The Dragons Back Mountain race is a six-day challenge over 380 kilometres, climbing more than 57,000 feet over the Welsh mountains – and three Northern Irish former rugby players hope to raise £10,000 and ‘slay the dragon’ in memory of Steve’s dad, David, who had a muscle-wasting disease.
icky Armstrong, Nick Hatton, both 41 and Steve Addy 40, have been training since last Christmas with eight- hour mountain treks.
They have done most of their training on their local mountain range, the Mournes, about 80 minutes away.
Steve said: “One snowy day, while we were up Sleeve Binnian, we agreed we should raise money and awareness for the condition which killed my dad David Addy, my Grandpa Cyril, my cousin Peter and is a daily struggle for Peter’s mum, my Aunt Helen. This is Myotonic Dystrophy.”
Ricky said: “We don’t know the Welsh mountains at all! The pandemic has prevented us travelling over to wales to ‘recce’ them. Most people who are doing the event have done as they live close by or at least on the mainland. The restrictions have stopped us .But we have sufficient experience navigating and will have good GPS gadgets and maps.”
Ricky thinks they are the first people to do it from Northern Ireland.
He said: “The first Dragons’ Back event was in 1992. It was deemed too hard and did not happen again until 2012, when it was picked up and has occurred every two years since. Around 450/500 competitors start with only about a third finishing (and that’s with good weather). We are funding it ourselves at a cost of about £1100. For that we get tents each night, breakfast and evening dinner, plus medical support.”
The three men have been close friends since schooldays, all three played rugby for Bangor 1st XV for over a decade. Nick works in IT, Ricky is a financial adviser & Steve is a senior council manager. They are all married and each has two children.
Ricky said: “we are all decent ex rugby-club players. I am currently President of Bangor Rugby Club for season 2021/22, all three are active club members.”
No strangers to fundraising Challenges, between them they have raised over £30,000 for Northern Irish charities. They have run Belfast marathons and they did the New York marathon together in 2018, raising £6,000.
“Steve is very much the leader in this expedition I am the logistics man and Nick is the fitness and food expert. During 0 months of training we have all bonded incredibly in our different roles. We will be doing this race as a team, which is the only way we will get through it. If any of us were doing it alone I don’t think we would finish.”
David Addy was Ulster’s top table tennis player. He received International recognition as a notable attacking player by competing for Northern Ireland at the Commonwealths at Cardiff in 1977.
You can read more about the challenge and support Ricky, Nick and Steve here.
Julia Smith, Julia Smith – MDUK Senior Manager for Regional Development said: “I would like to thank Ricky, Nick and Steve for taking on this enormous challenge to raise funds for Muscular Dystrophy UK, the money they raise will make a huge difference to those living with a muscle wasting condition. We are hoping people in Northern Ireland will support these three fantastic mountaineers to get out there and ‘slay the dragon.’”
