An Cosantóir

An Cosantóir May 2017 www.dfmagazine.ie 34 | by SGT RENA KENNEDy, PR BRANCH, DFHQ PhotoS by MIKKEL BEISNER M odern endurance events can be like expeditions, with all frontiers now open to exploration through running. Endurance athletes bear hardships over long distances and have the staying power to do so, not necessarily with ease, but enough to finish. one such athlete is Sgt Ann Marie Larkin, a veteran of over 100 marathons who has also undertaken the arduous Marathon Des Sables in the Sahara Desert, the transyl- vanian Ultra, the Connemara 100-miler, and the 10-marathons- in-10-days challenge. Ann Marie, from Co Offaly, has been with the Defence Forces since 1996, serving in 2 Bde and DFHQ. She has completed four tours of duty overseas and will deploy again in the near future. Her latest adventure saw her in Swedish Lapland, inside the Arctic Circle, for the Ice Ultra, a 230km, five-stage race held against a backdrop of frozen lakes and snow-capped mountains. The area of the race, the Jokkmokk Municipality, is the size of Wales but with a population of only around 3,000, and has daytime temperatures as low as -20°C at this time of year. It is Eu- rope's last remaining wilderness, a UNESCO world heritage area, and the heartland of the indigenous Sámi people. Ann Marie was responsible for carrying her entire kit on the race, including food, safety equipment and a minimum of 1.5 litres of water. This kit was examined thoroughly and race numbers issued the night before Stage One. Accommodation each night was pro- vided by way of remote huts and tepee tents with open fires. The Sámi race team, whose local knowledge and survival skills are es- sential to the race, check and mark the routes, and are responsible for the transportation of all equipment, including trailers, snow bikes, tepees, arctic suits, burners, firewood and reindeer skins. The race organisers, Beyond the Ultimate, say it's a test of en- durance for everybody involved, not just the athletes. Due to the difficulty of the race, running in temperatures of -20°C, with 20mph winds and white-out conditions, a number of the participants spent in excess of 12 hours completing Stage One. Poor visibility prevented the athletes from viewing their course over the first two stages, which was a blessing, as the arrival of a dry, sunny day for the start of Stage Three meant the competitors could clearly see their destination across a frozen lake, knowing they wouldn't reach it for hours. Stage Four, at 64kms, is the longest and is mentally and physi- cally draining. According to the race organisers: "Everybody cross- ing the line looks totally spent. Cruelly, the hardest part of the trail comes after 50kms, when the runners find themselves in deeper, softer snow just at a time when the accumulated calorie deficit is at its worst and the temperature is plummeting. The cruellest twist, though, lies in the last 500m. The runners emerge from woodland to see the finish line on the other side of a lake that looks little more than a paddling pool compared to the expanses of water they've become used to. However, this lake is dotted with patches of slush hiding under a few inches of snow. If your foot goes into that, the stuff freezes onto your snowshoes and hangs as heavy as concrete." Stage 5, 'the Sprint', is a mere 15kms long and ends in Jokkmokk where tired but ecstatic finishers are greeted with a hearty hug from their race director. Out of the 26 competitors in Ann Marie's race, only 14 completed the full course. We wish her well in her next adventure. Beyond the Ultimate are the architects of the Ultimate Ultra Footrace series, which take place in four of the most extreme locations on the planet: the Jungle Ultra in the Peruvian Ama- zon; the Mountain Ultra over the Himalayas in Nepal; the Desert Ultra across the Namib Desert; and the Ice Ultra. www.beyondtheultimate.co.uk

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