Pictured: Karena Graham and Eoghan McDermott enjoy a unique delicacy.
Irish Heart Foundation Dry Run (Image supplied by Irish Heart Foundation).
February 7th saw the debut of the Irish Heart Foundation’s first ever Dry Run urban adventure race in Dublin. The day saw, in teams of two, Dry Runners embarking on a code-cracking mission to find 10 secretly located challenges around the city in the shortest time possible.
Participants were permitted to use any means to meet their objective, including internet, calling friends or asking the general public. The challenge encouraged entrants to push themselves beyond their comfort zones, test their will and determination and also to think on their feet and outside the box.
The Dry Run was sponsored by AIG Insurance and Dublin’s 98FM, and was organised as a thank-you to all of the participants of On the Dry for January, which raised vital donations for the Irish Heart Foundation.
Thousands of people took part in the campaign, which was supported by public figures such as Bernard Brogan, Caroline Morahan, Eoghan McDermott, Karena Graham, 98FM’s Dara Quilty and the Minister for Health Leo Varadkar.
“Everyone who took part was encouraged to raise funds for the national charity fighting heart disease and stroke,” Caroline Cullen, Communications Manager for Irish Heart Foundation, told NewsFour. “The charity continues to urge all the participants to log their sponsorship donations as soon as possible at www.onthedry.ie.”
The activities on the day included kayaking in Grand Canal Quay, a climbing wall in Fairview Park and a hamster dash in Zorbs in Phoenix Park. The starting point for all comers was the CHQ Building in Dublin Docklands.
In NewsFour’s neck of the woods, two of the top-secret challenges took place in Herbert Park. Under an overcast Saturday morning sky, participants were invited to take part in an insect-tasting challenge and a zip line suspended across the tree tops. At Mobile Zipline there were many spectators enjoying themselves as they watched Dry Runners take to the line, many of them with palpable looks of terror on their faces, expressions that were captured by their less courageous co-runners on their iPhones! A few brave souls dared to engage the bug-eating challenge but not as many as the zipline, needless to say.
Many celebrities also participated on the day, including RTE TV presenter Eoghan McDermott, models Karena Graham and Michelle McGrath, and fitness guru Kelly Donegan, who led the initial warm-up at 9.30am.
The Irish Heart Foundation relies on charitable donations for more than 90% of its income, which makes events like the Dry Run urban adventure race even more vital, given that heart disease is the number-one killer affliction in Ireland.
Money is still being collected from those who took part in the On the Dry and the Dry Run and these funds will directly help the Irish Heart Foundation to continue to fund life-saving services and resources and help those currently living with heart or stroke conditions.
By Craig Kinsella
