Bandy in Banagher - Race Report

Oof! Ivan Park and the boys and girls from Causeway Coast Adventure Racing put on a tough show on Saturday - GREAT crack though, and soon the pain of our lungs spewing onto the trail made us forget about the rain!

Tango and Cash were set upon by the snarling pack on the hill-top during the run, the noble pair scuppering their chances of another win by hanging around to make sure nobody got lost on the hill ;-)

Ended up fourth, but would have won it if Ivan had stuck to his original plan of forgetting to adjust for starting times - confound it! Mac and Paul were WAY fitter and faster than anyone else in the race, and would have finished the whole thing in about 3 hours, except some interesting navigation meant they covered twice as much ground as the rest of us!! Sorry, guys, haha!! :-)

The international field was further spiced up by old Tango and Cash compatriots Stevie "McMoab is My Church" Holden, and Jonny "McMoab is Stevie's Church" Gray, who made up their own finish line, and came splashing impressively into the car park through the river. Like a couple of big pike!


Plenty of action photographs, the highlights of which showed Tango using his latest hydration system during the middle bike section, and Cash frantically making his way across the ravine to try and get away from Steve Curry, who spent overly long making sure that harness was nice and tight round the butt-cheeks!


Dubbed the "Pet Shop Boys of Irish adventure racing", Ivan Park and Steve Curry proceeded to wow a baying audience at the after-race party. Performing their Kenny Rogers-inspired anthem "The Count of the Cowardly", their rhythmic, pulsating hip-hop cleverly weaving a timely Hallowe'en Dracula reference with the pair's first teenage fumblings in the dark as terrified fledgling adventure racers. Needless to say there wasn't a dry eye in the house!

Looking forward to the next one, guys!

Loads more photos of the race here, at Sleepmonsters (see the links over on the left to get the photos)

Adventure Race, Banagher Forest, 21 October - Pre-Race Buildup

Tango and Cash, fresh (kinda) from their recent adventure racing success in August, are competing in the adventure race in Banagher on 21 October.

Planning to take more of a pastoral, mentoring role at the start of the race in the interests of encouragement to other competitors, it is the intention to go easy and hope everyone else falls foul of anthrax towards the end, leaving the path clear for back to back victories.

Not the Sunday Run, Last Saturday - Go Figure!

A tough old day that sorted the sheep from the goats, hosted by the good people from Not the Sunday Run. On One was well represented, as Tango and Cash were in full fig for the TV cameras.

The Summary data below removes any possibility of adding drama, but suffice to say we went up some, round a heathery bit, through some muck, up some more stuff, over rocks, down a slippy steep bit with big rocky things, more muck, heather, rocks, up, down around and back again.

Phew! 13 started, 5 finished. Hard going.

Summary Data
Total Time (h:m:s) 6:51:24
Moving Time (h:m:s) 4:41:22
Distance (mi ) 33.30
Moving Speed (mph) 7.1 avg.
Elevation Gain (ft) +7,317 / -7,330

Like a Phoenix from the Ashes

Now fully recovered from his throat surgery, Tango joined Cash in the saddle last night, as they made their long-awaited tag-team return to the streets and by-ways of Antrim town.

Now begins the long hard road towards La Ruta de los Conquistadores, 2007.

Hard Rock Stevie

Hot on the heels of his withdrawal from the Mourne Marathon, Tango backed up sharply to pull out of the Stanes trip on 30 September.

Regardless, a posse left our shores bound for Kirroughtree, and a wonderful day was had by all.

We discussed the largest office block in North Down and the associated cafe, tumbled over the smallest of obstacles, and generally worked up an appetite for a Chinese on the way home (or a coffee for some of the laydies, ahem!).

No-one dared darken the doors of Stevie's church, the mighty McMoab.