Team Irish AR Introduces Their Team

Anne-Marie Dunhill / 07.11.2014

Gear checks and team registrations have been taking place over the past two days at the Bicentennial Event Center located in the old Quito airport.  (The new Mariscol Sucre International airport further out of Quito opened in 2013 as landing from the South in the old airport was consistently complicated by fog).  There was a sensible system of squares on the floor marked by masking tape and each team placed a particular item of the mandatory gear in its’ designated square.

There are fifty-two teams listed on the official team list and the room was bustling with activity as racers completed what many mentioned as being their least favorite part of racing. There are statistically more male team captains in the mixed teams of four then female ones but team Irish AR is an exception, captained by the gregarious Avril Copeland.

Although the team completed their registration yesterday, today the team was busy  sorting out their gear and trying to fit it into the allocated boxes to comply with the 25kilo weight limit.  Richard Nunan said that it was “a tease” because they had been told that they would have access to their bike boxes at every transition but with a weight limit of 25kilos for the bike boxes as well they couldn’t fit much else in except for the bikes, helmets and a pump.

Veteran racer Peter Spagnoli from the USA, with a broad New-York accent is racing with the team and he jokingly said that his only worries were about racing with Avril as she’s single-minded and pushes her team hard, then added that he looked forward to hearing her sing on the course as apparently she has a lovely singing voice.

The Irish AR team had a bit of a fright yesterday as Peter was the last member to arrive in Ecuador and he had been held and questioned in customs. (What the issue was is unclear but he was upbeat to be racing and shrugged off the incident). Avril, Eoghan and Richard hiked up to 4,698 m (15,413 feet) while they were waiting for him to arrive.

Eoghan Carton is the youngest member of the team. He was recruited a week after breaking his leg in the GODZone adventure race in New Zealand and he joked that they “got him while he was down”.  He works for the Irish Army as an Engineer Officer. A quick search on the Defense Forces Ireland official webpage shows his skills would appear to be particularly suited to adventure racing.

When asked about the teams’ race strategy, Richard, hovering over his bike box, said that they were most concerned about having to do a double dark zone and are planning to do the kayak section in thirteen hours. Avril added that she wants her team to finish the full course.

Given their diverse set of skills, extensive cumulated adventure racing experience and communicative enthusiasm,  team Irish AR will be one to keep an eye on in the days ahead.

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