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Monster MAC Adventure Race Report
The Opening race of the 2013 National Adventure Race Series was the Monster MAC which took place in the Boggeragh Mountains from a base at Millstreet Country Park. In the expert race there was relief all round when last year’s Series champion Tim O Donaghue did not line up and local Brian Murphy felt this could be his chance for success at the 3rd time of trying. From the off a furious pace was set by a leading trio including Covey Wheeler’s Richard Meany but in their haste to race each other they ignored a marker and take a somewhat scenic route back to the transition losing valuable time in the process. Murphy made no such mistake and led into transition by over a minute ahead of Chris Caulfield and Paul Downey with Mark Sajda and Derrick Evans completing the top 5. Out on the testing first bike leg with a long climb into a strong wind Murphy slightly extended his lead over Caulfield with Evans moving into 3rd ahead of Cathal Keohane and Ciaran Dillane. Buoyed by strong local support at the transition Murphy used his local course knowledge and training to good effect setting a 3rd consecutive fastest leg split time on the Musheramore mountain run stage increasing his gap on Caulfield and Evans to almost 5 mins. Nigel Keane moved into 4th with the 2nd fastest mountain run leg of the day just ahead of Richard Meaney in 5th. On the final bike leg Evans set the fastest time just ahead of Richard Meany cutting Murphy’s lead by 3 mins. Again on the water Murphy lost over a min on the chasing pack but he had a good cushion established and came home the clear and popular local winner in 3h 20’ 52”. Evans moved ahead of Caulfield with his final bike leg to take 2nd with Caulfield 3rd and Richard Meany and Mark Walker coming through strongly in the final stages to take 4th and 5th place respectively. With vets Murphy and Caulfield placing on the podium the vet’s prize was taken by a delighted Pat O Callaghan in 11th overall. In the ladies race, the pre race favourite Ann Marie Egan from Covey Wheelers cycling club in Mayo led from the start with a gap of a minute after the first run over Linda O Connor with Sarah Healy and Yasmin Kenny next to reach the transition and start the first bike leg. Egan extended her lead over O Connor to almost 5 mins on the bike leg with Kenny improving to a close up 3rd well ahead of Healy in 4th and Tricia O Sullivan in 5th. Out on the mountain Egan set her 3rd fastest ladies split of the day increasing her gap on O Connor to 8 mins with Kenny, Healy and O Sullivan holding their order behind. On the final bike leg it was Kenny who showed the field her speed and stamina with the fastest bike and kayak legs but the overall order was maintained to give Egan an impressive win in 3h 56’ 52” ahead of O Connor 2nd, Kenny 3rd, Healy 4th and O Sullivan who won the vets title in 5th overall. With 2012 national Series Champion Jerry O Sullivan electing to stay in the category for the 2013 season the rest of the field surely must have felt a little like they were likely to be only racing for the scraps. As expected O Sullivan raced into the lead from the off but he was made to work for his lead by impressive newcomer Robert Patterson who only took a friend’s starting place the day before the event. These pair’s run leg times were better than those set earlier by the experts and were 3 mins clear of 3rd placed Patrick Fitzgerald, Enda Dunne and Donal Kelleher. Out on the bike and O Sullivan continued to push hard setting the fastest bike and 2nd fastest kayak legs to take an emphatic victory in 1h 33’ 37” almost 7 mins clear of Patterson who hung onto 2nd place by an ever dwindling margin over vet Patrick Fitzgerald in 3rd, John O Connell in 4th . Brian Mac Donnacha made a late charge on the kayak stage to sneak into 5th just ahead of Kelleher in 6th and the day’s fastest kayaker and vet winner Paddy Kelly in 7th overall. In the ladies sport race West Cork’s Tri club representative Frances Shanahan, who was 2nd here 2 years ago, showed good form throughout to take the victory by 4 mins over Anne-Marie Hayes in 2nd with Lynda O Gorman coming through on the bike to overtake last year’s runner up Bernie Condron to take 3rd. Condron had the consolation of the vets title in 4th overall ahead of Lucy Curtayne in 5th.

Source: http://msai.ie/userfiles/MMAC_Race_Report_2013.pdf