A win in the Conquest Connemara adventure race was the only result that would guarantee Mayo’s Padraig Marrey the overall adventure racing league winner’s title. With 10 rounds held all over the country and the who’s who of adventure racing the start line such as Peter O’Farrell, Noel Kavanagh and Adrian Hennessy on the start line, and added to the mix World Champion mountain biker Niall Davies and Irish international mountain runner James McFadden, Marrey’s chances looked very tough.
From the gun Marrey started out as he meant to finish with a powerful attack up the first climb and dragged Davies and McFadden with him, the three built a lead to the first mountain run, where McFadden turned the screw dropping Marrey and Davies on the steep slopes of the Sugar Loaf.
On the second bike section Marrey used his cycling power to catch McFadden by the kayak section. Marrey, not a known kayaker, powered ahead on this section to open a good lead, with two biking sections and a mountain run to go, the Ballinrobe man needed at least three minutes if he was to hold off the strong mountain running of McFadden. By the time Marrey got to the last mountain run (Maulina ) of 9k he had increased his lead to five minutes, barring cramp or a bike fault the race win looked like Marrey’s. At the finish line in the beautiful grounds of Powerscourt Marrey held on to win by two minutes from Dublin’s James McFadden with Gael Force winner Peter O’Farrell third at 11 minutes.
