Padraig Marrey personal report. Ballinrobe man Padraig Marrey beat off over 3,000 racers to win the Gaelforce adventure race last Saturday
Gaelforce is the biggest adventure race in the World of its kind. There are 10 or 12 adventure races in Ireland and the winners of them all were in Gaelforce. It was great to have them all down and try to compete against them.
This was my fourth year doing it. I came third the first year. In 2008 was leading the race at Belclare (6k to go) when I got a puncture and got overtaken to get 4th and I did poorly last year and finished fourth again. This year it all came together but this was very close, very tough race.
For people outside of Westport Gaelforce may not be a big event but for Westport it means full hotels, B&B, restaurants and is now the biggest weekend of the year for the town. Westport has all the attractions and is known as the adventure capital of Ireland, with Croagh Patrick looming in the horizon it’s no wonder, as any aspiring athlete knows once you see it you want to climb it.
As a postman working on the town of Westport I get bombarded by locals asking are you going to win it (GF) this year, what can you say… I will try or i will do my best are the usual ones.. So no pressure then…., the last 3 years going into work on the Monday was TORTURE you can make all the excuses but it still makes no difference, you are asked how did you get on (remember most of them know already) I say 4th and the next thing they say what happened, not realising that Gael force is a savage race with well recognised athletes competing from all over Ireland and abroad.
The 2010 Gael force had a bigger entry than normal with 3000 participants broken into 10 waves of 300 all going off at 30minute intervals, the hype in Westport was even more intense with the organising of the 4 day adventure festival around the Gaelforce race which meant virtually everyone knew a big race was coming to town, locals trained for the event like never before and the talk was of times set up the ascent of the Reek, local guy Anthony Murray was leading the way with 22minutes, followed closely by Castlebar man Tom O Dowd, decent times were even more impressive with times recorded at 8minutes by the Castlebar man, that’s up and down the Reek in 30minutes just unreal or unbelievable I thought..
One day about 6 weeks before Gaelforce I asked Anthony Murray to come out training with us (Noel Brady and myself) to see what he was like, we did our usual session leave Westport on bike and cycled out the 10miles to the back of the Reek via the bog road, he was strong on the road but on the off road section he fell behind 1 nill to me I said to myself, up the reek we go and Anthony takes off running I said to myself he won’t last long but to my surprise he keeps going and is on the zig zag track and still running, I pick up the pace to try and hold him but to no avail, by the summit he has put 2.30 into me and 4.30 into Noel Brady, he summated in 22.30minutes saying he was held up by tourists who generally crawl up and usually take the best lines, 1 all, on the descent I take off followed closely by Noel by the bottom we had taken 1 minute out of Anthony back to 2- 1, then we cycled over the last section of the course known as the Skelp, its a rough off road track, on the steep decent I open a good gap so knew I have an advantage here again 3-1, back in town we discuss the session known that if Anthony gets to the Reek with the front runners he could beat them all on the Reek, time to start training…..
(August 21st) The alarm goes of at 4.30am, I am used to the early mornings from the Post but on a Saturdays I usually like to sleep in to try and catch up with lost sleep from during the week, not so this morning. Eat my usual breakfast of Porridge and a cup of coffee and 2 pancakes, bring all the bits and pieces that one needs before the start of a race like water, toilet roll, albas oil, and some spare food etc. Because of where I live it’s easier to drive to the start so my partner Mary Mulchrone who is a past 2 time lady winner of the Gaelforce drives my brother and a mate to the start. We arrive at 6am the buses are already here and the competitors start to fill up the car park in front of Galssaun beach. A short run and a few stretches and next I know its nearly start time, on the line is Peter O Farrel, Paul Mahon and the other pre race favourites, you say to yourself they look fit, (they are probably saying the same thing about you to themselves you hope!!!) straight away the usual pre race banter starts, Mahon kicks off by slagging myself and Peter’s kits, we hit back with some smart comments of our own, this is all tactics but it helps to break the tension, if you are too tense its not good so I try to always look and keep relaxed as if I was only out for a training session, the others sometimes don’t know how to react….
The final race instructions are given and then its the sound of the start horn, from the off the pace is fast and you start thinking maybe I haven’t put in enough, I usual start fast but today I found I was back about 15 places, Rory Geraghty was just in front of me and I settle a bit.
Anthony Murray from Carrowholly is leading and has opened a nice gap on 6 others who are trying to close him down, still no sign of Peter O Farrel and Eoin Keiths, these men are the guys to beat in these races, I know they would be near the front at the end of the race so didn’t panic. So its all going to plan so far, the ferocious pace that Anthony has set; has the alarms going off , he starts to pull away, the Calvary is starting to mount, first Eoin Keiths comes up along side me and ups the pace I find that I cannot hold him on the cross country section then Peter arrives just as we start the trail section of the run, I hopped in behind him and we start to pull the gap down, first we catch Rory Geraghty then Eoin starts to come into view, 2k later and we can see the front of the race, I said to myself I am going well here as Peter was getting into his stride, I decided that I would run shoulder to shoulder with him to see his reaction but he keeps ploughing away, on the rise to the main Clifden road O’Farrell from Dublin ups the pace again, I am distanced but not badly as there is only 2k to go to the kayak.
I was in eighth place going into the kayak to cross Killary Harbour and I was fourth getting out of the water. The short bog run to Delphi was hard but I held my own, At the start of the bike section I was back to fifth and could see the 4 guys ahead, O FarreI, Keiths, Murray and Collins I pass Murray first, then Collins up the climb of Shreffry after the dangerous descent , where i nearly crash on a tricky corner, I catch Keiths who looked to be suffering, I caught up with O’Farrell coming into Drummin and I tried to get away from him straight away but he was strong and reacted, I couldn’t believe it , so decided to try again on the steep little hill after Drummin, this time I kicked as hard as I could not looking back till I reached the top of the climb, he was dropped (thank God I said to myself) but I only managed to put 90 seconds into him by the Reek, I only heard this afterwards and known how good of a hill runner Peter is, I would have expected I would have needed 3 minutes.
On the Reek I was in bits, usually I can jog up the first section but all I could do was walk fast, I decided to go straight up rather than using the path this was even more tortuous, I looked to the left and I could see O’Farrell and Tom O’Dowd from Castlebar coming up and closing fast on me, I had to dig really deep and managed to hold them off to the last section of the cone. When they passed I actually thought to myself it was all over.
O’Farrell was a minute ahead at the top, Tom was 100m ahead of me, (Every step you take on the way down the Reek could break your ankle or leg but that does not enter your head on race day, I was in full flight on the heather at one stage and ended up going head over heels but luckily I landed back on my feet again)
The first few steps of the descent I was incredibly sore but in a moments breath I don’t know what it was but I just got mad when Tom O’Dowd had passed me and I just said ‘f*** it, just go for it , I just let go and was really eating up the stones and shale ahead, nearly out of control but not .. every step was landing perfectly , passed Tom and took most of that deficit back on the descent on Peter as well, what a rush…
Going into the bike transition area I could see Peter coming out and I said I have a chance here, I caught him on the Skelp the last off road section of the bike leg. I had opened up a bit of a gap but then 5 horses decided they wanted to join the race as well and they ran down along side me with Peter close behind, I eventually out cycled the horses and we descended the Skelp at break neck speed only to be delayed again by at least ten seconds because there was a gate closed at the bottom of the lane. I pushed it out in front of me rather the closing it as it was faster which meant Peter had a clear run! We made it to the Point at Westport Quay with only a handful of seconds between us, then there was an 800m run to finish around Roman island. Every metre of the run he was catching me and the crowd were roaring to hurry up but I was on the limit, the legs were locking up and couldn’t raise the pace anymore, the last hundred meters felt like a mile and by the finish banner he was probably within five seconds of me. I wouldn’t be a happy man though if that gate had cost me first place!
Peter ran a great race and judging by the overall time we all pushed each other to the limit, Tom O Dowd put in a tremendous race to finish 3rd only fading a bit near the end, 2008 winner Eoin Keiths finished 4th he is a legend when it comes to adventure racing especially the longer expedition ones.
It was great to win it. I was crippled on Sunday though! I was still very sore up to Wednesday and I’d say everyone who did it was the same..
It is definitely one of the tougher events that I have ever done. Adventure racing is the fastest growing sport in the country and Westport is perfectly suited to it. I think it needs to keep being built as an adventure town, in November the Castlecourt are organising another adventure race called Sea 2 Summit see www.sea2summit.ie
A big thanks must go to Killary adventure centre, first for coming up with the idea of Gaelforce some 5 years ago and secondly for putting on such a great show in 2010. Lastly I would like to thank my partner Mary for pushing me out training when I was getting lazy and to my 2 training buddies Colm Staunton and Noel Brady who finished 8th and 10th respectively .
Well done to everyone who took part in Gaelforce 2010, the race is with yourself and the goal is to finish the course.!!!!
Adventure or endurance?
What 3,000 competitors did in Gaelforce 2010
Stage 1 – 14km beach, trail and road run
Stage 2 – 1.6km kayak across Killary Harbour
Stage 3 – 3.5km bog and road run
Stage 4 – 32.5km cycle
Stage 5 – 4.5km mountain run/hike
Stage 6 – 12.5km cycle
Stage 7 – 800m run to finish line
Gaelforce West Winners 2010
1st Padraig Marrey, Ballinrobe Marreybikes 03.36:51
2nd Peter O Farrel Dublin Wheelworxs 03.37.00
3rd Tom O Dowd Castlebar Exposure 03.39.56
Ladies
Derval Devaney Westport 04.15:52 (34th overall)
Over 40’s
Eoin Keiths Dublin 03.43.32 (4th overall)
Over 50’s
Noel Brady Westport 03.54.34 (10th overall)
Gaelforce is the biggest adventure race in the World of its kind. There are 10 or 12 adventure races in Ireland and the winners of them all were in Gaelforce. It was great to have them all down and try to compete against them.
This was my fourth year doing it. I came third the first year. In 2008 was leading the race at Belclare (6k to go) when I got a puncture and got overtaken to get 4th and I did poorly last year and finished fourth again. This year it all came together but this was very close, very tough race.
For people outside of Westport Gaelforce may not be a big event but for Westport it means full hotels, B&B, restaurants and is now the biggest weekend of the year for the town. Westport has all the attractions and is known as the adventure capital of Ireland, with Croagh Patrick looming in the horizon it’s no wonder, as any aspiring athlete knows once you see it you want to climb it.
As a postman working on the town of Westport I get bombarded by locals asking are you going to win it (GF) this year, what can you say… I will try or i will do my best are the usual ones.. So no pressure then…., the last 3 years going into work on the Monday was TORTURE you can make all the excuses but it still makes no difference, you are asked how did you get on (remember most of them know already) I say 4th and the next thing they say what happened, not realising that Gael force is a savage race with well recognised athletes competing from all over Ireland and abroad.
The 2010 Gael force had a bigger entry than normal with 3000 participants broken into 10 waves of 300 all going off at 30minute intervals, the hype in Westport was even more intense with the organising of the 4 day adventure festival around the Gaelforce race which meant virtually everyone knew a big race was coming to town, locals trained for the event like never before and the talk was of times set up the ascent of the Reek, local guy Anthony Murray was leading the way with 22minutes, followed closely by Castlebar man Tom O Dowd, decent times were even more impressive with times recorded at 8minutes by the Castlebar man, that’s up and down the Reek in 30minutes just unreal or unbelievable I thought..
One day about 6 weeks before Gaelforce I asked Anthony Murray to come out training with us (Noel Brady and myself) to see what he was like, we did our usual session leave Westport on bike and cycled out the 10miles to the back of the Reek via the bog road, he was strong on the road but on the off road section he fell behind 1 nill to me I said to myself, up the reek we go and Anthony takes off running I said to myself he won’t last long but to my surprise he keeps going and is on the zig zag track and still running, I pick up the pace to try and hold him but to no avail, by the summit he has put 2.30 into me and 4.30 into Noel Brady, he summated in 22.30minutes saying he was held up by tourists who generally crawl up and usually take the best lines, 1 all, on the descent I take off followed closely by Noel by the bottom we had taken 1 minute out of Anthony back to 2- 1, then we cycled over the last section of the course known as the Skelp, its a rough off road track, on the steep decent I open a good gap so knew I have an advantage here again 3-1, back in town we discuss the session known that if Anthony gets to the Reek with the front runners he could beat them all on the Reek, time to start training…..
(August 21st) The alarm goes of at 4.30am, I am used to the early mornings from the Post but on a Saturdays I usually like to sleep in to try and catch up with lost sleep from during the week, not so this morning. Eat my usual breakfast of Porridge and a cup of coffee and 2 pancakes, bring all the bits and pieces that one needs before the start of a race like water, toilet roll, albas oil, and some spare food etc. Because of where I live it’s easier to drive to the start so my partner Mary Mulchrone who is a past 2 time lady winner of the Gaelforce drives my brother and a mate to the start. We arrive at 6am the buses are already here and the competitors start to fill up the car park in front of Galssaun beach. A short run and a few stretches and next I know its nearly start time, on the line is Peter O Farrel, Paul Mahon and the other pre race favourites, you say to yourself they look fit, (they are probably saying the same thing about you to themselves you hope!!!) straight away the usual pre race banter starts, Mahon kicks off by slagging myself and Peter’s kits, we hit back with some smart comments of our own, this is all tactics but it helps to break the tension, if you are too tense its not good so I try to always look and keep relaxed as if I was only out for a training session, the others sometimes don’t know how to react….
The final race instructions are given and then its the sound of the start horn, from the off the pace is fast and you start thinking maybe I haven’t put in enough, I usual start fast but today I found I was back about 15 places, Rory Geraghty was just in front of me and I settle a bit.
Anthony Murray from Carrowholly is leading and has opened a nice gap on 6 others who are trying to close him down, still no sign of Peter O Farrel and Eoin Keiths, these men are the guys to beat in these races, I know they would be near the front at the end of the race so didn’t panic. So its all going to plan so far, the ferocious pace that Anthony has set; has the alarms going off , he starts to pull away, the Calvary is starting to mount, first Eoin Keiths comes up along side me and ups the pace I find that I cannot hold him on the cross country section then Peter arrives just as we start the trail section of the run, I hopped in behind him and we start to pull the gap down, first we catch Rory Geraghty then Eoin starts to come into view, 2k later and we can see the front of the race, I said to myself I am going well here as Peter was getting into his stride, I decided that I would run shoulder to shoulder with him to see his reaction but he keeps ploughing away, on the rise to the main Clifden road O’Farrell from Dublin ups the pace again, I am distanced but not badly as there is only 2k to go to the kayak.
I was in eighth place going into the kayak to cross Killary Harbour and I was fourth getting out of the water. The short bog run to Delphi was hard but I held my own, At the start of the bike section I was back to fifth and could see the 4 guys ahead, O FarreI, Keiths, Murray and Collins I pass Murray first, then Collins up the climb of Shreffry after the dangerous descent , where i nearly crash on a tricky corner, I catch Keiths who looked to be suffering, I caught up with O’Farrell coming into Drummin and I tried to get away from him straight away but he was strong and reacted, I couldn’t believe it , so decided to try again on the steep little hill after Drummin, this time I kicked as hard as I could not looking back till I reached the top of the climb, he was dropped (thank God I said to myself) but I only managed to put 90 seconds into him by the Reek, I only heard this afterwards and known how good of a hill runner Peter is, I would have expected I would have needed 3 minutes.
On the Reek I was in bits, usually I can jog up the first section but all I could do was walk fast, I decided to go straight up rather than using the path this was even more tortuous, I looked to the left and I could see O’Farrell and Tom O’Dowd from Castlebar coming up and closing fast on me, I had to dig really deep and managed to hold them off to the last section of the cone. When they passed I actually thought to myself it was all over.
O’Farrell was a minute ahead at the top, Tom was 100m ahead of me, (Every step you take on the way down the Reek could break your ankle or leg but that does not enter your head on race day, I was in full flight on the heather at one stage and ended up going head over heels but luckily I landed back on my feet again)
The first few steps of the descent I was incredibly sore but in a moments breath I don’t know what it was but I just got mad when Tom O’Dowd had passed me and I just said ‘f*** it, just go for it , I just let go and was really eating up the stones and shale ahead, nearly out of control but not .. every step was landing perfectly , passed Tom and took most of that deficit back on the descent on Peter as well, what a rush…
Going into the bike transition area I could see Peter coming out and I said I have a chance here, I caught him on the Skelp the last off road section of the bike leg. I had opened up a bit of a gap but then 5 horses decided they wanted to join the race as well and they ran down along side me with Peter close behind, I eventually out cycled the horses and we descended the Skelp at break neck speed only to be delayed again by at least ten seconds because there was a gate closed at the bottom of the lane. I pushed it out in front of me rather the closing it as it was faster which meant Peter had a clear run! We made it to the Point at Westport Quay with only a handful of seconds between us, then there was an 800m run to finish around Roman island. Every metre of the run he was catching me and the crowd were roaring to hurry up but I was on the limit, the legs were locking up and couldn’t raise the pace anymore, the last hundred meters felt like a mile and by the finish banner he was probably within five seconds of me. I wouldn’t be a happy man though if that gate had cost me first place!
Peter ran a great race and judging by the overall time we all pushed each other to the limit, Tom O Dowd put in a tremendous race to finish 3rd only fading a bit near the end, 2008 winner Eoin Keiths finished 4th he is a legend when it comes to adventure racing especially the longer expedition ones.
It was great to win it. I was crippled on Sunday though! I was still very sore up to Wednesday and I’d say everyone who did it was the same..
It is definitely one of the tougher events that I have ever done. Adventure racing is the fastest growing sport in the country and Westport is perfectly suited to it. I think it needs to keep being built as an adventure town, in November the Castlecourt are organising another adventure race called Sea 2 Summit see www.sea2summit.ie
A big thanks must go to Killary adventure centre, first for coming up with the idea of Gaelforce some 5 years ago and secondly for putting on such a great show in 2010. Lastly I would like to thank my partner Mary for pushing me out training when I was getting lazy and to my 2 training buddies Colm Staunton and Noel Brady who finished 8th and 10th respectively .
Well done to everyone who took part in Gaelforce 2010, the race is with yourself and the goal is to finish the course.!!!!
Adventure or endurance?
What 3,000 competitors did in Gaelforce 2010
Stage 1 – 14km beach, trail and road run
Stage 2 – 1.6km kayak across Killary Harbour
Stage 3 – 3.5km bog and road run
Stage 4 – 32.5km cycle
Stage 5 – 4.5km mountain run/hike
Stage 6 – 12.5km cycle
Stage 7 – 800m run to finish line
Gaelforce West Winners 2010
1st Padraig Marrey, Ballinrobe Marreybikes 03.36:51
2nd Peter O Farrel Dublin Wheelworxs 03.37.00
3rd Tom O Dowd Castlebar Exposure 03.39.56
Ladies
Derval Devaney Westport 04.15:52 (34th overall)
Over 40’s
Eoin Keiths Dublin 03.43.32 (4th overall)
Over 50’s
Noel Brady Westport 03.54.34 (10th overall)
