The Turas – AR World Series Race
Tom Gibbs
15th – 21st June
I always like a journey that involves a ferry – it adds a certain element of exploration, that just driving or even flying seems to lack. So getting off the ferry in Rosslare, it felt like we were heading into the unknown. A nice drive across southern Ireland revealed some tremendous landscapes, especially as we approached the mountainous southwest. The home of The Turas AR World Series event.
Substantial prize money had attracted a small but select field, including 10 of the best teams in the World. The race would be fiercely competitive.
The pre-event registration and general faff was kept to a minimum that allowed us to relax a bit in the beautiful surroundings of the Dingle Peninsular. All to soon however we were up at 4am to start the prologue. As a team we had decided to take the prologue pretty steady as historically any prologue deficits tend to be sat out at uncritical points on the course. True to form a lot of the top teams charged off up the first MTB climb, with us tucked on the back. The first climb topped out along a craggy ridge and a great moorland descent to the transition. Just before this we suffered a sidewall split on one of our tubeless wheels, which lost us a few minutes. In transition to the run over Brandon Mountain we were 25 minutes down on the leaders. We were graced lovely views of this enigmatic peak and after an hour were running down to the end of the first part of the prologue.
In true Irish style, we were bussed to a pub for some food before the 2nd part of the prologue – a short kayak paddle back to Dingle. The weather was superb and the seas flat – which suited our tippy boats and weak paddling. Coming into Dingle we had lost a total of 40 minutes on the lead team over the whole prologue, but importantly we had not used up too much energy.
After a long bus transfer to Schull on the Mizen Peninsular, far too much food and a good night’s sleep we were ready for the start of the main race. The route was to take in all the 4 remaining peninsulas in South-west Ireland.
The weather forecast was not good, with winds picking up – not what we wanted for the first paddle. The course was altered to keep it more sheltered. After a few hours and some rough seas we had worked out a sneaky portage to avoid the most exposed headland. We got back into a maelstrom in the next bay and kept the boats upright to the next portage. The good Swedish team, Lundhags, had extended the portage to miss out the bay – a tactic that gained them a lot of time.
We finished off the last sketchy bit of the paddle and were glad to be on dry land, and also happy to be within an hour of the leaders. Next up was a very technical orienteering stage which we completed without too much difficulty, but proved to be a real killer for slower team who had to do it in the dark with heavy rain and mist, one team taking 7 hours for a section that took us only 2.
Now we had caught a couple of teams up and were on our bikes and heading out to the Sheep’s Head Peninsular Lighthouse. A very dramatic spot, especially in the wet and windy weather conditions. We then had a long ride, mainly tarmac with the odd off road to the beautifully situated Gugan Barra hotel. We arrived about 1am and had to sit out our penalty before we grabbed a few hours sleep. Next stage was the longest and hardest of the race – a 40-mile trek over high trackless ground of the Beara peninsular. At the end we knew that we had a short swim then a rest until the following morning, so we set out at 5am to have a long steady trek and save what energy we could for the next day. The mist made the navigation tricky, aided by the dire weather. It wasn’t until the last 10 miles that the rain eased and the sun came out. Something that stayed with us to the end of the race.
The swim across Killmakillogue Bay was fun and frustrating at the same time. We could see the finish, symbolising rest and food, all the way but it took a long time to get there. We arrived about 10:30pm and quickly got changed and had some hot food – chips are fantastic when you are really hungry!
5am came all to quickly and we, as the 5th team in, started out on the next rowing stage at 5:20am. This was one of the highlights of the race. Rowing across to the Iveragh peninsula in a local racing rowing boat with our Cox, Paddy. He encouraged us (mainly with coarse language) – “row you pussies”, came the cry, and as we worked pretty hard “that’s quarter power, now show me half power”. It really made the stage special, and the 5am restart brought the field back together.
We arrived in Sneem on our final peninsular, and then were quickly onto our bikes and off on an excellent ride via a fine offroad section. The highlight was the views of the impressive Skellig Michael Island from the Headland. After a vicious road climb (used as a hill climb by local roadies judging by the writing on the road) we arrived in Portmagee for the run on Valencia Island. By now the weather was great, the sun out and we could really work on our suntans!
At the end of the run we had a short paddle section, once round lighthouse and the rough water we had the tide with us and we flew through the section. At transition the organisers told us that we had an extra zipline to do on the bike. For us the diversion would add about an hour, but for some teams make or break their whole race. All to soon we were back on our bikes and to the base of the monster bike push – plenty of swearing at the officials was to be heard as we pushed bikes up a 700m climb for 90 minutes. The descent down was fast and over all to quickly. At the bottom we were greeted by a large gathering of people who were having a party – all to coincide with the race.
This was a huge feature of the race. The organisers had smartly put on a whole festival to follow the race route, allowing locals and tourists to see the racers in action. At every transition you would see lots of locals all with a friendly word and smiles on their faces. It was the best reception I have ever had.
We were soon to the abseil and only 1 hour down on 4th spot. However little did we know that 2 teams had missed the abseil and were having to return to complete it – something that cost them 3 hours and a chance of winning the race.
Rushing to use the fading light, we finished off the last bike of the race via a nasty little bike push over a col, here the wheels came off our charge a little. Tiredness in the team meant a short nap, followed by the first nav error of the race and we had allowed the team, Lundhags, behind to catch us up.
What followed is classic AR racing. Two teams in Canadian Canoes on a complex series of lakes, in the dark. Conscious we were leading the other team through the various channels we went to silent running, turning off all our torches, hiding our glowsticks and keeping very quiet. We were gambling that they would miss the channel and we could slip by. Unfortunately they found the channel and we were then trying to catch up.
At the transition to the final section, a run over the Macgillicuddy Reeks, Ireland’s highest mountains, we were only a few minutes down on Lundhags. It was now a race to the Jumar, and we tried a different descent line that didn’t pay off. Now were we 30 minute behind Lundhags and we gave chase.
We chased down a team in front, which we thought were Lundhags, only to discover that it was a team on the short course, something that knocked the stuffing out of us. However, keen to finish and get to a restaurant to eat some food we pushed on, finally finishing about 6pm on the Friday evening. Straight after the finish it was into Killarney and a huge Pizza followed by Ice cream!
In the end we finished in 85 hours and 6th place. A great achievement in such a very competitive field, taking the scalps of Adventure NZ, Buff, Keen and others. With a little more luck on the last night we could off pulled up to 4th. We would like to thank our sponsors for their support – Aberdeen Asset Management, Marin Bikes, USE Exposure Lights, Paramo and Helly Hansen.
