section. We peddled as hard as we had paddled. Switching formation so as to rotate the wind bashing. As we moved from CP3 to CP6 we could again feel that we were under the cosh to make the cutoff.. We nearly over shot the runway as we missed a left turn on the way down the road. Luckily we noticed and headed back and searched along the sea front for the TA2. The location and the map location still look different as I write the report, Our team and AJ were pretty much neck in neck looking for the control, barry and I exchanged our frustration as it was clear to everyone the map was a little off . We eventually spotted a boy in the sea and raced to TA2 again making it within seconds, Here there was a few confrontational words from team AJ, the cutoffs were taking their tole a little perhaps, another 2 hour penalty would not have been welcomed,  but Ivan was taking it in his stride and happy that there was a real race on between the top teams.   Around 20 minutes later team MA came in. Live by the sword die by the sword, were the words mumbled by Paul as he knew another 2 hour penalty was coming his way. We were off the clock at that stage and all preparing for a plunge in a deep freeze.

Yes the sea, with winds howling, and clothes been blown in all directions we attempted to put on wet suits. I had been looking forward to the coasteering , shame hope we do that again. The swim, or the sea frolick was an out around a buoy swim. It wasn’t too far 100 meters or so, but man we made hard work of it. Enda did well, my arms were aching from the kayak , the Bull (finbar) did his slapping of the water, Karen just shrieked her way in and it just got colder and colder. I can safely say that I made every sound known to man in order not to feel the cold, I reckon the lads in the kayaks thought I was drowning but then got distracted by Paul Mahons impression of C-3P0 drowning. This was complimented by Mitch “Brian” Buchanan posing among the ice mermaids !!! Crazy boys!! The swimming was a good laugh and a welcome break from the hard racing that had been done up to that. Once on shore we were back on the clock, wet suits were disgarded as team No Name smiled there way into the water – fair play !!!! Again we were under pressure to make a cuttoff next up was CP7 was hit CP8 had been dropped so we raced on to CP 9, CP 10, and CP 11. We stopped at the junction of CP12 and decided not to go fot it an raced to the Archery section. We cycled through team AJ on the way to archery, Peter had got a puncture and it was slowing them down slighty. We hit the Archery section together, off the clock but we were anxious to get through it to make the next cutoff at T3.  Again conscious of time we didn’t waste much time here, tried to poisin the other teams by offering them week old dohnuts and try not to shoot them accidently with arrows. MA had decided not to do a practise round – and were to pay the price later – we needed all the practise we could get but did awesome under the circumstances. Both Karen and I managed to hit a bullseye – we scored 128, previous team had scored 78, but we didn’t think much of it in the overall scheme of things.

With Sean and Finbar stuck into maps – Karen and I made sandwiches – Karen had half a salad bar and yes denied me a slice of Ham, I just had brown bread and cheese, famine food to last me the 36 hrs ahead. The map marking went slower than expected, Karen and I double checked the handy work, lamination and away we went to get some sleep. 4:00AM the alarms bell rang, kit boxes were collected and porridge was eaten. On to the bus and back to sleep as we had an hours drive to the Rock of Cashel – the race start. We were freezing, but it wasn’t long before we would be warm again. We started a 5km run, we tucked in behind the two lead teams, and I would say after 1km I could sense that Finbar wasn’t moving too well. His knee was already causing him a little discomfort but we still were at the Kayaks and wooshed onto the water in 3rd place. We went for the Malibu kayaks as we taught they would move faster. They did but were a killer on the person in front. Both Sean and Karen suffered in the front. Sean with his back and lungs and Karen with her boney bits. It was also Finbars first time reading a river and all things considered we moved well. I never saw so many people happy to get out of a kayak and climb up steep mounds of earth before. CP3 was just that a mound on the top of a quarry. The first kayak section seemed to go on forever even though it was with the current. I still taught it was a lot better than last years against the current and in flooded waters fiasco. It was good training and there was alot of branches and manoeuvring to be done on a moving river.

We eventually hit the town of Cahir and it was into Cahir Castle for CP4. Lovely castle but no time to look at the cannon balls stuck in the walls today. We were in and out and back on what was fairly shallow water in no time. The shallow water presented Sean with lots of opportunity to drag me along on the Kayak, this was his favourite section J We eventually got to T1 after 3.5hrs of kayaking to join what I can only describe as a nude fest. There was bits of flesh being directed everywhere, let’s just say Adventure Racers wouldn’t be exactly modest. It’s all about getting through transition as fast as possible. With the exception of Duggan who managed to worm her way into the back of a van, there was clothes and food being chucked everywhere. Alot of rummaging to get what we needed until at least 10:00pm that night, hail rain or shine. So with our climbing gear, supplies and some of us with Sandwich in mouth we were on our way. We moved well out of the transition given the amount we had to get done and we were happy to be on the bikes.

We headed off in the direction of CP5 and then off Road in the Direction of CP6. The trail started well but it wasn’t long before we joined a cluster of Teams up a long ride of Scree, a place not for a brand new pair of Bike shoes. I cursed my way up it as I climbed like a drunken old lady in high heels. Once we were off it there was some really rocky terrain. This slowed me down some what as the virgin SPD’s were driving me nuts. We were all actually on foot in parts. What looked like forest trails on map was very rocky unrideable surface. I took several slow motion tumbles getting more and more frustrating as time went on. Luckily I had understanding teammates, or perhaps I just provided them with light entertainment.

With sharp rocks after more hike a bike we eventually battled our way to CP7. What seemed like an eternity we eventually hit the road and sped off in the direction of CP8. Here we were greeted by a couple of horses and a team member from Ivan’s team, who was minding the bikes. It was here that I was volunteered to mind the bikes. I had done enough running in my high heels for one day. We were back from at the Bikes at 1:43. We had missed the cutoff for the Bonuses, which given the state of Finbar’s knee we had opted out of the 10km run. We opted instead to get to the Galtys and see how knee would hold up on the mountains. He was great on the Bike and Kayak but was struggling on foot.

We hit T2 in good spirits and moved pretty quickly off our bikes in the direction of the hills. I had warned the Team that this was going to be a hard hike; I had done it as an IMRA race the year before. The route is slightly different but still Galty beag and Galtee Mor were going to be a challenge. Passing CP9 Finbar to his credit powered up the mountain. Climbing had little impact on the knee. We wandered up taking necessary breathers as we went. Galty Beag was a hard hard climb and we were pretty happy to hit the top as the clouds came in. Across to Galty Mor to be greeted by two marshals who were dressed up for the Artic. It was LAMM like conditions the guys remarked. It was howling and visibility was pretty bad. We had to keep shouting at one another to make sure the team kept together as it was easy to stray to far ahead or behind. Finbar wasn’t bad on descent but contouring was causing him difficulties and as we contoured off Galty Mor he was at limping point. His knee was wobbling badly at times. The descent off Galty Mor was not going well and Karen had to come to his resuce and act as a human crutch the whole way down off the mountain in the direction of the Abseil. Thinking back, we knew we just had to get him off the mountain and we
would be fine. There was no panic we just got on with it. It’s a sign that we were starting to gel very well together as a team. It was a good moment in the race rather than a bad one and there was a lot of good banter as we approached the ABSEIL. It took us a while to spot the Red Tape that Lazer eyes spotted in the distance… flashbacks of when she gets lost at IMRA races I suppose. We were greeted by a smiling Greg and had made the Cut Off with 25 min to spare. We were soon joined by Eoin, Brian, Avri and Chris. Yes lads we are in the lead !!!! It was good to be ahead J Well we hadn’t done the Bonuses.. but it was a good windup all the same. The lads were full of advise for Finbar. But against all the advice, yes with Terrex 4 day event at the end of the month on we went. The abseil was a slippery manoeuvre… I think it was more Tarzan than abseil, but we all got down safely and headed off for the orienteering section, CP12. There was a bit of confusion here about the collection boxes. Some taught they would be there, but we found our Orienteering instructions at the bridge and headed into the forest. Finbar was still hopping along a little but we got what we needed… At transition we picked up the instructions for the second orienteering section and it was back to our happy place the bikes.

On stopping at CP14 we had a discussion about Bonus 3 and Bonus 4. We reckoned given the time for each Bonus we felt it might be worth a shot. I am not sure what it was about the biking but it brought the team back to full strength and we seemed ready to attack again. We didn’t really have an idea of where we were in the field. Alot would depend on who would do the next set of bonuses but it was only around 8:00pm and there was another good 16hrs to race yet. We had Eoins team ahead, Westies team behind and we weren’t sure where the Army or Taryn’s team were at that stage. We were guessing if we pushed it would keep us in 5th place. We cycled up to CP15 and were greeted by Padraic who had a car boot full of Monster. A can was demolished and we left him in search of Bonus 3. As we went speeding down the trail you could see the mountains rise up in the distance. We all knew in our heads a hike a bike was ahead and for some reason we didn’t really question how we were going to get the bikes up and over from B3 to B4. With a switching around of bikes, I gave Finbar the lighter bike and I took his gate!!!! It was all about saving the knee. It was encouraging to see the lead team ahead. You could see them at the top of the mountain going back and forward. They had been swapping out the bikes, relaying the heavier ones between them. We climbed and climbed. Again we stopped when we needed to and moved and moved. Fair play to Karen she got that bike up a 629ft climb. Only 8 people managed it that day, and the gamble had paid off, as there was a great spin off the other side to B4. We hit b4 as the night began to drop hard so it was lights on and off to CP16 with a spring in our step. We knew it was going to have been worth it as we rode into the night.

CP17 and CP18 were again by road and it was on to the start of the Biking Orienteering in the dark. This was mostly off road, it was slow but Sean navigated well. As we were making our way to CP19 we met Taryn TOG’s. They didn’t appear too happy. They had not done Galty Mor so as not to miss the Abseil but missed it in the process. This had knocked them out of second spot to a position they weren’t sure of. Taryn uttered that they had messed up, but were going on. This potentially could have moved us up to fourth. But it would depend on who did what bonuses. Its one of the great things about these races. You just can’t predict how you are doing, and you just pick up snippets along the way and you are left guessing continuously. We had written instructions on how to clear CP19. Sean again did really well getting us to a field where there was a maximum amount of cows parked in one spot in the DARK – All we saw was eyes and then Karen went one way the cows the other both screaming in there own particular way. We raced down through the fields as Karen imagined she was being chased by a heard of angry Dogs.

We now had a new goal which was the cutoff at the shooting at 3:00am. We didn’t do Bonus 5 – I think we were under pressure for time I am not really sure – But in hind site it was probably the right decision. We met Taryn and TOG’s again looking for CP 20. As we cycled up onto the Ballyhoura way, we started to meet other teams, which were accompanied by a large mist. It fell rather suddenly. We followed along the Ballyhoura way, and in getting caught up in idle gossip and mist , missed the turn down to the Clay Shooting. We could hear the shooting but just couldn’t find our way. At this stage Finbar stepped in and assisted Sean in retracing our steps and we eventually made our way to the shoot at 3:01. It turned out that there was no cutoff. Disappointing as we could have taken in Bonus 5.

We were off the clock and the refuelling or sleeping with a red burka on began. We all managed 10 minutes I reckon and it wasn’t long before we were fully loaded. Finbar shot well for a first timer. I think he got 6 out of 8, the rest of us 3 out of 8, maybe Sean had 4. We shot 10 shots and away we went. We must have been off the clock for an hour. So glow sticks and the Ghost trail were cancelled and it was off in search of the Ballyhoura MTB trails. I think as we headed toward the trail you could feel people starting to fade; it’s a hard part of the night. You sit down and it’s hard to get going again. We hit the Ballyhoura trails as dawn was breaking. It was an awesome sight. As the brightness rose we were shooting Arrows. We scored the best score of the day and we had made the decision to do the trails. That was basically Bonus 6 and Bonus 7. The trails were much harder going without a fresh head on your shoulders. We did the plodding equivalent on the bikes through the trails, some went fast but the uphills were a drag for some of us. We eventually got to Bonus6 and down to Bonus 7 and then went in search for Bonus P8. We circled a little to find this bonus point. Having given up we found it on our exit route on our way back to Doneraile!! Hurrah!!

We hit Doneraille around 8:30am and were handed the Orienteering map for section 3. A decision was made without too much discussion that we would not be doing it and so we headed on the final leg the last kayak session. At this stage you knew you were on the way home so there really isn’t too much more can bother you. You would think. The Kayak section was hilarious. It was a bloody assault course, hike a kayak, post a kayak whatever you want to call it. The first two hours were a good laugh. You are laughing at the madness but then as the coldness and the previous 30hrs racing seep in you just want to get finished. The front paddlers were starting to suffer alot. The Sit-on-tops just aren’t built for 4hrs paddling. This lead to what should have been a moment of delight becoming “I can’t wait to get out of this bloody kayak”. Which was topped off by dragging it up a bloody hill at the finish!! Greg you almost broke poor Sean’s back. All the same we hit the finish line with a huge smile and a warm sense of satisfaction…. we had no idea how we did, top 5 was the guess and the rest would work itself out as the day went on.

We caught 2 hrs sleep, a long shower and reconvened to the Spinning Wheel Pub to check for flies and then to Dinos cafe for food. At Dino’s we ate for all of Africa and the race was analysed from start to finish. The guessing continued, the maths continued and of course the beer. So it came to 10 o clock and the winners were announced. We reckoned it was Irish-AR 1ST, Army 2nd, and we honestly hadn’t a clue about the rest. No one else did either. So they strangely announced 1st Place Irish-AR, 2nd Place Army and then “Get No Sleep”. There was a huge cheer, or maybe that was us. But we got 3rd and all the support we got was very encouraging from Eoin, Brian, Chris, Avril, Catherine, Caroline, Ivan and other friends of ours that had all raced very hard that day…

Well done to Irish AR, the Army team and everyone else that finished!! A huge thanks to Padraig, Greg, Fiona, Macrus and Gregs support Crew. It was an outstanding course, the results and splits were very well done and we appreciate the hard work that went into it all. Well done and roll on the Beast 2011. We will be back!