Picked from an IrishAR squad, which was formed back in 2005 with the goal of helping to promote Irish participation in international adventure racing events, the Irish AR Denny team is made up of Roisin McDonnell, Bob Boles, Chris Caulfield and Brian Keogh. With a fair bit of experience on their side, a nice home advantage and hopefully a good dose of native luck, they are looking forward to being up there with the big boys at this event – even if they generally keep it light-hearted.
Speaking about the team’s fortés, Bob Boles who is one of the newer members says, “Irish teams are renowned for enjoying their racing and having fun on the course. Our team aims to be no exception. We’re an evenly balanced team, easy-going but keenly competitive. We all get on great together. Maintaining a positive attitude, sense of humour and enjoying ourselves will be the key strength that will help bond all the individual skills on to the team.” As for weaknesses, Boles chuckles and says. “Tea and biscuits. They can be very hard to resist. Especially chocolate biscuits. We’d all have a weakness for them. Apart from that, on this particular team, we’ve no crazy ego-driven leader that will naturally hog the reins. Usually there isn’t time to seek consensus-driven decision-making. The training weeks leading up to the race will hopefully sort this out. We can always discuss leadership issues over tea and biscuits if not.”
The may like their treats but this team is used to roughing it too, as one racing dinnertime tale involving cooking pasta demonstrates. “Everyone lacking was sleep, and we had no simple means to strain the pasta, so the food was just unceremoniously dumped on the grass accompanied by the statement, ‘Dinner’s ready’. No one complained. Everyone ate,” recalls Boles. As for strategies to avoid the dreaded sleep monsters, these guys resort to divulging intimate details of past or current relationships. “These type of stories are great fodder for keeping flagging teammates awake and on their toes,” quips Boles adding that what goes on tour must stay on tour.
Some of IrishAR Denny’s best results to date include the 2007 World Championships in Scotland when they came 16th and survived the paddling section on day one which according to Boles was “one of the most exhilarating and retrospectively scariest times we’ve had racing”. Other good results include Primal Quest 2006 – 24th; Wilderness Arc 2006 – 5th; Quebec EcoEndurance 2006 – 12th and Wilderness ARC 2005 – 4th & 5th.
Meet the team
Roisin McDonnell
For years, Roisin McDonnell has provided inspiration for many other females in hill running and orienteering in Ireland so it was a very natural progression for her to lead the field in adventure racing as well. According to her teammates, McDonnell is graceful but tough under pressure, and remains calm and well focused, facilitating the team to make good decisions. It seems this is a trait she has both while racing and in life. McDonnell is a mother of two, and a teacher by profession. Leading by example, her ambition has been to follow her own dreams, to excel at what she enjoys and to teach the kids in her classes and her own children that they can do the same.
Brian Keogh: Just back from over three years of adventure travel on four continents Brian Keogh now operates and an adventure activities company in Wicklow and has extensive experience in outdoor sports and event management. Teammates say Keogh’s training regime involves regular bouts of not washing or eating regularly, surviving on a diet of ragout, and dealing with all manner of people as he helps them get the best of the outdoors, so the Turas will be nothing new to him. They say nothing seems hard for this athlete although they are slightly concerned about ragout withdrawal on around day five.
Chris Caulfield:
Growing up in Mayo, Chris Caulfield always cycled bikes across the bogs and used to hike up Croagh Patrick for something to do. Later living in Kerry, he regularly played on the Reeks. At a recent training session, he confessed that as a kid, he and friends would dig holes in the back garden, put on blindfolds, and race each other across them. So in a sense, he has always been adventure racing The rougher the ground, the better he likes it. Unusual for someone who is an accountant by day, but it seems Caulfield might be the team entertainer. He is known to quote large tracts of Monty Python in the middle of the night and his teammates say it’s hard to tell which is more surreal, Chris, or the original sketches. Apparently this man’s secret ambition is to become a Spartan.
Bob Boles: If your friends cycled a bike down the side of a mountain or jumped off a cliff, would you do it too? These are questions that Bob Boles answers with an emphatic say ‘yes’. Easily influenced, highly malleable and very open to suggestion, a few years ago Boles claims he fell in with the wrong crowd. Look at him now. His special talent is cooking dinner for team meetings and after training events. Hence he’s always kept away from any food preparation at transitions. There’s no time for freshly cracked pepper or any of that other haute cuisine. Lately Boles has taken to dragging cameras on every training outing. Head cams, bike cams, tripods, light meters, according to teammates it will have to stop and they plan to pass his kit through airport security to remove all cameras before the race.