Episode III: The Beastly River

Ok, just to be clear, I'm writing this race report in reverse order or to be honest in order of decreasing pain and frustration. Like everyone who took part, I want to go out on a high with the Beast of Ballyhoura.

Team #TriHarder were are an awesome team and I don't want to be taking away from the performance.

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

Arriving into the village of Golden (M42) sometime around 5am on Sunday we literally dropped our bikes beside the boxes in transition and promptly scattered.

Some went to the toilet, some went to sleep, some organised food, we just went our separate ways for a while. There was no real discussion about any of this, it just happened.

It took us 10 mins of wandering around until we settled in a team area. With the food box at our feet, some warm tea and coffee to wash down Rocky Road biscuit and other 'pick-you-up' grub, we formulated a quick plan before Mike and I stretched out for 15 mins powernap, It wasn't really sleep as other teams were trotting around in close proximity to my head, but all too soon I was aware of Kate kicking my feet and telling me to get a move on.

This section was to be a straight run down the river Suir to Cahir but we still had to pack the bikes away for the last leg and prepare the kayaks for the river.

Kate and I tackled the kayaks, attaching and adjusting the backrests which we had bought. I found paddles that weren't cracked (it was a near miss as I discovered one of the paddles was broken just as we were setting off so I changed both to be safe) and we packed away the bikes making sure that everything that was needed for the trekking stage was safely in the bags rather than the boxes.

Back inside to roust the guys out, they'd been rearranging packs, food box and generally sorting gear out.

All in we spend almost 2 hours fluttering about with transition. In hindsight we could have eaten on the kayaks taking it turn about to rest, hell we could even have napped in rotation too. I'd like to see this sort of transition (where no mapping is required) to be heading south of 45 mins in future races.

We made a call to wear the wetsuits on account of rumours that we would be traversing a few weirs. It was a good call as it turns out!

Entering the river via the slipway across the road (we'd to hump the kayaks over the road) the two boys headed off with a slick launch. Kate and I were a little more cautious this time and I waited til she was sitting before launching and landing myself into the stern seat.

First obstacle was navigating a bridge. The lads were ahead and straight away they ran aground on some shallow stuff around the base of the bridge supports. Kate and I are no expert kayakers by any stretch of the imagination but we very quickly got used to reading the flow of the river and spotting submerged rocks and reeds by the way the river flowed over them. We immediately adjusted course and shot through the nearside where flow was quickest and for the first time ever got a big lead on the guys!! :)

We settled nicely into the flow of the river and realising it was very shallow in places we found a rhythm of speeding the boat up and then bum shuffling the boat over the shallow rocky places where they was no way around. This was quite funny to witness I would imagine as once we heard the faint rub of a rock under the boat, both of us would lean back and throw ourselves violently forward in the boat whilst simultaneously scooching our butts forward too adding momentum to the boat and scooting it over the obstacles.

Unfortunately it also lead to more than one dunking at a weir too!!

As we got the flow of the river and realised where best to paddle, generally in the middle, we would sight through the curves ahead cutting as straight a line through and around the meandering river as possible.

It was a beautiful morning and we spent quite a bit of time 'oohing' and 'aahing' at the sight of the trees overhanging, the perspective from the river and generally enjoying the change of scenery for a while. After 2 hours we had enough though!!

Chatting with the guys they seemed quite relaxed. Mike and I were to get the seats with beer holders and reclining backrests but somehow the order was mucked up!! Warren had his feet up, so all was good.

I knew Kate's wrist was sore so seeing as how I was aided by the current I suggested that she rest up and that it was only at obstacles that her extra paddling power was really needed but I think she actually nodded off a couple of times and jumped back to attention & started paddling when she jolted awake!! :)

A couple of inadvertent dunkings didn't help her ability to trust me at the 'wheel'. To be honest I'm going to shirk the blame for the several capsizing and suggest that it was all a team effort.

Each one of the 5 (give or take) dunkings resulted from a weir traversing mostly.

We'd pick our line. Speed up to the weir and bottom out. My teammate (not to name names) would get fierce excited at the idea of going 'WHEEEE!!!!' that she would immediately throw her weight forward (butt scooting) over the weir and thus lift the back end of the boat. My inability to straighten the boat in the current usually had us sliding sideways down the weir and flipping right over as soon as the nose of the boat dipped in.

An example of a weir - Photo from Sleepmonsters.com

This was great fun the first and maybe the second time. But by 3 it was wearing thin. Our fourth over was a spectacular one. We cleared the weir nicely but over corrected the boat which spat us into the fast current along the side of the river which swung the boat sideways to the flow and right into an over hanging tree on the left bank. Grabbing overhead branches did nothing but accelerate our exit from the boat and as I was bungee corded into the well with my bag between my feet, Kate usually went swimming while I held onto the boat and righted it.

As we headed into the 3rd hour of paddling we were getting tired. We were warm and dry, the sun was peaking out and we had the wetsuits on, but our feet were well and truly soaked, as were our gear bags and everything inside bar that which was in the drybag.

Approaching the next weir we heard a shout from the bank where two marshals were waiting to give further instructions.

This was a big drop off. The line to take was left of the big pile of branches and right of the little pile. Give it socks and go hard.

The guys went first. Over they went and into the drink. We followed swiftly in their paths, and sure enough went for a big swim. The weir was high and the flow swift so finding my depth and righting the boat with heavy wet bags inside wasn't easy. Kate was off for a drift downstream hanging onto her paddle and had to be gathered by Mike & Warren.

Back in the boat we were immediately faced with move overhanging trees and obstructions in a fast moving tight channel. Yep, over we went again :(

The water was shallower so we got sorted and in again and fed up now, the fun was long over we just wanted out at this stage.

We caught up with another team of four who were similarly having conversations with the trees on the river bank and bypassed them for a bit, though we essentially paddled along together for a while as one big group towards the final obstacle. (Well second final, we had to find the exit too!)

Approaching the town of Cahir we saw a great bridge ahead with the Castle in the background.

We also saw another bloody weir!!

A canoeist was waiting at the top for us and his job was to point out the line for us. From our vantage point we could make out the top of a helmet below so we knew this was a big drop. Again the guys went first, over the top and they nailed it!

We followed quickly but resignedly anticipating the usual. We hit the top of the weir, Kate did her butt scooting thing, I did my losing control thing, the boat slewed sideways and over we went, bobbing and weaving, rocking and rolling, jiddering and juddering. The nose of the boat dived in. Kate all but disappeared in front of me. The arse of the boat went skew-ways, we over corrected, and over corrected again and then we were out. We nailed it!!! We didn't flip!!! Talk about keeping the best to last!!

This simple save, not getting dunked was like winning the Lotto. It is the little things that matter and with a happy heart we paddled on under the bridge and right past the slipway!

There was no marshal so it was an easy miss. Mike spotted it on the left behind a downed tree so we paddled back up stream (30m of so) and we exited onto the slip after a quick scout to 
verify the exit.

We'd a big drag with the boats across the park from the slip to the Castle carpark where the marshals were waiting offering hot coffee and collecting gear.

All told we'd spend a minimum of 3 hours on the river this morning.

Checking the packs, our gear was saturated! Pulling off my shoes to remove the wetsuit I checked the insole and found that the river had filled the shoes with grit so clearing out what I could I made the decision to change shoes at this point. The dry +Mizuno Running Hyate served me admirably before so I'd no hesitation switching out my soaked PureGrit. (The issue I would later discover was gritty socks.)

Packing away the wetsuits I gathered all the wet gear that the team was discarding and stuffed both the dry bag and the wetsuit bag with all the soaked items. It would save us from carrying it for the next few hours.

Bidding adieu to the race crew we set off in the direction of the Galtees. It was a bit surreal walking through the town on Sunday mass-time with loads of tourists and pedestrians around we felt like we should be stopping for a '99 or something and admiring the Castle views.

But not today. Off we went in search of the Galtee Foothills and the next stage of our adventure. First we had to get out of the town!!

Episode IV: The Beast Bites Back