Adventure racing: throw in a mountain marathon, orienteering, biking on & off road, canoeing, swimming, rafting, rock climbing & abseiling, horse riding and whatever else the organisers can think of, and you've got adventure racing. Throw out all thoughts of sleep, rest, hot food, washing or other basic comforts.
This one emerged in Banbridge, Co Down, the brainchild of a former EcoChallenge competitor, Brian Elliott, who decided he'd had enough pain doing Eco's and he'd inflict it on some others instead. Start time 1pm, Monday 29th May.
The first shock was that non-stop really means that - the race starts Monday midday and finishes when you finish, you sleep & eat within race time. Pressure or what? How do you train for exhaustion?
The second shock was training. Weekends away trekking/running, biking, canoeing, horseriding and climbing were all going to be essential. Try to do each one a few times and the weekends add up quickly! There are approximately 20 weekends between January and May. With about 6 disciplines to master, do each 3 times and you've no weekends left. The compromises had to start early. Of course, that's all on top of trying to keep up running training during the week, plus swimming lessons and a course of horseriding lessons too. Suffice to say, adventure racing takes over your life very easily.
We got stuck in with enthusiasm (initially anyhow). Two teams of us entered together, confusingly called Bun os Cion (Justin Keatinge, Cormac MacDonnchadha, Gerry Lalor, Nina Phillips) and Cion os Bun (Eoin Keith, Pat Kidney, Paul Gordon and last minute recruit Marcella Dunne). Training took us all over the country - seemed like we cycled, ran or paddled every inch of Wicklow, we canoed & capsized in Clare & Kerry, horse-trekked in Clare. Personally I never want to see a horse again. It's all very well teaching me to let the horse know I'm in control, but "Smurf" knew I wasn't and I never wanted to be a racing jockey.
The other ever-underestimated issue is logistics - nightmare! Even just the food - trying to work out how much energy food you need to feed 4 people, supposedly every 30 minutes, for up to 5 days, 24 hours a day, and it starts overflowing the trolley. And then you have to carry most of it around with you!
But finally the start: full car of gear each to get up there, then race tops issued, nerves set in, skills testing, medical checks, maps & rules issued, and the off!
Briefly: Day 1 - 6 hours biking arriving in Tollymore, 10 hours trekking in the foothills of the Mournes and along the coast (some swimming stuff cancelled due to the abnormally wintry weather). Sleep 2 hours propped against a stone wall in a field in a survival bag. We lost our first casualty early, one of several to suffer from the extreme weather. 3 pushed on.
Day 2 - A 14 hour day trekking, climbing and abseiling in the Mournes, starting with Donard for dawn, later 4 hours biking in the dark up to Castlewellan.
Day 3 - Horse trek at 2 a.m. for 2 hours, 2 hours sleep in the stables, biking back to the Mournes, several hours dragging/carrying the bikes and gear over felled trees, mountain tops and peat hags, more biking down to Rostrevor. Raft across the estuary and straight up Black Mountain in the Cooleys, arriving there about 8 p.m. Here, loss of route sent us backtracking to the top, exhaustion, cold and wet set in and after much debate we unfortunately retired, one of more than half the teams that didn't make the full course.
Those that went on had another few hours on the bike up to Portadown, many hours canoeing in horrendous conditions on Lough Neagh, archery, more biking/trekking and finally back to Banbridge. The winners came home in 3 days, most in nearly 5.
It was heartbreaking back at camp - everyone woken up in the middle of the night to cheer finishing teams in, huge respect for them tinged with regret that we didn't make it. The race may have been over but the mental & emotional efforts took a long time to fade. It's still confusing now, and it's over two months ago - Could we have made it? Was it worth the effort? Did I enjoy it? Will I go back for more? I just don't know. Well, probably.
Check out this year's race (or enter for next year!) at http://users.tibus.com/brian.elliott/ on the web or at www.9feet.com
Nina Phillips
(23 teams started, Team Parrot won in 86 hours 56 minutes with only 5 hours sleep. Snow and thunderstorms in the Mournes the first night were among the hazards encountered by the competitors).