The Kerry Way Ultra Sept 6/7 2013

mr.wiggle

Hope the weather plays ball for all involved.
Following it with interest, Best of luck ,keep the ultra-shuffle going Mr.b!

mr.wiggle

Only see 12 outta 15 runners, 3 didnt start? Last 2 not seen since checkpoint 4.
Love the tracking, no work getting done today by me!!

kit3

Only 24 seconds between first & second after nearly 9 hours !

mr.wiggle

The race leader is expected to hit Killarney within the hour, unbelievable stuff :eek:, fantastic running !!

Racetec results timing is a bit of a disaster to follow , as it seems they drop the names of runners when they don't reach a checkpoint, leaving only 3 runners details available now.
I heard late last night that conditions got poor around waterville which may have scuppered any ideas of a quick kip on the course, for a lot of runners.

It would be nice to know how far each competitor ran though.

b.harte

Just a quick update from me, before the longer (aborted) race report to follow.
The good bits.

*WOW the 3 remaining runners (2 finished at this stage) Bridget is a legend, so nice to have had the opportunity to run with you and was great to see you deciding to forge on.*

1st. A fantastic course and thanks to Eileen, Simon & Co. for giving us the chance to do it and the marshals who gave up their day to look out for us.
2nd.Great support en-route during the early parts of the day, a nice bunch of fellow runners and a really nice atmosphere.
3rd the fob-dibbing works a treat and it's good to know that people can follow online as well.

The bad bit.
*Disclaimer" none of these are criticisms as such, just areas that should be improved upon to make things better.

3/14 finishers shows how tough this is. The fact that so many of us dropped at waterville needs to be explained, so here is my version.

The markings on the mountain on the approach to Waterville were non-existant or just impossible to spot at night, on open peatland in driving rain. At a minimum these should be the reflective type markers that were present on some sections. At one point I saw head torch, assumed it was a marshall and started tracking towards it only to find it was a german couple camping on the ridge, I was about 500mtr off the correct coarse at this point and the only way back was to either backtrack about 1.5km or traverse deep bog sections. It took me 3hr to complete the 10km section. At one stage I climbed over a step ladder/stile and was faced with 3 distinct well worn tracks but no marker telling me which was to go, I put the torch on full beam in spot and scanned everwhere for a marker post, no luck, I switch to flood and scanned for footprints, spotted the distinctive thread patterns of Jens NBs and stefs (unknown) shoes (I had been behind them all day). So I took the same course. Unfortunately as I found out later they had gotton lost up there in daylight so I had no chance. I took out the map(s) as the ridge I was on cover 2 sheet I was trying to work out where I was, the only triangulations I had were the light in waterville and the turbine beakons so I figured I would follow the ridge line to a fenc and try to track to a waypoint. This worked and I eventually found my way back on track. I got to waterville and di a damage assement.
I was soaking wet, cold - borderline beginning hypothermic. I had a set of clean & dry clothes in Waterville drop bag and a good thermal base. So I decided I would refill my backpack and my hand held bottle, restock with jaffas cakes, spuds and sesame bars and continue on. I was feeling fine physically and mentally. The only thing that was bugging me has how bad the route marking was.
I was about to set off to change my clothes when the marshal at waterville told me to watch out for the right hand turn at the bridge in waterville or I would miss the next section.
"Is it marked?" I asked.
"It should be yeah". was his response.
At that point I decided to pull out, after the episode on the mountain I felt it was too risky to push on in darkness if the course wasn't adequately marked.
This isn't a criticism of the organisers or any of the marshals.
I did a risk assement and decided that if I went wrong, and I was missing or unaccounted for an extended period then others would have to come get me, and given the poor weather I didn't like that risk.
Easiest & hardest decision I have made but on reflection, and with the additinal information I got this morning about the others who retired around waterville I believe it was correct.
So, what next?
I'll go back next year for sure, I'm pleased with the 102km I did and the course is a challenge. My fuelling worked well and I've never felt as strong at 100km so it means my training this year did what I wanted it to.
But, things need to improve, it needs to be decided if this is a race closer to ART with navigation essential, or if is a long distance trail ultra with a well marked route, currently it's somewhere in the middle.
For it's first year it is understandable.
I'll be back next year, armed with a handheld gps navigator loaded with my own way point data which I will gather on the 4x50km training runs I will be doing.
So who would like to join me?

career_move

Well done Bertie. Sorry you had to pull out but sounds like you made the right decision

b.harte

career_move wrote: »

Well done Bertie. Sorry you had to pull out but sounds like you made the right decision

Thanks, no regrets at my side as of yet, doubtless I'll wonder about the "what could have been" but I heard the both Stefan and Jens (and I would guess Bridget too) had some navigational issues around templenoe/blackwater bridge.

b.harte

Race Report [DNF]

Oisin11178

b.harte wrote: »

Race Report [DNF]

No shame in dnfing that mate. An absolute beast of a race