coast to coast

woody1

anyone here do the coast to coast at the weekend
how did ye find it.. weather wouldnt have been fantastic anyway
interested in doing something like it but i dont think id have the
endurance yet or the kayaking skills..
how many entered, wouldnt like to be set adrift at the back of a small
pack with no hope of catching people
theres a full year to train for next year i suppose

DublinDilbert

woody1 wrote: »

anyone here do the coast to coast at the weekend
how did ye find it.. weather wouldnt have been fantastic anyway
interested in doing something like it but i dont think id have the
endurance yet or the kayaking skills..
how many entered, wouldnt like to be set adrift at the back of a small
pack with no hope of catching people
theres a full year to train for next year i suppose

Didn't do it myself but I believe there was 40 participants. I believe it needed good navigation skills for both the kayaking and the mountain run bit at the end.

Causeway

woody1 wrote: »

anyone here do the coast to coast at the weekend
how did ye find it.. weather wouldnt have been fantastic anyway
interested in doing something like it but i dont think id have the
endurance yet or the kayaking skills..
how many entered, wouldnt like to be set adrift at the back of a small
pack with no hope of catching people
theres a full year to train for next year i suppose

Took part as a solo last year and did support crew for a solo this year. Day1 is a mass start with a 5km beach run, most teams/solos come back to the start within 5-10mins of each other, on to the bikes and you can hook up with others and work together if you want, kayaks are much of a solo effort unless your in a pairs team, then a short 17km bike to the end at the Share Centre.

Dinner that evening in a hotel down the road a little.

Day2 starts with the slowest from day1 heading off first at 6am then the rest with 5min gaps, this give a 2hr spread this year and it seemed to work very well with the fastest teams just getting to the finish ahead of the rest, results were sorted and prizes give out just as soon as everyone was home.

Just like any other race there are those there to win and others there just to finish so I wouldn't worry about having no hope of catching others, if you do it as a pair the kayaking isn't that hard, may be a bit of a slog at times but it's doable by anyone. As for the endurance, it's in us all, just a case of digging deep and keeping moving forward.

DublinDilbert wrote: »

Didn't do it myself but I believe there was 40 participants. I believe it needed good navigation skills for both the kayaking and the mountain run bit at the end.

Took part last year when numbers were lower, almost twice as many this year, 14 pairs and 11 solos, I was there this year but as crew for one of the solos. I believe that all the route was well marked. Beach run was out and back. Road biking on both days had all the roads well marked at every junction.

Kayaking, well most of it is in river/canal about 20 feet wide, you can only go one way from the start as you start at the bottom of a lock gate, Lough Garadice can be tricky but the lads had marker buoys out this year for the section after church island, after this it's back into the river with 3 small loughs to cross, these all have navigation markers for boats so you can't go wrong, ok there might be a slightly shorter route over one of them but apart from that it's plain sailing or paddling as the case may be.

Mountain run is also well marked, the lads go out a few nights before hand and mark it out and you can treat it as a series of 10km or less runs between meeting your support crew or checkpoint marshal, much of it also covers the same ground as the Mourne Way. The last section up to Hares Gap and along the Brandy Pad to the col at the top of the Glen River has been known to catch a few runners out but it's my understanding that next year there will be a marshal up there to direct you the right way, so with that in mind it'll be wee buns to anyone who wants to give it a go.

Get training and i'll see you there next year.

MREGAN

I done it this year in the Solo category. If you want to read exactly how it went for me here is my race report and photos. The route was really well marked. I had no bother in the kayak section and I had never been there before. Mountain run although I know the area I dont think it was overly difficult to find your way.

It was the Most enjoyable racing experiance I have ever had. Amazing race and an amazing bunch of people both racing and supporting. This one will be on my annual calendar should I be racing or support crew. I am still smiling

Race report: http://acunamatadaar.blogspot.com/

Video http://www.vimeo.com/23932161


Oh aye and training for me was more or less messing about on bikes with friends. A couple of half marathons. Twice in a Kayak (I had only every kayaked 4-5km prior to two training paddles in a boat for 2-3 hours)

One thing did help me was the Causeway coast adventure race series which I took part in.

I would say to anyone believe in yourself and you can do it. Its tough but the craic and buzz on each day made it a great experiance.

woody1

cheers for the detailed replies lads,
i generally do some running , up to half marathon, an odd sprint tri, and some of the shorter adventure races, ie the multi sport events not the long ones like this, so i do a fair bit of training but not as much as i probably should, havent done much kayaking, but that could be adressed, ok so it sounds do-able now...dont know if thats a good or bad thing !
off to prepare for next year

MREGAN

You will love it. The sense of achievement and the craic is just amazing.

woody1

your obviously still on a happy buzz from it !
have you any idea of your times for the individual sections
run bike kayak bike
bike run
curious as to what kind of times people put in, give me an idea how far behind i am at the moment
have a 90k cycle in july will be able to get an idea from that, although i wont be killing myself on it as its way longer than anything ive done before

MREGAN

Dont worry about times just do what you are comfortable doing. I will try and get my splits up later for you to look at.

But seriously I found myself going better when I relaxed. I didnt have a speedo on the bike. Just eased off if I felt I was getting it tight or pushed if I was feeling better. Old Skool eh lol I was just happy to complete it but ended up doing a lot better than I thought.

Last years splits are on the website. http://www.coasttocoast.ie/

goalie2

Folks, myself and a buddy are doing this event this year. It's our first two day event. Our limit so far would have been Killarney, Gaelforce, WAR Glendalough and our base this year isn't to bad.

We are trying to put a training plan together for the race but not sure as it different than anything we have done before. We did a 50k bike, followed by 3k run on saturday and are planinig to increase the cycle by 10k each week and do a 3-5k run straight after to get the body used to transition but we are not sure about during the week training i.e. should we do two nights running and another evening/morning cycling?

RayCun

You want the Triathlon/Duathlon/Adventure Racing forum

MREGAN

Transition is always going to be difficult. I have never trained by running then straight into cycling or vice versa. I would just do a night of one or the other.

Not sure about others but thats my why of doing it.

Just take it easy once transitioned then build on it. Big issue was getting into and out of the kayaks. Some people took serious cramps during this as your legs go from over worked to getting cold in the boat. Try to take water before transition or like some use dioralyte *sp I take them from powder followed by a mouthful of water rather than waste time mixing them. Not the nicest but stops the cramps.

trainerman

Anyone do this event this year? Seriously considering it for next year - am i right in thinking that the whole of the run in the solo would be at night?

woody1

3 years since i started this thread and i still havent entered,
anyway im guessing if your doing the whole thing in one day, then some / most of the run will be in the dark, i guess if you checked out the results youd get an idea of how long it was taking people and then work out what time it was when people were running..
the kayak still has me daunted..

trainerman

woody1 wrote: »

3 years since i started this thread and i still havent entered,
anyway im guessing if your doing the whole thing in one day, then some / most of the run will be in the dark, i guess if you checked out the results youd get an idea of how long it was taking people and then work out what time it was when people were running..
the kayak still has me daunted..

yeah the kayak is whats putting me off at the moment too! Leaning towards the 2day if I do it - just need to figure out a way to train for the kayak section!

woody1

kayak training on my doorstep, i have no excuse really,