Details of improvements being made to the 2010 iROC™ race are beginning to emerge as the organisers and principle sponsor inov-8 prepare for another extravaganza of racing in the Durham Dales at the end of May.

There was universally superb feedback from competitors after the 2009 event, with the fell race route being described as “worthy of a British Championship course” by elated competitors and the MTB Enduro circuit being described as “the toughest Enduro circuit in the UK” by many (rather tired) competitors. Adding to the event’s growing reputation, the Telegraph newspaper has just rated iROC™ one of the top five races to do in 2010.

The weekend of racing kicks off with the Night Orienteering race and competitors will be able to start whenever they like after 10pm on the Friday night. The course will be open for four hours, allowing competitors travelling from further afield sufficient time to complete the first race. Best of all, Wilf’s Catering will be on hand providing free meals to all competitors as they finish each night race and also at the MTB Enduro. Wilf’s will also be providing food and refreshments throughout the weekend to competitors and spectators alike.

Saturday daytime will be given over to a series of fun “Come and Try It – Adventure Races” for kids and spectators, whilst the competitors get the opportunity to test ride the Night MTB Course and experience labyrinth orienteering! Saturday night marks a change in tempo for the competitors with the races coming thick and fast thereafter. The night Fell Race and MTB Time Trial promise to be visually spectacular experiences for both competitors and spectators in the valley, with the courses being way marked with hundreds of glowsticks and many kilometers of reflective barrier tape.

Sunday’s Orienteering Race will be incredibly exciting as well, with competitors having to navigate through a complex labyrinth maze as they start and finish the race. The combination of the labyrinth maze, rapid fire block starts and gaffling, which all take place in the event village, will ensure an action packed experience for everyone.

The MTB courses for both the Night Time Trial and Enduro are being upgraded with a significant new section of uphill single track in the forest. The downhill single track section that literally induced nightmares for some competitors is also having a makeover, becoming faster, smoother and more ridable than before. The Enduro Race is being increased from four hours to six hours, but with a flexible start time, so that competitors can choose the amount of riding they want to do.

iROC™ will once again be held at Eastgate in the Durham Dales, an amazing venue exclusive to this event. The venue is surrounded by stunning moorland and on the boundary of the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The site itself is largely hidden from view but is complete with a large quarry, steep hillsides with complex contour features, forest and a perfect event village location with self-contained campsite at the bottom of the valley. With a prize giving ceremony after each race and an event village featuring a great campsite, fire barrels, BBQ’s, music, a bar, atmospheric lighting and activities for the kids, it’s a brilliant venue for a memorable weekend for all. Set in a beautiful and quiet area of the Durham Dales it will be well away from the Bank Holiday crowds.

Entries have just opened and are limited to 400 competitors.

 Today the new iROC™ website with further details of the 2010 event has been launched. As rumored, the biggest news is that entry will be limited to 400 competitors; ensuring iROC retains an exclusive air as one of the UK’s toughest adventure racing events for those competing in all six races.

iROC™ 2009 received universally excellent feedback and reviews and we expect the 2010 event to sell out. Enter now to avoid disappointment!

 Loved by adventure racers, runners and orienteer’s across the country for their great food, Wilfs Catering have just agreed to provide all the food at the 2010 iROC event. This is bonus for all the competitors as included in your entry fee

 We are looking for marshals to help at the iROC™ Race. All marshals will be rewarded on a sliding scale (dependant on role undertaken) and receive a competitors goody bag and a free pair of inov-8 shoes. Marshalls will work shifts but while they are not working they are welcome to race for free. There will be a separate camping area for the event crew. If you are interested in marshalling please email info@iroc-race.com and we’ll send you an application form.

 The iROC™ Race in 2009 was a big success! There was a very enthusiastic and positive response from competitors for the event with 97% of competitors saying they would recommend it to their friends, and 94% of competitors rating the event as ‘excellent/very good’. riends, and 94% of competitors rating the event as ‘excellent/very good’.

The 2010 event is going to be even better…

inov-8™, the off-road running brand, that created iROC™ (iROC™ stands for ‘inov-8 Run Orienteer Cycle’) are really excited to announce that the 2010 iROC™ Adventure Race Weekend will be on Saturday 29th, Sunday 30th and Monday 31st May 2010. This is the Bank Holiday weekend at the end of May.

The event will again feature six different races that include mountain biking, running and orienteering and for each discipline there is both a night and day race. This innovative and exciting format is unique to the event, and largely unchanged from 2009.

Uniquely, each of the races are designed with spectators in mind by starting and looping through the event village at least once before finishing. For maximum spectator value, each race starts with a ‘mass start’ or ‘rapid fire block start’. The competitors loop back and through the event village as they complete each loop of the race, ensuring that iROC™ offers the best adventure race spectating ever seen in the UK. Each race is between one and six hours long.

Competitors can choose to race one or two loops of each of the 6 races. This format makes the event open to the pros and weekend warriors alike. With a choice of running, mountain biking and orienteering, and the option to enter as an individual, pair or team, iROC™ offers a guaranteed, ‘a la carte menu’ of extremely well organised, high quality adventure racing.

Part of the iROC™ ethos is to involve the friends and family of the competitors as well as the local community in the event. Again, the unique format allows anyone to share the excitement of each race by only completing the first loop (which is always shorter) of each race.

Because of the three night races, the Bank Holiday weekend is ideal for the race format as it allows us to have night races on multiple nights. The longer weekend also allows for a more relaxed schedule and more time to enjoy the event village atmosphere that includes a bar and music.

The iROC™ Race in 2010 will have a much bigger emphasis on kids and family friendly activities in the event village and there will be kids running, mountain biking and orienteering races. All this will be done without compromising the quality of the six principle races.

iROC™ will be held at Eastgate in the Durham Dales at an amazing venue, which is exclusive to the iROC Adventure Race Weekend! This venue is a former cement works that is surrounded by stunning moorland and is on the boundary of the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The site itself is largely hidden from view but is complete with a large quarry, steep hillsides with complex contour features, forest and a perfect event village location with self contained campsite at the bottom of the valley. It’s a brilliant venue for an action packed weekend for all, in a beautiful and quiet area of the Durham Dales that will be well away from the Bank Holiday crowds.

Entries are strictly limited to 400 competitors. iROC™ 2009 received universally excellent feedback and reviews and we expect the 2010 event to sell out. Enter now to avoid disappointment!

 The Worlds leading adventure sport website, SleepMonsters, was on hand at iROC™ reporting on the event as it unfolded. You can read the excellent event reports by following these two links:

iROC Event Report 1 http://www.sleepmonsters.co.uk/racereport.php?race_id=6903&story_order=asc

iROC Event Report 2 http://www.sleepmonsters.co.uk/news.php?article_id=3187

Some great action photos of the competitors at iROC™ were taken by the SleepMonsters team and are available to buy on the SleepMonsters website for a limited time only. Just follow this link http://www.sleepmonsters.co.uk/photoshop_digital.php?basket_ID=1241707429&event_id=6903.

 The countdown has really begun… with less than two weeks before first iROC™ Adventure Race Weekend, the event is nearly 80% full and it really is time to get your entry in if you haven’t already!

There have been lots of exciting developments taking place at the race venue as the planning team of Shane Ohly, Heather Dawe and Steve Birkinshaw prepare for the event. Race Director Shane Ohly explains:

“Last weekend a team of volunteers prepared 1.8km of brand new MTB single track through the forest plantation (check out the video below). We have also taken delivery of 10km of reflective tape that will be used for marking section of the course for the night races. I believe that both the night fell race and MTB time trial will be visually spectacular experience for the competitors not to mention challenging!

We have also arrange for a local scaffolding company to reconstitute a derelict railway bridge so that we have a weatherproof crossing option of the River Wear between the event centre and upper areas of the site. All six races will race across this bridge but it’s going to require 25 tonnes of scaffolding!

I am particularly pleased with how the first race of iROC is shaping up. The weekend kicks of with a hilly, 8 mile fell race. The race route covers a contrasting mix of the former quarry site (think: tough running up and down grassed over slag heaps) and some truly beautiful fell that is part of the North Pennine Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It’s pretty awesome running and has taken a lot of effort to get the necessary permissions.

To add to the excitement, we have produced a brand new orienteering map for this area and the proofs arrived from the printers yesterday… they look great!”

With six brilliant races, a late bar on Friday night, a late bar on Saturday night plus live music, a perfect campsite and onsite catering iROC™ is an Adventure Racing Weekend to really look forward too… just remember to bring your friends and family along!

 Just added to the iROC™ website gallery is a video of the initial section of the MTB singletrack that has been built especially for the event. We apologise for the quality of the video (it was taken on a mobile phone) but it does give you a good feel for the technical nature of the riding thought the dense forest. The red and white tapes between the trees are reflective so expect a visual extravaganza at night! Click here to check out the video

 The all star cast of iROC™ sponsors has been bolstered further with the announcement that Gore Bikewear™ and Gore Runwear™ will be supporting the event with 100’s of free items for the competitors goody bags and Gore-Tex jackets for the winners (in addition to the cash prizes).

 Final details of the event will be available by Wednesday 15th April. These will be emailed to all competitors and available as a download from the website. Included with these details will be essential and finalised information about the event; car parking, camping, scoring, race start times etc. Please read it! We are also going to include a pdf download of the orienteering map (without any controls marked it) so that competitors can get a feel for the area.

  The inaugural iROC™ event took place on the 18th and 19th April and was a big success! Event Sponsors inov-8 said “since the event we have been flooded with emails from competitors and the feedback has been universally excellent. The various web forums have been alive with tales from the weekend and we are looking forward to supporting the 2010 event; details of which will be announced soon”.

iROC™ was fortunate to enjoy continuous sunshine throughout the weekend and competitors traveled from as far afield as Ireland, Holland, Germany and the USA to swell the number of entries to 222. One competitor, Chris Lumb, even cycled all the way from Keswick to take part… that’s over 50 miles!

Saturday morning kicked off with the first race of the weekend, 15km of hilly fell running and Morgan Donnelly (team inov-8) cruised round the course to comfortably claim first place in 01:03:07. Anna Frost was the first female back in 01:14:46 and also an impressive 13th place overall. The competitors were then able to enjoy some downtime before the first of the orienteering races, which Tim Higginbottom (Team inov-8) won in 01:02:09 and Zoe Fleming was the first female back in 01:19:05. Unfortunately Tim had to retire later on due to an injury.

Race Director Shane Ohly takes up the story, “With only two of the weekend’s six races completed many of the competitors already looked tired and I was concerned that I had designed the courses to hard. However, the philosophy of iROC™ was to have six individual races that only become an adventure race when competitors race each one consecutively throughout the weekend”.

As dusk fell, race 3 (a score format orienteering race) marked the start of a very tough evening, which saw three races in quick succession, with some competitors finishing well after midnight. Phil Winskill picked up the honours in the first race of the evening, clearing the course in a time of 00:49:28. Nicola MacLeod was the winning female with a score of 470. Half an hour later the Night MTB Time trial started with the fastest competitors from the day so far, setting out first on a very technical course that had been the main subject of conversation during the day between the competitors, who had run down it earlier that morning. Brian Harrison completed the course in 00:27:12 to claim first place and Nicola MacLeod was once again, the first female to finish in 00:33:45. Some very weary competitors gathered under the start/finish arch for the final race of the day at 11pm; the night fell race. Once again Morgan Donnelly dominated winning in 00:45:19 with Anna Frost finishing in 00:53:16 as the first female.

Wayne Edy from race sponsors inov-8 continues the story, “After a full day of racing the competitors were knackered but had clearly had an amazing time racing in the darkness. iROC is unique in offering a night Fell Race and a night MTB Time Trial in one evening and competitors obviously enjoyed the demanding evening of racing”.

Sunday morning started hazy but very soon it burnt off and the competitors enjoyed some fantastic weather for the 4 hour MTB Enduro. Once again Morgan Donnelly won, completing eight laps of the hilly and technical course in 04:14:36. Nicola MacLeod was the winning female completing six laps in 04:02:29.

Competitors praise for the event has been universal with the various internet forums alive with positive experiences and stories of sore legs since the event. Bruce Duncan from Team Helly Hansen UK (1st mixed team at iROC™ and winner of the Patagonia Expedition Race) said “iROC was a really tough race; every event was full on… I really enjoyed it though. A good format, very sociable, yet quality racing too. The location was perfect; brutal on the mind and body, which is good. I like events where you have to overcome the mind”.

Matthew Moore, from County Durham Tourism Partnership comment that “iROC™ was a first rate, action packed, professionally organised weekend that highlight the natural beauty and tourism potential of the region and has the potential to become one of County Durham’s top outdoor events in the future”.

inov-8 and the iROC™ team would like to thank all concerned for helping to make the event such a success.

 “We wanted to organise a series of different races across different disciplines that include fell running, mountain biking and orienteering. Each individual races is being designed as though it were a standalone race; the idea being that if you turned up and competed in just one race, you’d be impressed with the format, organisation and experience of that race - to be honest, I expect most competitors will want to do all 6 races though!

What really makes iROC™ an adventure race is the close succession of each of these 6 individual races. Of course, the different skills sets required for each discipline mean that only a true all-rounder will be capable of wining outright. This new adventure racing format will be challenging and action packed for the competitors but also very visual for spectators as each of the races starts, loops though and finished at the event centre.

Finally, to make the event fun and sociable there will be a late bar on both the Friday and Saturday night and some live music on the Saturday evening. We really want each competitor to have a great time out on the hill and a great time catching up with their friends afterwards.”

 MBR – Britain’s best mountain bike magazine will be joining the all star cast of companies supporting iROC™. In 2007 MBR celebrated their 10th birthday and since then the magazine has continued to go from strength to strength. For serious mountain bike enthusiasts who just want to go out and "do-it" Mountain Bike Rider has practical and technical content along with product ratings, best buys, equipment tests and consumer guidance. Whether you’re young or old, beginner or novice, own a £200 hardtail or £2000 susser, MBR’s motto remains the same – just get out and ride!

 On Wednesday the 18th February the iROC™ Press Launch took place at former cement works site in Eastgate where the event will be based. Members of the press, the local council and agencies got to tour the bottom site, which will be the location of the event centre, and once in the upper quarry, witnessed some orienteering and fell running demonstrations by Phil Winskill and Matt Brown (from inov-8) descending the ‘Wall of Death’ on his mountain bike. A selection of photos from the Press Launch is now available to view in the gallery.

 Silva is the leading manufacturer of compasses worldwide, starting in 1933 with the invention of the first liquid filled compass. Based in Stockholm, Sweden, Silva designs equipment for people who enjoy an active outdoor life and for 75 years Silva has found inspiration in those who orienteer, run, cycle, trek, paddle or walk. Silva provides products that help you get the most out of your free time; products that give you increased wellbeing, a feeling of freedom and improved quality of life. As such, they are the perfect partner for inov-8 at the inaugural iROC™ adventure race weekend.

 British Orienteering will be helping to support iROC™ by promoting the event to their members over the coming months.

Orienteering is a challenging outdoor adventure sport that exercises both the mind and the body. The aim is to navigate in sequence between control points marked on a unique orienteering map and decide the best route to complete the course in the quickest time. It does not matter how young, old or fit you are, as you can run, walk or jog the course and progress at your own pace. Orienteering can take place anywhere from remote forest and countryside to urban parks and school playgrounds. It’s a great sport for runners, joggers and walkers who want to improve their navigation skills or for anyone who loves the outdoors. A background in orienteering is the key ingredient to many of the Worlds best adventure racers. Click the British Orienteering logo to find out more.

 We have just launched a new pair’s category but the unique component of this new category is that the competitors can choose to race as a pair sharing the entry (i.e. one at a time) or, as is usual, as pair racing together. We expect that this ‘shared pairs’ category will be popular for parents with young children who still want to get away for a weekend of adventure and anyone looking for an easier weekend. Check out the full details  here (scroll to the bottom of the page)

 RedApe Bikes is an independent specialist bike shop catering to the needs of the cycling enthusiast and they will be on hand throughout iROC to provide a free bike repair services…you do have to pay for parts however! RedApe Bikes is an authorised dealer Commencal, Lapierre and Genesis bikes. It stocks a wide range of parts and accessories from most of the major brands and offers a full range of workshop services. The owner Gavin is a keen mountain biker and mountaineer with 14 years engineering experience around the world

 The leading individuals (both male and female and based on overall score) after each race will be given the famed Yellow Jersey to wear for the next race… Will they be able to keep hold of it though???

 After some exhaustive testing (we mean this literally) it’s been decided to change the format of the mountain biking races to make better use of the venue.

The first tweak is the Night MTB Race, which now becomes a Night MTB Time Trail. The race will still be run over the same course, but we are certain that a time trail format will be better for both competitors and spectators. This is because there will be less bunching on the course for the riders, no chaos of night mass start and constant activity for spectators to watch.

The MTB Trail Quest has now been changed to become an MTB Enduro. The reason for the change is that the terrain in the quarry and surrounding roads are much better suited for enduro laps rather than a Trail Quest event. We understand that this is a bigger change in format that the Night MTB Race/Time Trail but feel with two orienteering races there is definitely something for the navigators amongst us and that will the amazing, steep undulated terrain of the quarry that we can set a compelling course for the enduro laps.

 Heather Dawe and Shane Ohly (the iROC MTB planner and Race Director) spent Saturday 17th test driving the proposed MTB Race route. Check out the pictures and video now added to the gallery section of the iROC website.

 iROC will be held at Eastgate in the Durham Dales at a brilliant new venue, which has never had public access before, let alone an adventure race! This venue is a former cement works site that is surrounded by stunning moorland. The site itself is largely hidden from view but is complete with a large quarry, steep hillsides with complex contour features, forest and a perfect event centre location at the bottom of the valley. Thanks to site-owners Lafarge Cement UK for agreeing to host this event here.
Click for image of the site

 Online entries have now opened and there is amazing early bird discount for all entries received in December - £50 rather than £70 for an individual entry and £130 rather than £200 for a team entry. The entry fee includes all six races, Saturday night entertainment, parking and camping. So, don’t delay, get your entry in now and ensure that you are at the UK’s newest adventure race next year.

 We have been receiving some very positive feedback about the ‘a la carte’ menu of racing, which allows you to choose the races you want to do for only £10 per race or enter all six for £50. There will be two fell/trail races, two orienteering races and two MTB races and for each race there will be both a day and night event… talk about variety!

Finally, the prize fund has been revealed. Initially its £2,000 but there is a commitment by the organisers to increase this as we see the number of entrants increase. More details here.