The raid part 1

24 Hour Adventure Race, Sperrin Mountains, Co.Tyrone, October 29and 30th

So last weekend I headed up north and completed a 24hour nonstop adventure race, as part of a team, it was, in many ways the culmination of a decade’s worth of trapezing up and across mountains, kayaking down rivers and biking through forest and over dale.

I headed up to Dublin on the Thursday and stayed with my fantastic hosts, Cormac and Susie, a husband and wife pairing that I had bumped into them at the start line of the Mountain Bike Single Speed World Champs, last august in Co Limerick……dancing! 

On that day, we were all in fancy dress and despite the fact that the 500 strong crowd (400 from abroad!) were in festive mood and there for fun and frolics on show all around, there was something about this couple that for me set them apart from the crowd. After the ‘race’ (I had a drop of whiskey and 2 pints before the start!) we hung out and drank a few beers (ok, a lot of beer) and a few weeks later I got an email form Cormac asking me to join him as part of a team for the upcoming 24 hour adventure race, that was previously known as the Cooley Raid. I was delighted to get the invite but I had reservations to be honest. 

In 2003, I had tried this type of race and it was a disaster. The weather was horrific and my partner was not much of a team player so I parked the idea of real Adventure racing for the bones of a decade, and rightly so as I had ‘things’ to learn. In the intervening years I have become a much better, kayaker( 2 alpine white water trips and 4 liffey descents), I have raced my road bike around the country and put in 4 seasons as a competitive Mountain biker, I also have much better stamina from a running point of view, doing multiple long mountain training runs and races. I have also got married and marriage is the ultimate test of team. Lastly and perhaps most importantly I have had 4 babies to care for with my wife in that time. 

This sleepness haze that lasted for 6 or 7 years has without doubt hardened my mind so that I can physically overcome tiredness in order to complete a given task, be it change a nappy at 4 am or follow a compass bearing across a bog in the dark with my bike on my back! So with this notion that I had toughened up, I finally committed to do the race and would be on a team of 4, 3 male, 1female (the classic Adventure race format), with; Cormac from North Mayo, Robbie from Kilkenny and Hilary from Carlow, none of whom I really knew, having only met Cormac and Robbie for an evening and never actually meeting Hilary. This might be a worry to some people but it only served to excite and intrigue me as to what might happen between all of us in the depths of the Sperrin Mountains in the middle of the night!

The website for the race is limited. This I have decided in very much on purpose. True Adventure racing in Ireland is a tiny niche underworld community that for the individual not in the know is very difficult to discover and if you do hear of it the descriptions that follow usually deter most normal people from any further exploration.

In fact, I would say that finding your way onto a team for the first time is more difficult than the 24 hours of navigation you will encounter on the rivers, lakes, forests, mountains and roads in the actual race itself. 

Remember I stumbled into this race by accident, falling down the rabbit hole as it were.

We are now at a stage in this country where almost every county has a so called adventure race, the Gaelforces, the War’s, the southcoast adventures all ‘roaring’ along from sea to summit. These races attract big numbers up to 2500 people flying along the roads on bikes, up and down local trails by foot and the compulsory few hundred metres of kayaking, before the winner reaches the finish in around 3 hours and the beginner taking up to 6 hours to complete the challenge. In short they are the slightly alternative versions of Triathlon and like that sport they have seen incredible growth in the last 5 years. This is fantastic in my view. It makes for a more diverse and interesting sporting community in Ireland and a healthier one as well.

These races are however not really adventure. They should be called multisport or alternative triathlon or something similar. There is no real requirement to be self sufficient. There is no Navigation neccesary, you follow arrows or markings and or Marshalls like in a triathlon, they are on in daylight, they stick to roads and defined trails in the hills, they are short enough to insure that you will usually reach the finish line before hypothermia, starvation or dehydration will over take you and if it does, rescue is never far away. Also and possibly most importantly you do these races on your own, answering to know one but yourself, adjusting your pace, food and drink intake according to your own feelings. Pushing hard to the finish or pulling the plug and going home early, its your call.

True Adventure racing requires good map and compass skills, self sufficiency for long periods, a broad range of technical skills, an ability to stay awake through the night, a strict nutrition plan to ensure energy levels for over 20 hours, clear and effective planning, tactical awareness, sometimes advanced improvisation and  4 people to work together, harmoniously so the team make it to the finish, if one person cant go on, the race is over.

Basically these long races are a completely different Beast altogether.