ITERA Ireland
Coastal Raiders
Rob Howard / 16.08.2016
The course for ITERA 2016 is tour de force of magnificent coastal scenery. Fiords, vast cliffs, islands, sea paddles and beaches wait for the teams and the mountain stages will almost all offer sea views while including knife edge ridges and hidden loughs. There is a cycling section across The Burren, a unique area of limestone scenery, a show cave to visit, and some very special river kayaking and canoeing to complete the route.
The course has been planned by Ivan Park with help and assistance from many others, and Race Director James Thurlow said, “We wanted to showcase Ireland, not just Kerry, which is a beautiful place, but there is much more to see. I was amazed and to be honest slightly embarrassed that I’d not really explored this area myself when I live so close.”
He added; “We have a long and a short course as always, and historically 4 or 5 teams complete the long course but we have opened the window for this to around 36 hours so we hope more, maybe 10, can do the full distance. One thing I would say is if you are sure you can’t make the full distance look at where to cut the distance before you start. If you try to hang on and hang on and just get as far as possible before moving onto the short course you will most likely end up exhausted and not finishing at all. “
Other general advice was to think about how to cope with racing on after getting wet. “How you manage getting wet is important and you will get wet, in the cave, coasteering and when getting off the ‘ITERA ferry’. When you come out you won’t have access to kit bags so think about your strategy and how you will cope ahead of time. Otherwise you could get too cold and have to pull out.”
The course begins at Westport House before the big sea paddle through the islands of Clew Bay and all the way around the coast and into Killary Fiord and the Killary Adventure Centre, where the first trek begins, crossing the Maumturk mountains. (This is the first short course option.) The paddling then continues though the thousand islands of Lough Corrib and on to the historic port city of Galway.
Thurlow said; “Navigation between the islands in Lough Corrib will be tricky at night and we avoided putting checkpoints in there as teams might never come out again!” There is a portage a Galway (because of a broken lock gate) and then more paddling across Galway Bay to Kinvarra.
This is the first time teams pick up their bikes, following the Wild Atlantic Way southwards. After riding into and out of Aillwee Caves, teams ride across the exposed limestone of The Burren, along the tops of the cliffs of Moher where there is a sheer 700 foot drop to the sea, to reach the ‘ITERA Ferry’. This is a fast boat ride with their bikes across the huge Shannon Estuary, and once over the far side the riding continues with a stop at the coasteering stage.
At both the caving and coasteering (and elsewhere) Thurlow made it clear any missed checkpoint or activity would result in the team moving to the short course – all of the team have to do everything if they are to remain on the full course!
The race has now reached the Dingle Peninsula and the route cycles and treks around it, crossing Brandon Mountain on foot before continuing the ride to arrive at the coastal crossing at Inch. This was going to be a 1.5km swim between two sand spits in tidal water but to the relief of the racers has now been changed to a short paddle!
The final trek is a long one across Macgillycuddy’s Reeks and Ireland’s highest peak with a final canoe paddle stage to the finish across the Lough Leane to Killarney and the finish at the INEC. (Due to a late restriction imposed on the race this is a dark zone, so any teams arriving in the hours of darkness will be timed out and continue to the finish in the morning.)
It’s going to be an amazing course and some of it may be weather dependent, but as things stand conditions are looking good for the first sea paddle tomorrow.
You can see the route on the ITERA Live site at http://www.itera.ie/live/
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