There were two race categories, the shorter Sport course and the longer Expert Course. The race stared in Keel in Achill, and the Expert course involved a 2.6km lake kayak or 800m swim, a 16km hill run up Mweelin, and a 44km cycle around Achill. The weather was a major factor in the outcome of the races with high wind, showers and sunshine alternating through the day.

Karens report is here:

The Achill Roar turned out to be a great adventure race despite the ominous weather when I was woken up by the heavy rain hammering on the tent in the morning. A good few minutes were spent deciding on whether to go with the breathable heavier waterproof jacket or the less breathable, less waterproof but lighter and compressible rain jacket. Regardless it didn’t matter as it was dry at the start of the race, and I wasn’t planning on stopping to put on a jacket once I got started. The race started off with a 2.6km kayak which was grand, we had only 1 or 2 crashes (women drivers!) and luckily we avoided the kayaks that had leaks and as a consequence capsized, throwing 3 unfortunate teams into the lake.

A 16km hill run followed, beginning with a run along Keel beach, through a few streams, and then following a lovely path up a hill over the cliffs. I overheard another runner describing adventure racing as personal torture, and I was in full agreement with her for a while until I got my rhythm and started to really enjoy the course. A few friends had entered in Relay teams which meant there were always a few familiar faces to cheer you on as you came back through transition which was great. Bike next, I normally love my bike, getting on it after running as it seems to give a break to my legs, but they were heavy, and I knew it was going to be a long 44km ahead. A nice backwind helped speed out of Keel and a chance to refuel and rehydrate. However the nice backwind turned into a mean headwind coming back around the peninsula, when even cycling downhill felt like cycling on the flat. The views were nice though….I was going so slowly into the wind I had time to enjoy them!

About 2km to go I was tired, and started counting the white dashes on the road to distract myself, interspersed with thinking about various sandwich combination fillings and a nice cup of tea. And then I was back in transition, racking my bike and running through the finish line, with big cheers from the relay guys. I went for both ploughmans and BLT sambos in the end. It was a great race, well run, good fun, nice sandwiches, and I was delighted with my time of 4hrs 7mins and getting 4th place.

To find out more about the Achill Roar visit their website here