An Cosantóir

| 23 www.military.ie THE DEFENCE FORCES MAGAZINE along the route as they could within the cut of f. Bonus checkpoints had dif ferent points assigned depending on the degree of dif f icult y in get ting them. Teams arriving af ter the cut of f would be deducted ten points for ever y minute over. The team with the highest points with bonuses and penalties taken into account would be ranked the highest. The f irst leg was a trek leg through the Nagles Mountains, the mandator y course was a fairly straight for ward 8kms from the star t to Transition Area 1( TA1) in Ballyhooley Bridge. Most teams at this point were feeling strong and went for the bonus checkpoints fur ther out on the course. There was some trick y navigation get ting through the track systems in the lower half of the section and this split the race into two groups. To get down from the mountain area teams followed a marked section across farmland to link up with the Black water Way and on into transition. Out in front crossing the farmland were Lee Boyd/Eamon Kelly from 28 Inf Bn, closely followed by two experienced adventure racers Eoghan Car ton/Maeve O'Grady from the DF TC/Air Corp. With only a few minutes between the two teams they would spend the rest of the race bat tling for the lead. Teams dropped down from the high ground and linked up with the national waymarked trail the Black water way which brought the teams fur ther downhill to their f irst transition point at Ballyhooley Bridge. Team changed here from trekking to Kayaking. Leg two was a nine-kilometre kayak leg on the Black water River f inishing in Fermoy town at Fermoy Rowing Club. The DF Kayak club and Dive group were on land and on water to provide safet y throughout. The f low of the Black water River was strong adding to the paddling of the teams in their double sit on top kayaks, most teams took an hour to get down river to TA 2 in Fermoy. At TA2 teams were out of the kayaks and onto their bikes. At TA 2 teams had access to pre dropped kit bags and bikes and had use of Fermoy Rowing Club to warm themselves up. The weather was on side, with clear skies and high temperatures, but an hour sit ting down in a kayak with a bit of wind made it feel a few degrees colder than it was get ting out of the kayaks. Changed into bike kit and refuelled teams headed out through Fermoy town towards their f irst mandator y checkpoint in Kilwor th village. From there teams headed into Glensheskin forest and a bike navigation section that would test the team's abilit y to navigate on the bike and test their technical mountain biking. A series of bonus checkpoints in Glensheskin brought the teams to the fur thest extent nor th of the forest for the faster teams. Some teams, having lost some time on the trek leg, electing to drop a few of the bonus checkpoints to make it back in time for the cut of f. The top two teams traded places at this point and a bit of a gamble by the 28th Bn team in dropping the bikes and running up a technical mountain biking section went against them and they lost a few minutes to Car ton/ O'Grady. The cut of f time was set at 1500hrs with the f inish line in the Kilwor th HQ area. Car ton/O'Grady 's experience paid of f and they arrived back into the f inish with the course cleared and in a time of 4:57:58. Boyd/Kelly having taken a chance on the bikes arrived back in a few minutes over the cut of f and copped a time penalt y but with the course cleared for second place. As teams crossed the f inish line af ter f ive hours of trekking, kayaking, and biking, they were able to sit down, with an ice cream and a can of coke and await the results. 1st Mixed and overall winners were Car ton/O'Grady. 2nd Mixed team of Niamh Morrissey/Conor Fenlon 1 BAR 1st Male 2nd overall Boyd/Kelly 28 Inf Bn. Second Male Dave McKnight /Ollie Mahon DFHQ J4 Branch. 1st Masters Tim O'Connor/Diarmuid Barr y 1 Bde Engr/HQ For the racers they had the chance to develop their endurance, teamwork, navigation, planning and organisation. For the race organisers a dif ferent set of skills were used to ensure that the event was able to go ahead, and more impor tantly in a safe manner. As mentioned, adventure racing is a spor t which complements militar y f itness. The organisation of adventure racing can also develop ever yday militar y skills. Risk assessments, land permission, safet y plans, coordination of resources all makes up par t of routine militar y, this was chance to use those same processes in a sphere outside of normal militar y operations. Special thanks to the local landowners who made this event possible Will Leahy in the Nagles, Margaret Lombard in Ballyhooley, as well as Stephen Donnellan and Fermoy Rowing Club for of fering the use of their facilities. Within the Defence Forces thanks to the DF Kayak club and Dive group for their safet y cover during the kayak section, as well as 1 Bde mapping section, 1 Bde MP, and 1 Bde Tpt Grp. The Defence Forces Adventure Racing Club is established and aims to develop the spor t of adventure racing within the Defence Forces. More information on upcoming mountain bike sessions, training days, and upcoming races see the DFAR IKON Page. Check out our great video of the race day created by our ver y own AVS team. www.military.ie THE DEFENCE FORCES MAGAZINE | 23 Blackwater Way walking route CQMS Ollie Mahon focused on the task Comdt Carton after completing the kayaking section Sgt O' Donnell 28 Inf Bn taking a well deserved break in between the events

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