Every accomplishment starts with a decision to try

Best of luck tomorrow A, ENJOY!!

Good luck AM!

Good luck!

Best of luck ,AM. That looks like a lot of fun, must do one again soon. Looking forward to the report.

Best of luck Saturday AM have fun:)

Oh nearly missed it:eek:, Best of Luck tomorrow AM, but you'll fly it. have a blast.:D. Looking forward to hearing all about it.

Annie get your Run wrote: »

2:40 or maybe a bit under absolutely banjaxed but enjoyed it (I think!)

Great stuff am looking forward to the report.

Well we got an advance with the strava traffic but the story will be much more interesting to hear. Well done.

Well done on the race AM, you'll soon be purchasing you own kayak
Delighted to hear you enjoyed it so much

Shannon Blueways Adventure race - I'm sorry this is very long!

When clubmate and fellow boardsie Fletch 'liked' this on facebook I knew I was going to register for it. It was taking place a few miles from Keshcarrigan where I spent a lot of childhood summers and have family there. It was cheap as AR goes and it looked 'short' I was planning to 'take part' and just enjoy the event. No competitiveness, no goal, yadda yadda yadda. Was really looking forward to giving this adventure race lark a go, Neady's reports always fill me with envy although that's mostly just her abilities!!! Hit the road early yesterday morning and headed for Leitrim Village. The car looked like I was going away for a week with several outfit options in case of rain, in case of cold etc . Arrived nice & early and the first thing I noticed when I opened the car door was the wind!!! FFS!!! I do not enjoy cycling in the wind - on the other hand I've had a lot of training in that as anyone who follows me on strava will know. Registered quickly and sorted out the gear I was planning to leave at T1 with the bike which included dry shoes & socks and a jacket & gloves, two bars to eat on the bike if needed (pre opened as suggested by Neady) Because the Kayak was before the cycle it was likely I'd have wet feet and who wants wet feet for 25K cycle! Hooked up with Fletch when he arrived and we went exploring the kayak, T1 and jogged up to where the last transition was to suss it out. I knew he would have a top 10 finish so were sussing out his competitors, some fancy looking Tri bikes there!

Anyway 200 or so competitors went off in 3 waves (presumably for smooth running of the kayaks). I was in wave 3 at 1:20pm off we went, this was billed as flat run and flat cycle so when we started uphill, and continued uphill I knew we'd been sold a dud 😀 We ran along the road for about 500m before turning onto the canal, this was a pleasant enough run and the plan was to do 10 min miles... right... I chatted briefly to a girl in a Tri suit and then passed her as we turned onto the canal and then fell into a comfortable rhythm with another runner which turned out to be 9 min miles. Up ahead was girl in a DCM 2014 top - oh boy, the memories! We ran up the canal for a couple of miles then across a bridge and back down the other side, as we turned we were full force into the wind, I eased back a bit, no rush, just enjoying etc etc but then the Tri girl came along side with about a mile to go, I stayed with her catting for a while, she tried to convince me I'd love triathalons , the DCM top girl and the other girl were coming back to me and as we pulled along side I made a comment out the horrors of DCM 2014 'Oh really'? says she, was it bad?.....Now I can't really give out about people wearing tops that didn't compete in the race but I thought to myself 'there's no way she's gonna beat me' and I moved past. Arrived at T1 for the kayaks and hit the 'lap' button on the watch which I'd set up specifically for this race, it includes transition times.

Run 1 official: 4.4 miles in 41:20
Transition time 32 seconds!

The organisers were on the ball holding out life jackets and putting on helmets and then literally throwing us into the kayaks. I passed someone almost instantly and was just catching the next person when we had to turn around, it had been cut short due to nesting swans further up the canal, a real pity as I could easily have taken the three people in front of me with a bit more canal! I was a bit disappointed as I'd been looking forward to giving this a good bash. Oh well - next time..!

Kayak official: 6:35 includes bike transition (strava says 3:28 for the kayak and 4:18 for transition so times don't quite match).
Distance on strava is .1 mile, it was supposed to be 1K, it was very short tho

Changed my shoes as quickly as possible although my feet weren't soaked but my ass was!!! I hadn't considered the kayak would be wet when I got to it. Couldn't do anything about it so helmet on, decided not to go with a jacket, just arm warmers & gloves, and ran with the bike out the gate to the mount point. Jumped on the bike and the bloody chain was off!!! Someone must have knocked off my bike when they were racking theirs!! A steward came over immediately and sorted for me but I probably lost a couple of mins on this. Jumped back on the bike and out the road straight into a big climb :rolleyes: passed 3 people on this part of the road, it was windy but I figured I could afford to push here without doing much internal damage.. turned the corner to slightly flatter road but more wind, passed another two people along here. Another turn, another gale force wind it was coming from all sides, passed two more girls along here. Was on my own for a good while then and was watching out for the turn towards Keshcarrigan. I know these roads well and weirdly my first time on a racer was in the 80's in Kesh. Came to the turn, Keshcarrigan 12km, let my head take me back to the good ole days of summers in the country and I watched the KM's tick by, the air filled with old familiar smells, passed a couple along here (am assuming the were together, struggling on the hills) There were some fairly undulating roads around here with some downhills and I thought of a conversation I'd had with Raccoon Queen recently about being afraid of the downhills, so I tried not to brake too much and take some benefit from the dips, I need a bit more practice but I didn't do too badly!! Into Kesh village and out the out the other side up a nasty incline, I passed another girl along here. I was keeping an eye on the distance which I thought was 15 miles but turned out to be closer to 16 - had hoped to do the bike in an hour on the basis it was flat and I can do 12 miles to work in 52 mins. The wind put paid to that though and i was very happy to eventually see the turn for T3. All in all I enjoyed this but was on my own for the whole thing apart from briefly passing others, no one came with me when I passed them. I ate part of one of the bars and had a few sips of my lucazade/water mix but probably didn't really need the bar at all.

Bike official: 15.9 miles 1:07:29 (strava 1:06:07)
Transition 40 seconds (ie dump bike and run!)

Sheemore hill
When I was working out my possible times for this race I thought I'd do this section in 10:30 min miles 😀 Strava says this was 271ft up, I've no idea how that rates as a hill but holy F*ck it was steep, and full of holes & rocks, I jogged from the bike to the base of the hill, probably 1/2 a mile and attempted to keep jogging up the hill but came to a halt almost instantly, gave up the ghost and hiked up it, not one single person was running up and many of those coming down were walking too. Got to the base of the summit and the marshals said 'you can take the easy option and go left where's it less steep, or the quicker option and come straight up - straight up it was so, using my hands to balance. Two other people with me went around Made it to the very top where two marshals were getting wet as it had started raining at the base of the hill, and turned around to negotiate the downhill, ran where I could but went over on my ankle twice so had to slow a bit. On the run out I was meeting people who were on their way back and on the run back to the bike meeting people who were just starting their accent, lots of support amongst the participants here which was nice after such a solitary ride.

Run official: 2.2 miles in 33 mins including transition back to bike (strava 29:09)
Strava Transition 59 seconds

Grabbed the bike and took a mouth full of drink as I ran with it to the mount point, hopped on and took off down the road, as I went I passed my friend in the DCM top as she was heading up to start her hill run! Passed another biker who'd got out of the transition before me. This was a short one, one 3K back the final transition and a quick 300m sprint to the finish line. Again I was on my own but put the foot down as much as I could, rolled in the the transition to see Fletch waiting there. Dumped the bike and threw the helmet on the ground and headed off to sprint home - little problem with that though, the legs were not co-operating!! My watch could only be set up for 5 transitions so the last one was the 3k on the bike and the run all together, whatever pace I was doing wasn't fast and my path was being blocked by people who had finished and were walking their bikes, 3 abreast :rolleyes: Fletch jogged along beside me having finished 50 mins earlier in 8th place (fantastic result!!). Tried to push harder as the line approached and crossed it in 2:39:47 according to my watch.

Official result 2:40:30, that'll do me just fine! Was lamenting the time I wasted fixing the chain but all in all I can't complain. I had said 2:45 to tang earlier in the week and he had come back with 2:40

I did enjoy it although some of the things I was worried about, like riding in a group, never materialised. It was harder than I was expecting but then I didn't take it as easy as I'd planned!! Headed back to the hall for soup & sambos and a post mortem with Fletch. Very well organised event & would recommend!

Would I do another one? Yes, although I think I'll have a look at some duathalons too.. Not for a while though, I don't feel wrecked today (well I do but that's more to do with the 2am bedtime and the wine with dinner - back on the wagon again!). The quads a little tender but not too bad, the hips are creaking but that's probably from the car journey home today! (had to pull in for coffee about 12:18 to watch Double Oh Bond get a much deserved marathon PB).

Special thanks to Neady who gave me super advice on the transitions, what might happen, things to avoid, how to manage if I ended up in a double kayak and where to make gains in the race. Much appreciated S!!!

Lol, off to the dark side with you so . Well done, that sounded like a lot of fun. Shame the kayak got cut short after the work you put in to it. Next time!

Wubble Wubble wrote: »

Fair play, that sounds like a slog, well done.
Loving the bit in bold, you certainly haven't lost the competitive spirit

Bungy Girl wrote: »

Lol, off to the dark side with you so . Well done, that sounded like a lot of fun. Shame the kayak got cut short after the work you put in to it. Next time!

That's hilarious it definitely wasn't a slog, at no point was I thinking 'WTF am I doing this for' which happens regularly in other races

adrian522 wrote: »

Brilliant! Well done.

Thanks Adrian

Sounds like you really enjoyed this and I see a lot more of these in your future and you wont be just giving them a go;);)it will be race from start to finish.. Well done AM.

Well done AM, I read your report with great interest as I will be trying out a similar venture in June, signed up for DAR Sport so looking forward to giving it a go.

http://www.dingleadventurerace.com/dingle-adventure-race-kerry-ireland-sport-course-info.html