BY DÁIRE BONNAR
IT has been another great year for Declan Ferry on the competition front, culminating in him winning the National Adventure Race Series last month.
His journey into the athletics world didn’t come until he entered his twenties, although Ferry was involved in a large amount of sports when he was younger, but Boxing stood out in his earlier years.
And while he trains with the Rosses AC, it’s the solo sports that have been a bit of a preference for the Loughanure man.
“You have different aspects where you can’t really rely on anyone else and whatever happens is on your head so you have to just give it 100%,” Ferry told the Donegal News.
“If you’re on a football team and you lose you could say ‘this fella didn’t play his part’ but if you lose in a solo sport then there’s only one person to blame and you have to deal with that.
“I did a bit of everything back in the day, very seldom was I in the house.
“I played for Naomh Muire and Keadue Rovers but I fell away from it around the age of 15/16 and there was no point trying to force it when you’re not into it.
“Myself and my brother Noel did Boxing, he has a couple of National titles and I have an Ulster title so the fitness and sport side of things was always there. We were always active and you’d be doing bits of cardio leading into that but it wouldn’t be anything like the stuff I’m doing now.”
Since starting with the West Donegal club, he has been trained by Michael Logue and got involved in 5k races around the county before he started upping the mileage.
“There’s a group in Gaoth Dobhair that are with Rosses AC and I went down there and haven’t looked back since.
“Different times suit different people, we start around 7 o’clock and I’d rather start a bit earlier to get settled after.
“It’s very helpful when you’ve people out there with you, it’s easy out on your own to say ‘I’ll not push as hard or go as far’.
“I was doing it two or three days a week and it was leisurely. Then you’d start doing the 5ks and get a time and keep trying to take it down and before you know it, it’s a fight all the time and you’re never happy with your time.”
It was the 5k races where his name kept popping up, taking wins in road races throughout Donegal.
But it wasn’t the winning that was pushing it on, but more about bettering his own times.
“I have people giving out to me saying ‘would you ever give anybody else a chance?’” he joked.
“I was doing nearly every 5k going in the county, I wouldn’t have lasted too long if I kept going.
“But Michael kept me right and a few of the other boys like Edward Harkin and Fergal McGee, they kept me level headed and to pick your races.
“I was training solely for 5ks and the speed work was ridiculous but my times weren’t coming down. Then this year I put the focus solely on adventure races and most of the 5ks I did this year I ended up setting PBs.”
WAAR (Wild Atlantic Adventure Race), which is hosted by the Naomh Muire club, was Ferry’s first dip into the adventure racing circuit and that’s when the hard miles were being put in.
He was runner-up in 2022 before taking back-to-back wins in the last two years, going from strength to strength.
Last year was his first year competing in the National Adventure Race Expert Series but after missing the first race in March, he was always on the back foot with missing out on the points for that race.
French athlete Sebastian Giraud was the winner in 2023 with Ferry impressively finishing as runner-up.
A gruelling eight races, with the distance of each spanning from a ‘shortest’ race of 56km all the way to 76km between cycling and running.
It came down to the final race of the year at the Westport Sea 2 Summit, with Ferry and Giraud tied in first place.
But the 28 year-old turned the tables on his French counterpart this year, sealing the title in November.
“I liked the thought of going from the bike to running but I wasn’t really focusing on them until last year.
“A few boys in the local area like Shaun Stewart and David McKelvey from Glenties were doing the National Series.
“Last year was more of a learning experience, I was still going out to try and win it but I knew there would be teething problems and I’d just try fix it for this year.
“I knew before the second last race last year that I wouldn’t be able to win it because the French boy had it wrapped up in October.
“I couldn’t complain too much because there is some serious talent but I held on for second place so I said to myself ‘I want that National title’ for 2024 and that was the main aim.
“Both of us had to win (Sea 2 Summit) and it was all to play for. There were eight races that counted for the series and I knew it would be tight all year round. It was important to get points on the board in that first race in Kerry and he won the Quest Killarney the month before so that put us level for the last race.
“Alan Dunne from Westport won the race and the two of us kind of broke away in the first run, we kept that gap all day and I knew I had to try and put (Giraud) away from the first gun and get a gap but by the time we came off Croagh Patrick I had about six minutes on him.
“But anything can happen, you could get a puncture or your chain could come off, you never give up until you cross that line because you never know how far behind the person is.
“You can’t let off the gas at all until you get to the line.”
The training had to be upped when it came to preparing for the Adventure races and the 28-year-old has been thankful for his luck in staying injury free considering the amount of mileage that he does.
The top 3 of the New Mills 10k. L-R New Mills 10k winner Declan Ferry (Rosses AC), Matthew McLaughlin (Foyle Valley AC) who finished third and runner-up Marc Wallace (Letterkenny AC).
And while the running was never going to be an issue for him, he had to prepare for the long cycles that come part and parcel with the race format.
“It’s about finding a fine balance between running and cycling. I might do four or five days a week running then two or three days cycling.
“I did the Donegal Ultra 222 (222km cycle race) in August because there was a bit of a gap in between the races.
“It was more for an incentive of getting cycling training done and it did help down the line for the endurance.
“Since I started running I’ve had the odd niggle or rolling your ankle but never any real injury. Before Sea 2 Summit I was training on Errigal three nights a week and you’re taking a big chance, one wrong move and you could be out for the season.
“You have to be careful and thankfully I have been injury free but hopefully it stays like that.”
That crowning moment was worth all the tough hours that was put in over the year and the years previous.
He admits he doesn’t get too much downtime with the busy schedule, but has had the support from work and family.
The Rosses AC man works as a Mechanic in McDonagh’s Tyre Centre in Crolly, so he doesn’t have too far to travel for work which helps with training.
“There’s a lot of sacrifice that goes into it, people would be saying ‘you’re going well’ but it’s the same for everyone, you’re coming home from work, then getting changed and going to training and that’s Monday to Friday then you’re out on the bike at the weekend.
“You don’t see what goes on in the background and you have to do that level of training if you want to get the results.
“There are sacrifices made all the time and in fairness my girlfriend Ciara puts up with a lot of stuff over the weekends, she has a lot of patience but she’s well used to it!”
“Work are very good that they knew before I started that I was big into the sport and with a lot of the adventure racing you’d have to go down on the Friday to get set up and you don’t want to be asking for
too much time off but they said just to let them know when there’s a race.
“I really appreciate what they do for me and without them I wouldn’t be able to do it.”
He’ll be thankful for a short bit of rest now over the holidays, although the training won’t stop ahead of the New Year.
“I never plan anything until around Christmas but I have a few different things I might do, I’ll try better my 5k time again, we’re never happy with our times!”
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