ITERA Ireland
The Day After The Night Before
Rob Howard / 18.08.2016
Day one of ITERA was rough for all. Big seas and bad weather meant there were tough times for all the competitors, wherever they were in the race, and for the organising team too as they managed events. Teams pulled out early, changes had to be made to look after everyone as the race field quickly became very spread out and logistics plans adapted.
At transition one this morning, where the first cut-off of the race was at 05.00, there was time to take stock and reorganise as the slowest teams came in. There was also some drama around the cut-off time as teams rushed to make it through.
The Japanese team Fujin Raijin arrived at 04.55 and some frantic sign language told them that they had to be OUT of transition by 05.00 to stay on the full course – amazingly they did it! At 05.01 they were sat outside surrounded by their half packed bags and eating the food they’d grabbed, but they completed a 4 and a half minute transition. (Unfortunately it looks like they subsequently also took the wrong route.)
Not so lucky were the US team Strong Machine. They’d already had a longer trek than expected in the middle of stage one when a river crossing turned them back, and were not aware of the cut-off. Someone told them and they were running with the Japanese team into TA1 trying to make it, but took a wrong turn at the last minute. One of Ireland’s biggest multisport races, Gael Force West, takes place from here on Saturday and instead of following the green race arrows into transition they followed some of the markers from that race. By the time they realised it was too late.
They were in transition this morning with the other teams who had missed the cut-off, Jolly Adventurers, Adventurers Assemble and Lakes Crusaders, who were last to arrive. After some discussion they were given the option to carry on with the next trek, which Strong Machine and Adventurers Assemble took, though they won’t be ranked above the Japanese team now.
Elsewhere around transition there were also some racers from teams who had pulled out yesterday. Two of the Nile Swimmers team had pulled out injured, while the others continued on the short course as a pair, and Frank Nash and Bryan Mathias of team A.R.S.E were also there. Nash told me the dramatic story of their withdrawal from the race yesterday.
“We decided to come in to shore on the paddle but got caught in the surf near some cliffs and got into difficulty. First the girls fell in, then in trying to right them we all ended up in the water getting thrown around below the rocks. I ended up hanging on to one of the boats and the bags, then the paddles fell in and I grabbed those, but in the end Bryan just shouted to me to let it all go and get myself out. It was still a wet and committing climb out as a slip would have taken us back into the water. Then we saw the other boat fall back in and Sinead on the shore with blood all over her white bib from bashing her head in a fall.”
The team pushed the rescue button on their tracker and got help from a house nearby and assistance was there in minutes from the race, coastguard and ambulance service, taking Sinead Keogh off to hospital to be checked out and looked after.
Nash and Mathias were looking to move forward on the course and then were co-opted as marshals to go and redirect teams on the next trekking stage. This had already been shortened by taking out CP5, but the decision was made this morning to also remove CP4 as well as the leading teams are moving more slowly than expected.
It is a calm morning with not much rain but the cloud on the hills is low and visibility is poor. The rivers are also high so crossings will be difficult on the trek, and beyond that teams will be back in the kayaks once again, paddling on Lough Corrib.
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