Gaelforce still blazing trails for the more adventurous

FUTURE PROOFING:THE GAELFORCE brand has become synonymous with adventure racing in this country since it held its first event in 2006. Combining trail running, hiking, cycling and kayaking, its signature Gaelforce West event attracts up to 3,000 competitors to Westport, Co Mayo, every August. The 67.5km course includes a run over Croagh Patrick and kayaking across Killary Harbour, Ireland's only fjord.

A full calendar of events includes the shorter Connemara Adventure Challenge, Gaelforce North, which takes in Glenveagh National Park and Mount Errigal in Donegal, and the “fun” Turf Man event, which sees competitors complete an assault course in a bog in November.

Many businesses that launched, like Gaelforce, close to the top of the boom are suffering or have already failed, but while Gaelforce is a new brand it is owned by the long-established Killary Adventure Centre.

“The centre is 31 years old so this is our third recession,” says Ciara Young, who handles marketing and event organisation for both Gaelforce and Killary.

“Killary started as something small but it grew and survived, and has applied what it has learnt in the last two recessions this time around.”

That means consolidating and cutting costs.

Despite this, Gaelforce will actually run more events this year than in 2011. It has launched a Trail Blazer series of shorter running and kayaking races, while it is also hosting training events in Dublin and Austria for the first time.

“We’re trying to be innovative. Marketing had to pull back so the new events are ways to get people to interact with the brand and keep them thinking about the brand,” explains Young.

The Galway company is also partnering other firms to expand its reach. The Sports Surgery Clinic in Santry, Dublin, has come on board as a sponsor and will be holding a series of race nights at its clinic. Experts from both the Sports Surgery Clinic and Gaelforce will be providing information on issues such as preventing injury and running correctly. Young sees it as an opportunity for both organisations to interact with those who participate in the events.

For a week-long adventure training camp in Bad Hofgastein, Austria, Gaelforce has teamed up with tour operator Topflight.

In another first for the company, Gerry Duffy has signed up as a brand ambassador and will be competing in both the North and West events this summer.

Duffy is the former 50-a-day smoker who last year won the UK’s first Deca-Enduroman Challenge – an event that involved completing an Ironman distance triathlon 10 days in a row.

Despite the expanded calendar, Gaelforce West is still the company’s signature event. It attracted 3,000 entrants in 2010. That figure fell to 2,800 last year, but it is still the biggest one-day adventure race in Europe.

“In a recession people need an escape and exercise gives them that,” says Young.

“A lot of people are turning to adventure sports because they can’t afford the gym any more and it helps them cope with stress.”

The Sports Surgery Clinic is the first sponsor Gaelforce has worked with. Young says that during the boom sponsors weren’t interested in what they might have considered smaller or niche events. But that’s changing now and, with a core demographic of entrants aged 25-40 who usually have families, are working, and spend money on their hobbies, its no surprise Young is talking to a number of potential sponsors.

“We wouldn’t do it with a brand that didn’t work for us,” says Young.

Killary Adventure Centre is “doing really well”, says Young, largely due to its focus on school groups.

Up to five years ago the centre targeted weekend breaks for adults, particularly stag and hen weekends, but found it impossible to compete with cheap city breaks in Europe.

As the economic gloom persists, this side of the business is being revived and a revamped website irishstagsandhens.comhas been launched.

Up to 2006, Killary Lodge was part of Killary Adventure Centre, offering high-end accommodation and food, but the decision was taken to sell it that year. “It was coming into that period when things were starting to look less affluent in the country,” says Young. “It was a high-end venue as well, which didn’t really fit with the other things we were doing.”

The centre has a core staff of 15 but this swells to 40-50 in high season as instructors, catering and accommodation staff are hired. Many of the instructors travel for the winter months, and Young admits it can be hard facing into the winter months when co-workers are heading off for far-flung adventures.