ITERA Ireland
Killarney Welcomes ITERA
Rob Howard / 15.08.2016
Racers have been arriving in Killarney today, ahead of the registration and briefing for ITERA Ireland tomorrow (Tuesday). It’s been a glorious summer’s day of clear skies, sunshine and gentle breezes so the teams travelling to the Killarney have had an early chance to view the Irish scenery at its best. They will surely be hoping for more weather like this for the next week ... but that’s unlikely with the Atlantic Maritime climate on the west of Ireland!
The town is one of the best known tourist locations in Ireland and was bustling with visitors from around the world today – a real contrast to the remote and rugged areas the teams will visit. The crowds are to be expected as the town was featured in the top ten of world-wide tourist destinations earlier this year (voted for on website Trivago) and its lakes, parks, and mountains provide a magnificent backdrop. The mountains include Carrauntoohil, the highest peak in Ireland at 1038m, which I guess most teams will expect to feature on the course ahead.
If they are guessing where they will go there are plenty of options as the whole of South West Ireland is composed of many rugged mountains ranges rising about the pastoral countryside, on the coast there are huge cliffs, fiords and deep bays, and throughout the region there are thousands of rivers and loughs.
They don’t need to guess for much longer however as teams will be given their maps at registration in the morning, well ahead of the race briefing, which takes places in the race HQ at 14.00. They will then sort out their equipment in the rest of the day and have an early morning transfer to the start on Wednesday morning, ahead of the race start at midday.
Everyone will gather tomorrow at The Killarney Conference Centre (INEC) just outside the town, where there are ample facilities and a huge amount of space for preparation. (The venue hosts large concerts, which is one reason the race starts and finishes mid week.)
During the race there will be live tracking and regular updates of video, photos and news and you can follow the live race page at http://www.itera.ie/live/
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