CLEC 7th July- Carlingford Lough Endurance Challenge

Peterx

Now in it's seond decade, One of the true originals, a 3 man race of hillrunning, mountain biking and kayaking.
Won too many times to mention by Paul Mahon with various teammates, a friendly race where the competition may be fierce but the camaradie, chain-breakers and then beers are passed around freely.

Route Map is now up on ww.clec.ie
Looks very similar to last year.
Always a great day and night put on by Johnny CLEC and team.

Excuseless

Peterx wrote: »

Now in it's seond decade, One of the true originals, a 3 man race of hillrunning, mountain biking and kayaking.
Won too many times to mention by Paul Mahon with various teammates, a friendly race where the competition may be fierce but the camaradie, chain-breakers and then beers are passed around freely.

Route Map is now up on ww.clec.ie
Looks very similar to last year.
Always a great day and night put on by Johnny CLEC and team.

And won several times by Peterx including last year - He still is on the team to beat with Tri Newbie and Aaron "Lanky Lad" O Donaghue

Super day and evening all round with tarmac options for those not fond of a bitta mud n grunt :rolleyes:

Peterx

1.Brian Phelan, Rob Brady, Colm Phelan
2.Loraine Creane, Thomas Kelly, Nessa Smyth
3.Éamonn Ó’Callanain, Déirdre Ní Challanáin, Darragh Stokes
4.Niall Somers, Aaron O’Donohue, Peter O’Farrell
5.Eamonn McBride; Michelle Ryan; Sean Egan
6.Hilary Jenkinstown, Pauline Brady, Martina Nolan
7.Dave O’Shea,Craig Scarlett , James McCluskey
8.Peter Cole, Mark Hudson, Anne Bonner
9.Ryan George, Mark Young, Paul Cole
10.Owen Boyhan, Shaun Bredley, Ronan Egan
11.Stephen Brennan, Denis Connolly, Charles Maltha
12.Greg Campbell, Rory O’Sullivan, Jason Milne
13.Stuart Scott, Helen Dixon, Kieran Crowley
14.Jacqui Howard, Paul McArthur, Ken Barry
15.Cornelius Duffy, Mick Farrell, Joe Jones
16.Paul Mahon, Adrian Hennessy, Jenny Mc Cauley

Gonna be a good race.
If Ray O'Shaughnessy gets a team together the pace will be savage, He's a good sandbagger - describes himself as "fairly fit" -just finished he ras!!!!!

Oldlegs

Won again by PeterX and his teammates in a cracking time of 4:15 over a VERY wet and soggy Cooley mountain.

Despite the deluge during the week, the weather on the day itself was perfect, although a little to humid . Food and pints in the sailing club after lived up to the anticipation. But next year, I will be stocking up on more real-food and less gels (+ a bit more work on the mountain bike :-) ).

Great event in a fantastic location. See you all next year.

former

I second that one. It was a brilliant event. My first time doing it. Lots of room for improvement on the MTB.

Peterx

The Carlingford Lough Endurance Challenge returns for it's lucky 13th year.

This amazing race has in many ways bucked the Irish multisport trend as it has somehow managed ( no somehow about it, the boundless optimism and energy of the organisers) to maintain itself as a vibrant and successful event despite having technical aspects to the course.

A couple of energy sapping hillruns are fairly standard for the course (excuse the pun) but teams of three, technical mountain biking and an open water kayak relay are certainly non standard amidst the plethora of solo entry road bike races (don't get me wrong, I love the one day races )

Speaking of one day racers the very strong trio of Diarmuid Collins, Tim O'Donoghue and Noel O'Leary are probably favourites for the overall. The wily and defiantly non-sexist Paul Mahon will probably have the mixed team to beat and I'll have a good team with John MacEnri and Alan O'Keefe.

paulocon2

sorry to veer off-topic folks but is anyone aware of any trail races in the Cooley Mountains (separate to IMRA)? Seem to remember a race that took in part of the Tain Way and crossed the shoulder of Foye and Barnavave a couple of years back.

Peterx

http://www.nimra.org.uk/index.php/fixtures/ organise hill running up North close to the Cooleys and there are also several races organised by http://www.26extreme.com/index.aspx and also also several one off races for charity in the vicinity.

The exact race you are thinking of may be Flagstaff to Carlingford http://www.nimra.org.uk/index.php/events/event/flagstaff-to-carlingford/

Excuseless

Peterx wrote: »

The Carlingford Lough Endurance Challenge returns for it's lucky 13th year.

This amazing race has in many ways bucked the Irish multisport trend as it has somehow managed ( no somehow about it, the boundless optimism and energy of the organisers) to maintain itself as a vibrant and successful event despite having technical aspects to the course.

A couple of energy sapping hillruns are fairly standard for the course (excuse the pun) but teams of three, technical mountain biking and an open water kayak relay are certainly non standard amidst the plethora of solo entry road bike races (don't get me wrong, I love the one day races )

Speaking of one day racers the very strong trio of Diarmuid Collins, Tim O'Donoghue and Noel O'Leary are probably favourites for the overall. The wily and defiantly non-sexist Paul Mahon will probably have the mixed team to beat and I'll have a good team with John MacEnri and Alan O'Keefe.

Methinks you are deflecting the favourites tag off your broad and worthy shoulders PeterX - Seeing as you will be going for a third win in a row (and would it be 5th in history of race?) and have 2 other previous winners on your team too :eek:!

Tim is a savage, Diarmuid going well as evidenced by his Dingle result and Noel reputedly in savage bike form but as we know CLEC "ain't over til it's over" to quote the Master Johnny Mc Cabe himself and they are not course and distance specialists like yerselves

I had better get on now and find a 3rd person for our team and then try and scrap with the rest of the field for either the mixed prizes and /or the crumbs left after the favourite teams for the podium

Entries are still open at clec.ie with a "Tarmac" solo option also available for those so inclined.

The after race food and pints in the Sailing Club are reason enough to do the event

Peterx

Yet another amazing day out in Carlingford.
The mountain biking is amazing and not really all that technical, it's on the open mountain mostly so not many tree roots to contend with. cycling across the roof of Louth in the sun is like being on holidays, if you have any notion of trying an off road race this is the one.

Paul Mahon, Adrian Hennessy and Derek dominated proceedings after some early skirmishing in the classic 3 person MTB CLEC with an Excuseless performance.
Alan on our team suffered a lot in the heat with dehydration, the man has huge heart though and kept plugging away and never complained, not even when we pushed him up past his elbows into the bog and he eventually recovered to finish with a strong run.

Martina Nolan and Paula Keohan chicked everyone in the 2 person MTB CLEC, a fantastic win made all the more impressive when you hear of Martina's adverture's on the bike, hopefully she is fine today.

The performance of the day as usual goes to Johnny McCabe and team, as always fantastic work.

Excuseless

Peterx wrote: »

Yet another amazing day out in Carlingford.
The mountain biking is amazing and not really all that technical, it's on the open mountain mostly so not many tree roots to contend with. cycling across the roof of Louth in the sun is like being on holidays, if you have any notion of trying an off road race this is the one.

Paul Mahon, Adrian Hennessy and Derek dominated proceedings after some early skirmishing in the classic 3 person MTB CLEC with an Excuseless performance.
Alan on our team suffered a lot in the heat with dehydration, the man has huge heart though and kept plugging away and never complained, not even when we pushed him up past his elbows into the bog and he eventually recovered to finish with a strong run.

Martina Nolan and Paula Keohan chicked everyone in the 2 person MTB CLEC, a fantastic win made all the more impressive when you hear of Martina's adverture's on the bike, hopefully she is fine today.

The performance of the day as usual goes to Johnny McCabe and team, as always fantastic work.

Great racing and a great event.

We had a good tussle with PeterX and Co in the early stages with them setting a strong pace well ahead on the first run and us matching them on the next bike leg stage, We then managed to eek out a steady lead from there back to Carlingford by a combination of good teamwork, fast transitions and steady racing tho they did in fairness have the fastest final run round town leg of the day.

This race always seems to attract a super friendly crowd and the after race fodder and festivities plus the beginner friendly solo tarmac option now available make this a "must do" event IMHO