The Cappanalea National Adventure Marathon
Quirks in Kerry
Greg Clarke / 10.09.2003
I knew it was an annual three day staged adventure race that had been running in Ireland for ten years and was due to be held in Co Kerry on 22 – 24th August. I was told that it had a few quirks and that I had to experience it to understand it. There were sixteen teams of four of any mix and as with most years it had been over subscribed which is not bad considering there is no advertising for the race. Eoin was organising the team so all I had to do was turn up with my usual kit box but with one week to go Eoin rang to inform me that he had a slight problem as he had just fallen off his bike and broke his arm but he was determined that I should experience the event and by the following Tuesday he had a team of four put together. The fact that we did not know each other would be just a minor issue.
The Cappanalea National Adventure Marathon as it is known is organised by Donal manager of the Cappanalea Outdoor Education Centre on the Killorglin side of Co Kerry just above Lough Caragh and their brand new centre was the venue for this years event. The building had just opened and the fire alarm would go off several times each day and even the bed sheets were still in their wrappers. Yes beds! This was an odd start and to top it all after registration on Friday morning we sat down to soup for lunch. But once I had filled my gut Donal made an announcement that there would be a briefing in ten minutes with a further five to get on the bus at about 1.00 p.m.
The race was to start with a mountain run and we were given the details with grid references, course description and even an enlarged photocopy of the route with a hard to miss line. Punches, marshals and flags kept us on course. So with little notice we were off and apart from the food repeating there were no problems. When we arrived at the end of this section we were directed to a lane to sit down and were introduced to the kit barrels we packed earlier.
On the way off the mountain we could see some canoes in Lough Caragh below but as we sat resting in the sun we knew nothing about what was to follow. Soon we were off again but this time it was a little more confusing. Each team of four were given a Canadian canoe, a long kayak and a short kayak (play boat) we had to proceed to a point on the lake and split up, with two people heading to a nearby technical bike section and the other two would head on a little further to a climb/abseil section.
SleepMonsters
