Fancy a spot of orienteering, hill running, mountain biking, kayaking, zip wiring, abseiling or clay-pigeon shooting? All in one day? Grania Willison the growing popularity of adventure racing
Some people are born to be couch potatoes and some are born to put their bodies through the mangle at every opportunity. Take Gearóid Towey, the world-champion rower. Apparently insufficiently challenged by the demands of training at the top level of his sport, the two-time Olympian craved greater adventure and greater physical punishment. He first dipped his toe into the adventure-racing waters in 2005, and he loved it. The buzz got better every time.
But it still wasn't enough. So the Cork athlete teamed up with Ciarán Lewis, a Dubliner, and set out to row across the Atlantic. It was as tough as it gets, but the challenge made the horrors of the journey worthwhile - until a monster wave split the boat in half and nearly killed them. The pair were rescued and brought to safety by a Spanish tanker.
Far from viewing the close shave as a warning, Towey became even more determined to push his body to the limit. So he headed to Scotland for the Wilderness ARC, a four-day race in which the two Irish teams made it to the finish even though 21 other teams didn't. And now he's hooked. Adventure racing is the thing that makes Towey, and an increasing number of Irish athletes, tick.
Towey was one of more than 50 athletes who lined out last month in his home county for the Beast of Ballyhoura adventure race, the only nonstop 24-hour contest to be held on these shores this year. And, despite almost continuous rain and a schedule that would put the fear of God into most people, Towey and his fellow athletes finished buzzing with excitement.
He was on what's commonly known as a runner's high, a feeling that scientists used to attribute to endorphins. These natural chemicals, which the body produces when strenuous exercise goes beyond a certain threshold, resemble opiates in their ability to kill pain and produce a general sense of wellbeing. Scientists now believe, however, that the buzz is caused by another natural chemical, anandamide. Similar to the active chemical in marijuana, it allows the body to deal with the prolonged stress of strenuous exercise by producing a natural high that helps to block acute and inflammatory pain signals. Whether they have endorphins or anandamide to thank, athletes love the rush they get from exercise.
"What I find amazing is what your body can take in dips and highs," Towey says. "In some races you're thinking, how am I going to get through this? Then, three or four hours later, you're back up and raring to go. It's all relative. When I was out in the Atlantic I was having a really bad day with salt sores on my arse. Two days later they were gone and I felt on top of the world. It's ridiculous to say that when you're stuck in a tiny boat in the middle of the ocean, but I felt like a new man because the salt sores were gone."
Extreme athletes get a buzz from so many other weird and wonderful things: putting on clean socks, completing an adventure race, showering at the end of a competition or, in the case of the singer Juliet Turner, just being part of a race, even if injury forces you to bow out.
As Turner, who headed for the Beast of Ballyhoura as a member of the Ballycraic Houras team, was an adventure-race virgin, she didn't know what she'd let herself in for. "I've partied all night, but I've never done anything like this," she said as she set into a 24-hour battlefield that involved more than 150km of orienteering, hill running, mountain biking and kayaking, as well as zip wiring, abseiling and clay-pigeon shooting.
But she was struck down by agonising tendonitis in both knees, and, shortly after midnight and almost exactly halfway through the ordeal, she had to call it a night. "I walked for about three and a half hours with my knees absolutely shattered, but I can't remember any of the pain. All I can remember is the exhilaration," Turner says. "I was coming rolling down the mountain like John Wayne, with my legs wide open, and the other three were just roaring laughing. Laughter has great painkilling qualities." Even though one knee has still not fully healed, Turner has the adventure-racing bug. "I had a ball, and we've already signed up to go again next year."
Perhaps she'll be lured into extending the endurance test over more than 24 hours - although she'll need to watch out for sleep monsters, as adventure racers refer to the hallucinations that come from lack of sleep. As it happens, earlier this month a team called Sleepmonsters.com took part in Gael Force West, a race in Westport, Co Mayo.
The team's members included Gill Watson, one of Britain's top adventure racers, who was on last year's winning team.
Despite clashing with the sleep-monster haven of the Electric Picnic music festival, Gael Force West still attracted more than 400 teams for its one-day Gael Force 6 race - and a hardy nine for the much tougher three-day Gael Force 12. Watson's team managed second place this year, beaten by Aberdeen Asset Management.
The best home team was Irish AR Denny - winner of the Beast of Ballyhoura - which came third. Its members - Vanessa Lawrenson, Róisín McDonnell, Eoin Keith and Paul Mahon - had also taken part in the seven-day world championships in Scotland earlier this year, which involved running, mountain biking, swimming across Lough Ness and kayaking from Dalwhinnie to Glencoe, including a 20km carry up over Rannoch Moor, where the scary bit in Trainspotting was filmed. On day four they slept for two hours, all four of them crammed into the signal box at Rannoch Moor station. But they finished. And they finished 16th in the world.
So can extreme exertion produce extreme happiness? No, say the scientists; yes, say the adventure racers. Does it matter whether it produces endorphins or anandamides? Not a bit. It's all about the buzz. But be warned: adventure racing and the runner's high are definitely addictive.
See www.adventureireland.co.uk