Killarney Adventure Race - 8th October 2011

Mumford

This looks like a cracker of a race http://www.killarneyadventurerace.ie

Fi H

I especially would like to see the heathen bog

Enduro

What a shame. There was once a very good adventure race in this area. This thing is a very very very watered down version of it. Whereas the old race brought you into the reeks, this just gives you a nice view of it.

The first run route is actually a brilliant mountain bike route. Dull enough as a hillrun though. It's a shame to go to the bother of bringing in such a classic mountain bike route (Mountain biking being one of the core sports of real adventure racing), and not use it to its best.

The road cycle is a great road cycle (in reverse its probably my favourite in Ireland). However, it is still just a road cycle. Not a real adventure race.

The kayak section is another "for the sake of it" joke of an event. A ridiculously short course, and no use of personal kayaks allowed. Clearly the event isn't targeted at serious racers. Again, the old race in this area had a much more interesting, and significantly longer, kayaking section, and was livened up by facilitating personal kayaks.

The hill run up mangerton is a pretty good. Compares poorly to the route of the old race though (Up Caher, Carrauntwohill and Beenceera... sorry about the spelling!)

A 2km road bike section to finish is nuts. Clearly planned by someone who has never raced a multisports race. It'd be OK for transitions training, but that's about it.

Yet another commercial race aiming to get a slice of the GF-style money pie. The market is getting pretty crowded these days.

groovyg

Enduro wrote: »

What a shame. There was once a very good adventure race in this area. This thing is a very very very watered down version of it. Whereas the old race brought you into the reeks, this just gives you a nice view of it.

Ahh the great turas beag race, that was pretty epic, I managed to complete it the last year it was run and it was certainly a good test of both mental and physical endurance. I would love if they organised that again, although I'd say its both a logistical and insurance headache to put together.

Enduro wrote: »

The first run route is actually a brilliant mountain bike route.

Agree, the downhill on the bike was class, can't say the same about the hike and bike to the top tho :eek:

Peterx

Whilst I was hoping for a reprise of the Turas Beag I would have to say this race does look attractive when taken in terms of the races it's up against.
The Achill ROAR and Paul's WAR's are very good, Gaelforce has the marketing magic (and an A to B route) and this race looks like it could jostle nicely in there. It would depend on the cost I suppose.

At the very least their website is the best of any of the irish ones I've seen here, excellent use of stunning photography and John MacEnri looks great:D

To be slightly negative and join in the unnessessary race bashing I have to agree that finishing with a short roadbike section is unfortunate.

farmerjohn

i was thinking of doing the killarney adventure race in oct, i do a bit of cycling but the bit thats worring is the 18 km mountain run, i was wondering wat kinda time youd want to be runnin this at so it wouldnt be embarrasing:) also any tips in how to get to that time would be apprecated i play football so i would have an ok level of fitness.
thanks

GTown

If the 18Km does not suit you Farmer John I heard there is a 8k run option instead of the 18Km. It is still a tough 8k run. Even if you choose the 18km option there is no such thing as an 'embarrassing time' in adventure racing, it is a staggered start so everyone will finish at different times and you wont know if you come 1st or last when you cross the line.

PatientBear

farmerjohn wrote: »

i was thinking of doing the killarney adventure race in oct, i do a bit of cycling but the bit thats worring is the 18 km mountain run, i was wondering wat kinda time youd want to be runnin this at so it wouldnt be embarrasing:) also any tips in how to get to that time would be apprecated i play football so i would have an ok level of fitness.
thanks

Hi FarmerJohn,

There is no 'embarrassing' time if you are going to be racing as an individual, there's just inside cut-off or not. It may not be a good idea to solicit race times as everyone is different.

The best thing to do is try some runs now and see what times you post for your current distances and try and build up from that. You could build up to the 18km distance in the time available between now and October, but you may have to train specifically for it with maybe three or four runs a week. Also, you need to be honest with yourself about your current level of ability. Can you jog a 10km already or not? It took me a month to build up to jogging a 10 mile distance (16.5km) with four runs per week. However, in your case, you also have to train up for the other disciplines in the race.

There's no 'tips' that will make it significantly easier for you I'm afraid, you'll just have to put in the work on the training. But if you're willing to do that, I'm sure you can do the race.

Best of luck with it either way.

Cheers

former

farmerjohn wrote: »

i was thinking of doing the killarney adventure race in oct, i do a bit of cycling but the bit thats worring is the 18 km mountain run, i was wondering wat kinda time youd want to be runnin this at so it wouldnt be embarrasing:) also any tips in how to get to that time would be apprecated i play football so i would have an ok level of fitness.
thanks

I'm thinking about it as well. The course looks spectacular.

IMRA has a race up Mangerton on August 21 which follows the same route on the mountain but doesn't pass the waterfall. This is the day after Gaelforce so the date doesn't work for me but it would be a good opportunity to try it/yourself out.

I must say that the run, with 800m climb at the end of the race, looks really tough. I would expect to have to walk quite a bit of it. (I may do a recce later in the summer if I can.)

I'll see how I fare on Croagh Patrick and make up my mind then.

It's about 4 months to the race so you have plenty of time to be trained up. You could also do one of the shorter "sport" races to assess your fitness.

Enduro

FarmerJohn, the best practice for running in the hills is to go running in the hills! No rocket science there! Cycling in the hills also helps to improve your climbing ability on both sports.

robertbarry

my knees cant take the beating anymore

robertbarry

and that goes for my back tooo

random.stranger

GTown wrote: »

If the 18Km does not suit you Farmer John I heard there is a 8k run option instead of the 18Km. It is still a tough 8k run. Even if you choose the 18km option there is no such thing as an 'embarrassing time' in adventure racing, it is a staggered start so everyone will finish at different times and you wont know if you come 1st or last when you cross the line.

As someone that has completed in a couple of these events & finished as one of the stragglers at the very back of the field, I couldn't agree more.

There was a great sense of comraderie among competitors of all levels. People were happy to stop & help others out with bike problems.

Despite being hours behind some of the other competitors I felt a great sense of achievement crossing the finishing line.

PatientBear

random.stranger wrote: »

As someone that has completed in a couple of these events & finished as one of the stragglers at the very back of the field, I couldn't agree more.

There was a great sense of comraderie among competitors of all levels. People were happy to stop & help others out with bike problems.

Despite being hours behind some of the other competitors I felt a great sense of achievement crossing the finishing line.

You know, I really respect you for saying this. Just completing these races is a big deal and people don't seem to understand it. It's exactly the right sentiment.

People are getting hung up on times, then getting scared to compete. What's the point of that? The most important thing is to take part.

Scholesy1981

Seriously considering doing this adventure race. Have never done an adventure race before and with this being organsied by same crew as those who put on the Maxi Marathon at the weekend im tempted to give it a go. Considering it would be my first adventure race and the distances involved, as a matter of interest, does anyone know what kind of time it would take to complete this?

Enduro

The race has never been run before so nobody can know for sure how long it will take. How long it takes you obviously depends on your own level of fitness. Probably easiest to compare with other multisports challenge races with similar distances and heightgains involved.

It's not an adventure race, by the way. It's far from being one. If you do this race you still won't have done an adventure race, no matter what the marketing tells you (similarly to the fact that if you did the maxi-marathon doesn't mean you've done a marathon, despite the name)

Scholesy1981

ya fair enough Enduro, makes sense to perhaps look around and see what kind of times are in similar events. Id be tempted to do Gaelforce buts sandwiched between few other road races so unfortunately cant get that done as a tester!

You wouldnt call this an adventure race no? Hmm interesting, how would you best describe a race of this kind then? Could you put it in the same bracket as Gaelforce? Not disagreeing or anything, like i said my knowledge of this aspect of athletics is vague so just curious!

Enduro

I'd describe it as a multi-sports challenge. Adventure races have mountain biking, not road biking, usually involve navigation, and are generally done in teams. Wikipedia's entry is a pretty good description.

This race is definitely in the same bracket as Gael Force (and the Roars, WARs etc). You only find these multi-sports challenge types of races in Ireland. Gael force (originally Gael Force 6, to distinguish it from its real adventure race big brother Gael Force 12) was the first. To quote a newspaper article at the time...

‘Gaelforce West’ is a full adventure festival and is being organised by Ireland West Tourism in association with Fáilte Ireland. The festival will run for a three-year trial period, but the organisers are confident it will continue long into the future.
Two separate competitions will run in tandem as part of the festival. ‘Gaelforce 6’ will be for the novice racer or ‘armchair adventurer’ and will be completed over a six-hour course involving mountain biking, trekking and kayaking. ‘Gaelforce 12’, meanwhile, will see mixed teams of four embarking on an adventure-style course which includes four 12-hour stages covering 250km, set over 72 hours.

As it became more commerically successful copy cat races started to appear to tap into the same market. The course was so easy that the top racers were able to do it on road bikes, and all the copycat races now have road bike sections as a result, to try and maximise their revenue.

random.stranger

PatientBear wrote: »

You know, I really respect you for saying this. Just completing these races is a big deal and people don't seem to understand it. It's exactly the right sentiment.

People are getting hung up on times, then getting scared to compete. What's the point of that? The most important thing is to take part.

Thanks PatientBear. I agree, it does seem a bit mad to be scared to compete because of finishing times.

I suppose we all have different outlooks (and abilities). The way I see it: if I can improve on my performance from event to event, I will be happy. I am my competition.

I hope to progress from multisport events to proper adventure races, but we all have to start somewhere.

goalie2

Folks, three of us are signed up for this. Two of us have GF expirence. Does anyone have info on the two run routes, would I get away with ordinary runinng shoes or do I need trail hiking/runners? Is the route up mangerton mountain a mixture of trail, mountain or just like Croagh patrick etc? I can see the bike ride is going to be hilly but good from driving through the gap of dunloe.

TFBubendorfer

goalie2 wrote: »

Folks, three of us are signed up for this. Two of us have GF expirence. Does anyone have info on the two run routes, would I get away with ordinary runinng shoes or do I need trail hiking/runners? Is the route up mangerton mountain a mixture of trail, mountain or just like Croagh patrick etc? I can see the bike ride is going to be hilly but good from driving through the gap of dunloe.

I ran the Mangerton IMRA race a couple of years ago, which follows more or less the same route. I ran it in road runners, as did most of the participants but trail off-road runners would have been better if you have them.

There's no real trail, it was very stony; felt like running on a dry river bed for most of it.

goalie2

I guess the first 4k up torc mounain is similar to Mangerton?

former

Looking forward to this now.

Hope the fine weather keeps up - not much chance, I know.

former

Apparently there may be a change to stage 1. The alternative being considered is an up and down route from Kate Kearney's. Keep an eye out for an email from the organiser's.

High winds forecast for later in the week - scary but fun, just like Achill.

smurph10

Completed this at the weekend.

Thought it was very well run.

A man had a serious fall into a gully bout 3-4k into the cycle, woinder how he is?

My mate got a puncture about 7K into the cycle which pissed me off as i thought i had ran a good run up Strickeen but we said wed stick together so that messed up any chance of a decent time.

Couple of things though that could have been changed.

The distances were not that accurate.

There was no mention of the run between the bike and the Kayak and back. Had to be 3k id say plus the first run up strickeen was closer to 7.5k than 6.5k. Nothing major though.

Mangarton was a great challenge

Safely say it was a lot tougher than gaelforce esp with the 18k run along with a lot steeper cycle.

Any of you adventure freaks know were the next one is or is that it for the season. Dublin Marathon for me.

former

Yes I agree it was a great race, really well organised, beautiful location.

I thought it was comparable to but harder than Gaelforce. I had a bit of a spill coming down Mangerton - just a few cuts and bruises. You can't afford to loose concentration running down hill.

The hot and cold tubs were a great idea.

The BBQ was fun as well. One for the diary for next year.

Enduro

smurph10 wrote: »

Any of you adventure freaks know were the next one is or is that it for the season. Dublin Marathon for me.

Depends what you're looking for. The one multipsorts challenge race left that I can think of is the SeaToSummit in Westport.

There are plenty more adventure races happening over winter though, organised by CCAR.

goalie2

Lads, that a was seriously tough course, made Gaelforce look like a training session. It was very enjoyable, very well marshalled and organised and a right good party back in the Ross Hotel. I can see it getting a lot more numbers next year once the word spreads.

The run from the bike stop to the kayak was a surprise and gave you a false bike time as it took a good ten minutes to runover and get dibbed in. Mangerton was some going, should be renamed Mangleton but overall it was a very good race and would definitely do it again.

centre back

heard that not every one was carrying all the correct gear in the elites, and a few of them got reported by a fellow top ten finisher! ( quite rightly in my opinion)! though they didn't get dq for it, just a slap on the wrists!

former

The kit was checked at the start. The same procedure as Achill but more thorough.

Nonetheless, a few may have slipped through the net. I heard the same thing as you.

I think that the fact that race organisers are now making checks will lead to better compliance in time.

It hurts!

I didn't make Killarney....maybe I was lucky by the sounds of it it was tough. There is one on Saturday 22nd in Skibereen - South Coast Adventure Race. Did it last year. Was only my third and found it tough enough. Struggled with the kayaking but was new to it. Hope to make a better hand of it this year