Episode II: The Protracted Beast

The hardest part of a race report is rationalising the emotions that you felt during the race with what is perceived to be normal after the race.

It is very easy to let frustrations build up, especially in a long event and allow them cloud your judgement over what would be considered petty things in 'real-life'. Dealing effectively with these frustrations is one of the secrets to having a successful event team. If your team can 'get-over' the issues and move on without killing one another or bearing grudge then you have the makings of an awesome team regardless of the result.

Team #TriHarder is one of those teams.

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

The Second stage of The Ballyhoura Beast was one of these rollercoaster stages. It was destined to be our longest stage with time and stamina being leaked all over the roads and hills of Limerick and Tipperary.

Long before we hit Cahir, I think our race was effectively run. We lost so much time in Section 2 that we were always going to be under pressure and looking to compromise our race plan. At the same time I am not going to be hard on us, we are rookies, we make rookie mistakes. Like the young buck we are guilty of a certain overexhuberance and cockiness probably resulting from a spectacular Section 1.

Coming into Transition 1 we had our plan laid out. It was clear what each of us had to do. But first things first, get the breakfast buttys and coffee on board!!

Mike & Warren were getting and marking up the maps with control points for Section 2 & 3. Every detail was painstakingly transferred to our blank OSI maps. All the Mandatory Control Points (MCP's or Mx) as well as the Bonus  points (BCP's or Bx) were copied to our maps.

 

While the guys were doing this Kate & I assembled the bikes which had been packed into the boxes on Friday evening. Making sure each bike was back on its wheels, with helmet, spares and pumps attached a few quick cross checks with the guys to see if there was anything else they wanted from the bike boxes (spare shoes, clothing etc.) and then it was time to raid our food box to ensure we all had enough 'go-grub' for refuelling over the coming day.

It was now time to mark our route from M-point to M-point in numerical order and see if we could plot easy routes to grab the odd B-point along the way. We were eating and drinking the whole time, I was observing some of the other teams in transition and making mental notes of how smoothly they were operating. Being of a triathlon background we seemed to be ages in transition but it was commented on by some of the marshals that we seemed to be one of the best organised of all the teams they had seen so far this morning!! (Up go the peacock feathers!!)

2.5 hours later we were done and dusted heading out on the road on our bikes.

We were on familiar ground here. We had trained in this region and knew the route up Tountinna and the Graves of the Leinster Men.

Familiarity breeds contempt as they say, and this bit us hard later on.

We nailed the first M point even though we sailed past and had to turn back, the turning back in itself threw a team off our tails as they turned back too and went up a side road. Eagle eyed nav, Warren, spotted the dibber on a style into a field. We made it look like a peestop and horsed the bikes and men over the style into the field in jig time while the other team scampered up the road.

As we bi-hiked up over ditch and dyke we could hear the other team on the far side of the hedgerow on the road looking for the CP. We'd stolen a march!

I'm not sure of our bearings as I don't have the maps, but I believe this is known as Millennium Hill and we had no option but to push the bikes ahead of us. We were looking for the next CP which was on an old ruined cross.

This we found easily as there was only one ruined cross and the dipper was at the top of the ruin. A couple of teams were swarming up the base of the concrete structure and dealing with some vertigo issues. That's the CP at the top left hand side of the uppermost concrete structure.

Photo from Beast photographer Valerie O'Sullivan

The view from up here was awesome!

Nailing the CP we realised we jumped another team and headed quickly off to rattle down before heading up the back of Tountinna to the next MCP at the second lake. Bouncing across the bog we all quickly dibbed in before hopping on again to go down our team favourite descent.

Another team hesitated at the junction and we jumped ahead again, leading the way down. However, there was a twist!

The trail was closed off after a km or so and we were routed across country. Ah ha, so this is where we were warned about the ticks! A little bit of biking across what was rough boggy land and we decided to hump the bikes again for a while. I was hiking ahead of Warren and tracking a stream we came across a piece of red and white tape which normally marks the CP's. We tried to make sense of it and pushed on. Suddenly there were no bike tracks on the ground and a shout from behind had us turned around.

Mike & Kate had spotted that the tape was supposed to go across the path, not define it and that someone must have broken it in the night. We dropped down a bank to cross a stream and up the other side to start our descent down from M22 to get on the road for M23.

For some reason we started to go wrong from here.

Instead of a right turn to get straight to M23 we turned left and ended up a dead end chatting with a local lady who couldn't wrap her head around why we couldn't just cycle straight there rather than going around the way we were. Race rules meant we were very limited in the routes we were allowed take, avoiding main roads etc.

Leaving the helpful lady we went left instead of right and arrived at the underpass motorway bridge where the M23 CP was to be located. Or so we thought. We spent the best part of 20 minutes scrambling up and down the side of the motorway bridge buttresses looking for a CP. We had been so confident that we were on the right route, we didn't cross check. This was our mistake.

Referencing the railway line behind us we placed ourselves on the map, at the wrong bridge. Quickly plotting a route we got to where we were meant to be and the CP was exactly where it was meant to be.

Our biggest error was not learning from this. mistake and letting go of our local knowledge.

We had decided to go for a bonus point on Keeper Hill. This is a location for one of the Munster IMRA runs so I was curious about it too.

Starting up the hill we almost right away were faced with a 'Road Closed' sign and red & white tape across the trail. Inexperience shows and rather than querying it right away we went the detour! This lead to more discussion, investigation and backtracking until I noticed it was a 'Coillte' sign for the road closure.

These re-routings were in isolation relatively small, 20 mins here, 30 mins there. But at 20 km/hr we were racking up extra mileage that was unnecessary, burning calories that had to be replenished and nibbling away at morale constantly.

Eventually on the right track, we picked our way up Keeper Hill to some amazing views over the Tipperary vales. We biked up to roughly 500m where the trail went steeply up and decided to hump it from there. The team grabbed some food and dropped their packs, I'd volunteered my pack for the tracker so was bound to carrying it with me at all times. A mist was settling in at this height and we were looking at clouds above so on went the +RonhillUK Tempest pants and jackets and hiking we were off.

The ground was very rough but we made good time, hitting the peak and dipping in at the summit trig-point just as the heavens opened up around us.

We ran back down to the bikes. At some point in this, a combination of the weight of the pack, rough ground and slippery surface I hurt my left foot. No idea what or how it happened but a sudden sharp pain on the top of my foot told me something was not 100% anymore. My first thought was shoes tightly laced, but I'm wise to that so something else was wrong.

Hitting the bikes we hosed it down the side of Keeper Hill. Mike and I have the benefit of being especially attractive to gravity so we literally flew down the hill. :)

It took us something over 2 hours to get to the summit and less that 16 minutes to get back down again!!

However the exhilaration was short lived as we aimed to pick up a total of 3 bonus points while in this region B26, B27 and B28 with a rough loop linking all three.

We misread the map for B27, flew past the turn off and laid down rubber in the direction that we thought it was in. Realising our mistake we tried to reroute back, but misreading of the map lead us to retrace our route (the long way) and start from where we knew we went wrong. The rain was teeming down now and while we were snug and dry in the gear the weather tended to turn us introspective and quiet.

Eventually finding the location a quick spot by myself of the dipper lying on the ground at an unmarked post had us wondering if someone was gaming the event and removing or tampering with markers. It was definitely one you would be looking for for a while.

We abandoned the 3rd BCP as these were costing us far to much time to achieve. Move on.

Next stop for us was a water based special task in the Clare Glens. Apparently the only class 5 rapids in Ireland and as far as we were concerned a well deserved, hard earned break off the bikes. We had been over 10 hours in the saddle at this stage.

Section 2.1 Bike - 10hours 20 mins

Pulling in, we were off the bikes and transitioning into our wetsuits (kindly provided by +ORCATRIATHLON ) ready to launch ourselves over the rapids. We didn't chat much with the other teams, just glad to get out of wet clothing, hang it up for a while and jump in a river!!

Mike looking quite happy with the idea of canyoneering.

Free of the backpack we dibbed out and made our way to the Glens. We could see some teams leaving the bottom of the rapids and as we made our way to the starting area we met a team walking down towards us. They informed us that the river was being closed as rain was causing flash flooding.

A quite team decision to go to the start anyway to get the official word meant that we were actually dibbed in at the task before being sent back without having any fun :(

There was some confusion as we were the last team allowed to go up to the start but yet we lost a fair bit of time on the task while newly arriving teams were being sent on without stopping, changing or hiking to the task. These teams were being short timed by 2 hours and advised to be complete by 4pm on Sunday, rather than 6pm as a result. We argued that it was unfair for us to now lose 2 hours and face a penalty for missed task despite having turned out for it. Anyway, one for later!

From Beast of Ballyhoura Facebook - this is what we missed.

Easing back into the wet gear we were back on the bike for the next leg. We were about to have some fun with a river anyway.

From the Clare Glens it was to be a straight run through the next Mandatory CP's. We made it look hard.

Learning from our last episode with signage we ignored the next 'Road Closed' sign and ploughed on ahead. Even with signs like 'Bridge Out' we figured it can't be that bad really. And to be honest we were right. We even had a mini 'Killinascully' episode with some locals who advised us that our colleagues had just gone ahead of us and suggested to the neighbour (who was sending us back around again!!) that she should really go and watch as it was "something else to see!!"

Rounding the bend, sure enough the road was closed and the bridge was out. Did it stop us? HELL NO!!! We'd enough backtracking done so no it was forward motion only! Time to hump the bikes again but this was easy, we now had a system. Mike goes ahead, jumps up, Warren passes a bike up and follows then Kate goes up and I pass the remaining bikes up to the willing hands. Onwards we fly!!

Shortly after this we again made a mistake. Turning right instead of left we ended up facing a main road. Reversing our tracks again we bypassed the turn and did the same thing. If you look at the tracked route it makes sense. We came in from lop left and should have gone out top right but for some reason we added the loopy bit at the bottom. This cost us another hour ~20km of biking.

All told by the time we reached the Special Task 2.4 at M34 we'd a heap of time on the bike to be faced with a shooting task which we couldn't do on account of the wetness hitting the guns. Looking at the photos most of the teams hit this task in daylight. We were up here on top of another summit in the middle of the night. It was after midnight!!

Section 2.3 Bike - 6 hours 4 mins.

Leaving the CP we took a wrong turn and very nearly dibbed into a Penalty CP before realising the mistake and backtracking to the correct trail.

It was nasty up here. Cold, windswept, mucky, nasty wet sticky trails. we just wanted down off the hill. Again the gravity boys lead out the descent though this was more of a slide down in the dark and Mike showed us how not to do a stoppy. Out over the handlebars for a facefirst landing in a caressing bed of heather. We had to move fast or he'd be asleep!!

Coming off the hill we bumped into what looked like three or four teams working together. To me they just looked lost and with one of the guys taking the hump with another and refusing to move on we just went around and carried on.

When we realised that we were now being tracked we went 'dark' and switched off the red backlights. These were county lanes, barely blacktopped and it was the middle of the night. I wasn't worried about traffic, I didn't want to lead teams to CP's.

I felt strong on the bike for the first time. I was leading the team and trying to encourage the guys to draft off my wheel. I remarked to Mike at one point that I had no idea what happened, what was making the legs go round, but let's make the most of it while it lasted. But now we see patience running out.

While I thought I was doing good for everyone. I avoided looking round to see where the guys were as my lamp would affect their night vision but instead would call out names every few minutes like a mother hen clucking at her chicks. This in hindsight sounds condescending, not what I intended, and after a few solid km's I was roasted for powering off on the bike and dropping everyone.

The main thing was we hit our night CP's, we got on the tail of a pro team at M41 and after I explained what I was trying to do on the bike made good time to the Transition Zone at M42.

Dropping the bikes at the boxes we headed inside to the hall for a hot drink and some grub.

Section 2.5 Bike - 4 hours 9 minutes

There were a lot of errors made, over confidence, map reading, orienteering, even just finding ourselves was a problem from time to time. There were a lot of positives too. We held it together, we didn't get too disheartened, we didn't throw in the towel or start blaming each other, we're not about to do it now either.

We are learning a hell of a lot through this journey. Some we will share, some we will hide away as future strategy gains ;)

For now a little break, a hot drink and possibly a nap before hitting the water stages - Episode III: The Beastly River

Thanks for reading.