An Cosantóir

30 | BY CAPT MAEVE O'GRADY (DFAA) ON THE 25TH of August 2011, a four- man DF team made up of Comdt Cathal Keohane, Capt Maeve O'Grady, Lt Diarmaid Collins and Lt Dan Mor- rogh travelled to France to compete in the five day Raid in France Adventure Race. This is the first time a DF team has competed in a World Series adven- ture race. The World Series comprises eight of the hardest and longest ad- venture races across the globe. It aims to attract the top endurance athletes in the world, so we knew from the start that we would have a tough job if we were to meet our goal of making it into the top half of the fifty strong field (and beating the team from the French Army!). The race consisted of 5 days non- stop racing in the French Alps, 14000m of ascending (and a similar amount of descending!) and included the disci- plines of mountain-biking, trekking, An Cosantóir November 2011 in the French Haute Alps climbing, kayaking, caving and canyon- ing. We had a 36hr warm up race 'The Beast of Ballyhoura' during the August Bank Holiday weekend and we felt ready as we boarded the plane to head to France. As soon as we arrived, we were struck by the warmth of the wel- come as we were met at the airport and transported to our base in Buis- les-Baronnies in the Drôme region. We were also struck by the warmth of the weather, landing into 36 degree heat, and we realised that finding enough water was going to be a big issue dur- ing the race. The two days before the race were a rush of kit checks, skills checks, sorting equipment, race briefs and of course plenty of carbo loading at the local pizza/pasta place! Finally, Sat- urday night came and we headed to bed early in preparation for our 0530 bus to the start on Sunday morning. We estimated that it would be up to 50hrs until we had access to our re- supply boxes, so our race packs were heavy with energy bars, gels, nuts, freeze dried food packets and even the old reliable All Day Breakfast, as well as our mandatory kit and three litres of water. The race began on Sunday morning with a kayaking stage. There was cha- os from the outset as 100 boats tried to squeeze through a narrow bridge and get through an 800m kayak carry- ing section on a narrow trail around a hydroelectric dam. We discovered that politeness gets you nowhere as we ended up second last after this early mayhem! At least we could only move up the field (we hoped!). After a short trek up a steam, we started out on a mammoth mountain bike stage which would take us 26hrs to complete. The terrain was incredibly Adventure

• Cover