Episode I: The Lough Derg Beast

A pig on a spit seemed fitting breakfast in Oranmore

Time to wrap this journey up.
Depending on how you look at this post it will be the beginning or the end of my 2014 Beast of Ballyhoura race report.


You can read these in any order but the story so far runs like this:
Episode IV: The Beast Bites Back
Episode II: The Protracted Beast
Episode III: The Beastly River
Episode I: The Lough Derg Beast


There were no nerves waking up on Friday. I'd  good sleep Wednesday & Thursday (in so far as relative to normal nights in our household). I had my gear organised, it was a simple matter of cooking up a bit of grub to get me through the weekend without chewing the arm off a team-mate. So there was going to be plenty of cous-cous reinforced with bacon, peppers and sweetcorn, +jackoatbar was to be my go-food for refuelling on the hoof along with 500g of rashers and some protein / carb drink.

First though I had some work to do  and was going to be busy in the Oranmore store until 1pm and then it was a mad dash home to finish the food prep and get on the road to race HQ in Castletownroche.


As usual there was a bit of teasing and joking on Twitter as our team captain Mike rang through a couple of times for updates on my ETA. It also appeared that Warren was out of range so we were hoping he wasn't going to repeat his getting lost on the way trick (him being chief navigator and all that) or sleeping in til Saturday!!

More cous cous than I can bear!!

 Loading up and hitting the road, Edel & the kids were off to Sligo for the weekend, I rattled down to Limerick and onto the Cork road. I quickly sussed a shortcut over the hills through Donerail rather than going through Mallow and arrived in Castletownroche just in time to miss the team photo and catch them all coming out of the race briefing!!

After the initial greeting by a hyper-excited team captain babbling "You'll never guess where Stage 1 is!! Moylussa & UL & Tountinna!" we proceeded to set up the van as our Race HQ in Race HQ and sorting out the gear; bikes into boxes, food into bags and boxes, shoes, socks and first aid kits in waterproof bags got ourselves organised.

Saying au revoir to the bikes and food we settled in for a strategy meeting.

All packed up and ready to go.

A serious #selfie :)

 It is amazing how quickly time moves when you are tipping away at bits and pieces, we were offered a lovely bit of chili con carne from the marshals kitchen (leftovers) which we devoured and very soon after we decided to sit in and relax, try get an hour shut eye before gathering ourselves to board the bus at 12am.

Mike and I sat and were soon joined by Kate who couldn't sleep and in no time at all I was being slagged about missing my Twitter and saying goodbye to my phone, how would I last for 2 whole days?!?

I quietened them down with some motivational music!! :)


We didn't sleep, snooze or slumber. Instead we chatted and met Ivan the Race Director, we waited patiently for the bugle blast at 11:50pm to leave and head for the bus. Catching decent seats on the bus, Kate & Warren napped while Mike and I looked at, and read control sheets (all new to me so learning curve = steep)

Meandering through Cork and into Limerick was surreal. Looking back there was a convoy of vehicles making their way to the start at University of Limerick Activity Centre.

All off board and nervously gathering in the lakeside gloom I snagged a photographer and asked him to take a team photo for us, which he did, just before teams were called forward for maps. Walking to the start area we discussed and decided to go with the plan for Mandatory points.

Slightly over time we all started and there was a rush for the paths to the top of Moylussa. This was so familiar to us having been up here only a couple of weeks previously so we cut through the truck roads and very quickly got to M1 and then straight on up the fire road towards the peak. Knowing that there were a couple of long short cuts to the peak across the bog and then a sneaky turn onto a very rocky access lane we skipped the bogs and stealing a march around the bend jumped onto the access road whilst simultaneously 'going dark'. For a brief few seconds we hid our lights so the following team would miss the junction we took.

Hey, it's a race!!

We jogged on for a bit and headed straight for the peak. There is a 'pathway' to the top which is more of a trudge through a peat bog but I remembered the route we took off the top the last time and reversed that quickly using the embedded posts and railway sleepers as a marker. There were a lot of headlights bobbing around up here, yet we beelined right to the dibber, M2 done and dusted.

The plan was not to hang around and we turned tail and dropped right off the summit.

Next was M11 (we avoided all the Bonus points on top) which was tied halfway up a tree on a bank, down a dead end. I was arguing for a beeline from here to B8 which would get us nicely to B9 on the way to the Activity Centre. It would have been through a forest which would be tricky enough to navigate in daylight so we abandoned that idea and went around, jogging down the trails.

We'd made great time to the bottom and as a team decided to set off to find B10 and as you can see we gave up searching just before we found it, we gave ourselves a time limit and stuck to it.

Section 1.1 Foot Orienteering - 4hrs 56 mins

Unfortunately we'd overlooked M12 which was located on the point before we went straight to the swim start at M13 so we would get a penalty for missing the MCP. Mike, Warren and I stripped off and baled into the black water. Kate was the runner with the gear bags to the kayak point at M13.

The water was chilly and as I pulled my first stroke I immediately regretted not bringing a pair of goggles. Even though it is fresh water I don't like swimming with my eyes closed and so quickly reverted to breast stroking my way across to the pontoon. Warren was as comfortable as I was and we made good company on the short 300m trip.

Hauling our ass out of the water Mike & Kate were waiting with our gear. So a hand sluice to dry off the body and swiftly into dry clothing the decision to don the waterproof gear was a good one to help stop the body cooling by wind chill.

Dibbing in at M13 we set off for the kayaks. We'd a bit of triathlon transition here as we all automatically pulled on our PFD's (life jackets) before touching the kayak. Obviously carry over from 'no helmet no touchy bike'. Stowing the bags we stuck to the previously agreed pairing and Mike launched Warren in his boat while I launched Kate in ours.

Starting a trend, as Kate settled in her seat I went to get on board and whatever combination of the way we moved over went the boat spitting both of us onto the slip and into the water. Spluttering and gasping we boarded the boat properly and off we went. I didn't realise at the time, Kate bashed her knee and ripped her Ronhill pants so my belated apologies for that.

You'll sit still the next time! :)

Off we went. This was to be an experience as the sum total of kayaking experience was the 5km that we did on the training weekend. The plan was forget the bonus points and just go for the finish at M16.

We paddled and paddled and paddled for what felt like a lifetime. There was an island that I was convinced was adrift as it just never got closer no matter how much we paddled. There was a cross wind that was throwing up a little swell that definitely made for a couple of  squeaky bum moments as I thought we were going swimming.

Observing several kayaks making a beeline for the eastern side of the lake I wondered what did they know that we didn't. In hindsight there was probably less swell and less wind closer to the shore but we still made good time regardless of the amount of snaking our kayak was doing. Technically I was doing something wrong with my paddling as we kept heading off line requiring an adjustment every few strokes to re-aim the boat at where we wanted to be.

Rounding the headland after 8/10k we still had a fair whack to go but the wind was now coming behind us. We passed another team who were scrambling around a mini harbour. I thought looking for bonus points but possibly they were lost or looking  a toilet. Paddling on we spotted the tower which was our landmark and caught another team just as we swung into the slipway.

Mission accomplished!! We'd paddled the guts of 12 / 13km and had made good time pulling into Larkins Bar for a welcome cup of hot coffee and breakfast sandwich.

Section 1.3 Kayak - 3 hours 19mins.

Reading in Sequence? Then go to Episode II: The Protracted Beast

If you have followed the story thus far you will know that the assault on Moylussa and the Lough Derg paddle have been probably our best legs of the race this year. In all likelihood this is due to our familiarity with the area and freshness.

As you discovered once fatigue and lack of judgement started to creep in our gameplan fell apart somewhat. If you are just after joining the journey, don't worry I have not spoiled it for you, you are now aware and possibly have an insight to what was happening as we made our future decisions in the event.

In any event thank you for joining me, apologies for the length of the story but I feel it was necessary to gather my own experience of my first Adventure Race.

Team #TriHarder definitely acquitted itself well by all accounts and you will definitely be seeing a whole lot more of them in the future though I expect my race reports to be somewhat edited in the future!! :)

Bye for now.