Dingle Adventure Race
Inaugural Dingle Adventure Race
Paul Mahon / 15.06.2010
Out of transition he set a relentless pace and held a convincing lead at the summit over all bar the Kerry based relay team Sea Eagles who's runner John Lenihan set the fastest hill run time of the day - Unsurprising as he holds the distinction of being a former World Mountain Running Champion in the early 90's. Their relay team went on to lead the remainder of the race for a convincing victory in a time of 3:03:01 over their nearest rivals Brandon Bay Bandits (3:30:59) and Let's Call The Search Off (3:42:58).
On the early stages of the mountain O'Brien continued to show good form in second place until the rougher and steeper ground in the beautiful but steep corrie valley closer to the summit. Here Mahon moved into second whilst behind him the pre-race favourite Diarmuid Collins (Defence Forces) made steady progress to be in third at the summit whilst O'Brien dropped several places on the mountain before recovering with the second fastest road run split of the day to regain 5th position in the end .
By the time he reached the transition before the 13km road run Collins was in close second just 15 sec behind the long time leader Murphy and soon after the transition took over the lead whilst less than 2 minutes behind behind Adrian Hennessy (Kilfanane AC) took over second ahead of Mahon on the early stages of the road run section as Murphy faded from podium contention to an eventual 6th place finish.
Collins who is known particularly for his running prowess built up an unassailable lead winning by almost 6 minutes in a time of 3:16:11. Behind him Hennessy held a slim lead on Mahon until close the end of the road run section where Mahon regained second and went onto build a gap of over 4 minutes by the end of the kayak section at Dingle Marina finishing in 3:22:05 mins and 3:26:43 respectively with Brian Mc Kechnie making steady progress throughout to finish 4th in 3:33:53mins .
In the ladies section recent WAR Sport winner Emma Donlon led all the way for the win in a time of 4:08:20 with a gap of less than 3 mins in the end on second place which was taken by Kinsale based New Zealand native Liz Tye who's case for victory was certainly not helped by her use of a full suspension MTB on the road cycle across the Conor Pass. Donlon's strong climb up Mt Brandon proved decisive in the end where she held a 10 min cushion over the chasing pair of Tye and Joanne Ní Shuilleabháin.
Tye was pressed for second most of the way by Ní Shuilleabháin only pulling away on the final road run and kayak sections to finish in times of 4:11:01 and 4:24:40 mins respectively.
In the Pairs event the winners were Fergus Mc Carthy and Miloz Wojcik in a time of 3:51:34 ahead of Cathal Geary and Pat Boylan in 4:03:19 and the Grounds for Divorce mixed pairing of Cormac Mc Donnell and Susie Mitchell in 4:25:44.
The good weather certainly contributed to the enjoyment of this well run event in a super scenic setting.
Full results now available at http://www.dingleadventurerace.com/
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