Open Adventure – 2 Day – Lakes

Posted on 11 June 2013 by Ian

Feel free to skip the words and just look at the photos, the pictures are truly stunning and far more interesting than what I have to say. There is also a pretty cool video from the event down the bottom of the page. But if you insist, read on…

Following from my success at the recent 12 hour AR in Wales (and lack of friends available to race with) I entered the male solo category in the first of a pair of 2 day events that Open Adventure are hosting this summer. Based out of Rydal Hall, Ambleside, the race involves 5 action packed races over the weekend; orienteering, mountain bike orienteering, night orientering, then the following day a trail run and kayaking. The format is great for fast and furious racing – but it does make for a rather tough weekend. For my Crossfit friends, this is basically the adventure racing equivalent of a weekend Crossfit competition, but rather than events last 10 minutes, the events are 1.5-5 hours! Think more hill sprints and rowing than olympic lifting and handstands.

With a lot of the more formidable names on the AR circuit battling it out in the prestigious mixed team of 4 category, it left a keen bunch of us solos in a tight race right across the weekend.

Event 1 - Orienteering

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2 hours running in the fells. I didn’t quite manage to clear the course, having to drop 2 x 25 pointers but a steady start to the weekend. I came in just 6 seconds over the time limit, no big issue to lose 2 points at this stage so I was happy. I pushed quite hard on the last ascent, but I started to wonder if I going to be able to keep up that intensity for the rest of the weekend? Still, nothing to complain about, it’s been a while since I’ve raced in the sun shine.

Why run anywhere else?

Just a few up hills

Oh, and some even steeper hills.

Event 2 – Mountain biking

After an hour or so the mountain bike section was underway. Even with 5 hours to peddle around the hills and country lanes it was quickly evident that the course was far from clearable. I opted to ignore any 10 pointers, unless I was going right past them en route to the higher scoring check points.

Despite having raced a few times in the area, the planner managed to uncover some great single track that I’d not visited before. Some trails I’ll definitely hunt out next time I’m in the area (between CP 27, 31, 34 and 35 in particular). A all-to-brief break when crossing on the Windermere Ferry left about an hour and a half to pick up a few CPs to the East of the water and a final technical descent (28 into Ambleside). I went flying over the handle bars on some serious looking rocks, but fortunately managed to land on my feet. I eased off a bit and came in with a few minutes to spare. It had been a long ride, rewarded by the top score outside the teams, which is quite rare for me. I’m usually stronger on foot than on bike, but perhaps that’s got something to do with all the cycling I’ve been doing lately (and less running). Hmmm.

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Event 3 – Night Orienteering

In theory, my strongest event. I’m pretty happy running around in the dark with a map so I was intending to do well in the 1.5 hours late at night. What I didn’t allow for was the fact that the preceding 7 hours of solid racing might have left my brain a bit frazzled. All was going well until about half way through when I neglected to take a bearing and ran straight along the obvious path in front of me, beautifully illuminated by my Hope R4 head torch. Unfortunately it turns out, this path was almost 90 degrees in the wrong direction. (From 69 I was aiming for 70, but ended up on the bridleway to the East of 69). Something didn’t feel right, but what the hell, I must be in the right place – it’ll work out. A bit more running and this definitely wasn’t working. I had no idea where I was. Was I off the map? I was lost. Fortunately I picked up a footpath heading North, which would take me back towards the open fell, then a road appeared. How had that happened? No time to worry now, at least I knew where I was. And I knew there was a big hill, 3 large scoring CPs and only 20 minutes left!

I had totally lost concentration, I was flagging, I was convinced any chance of a good finish was out the window. I must have made a dozen silly errors on the way in, costing me precious time and I was soon losing penalty points. I twisted my ankle on a stupidly fast descent. I was last to finish, 12 minutes late and a huge 55 point penalty. Bummer.

As it turns out, I still came 3rd (solos) in this section. After all that, there was no need to risk that extra check point, my low risk option would have seen me finish with very respectable score. Serves me right for being too greedy.

Event 4 – Trail Race

With the late finish last night, I didn’t get to bed until after midnight. I was up again at 6am for the early briefing. We were to embark on a mass start fell run first thing. The scoring was based on finish time relative to the fastest finisher, so places didn’t count, just all out speed. The route followed the Fairfield Horseshoe – which is essentially a sharp climb up to about 750 meters, a huge ridge run, then a sharp descent to finish. I was really struggling to run on anything uneven with my swollen ankle from last night, but as long as I could find soft, flat ground I was able to keep moving along with a few other teams and solos.

Going into the last 2 events I was sitting in 2nd, with Timothy just in front and Campbell just behind. Unfortunately I could do nothing but watch the guys dash off in front of me during the run, I just tried to keep the time damage as low as possible. Ian Grace from Endurance Life was very kind in making sure I was alright on the way down and we crossed the finish line within a minute of each other. We finished in just under 2 hours, but well behind the fastest runner of the day, Joseph Bedford, in an impressive 90 minutes!

Event 5 – Kayaking

All that lay between me and a nice lie down was a 2 hour kayak stage around the Northern end of Windermere. We did not know the standings going into the last race, so despite how much I wanted to, I knew I had to push hard. The problem was that Campbell is a olympic sliver medelest in – canoeing! “Sit-on tops are so slow, it evens the playing field” he says, “If you say so”.

I dropped the furthest 2 CPs and finished with about 15 minutes to spare. I might have just been able to squeeze in one more CP, but it would have been close. All I could do now was eat, pack up, sit down and wait for the results.

Results

I don’t think I could have given much more over the weekend of racing. Racing solo is an interesting experience, you are you best friend and worst enemy. I think it helps sometimes, but it is hard to keep going when it get’s tough (or you lose your focus like on the night orienteering). So as we waited for the results, despite the one mistake the night before, I was happy with how things had gone. I’m always too critical of tactical/navigation issues anyway.

So when the results were read out and I managed to hang onto 2nd I was delighted. Campbell had stormed the run and kayak to jump to first, Timothy had lost ground on the kayak to take third. I really enjoyed racing with the guys and I’m looking forward to racing against/with each other in the future. I’m teaming up with totalXC team mate Stu for the next event, so will be interesting to see how we do in the pairs.

Results and more photos.

Photos from James Kirby

Welsh AR Series – Round 1 – Brecon Beacons

Posted on 16 April 2013 by Ian

I’ve been keeping my eye on the relatively new Might Contain Nuts races for the last few seasons. Based in South Wales, they seem to put on fairly challenging events, focusing on ultras, trail races and middle distance (12 hour) adventure races. I didn’t have anything else planned that weekend and with Mum and Dad living just 40 minutes away I entered a few days before (luckily there were a few places still going). Despite the last minute decision to enter, my kit packing went smoothly – having a large stash of Montane kit certainly helps.

My careful preparation paid off on the morning of the event, all I had to do was take the bike out the car and drop off my transition box. At registration competitors were handed a pre-marked map, which needed check point values marked on. The event was split into two halves, the morning section started at 8am and centered about Llangors lake, with a bike section linking kayaking and an optional run stage. Then we were to return to transition between 1-2pm before getting maps for the afternoon. I had 20 minutes or so to decide a rough strategy, the main complication being timing arrival at the kayak section just right. There was just a 50 minute window to complete the kayak section in and it was clear that it was well worth clearing the section with 200 points up for grabs. There was no room for faff, as I arrived at the start line just as the pre-race briefing was underway.

I’d not done a 12 hour race before, so I was not sure exactly how to pace myself. As I was racing solo, I opted to push on at a steady pace from the start, not take any unnecessary risks, focus on good nav and keep on top my my nutrition. At the start, the field split in half as the course offered only 2 options to begin with, either clockwise or anti-clockwise. Also opting to head left were Team For Goodness Shakes, who set the pace from the outset. They disappeared into the distance, but unfortunately for them I passed them 15 minutes later as they were repairing a damaged rear mech (luckily they were able to repair and get moving again). I continued to grab as many CPs as I dared, including the optional run stage (a 25 min blast up and down a steep hill) before doubling back on myself to get to the kayak section. I had 15 minutes to spare before we were allowed on the water, giving me time to put on my waterproofs, which would stay on for the rest of the event.

Clearing the kayak section (still not a fan of kayaking), left me with about 2 hours to pick up the remaining CPs. Despite one small nav error and a battle through dense woodland (apparently there was a fire track somewhere), I cleared the first half coming in to transition at 1:20pm.

Check point order – B3, B4, B5, B10, B8, R11, K13, K15, K16, K14, K12, B9, B7, B6, B2, B1

Getting the maps for the second half, it was clear that the afternoon was going to be quite a different story to the morning. The main decision was wether to commit to including the infamous Gap route on the bike (a 600m mountain pass in the shadow of Pen y Fan), or stay safe and focus on picking up lower scoring bike CPs in the valley to the South. For me, doing the gap last was not an option as the loop was very committing with no shortcuts back if timing was running short. But I wanted to keep chasing the high scoring CPs, so I opted to take on the gap first. About 90 minutes later I was cursing myself for that decision. I was still on the way up the track in the deteriorating weather, convinced I’d made the wrong decision. (In hindsight, I think it was still better to avoid the pass, but not by as much as I had feared). I had planned to spend 4 hours on the run/trek section, but I’d estimated I should leave 90 minutes to get back to the finish, so I only had 3 hours to run around the wet, windy and snowy mountains.

It soon became clear that none of the 100 pointers were worth heading for, each would take almost an hour to pick up (and there were 3 of them). Despite the poor weather, low visibility and tired legs, I really enjoyed running along the ridge towards Fan y Big. My kit choice was spot on (base layer, Montane Air jacket and Minimus pants, plus spare warm layer in the bag – safety first!) which made the experience slightly more bearable. I returned in exactly 3 hours (and as it turns out, also accumulated the most point on the run, which was a surprise), then a final blast back to base to find out if my timing calculations were right or not! I wimped out of picking up a final 10 points on the Taff trail and retuned with 8 minutes to spare.

Check point order – B12, B11, B10, R23, R22, R19, R26, R17, R25, R24, B3, B2

Speaking to a few people at the finish line, it was clear that I was not the only one who found it hard going, but to my great surprise it turned out that I’d only gone an won!! Just goes to show that it’s important to keep going despite thinking you might have made the wrong tactical decisions. 12 hours is a long time to race solo and there is a lot of time to over think things. I’m already looking forward to the next one in July, even closer to Mum and Dads in the Black Mountains. Perhaps I’ve found my ideal race length, or perhaps luck was finally on my side. Let’s see how the next one goes.

Many thanks to Might Contain Nuts for putting on the event and to all the friendly competitors and marshalls. Event Photos.

Total distance approx. 90km biking, 20 km running, 2.5km kayaking.

Adidas TERREX Sting in Stirling – Ian’s Report

Posted on 26 September 2012 by Ian

Any event where the write up takes longer to finish than the race itself means that either we’re talking about a quick 5km, or a very long race. So apologies for taking over a month to get this out here, but there were so many memories I wanted to share and photos to upload. Hopefully you’ll find it all entertaining, and I won’t babble on too much, but bear with me and we’ll make it to the end. That’s the thing with 5 day events, you just have to switch off from your normal concepts of time and distance and just let the journey take you.

So this was the big one: the reason for TotalXC’s existence. We formed 12 months ago with the sole aim of completing this race. Our aim was simple: to complete the full course. It seems straightforward but any event that covers over 600km, with over 100 hours of continuous racing, is going to throw up a few obstacles along the way. For those not in the know the race involved 36 mixed-teams of 4 setting off from Stirling Castle at around 9am on Monday 20th August. Ahead of us lay a number of checkpoints across half of Scotland. Each had to be visited in the correct order; some were compulsory, others were optional. If you dropped one of more of these checkpoints you were classed as a “Short Course” team and you incurred time penalties for each missed checkpoint. Teams that reached every checkpoint were classed as a ” Long Course” team and would be ranked above all short-course teams. So committing to the long course from the outset made the race quite straight forward; just get all the checkpoints (within any cut off times imposed along the way). Only 4 teams completed the full race. It wasn’t straightforward.
We were incredibly organised in the weeks leading up to the race. Due to a busy work schedule, my kit was 95% packed 2 weeks before the start! We arrived in Stirling on the Friday, checking into a Travelodge and after the event briefing, set about digesting the route details, along with lots of food. According to my (as it turns out, ambitious) timings, we were capable of making it around the full course, with a decent amount of sleep!

The Prologue – Stirling

Short relay race the night before the main race

Sunday Evening

The event featured a short relay race on the eve before the main race. Local teams were invited to join it and it was a good chance to push aside any pre-race nerves for an hour or so. We did pretty well, coming about 5th, and just a minute of so behind the leaders (Stu parted ways with his bike on the final leg, fortunately no harm done, just a bit of time lost). This would translate to a 3-minute penalty to be served in the main race so nothing major to worry about in the grand scheme of things.

Andy leading the pack (thanks to a cheeky false start)

Renee neck and neck with team Mountain Hardware

Stage 1 – Run – Stirling

MONDAY MORNING (1 HOUR)

10km warm up from Stirling Castle, to the tower across town and back

We gathered in the stunning setting of Stirling Castle for a mass start. The first leg was a 10km run intended to split the pack up a little before the first biking leg. We took it fairly steady: being both excited and nervous for the journey that lay ahead. We were no more than a minute behind the leaders at that stage. No one was in a particular hurry: “5-days to go” was mumbled any time anyone injected too much pace.

Stage 2 – Bike – Stirling to the Hills

Monday morning into the afternoon (10 hours)

A bike out to the hills, via a castle, a bit or rowing, and 2 mountain passes

The first few hours were a bit frantic on the bikes. Teams tended to join up in small pelotons, hammering out the miles along the roads out of Stirling. There was no way we would be able to keep up this pace, but the benefit of drafting was worth the extra effort to keep up. A checkpoint at the picturesque Doune Castle, then a short row out to a runied abbey for another checkpoint gave us a flavour for the interesting sights that lay in wait. A few hours into the race we passed the first short course option, which avoided the first mountain pass. Not an option for us at this point, so up the hill we continued. I’ve erased any memories of hike a bike sections, it’s the only way I’ll consider doing another race. The first bike stage was over around 4pm, about an hour behind the leaders. Nothing to complain about so far.

Stage 3 – Canoe – Loch Tay

MONDAY Evening (1 hour)

A short paddle to the foot of Ben Lawers

Not much to report here, just a short paddle along the flat water of the loch. I was however not looking forward to another 5 hours of so of paddling later…

Stage 4 – Trek – Ben Lawers

MONDAY Night (9 hours inc. 1.5 hours sleep)

A rather hilly 25-30 km trek over some steep hills

On paper, just a 30km trek/run but looking at the contours there was not a great deal of running to be had by us. As the sun set we summited the first peak: only 3 more to follow with a checkpoint on each. Considering the height gain and overall distance we were going to be covering on foot, we elected to use trekking poles on the two main trek stages. Initially we were reluctant to carry any additional weight, cue the Black Diamond Ultra Distance poles, which are incredibly light and quickly fold down into thirds to stow away when not needed. As the race progressed, these would become increasingly essential to the team.
Fortunately the race directors, Nick Gracie and James Thurlow, had decided before the race started to cut out the furthest CP. This was to enable more teams to get around the full course before the cut off at 6am, when all teams needed to be back on the water. This was our first lifeline, without this change we would have been very close to the wire. As it was, we finished at 2:52am and elected to grab 90 minutes kip. Don’t get too excited about the sleep, we donned all our clothes we had with us (no transition bags here) and slipped into our Adventure Medical Kit Thermolite Bivvy bags. Actually, I was impressed with the durable bivvy bags: I was warm enough. However, we were lucky as the rain hadn’t arrived yet. As nice as it was to get some rest early on, I think this was our first tactical error because although we were on the water well ahead of the cut off, we were already towards the back end of the pack and on our way to chasing cut off times (even though the next cut off was still 3 days away). More on this later.

A big hill

Stage 5 – Canoe – Loch Tay/River Tay

Tuesday Morning (8 hours)

40km down the Tay Loch and half way down the river, with some interesting rapids! We had done quite a bit of canoe training leading up to the race as none of us had any significant experience to rely on. (Thanks to Kelvin and John Houlihan for their coaching). Despite this, I was not looking forward to 8 hours on the water. I think it’s fair to say I’m not a big fan of paddling. Having said that, once the water got moving, I might have had a bit of fun. The water was BIG. The top two teams both went for a swim, along with many others. I’m delighted to say that we made it safely down the worst of the rapids in one piece! (Until the last rapid of the day when, for a change, Renee and Stu decided to cool off with a little swim).

Stage 6 – Bike – Half way across Scotland and back!

TUESDAY afternoon, through the night, day and finally Wednesday evening (28 hours biking + 4 hours orienteering inc. 2 x 20 min naps)

A massive bike leg, with some canyoning and orienteering to break things up.

Stage 6 was really 5 stages and it made up the bulk of the race. Leaving transition, we headed up a long and steady hill with an awesome view of the pass we were heading to. There were a number of other teams around us. The long climb was rewarded with a long, fast descent (although I did stack it into the heather at one point – and made a mental note to use the brakes more). Back on the road and then a short cut through some woods lead us to a very random meadow hidden under some electricity pylons. This was a very surreal experience: 100s of butterflies launched into flight as a rode along. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t hallucinating!

The team hit a bit of a low some time after this and we were struggling to find any pace in the increasing heat (and incline). Andy pulled the team together for a quick chat to get us focused and after a 20-minute nap by the side of the road we were on our way. On to the canyoning section of the race!

For anyone unaware, canyoning is basically throwing your self down a canyon past lots of water and rocks. If you want someone to sell canyoning to you, I’m not your man. At least it was a break from cycling. It is perhaps a step up from caving, as I could stand up for most of it. It was however long (of course) and cold. Anyway, the pictures look good. (Everyone else enjoyed it, so don’t let me put of off!!)

When will this end?

Without raising the unnecessary question of if we were still committed to the full course, it was time to get back on the bikes and peddle away into the growing darkness. Next phase was a huge loop out to the Far NW corner of the course through some huge long, remote valleys. Stopping to mount our Hope R4 lights was a brief affair: if we stopped for just a few seconds all the mossies in Scotland seemed to chew down on every exposed inch of flesh. Good for progress I guess. After a long steady ascent, a short push along some single track (which in the fading light was just slightly too much to ride), we cruised steadily downhill on good tracks for what seemed like forever. At some point I started to see portraits of famous film stars and american indians in the damp patches on the gravel tracks. This was a good sign that it was about time to grab some sleep. We found a lovely new generator shed that was unlocked, so stopped for 30 minutes.
Back on the bikes, and we headed for what will now always be known as The Never-Ending alley. Before the race we were told this valley was one of the nicest places on the whole route. Unfortunately for us it was now pitch black and we were pushing our bikes through boggy ground for hours on end. The bridge on the map seemed like it should have arrived hours ago, the darkness playing tricks with our concepts of time and space. This small paragraph does not really pay justice to just how long this hike a bike took us. The picture of Stu does help to give some idea about where we were on the enthusiasm scale!
It was dawn before we reached the road, and the orienteering section based out of Mar Lodge.

We were one of the later teams to set off on foot for what we were expecting to be a 10km leg stretcher. Andy and Renee were pretty knackered so Stu and I volunteered to collect all the CPs (the rules allowed the teams to split into pairs for this section). The others stayed in transition, sorted some kit out and got some sleep. 4 hours later we were back, having run about 20km. Woops. Renee’s leg was also wrapped up, probably a problem considering we had a huge trek to come…

A fairly fast bike East, past Balmoral, and up a very long hill through some woods, then up a mountain for a very steep hike a bike to Mount Keen. Then a huge descent to transition in House of Mark (must return here to stay at the B&B one day, lovely place). That was the bulk of the biking behind us: now for the real test – the 100km+ trek…

Stage 7 – Trek – Some mountains near Glenshee

Wednesday night into Thursday night (26 hours)

Uh oh

We were in a rush to get up into the hills to make the most of the fading light. Transition was going fairly well until we did a kit check. Did we have our emergency phones? Of course, here you g… Oh, it’s okay we have another… Ah… So that was it, game over. We couldn’t go on. Well fortunately, because the marshalls were awesome, we were borrowed a phone and were given permission to continue (with a time penalty). Massive learning point here. Anyway, moving on.

The light faded as we ascended the hills, just as the navigation started to get ‘interesting’. Even the top teams struggled on this section: never ending peat hags, no obvious features to navigate with, and certainly no path to speak of. After a slight “how have we just gone round in a circle”, Stu took a bearing and I counted paces for 2km! Our Suunto Core‘s came in handy when trying to pinpoint our altitude. Once we were heading in the right direction, the main challenge was to stay awake. Pitching a tent wasn’t really an option until we descended a little and found some flat ground. Fortunately we found the CPs then pitched the tent for two hours kip when dawn came around. Unfortunately the light didn’t help us travel much faster as there were still huge hags to deal with (they just looked bigger now).

We popped down to the transition point the short-course teams used to enter the trek. We didn’t hang around, as there were a lot of mosquitos. This didn’t really give us the time to fully assess how we were holding up (the answer was – not well). We charged up in the direction of the scramble for a 2-hour trek with Stu on a mission towing Renee (I struggled to keep up without even taking any extra weight). But crossing the boulder field over to the start of the scramble and watching Renee hold back the signs of obvious extreme pain she was now in, lead to us to confronting the huge elephant that had been in the room for the last 12 hours or so. Our pre-race plan had always been to complete the full course until either we were timed out, or the wheels well and truly fell off – and somewhere in that boulder fields you’ll probably find a set of metaphorical wheels abandoned to the best Scotland could throw at us. Renee’s knee had been a problem since the first trek on the first night. The fact that she had continued this far was incredible but it was clear that our pace had slowed too much to make completing the full trek (another 70km) and even completing the next trek leg (some 30km) impossible. It would have caused Renee so much pain that it just wasn’t worth it.

We sat down to take in the incredible view over Lochnagar, and reflect on the bitter-sweet situation we were in. I can’t really fully describe my emotions at the time: I was so proud of the fact that we had made it there – in a way we had achieved our objective – we had continued until we had no other option but to admit defeat. But it was far from the way we had all wanted to ‘achieve’ our pre-race objective. Now we had 2 problems – Renee was at least 2 hours from the nearest road, and there were still some of us who were not quite ready to take the powered route home.

Well, fortunately for Andy and I, Stu volunteered to take Renee back down. Massive thanks to Stu for taking one for the team. I’ll leave Stu and Renee to share their journey back to Stirling (it took 3 hours to hobble down, and another day to get back to the start). So problem number 2, how would Andy and I continue? Then, as luck would have it, Dave and Neil, half of Team Accelerate, just happened to come bouncing by (their other 2 team members had pulled out). And so the team with the longest name ever “Total XC Facewest Accelerate New Balance” was formed. Introductions were quick (we’d never met before) and up the hill we went.

There was still the small matter that we were very behind schedule, and none of us were feeling too fresh. The marshal at the scramble gave us the option of having our bikes taken to the end of the next leg. After some quick calculations, we realised we had no choice but to admit we weren’t going to complete the full trek. The wind was taken out of our sails somewhat but we still enjoyed the scenery and made the most of it (there were still about 10 hours of trekking to go!)
My Montane Minimus Jacket was ideal in the showery conditions. On the whole the rain stayed away and we kept plodding on. Despite the condition of my legs (empty), my feet were actually doing okay. Bridgedale Endurance Trail Socks did their part to reduce blisters (I only had one the whole race). My ankle however was determined to ruin the party. In the second half of the trek I found it increasingly difficult to descend without pain but (un)fortunately we were all starting to slow down so I didn’t hold the team up too much.
For some reason were refused to miss the last out and back CP before descending to transition, refusing to give up on the full course until the bitter end. Arriving at the ski lodge was so welcome, and despite having to admit defeat to the full course, we were all relieved to not be facing another 12 hours or so of trekking.

Stage 8 – Bike – Glenshee to Grantully

Thursday night (8 hours inc. 1 hour sleep)

A connecting leg from the end of our trek to the start of the final canoe section.

I’m not entirely sure this stage happened, we were all so tired and sleepy I can’t tell if it was a dream or real. I do remember finding a lovely barn with actual hay bails on the floor. A 10 minute kip easily became a 1h 10 min sleep. Is was largely on road and wet. We arrived to transition in the early hours, pitched the tent for 60 min sleep.

Stage 9 – Canoe – River Tay to Perth

Friday morning into the afternoon (1 hour sleep in transition + 8 hours paddling)

50km of canoeing down the River Tay

We got on the water just a minute before the cut off. We paddled for a long time. We got out. We didn’t fall in. Andy and I fell out for about 10 minutes. We paddled some more.

Stage 10 – Bike – Perth to Stirling

Friday Evenning (6 hours)

The final sprint for home, on the back roads to Stirling

The last stage was a bit of a formality, to get us back to the start, but it still meant a good few hours on the saddle of our tired and weary bikes. (not to mention the riders). In fact this is probably the most dangerous leg of the whole race, as it was all too easy to loose concentration. This point was made all the more clear when we passed a team who had a rider down on the road. They waved us on, as help was on the way, but it must have been devastating to have an incident so close to the end.

As darkness fell is was time to get the Petzl Nao into action. A great head torch that automatically adjusts the level of light to suit the conditions, so when I look down at my map board it automatically adjusts. Not quite as powerful as the Hope light, but fine for the road. The finish was getting closer and closer and we entered Stirling and we passed the same route the 10km took all those sun rises ago. Let’s not mention the crash I had on the pavement, just 200m from the finish line.

The Finish Line

Friday – About 10pm (109 hours and 640km later)

Done

Fortunately I rolled out of the crash like a ninja, no damage done, just as the finish banner came into view. We dumped our bikes and pulled of the the slowest ever fake-jog across the line. Renee and Stu were there to greet us, and to share the best ever champagne moment caught on camera.

Again, the finish line was full of mixed emotions. Great to have finished, but sad not to have crossed the line with our original team, having completed the full course. Guess this means I can’t hang up my expedition racing boots just yet!

And Finally

It was great to have raced with two teams along the way, it really was like 2 races in one. Thanks to Dave and Neil for walking past at just the right moment! Thanks Andy for crossing the line with me for the second time, and Stu for taking one for the team and help Renee back safely. And most thanks of all to Renee for pushing on well beyond the limits of any sensible person.

As always, thanks to all our sponsors, not least Facewest, where all the kit mentioned above is available. If you have any technical questions, just get in touch with Stu via their website and you’ll get the best advice you can hope for.

All photos from either our camera, James Kirby or Sleepmonsters.

None of this would have been possible for any of us without the hard work from Open Adventure and support from Adidas. And of course, the huge team of volunteers, including our very own team mascot, Tom!

And if you’re still reading, here is a nice little video from Dawn, filmed on her Go Pro along the course. It give you a nice flavour of the journey Dawn’s Video

Here is a link to the route we took http://www.movescount.com/moves/move7315640

Ok, I’m going to go now. This has taken long enough.

The planning begins

Posted on 18 August 2012 by Ian

Tracking the team in the Sting

Posted on 16 August 2012 by Ian

Expedition adventure racing is not the most traditional of spectator sports, waiting on the top of some hill for hours on end to see the odd team trundle past is hardly the same as watching the 100m olympics final, but with the latest GPS tracking technology you may soon find yourself unable to leave the computer for an instant.

At some point http://live.adidas-ar.com/ will go live, and when the race is underway you should see nice little dots shows the progress of each team. The site will attempt to rank each team in order so you can see how we are getting on. The site will have a load of photos taken during the race, and the off hurried blog from each team

Keep an eye too on http://www.sleepmonsters.co.uk/ for some great, detailed articles during the race keeping you up-to-date with all the news on the ground. And hopefully there’ll be a video published at some point after the race.

Packing well underway

Posted on 10 August 2012 by Ian

With just over a week to go until we pack up the van for the long drive North, we are quite happy with our preparations so far. In an attempt to avoid any unnecessary last minute panics, the team met up in Stu’s (recently tidied) garage to drop off our kit and bikes, and to make sure any remaining tasks were under control. I’m away with work next week, so all my kit (bar a very small to do list) was packed last weekend, and stored away ready for the start line. Just some final food shopping and a load of wraps to prepare between the team. Exciting stuff.

Adidas TERREX Swift 2012 – Ian’s Report

Posted on 8 June 2012 by Ian

What I should have been doing this weekend was celebrating the Jubilee with my old uni mates at a relaxing 10 year reunion in the valleys of the Peak District. However, some 10 months ago I’d met up with 3 local racers; Stu, Renee and Andy, and we’d agreed to form totalXC and work towards competing in the adidas TERREX Sting. So here I was, on that journey, stood on the starting line of the Sting’s little sister, the Swift. Ahead lay some 300km to be covered in around 48 hours on foot, bike, canoe and dangling off ropes.

Getting to the race was fairly straight forward, just an hour from Stu’s house in Ilkley. We’d done a lot of preparation in the weeks leading up to the race, which although a headache at the time, had meant the night before and morning of the race was fairly relaxing.

The maps were sent out a few days before, so I had had a chance to study in detail, and the event briefing just helped to clarify a few points.

Stage 1 – Run – Kirby Lonsdale

Run around the town to the start of the canoe section. 12km

Real time starting stage – Saturday 09:00:00
Race time starting stage – 00:00:00
Leg time - 00:51:06

All competitors were picked up from Settle at 07:30 and bused down the road to Kirby Lonsdale. It seemed like the whole town along with brass band had turned up to see us on our way, but as it turned out they were all just waiting for us to get out the way so they could take a town jubilee photo in the town square. It did make for an exciting start, as we set off on a 12 km run around the town and along the river Lune to the start of the Canoe stage.

As there has not been much rain for the last few weeks, the section of the river directly below Kirby Lonsdale was too shallow to paddle, hence the slightly longer run than originally planned. We settled into around 5th place in the pack and eased ourselves into the race.

Stage 2 – Canoe – River Lune

30km down the River Lune, through Lancaster to Glassdon on the coast.

Transition time - 00:07:43
Real time starting stage – Saturday 09:58:49
Race time starting stage – 00:58:49
Leg time - 04:20:05

The first transition went pretty much to plan, Stu’s meticulous kit planning was already paying off as all the kit we needed to pick up was nicely sorted and ready to go. A short portage to the river bank and we were away alongside FGS! Nectar. TERREX, Mountain Hardware and FGS! SuperBerry were all ahead of us.

Before this year, none of the team had much experience in caones. We have tried to spend some time practising with Leeds Canoe Club, but despite this, Andy and I still managed to capsize. There was a flow of water coming in from the right, I could see it coming and knew I should do something to counter it, but before I could figure out what I should do, we were upside down. As the weather was pleasant, it wasn’t the end of the world as we soon warmed up, however, my lovely new Julbo sunglasses had vanished. Despite losing a very nice piece of kit, it also presented a bit of a problem as the sun was out and my eyes soon became tired. We also lost sight of FGS! which left us on our own for pretty much the rest of the paddle.

We negotiated the rest of the river without problem, and after a loooong slog across the mud flats to the sailing club on the coast, it was time to get back on dry land and onto our bikes.

Stage 3 – Mountain Bike – Forest of Bowland (plus MTBO)

73km along roads and bridleways to Malham, via Gisburn Forest for an extra 16km of mountain bike orienteering.

Transition time - 00:20:29
Real time starting stage – Saturday 14:39:23
Race time starting stage - 05:39:23
Stage time - 06:24:39

I was quite looking forward to getting on the bike, because it meant we we heading in the general direction of the finish, which is always a good thing. The stage went much quicker than expected, mainly because the majority of the route was on fast bridleways and road. The main off road section was along a remote pass through the Forest of Bowland, which is actually a large expanse of moorland, and not a forest at all. After a significant mechanical, which left Renee with half a front brake, we were moving well. We were passed by Endurance Life, which dropped us back to 6th place.

The mountain bike orienteering was a welcome change, as it meant I had to switch to micro nav mode for a while. Fortunately I know the woods pretty well, and I’m pretty confident we took the most efficient route with little time wasted. As we arrived, Adidas TERREX were leaving the woods, with Mountain Hardware in hot pursuit. The race at the front was hotting up.

A short marshy bridleway and a bit more road later and we were soon in Malham, and a chance to stretch our legs.

Stage 4 – Trek – Malham

16km up to Malham Tarn and back down Malham Cove.

Transition time - 00:22:48
Real time starting stage – Saturday 21:26:50
Race time starting stage - 12:26:50
Stage time - 02:48:26

Transition was negociated in a respectable time, considering Stu managed to fix Renee’s brakes and oil our chains, and as we left again we passed the leading two teams who had just finished the stage. This time they were less than a minute apart, and looking rather exhausted. It was great to see the race playing out in front of us, but we also had an eye on the teams just in front and behind us as 7th place arrived in transition just as we left.

It took a while to get our legs moving, but we soon settled into a steady pace as the night drew in and our Hope R4 head torches switched on. We didn’t push ourselves too hard, becuase we were very aware that we wanted to minimise any risk of aggrevating any niggling injuries before the final mammoth trek stage at the end of the race. Again, the navigation was not too taxing as Malham is well known to us, having raced an Open 5 here in the past.

Stage 5 – Mountain Bike – Wensledale (plus Abseiling)

85km (113km for the long course) from Malham to Hawes via Swaledale valley, with an abseil down Kilnsey Crag.

Transition time - 00:25:33
Real time starting stage – Sunday 00:40:49
Race time starting stage - 15:40:49
Stage time - 12:17:18 (inc. ~50 min rest/sleep and ~45min cafe stop)

None of us were looking forward to the start of this stage, climbing to the top of Malham on foot is one thing, but having to do it straight after on a bike is no fun. Without us really noticing, the weather was starting to come in too. FGS! SuperBerry teams were in our sights, which must have meant we were moving at a decent pace, or they were fading. We arrived at the abseil CP together, but they were faster in getting their kit sorted, so we would have to wait for them to finish their descent, which meant we could take our time getting to the top of the crag. The abseil was off a huge overhang, which was quite dramatic when lit up by our powerful head torches, definitely a highlight.

Into the night we continued, and up a particularly gruelling rocky ascent. We caught FGS! again as they took shelter in an abandoned cottage. We considered joining them, but decided to push on a little further. It later transpired that FGS! SuperBerry were in fact struggling with sickness, and shortly after pulled out of the race, which was a great shame. In hindsight, sleeping for a hour or so and waiting for the weather to pass might have been a good move, but we did not realise how hard it was going to get. We passed the first ‘short course’ option and continued to the next check point, located high up on an exposed moor. The cold wind and steady rain took an ever increasing toll, and as we eventually reached the top and after putting all out remaining layers on, we turned head on into the wind. It took a good hour or so to descend and upon reaching the bottom of the hill, as the sun rose, we decided to take shelter and discuss our options. I’d not fully realised, but we were struggling to keep warm. We found a chicken shed and cracked out the 4 man bothy. We took a 30 minute nap in rather cramped conditions, but we were so tired it took minutes to fall asleep.

Upon waking, we discussed the option of heading straight to Hawes and skipping the rest of the bike. This would have had a serious impact on any hopes of a top finish, but survival was also a serious consideration. We had all our layers on but we were still cold. If we were to slow any more, perhaps as a result of a crash or injury, then we would be in trouble. At this point the owner of the chicken shed turned up, and was very relaxed about finding 4 soaked strangers in her shed. She even asked if she could be of any assistance, which was very nice of her. We thanked her for the shelter and got moving again. At the next key turning, we had another chat. The rain has eased a little, and we were feeling slightly better after the nap. We opted to continue on, and discuss again at the next key valley junction some 2 hours away.

We had another chat when above Grinton, and finally decided that we would miss the furthest 2 check points. There was a lot of climbing and distance involved, probably 6 hours. If we would have had our more substantial waterproofs and were warmer, it might have been an option. We headed to the cafe at the Dales Mountain Bike Centre and were made to feel very welcome as we took over the entire room. MOXIE racers caught us and joined in the soup action. We also bumped into Endurancelife as they were leaving the pub next door after tucking into a full English.

So we took the valley road and all that stood between us and the final stage was a very long and steep final pass. MOXIE racers also took the same decision, and we traded places all the way into transition. The rain had passed, but the bitter wind continued.

Stage 6 – Trek – 3 Peaks (plus caving)

65km and a lot of hills, from Hawes to Settle via the long way round the 3 peaks and some caving at Calf Holes.

Transition time - 00:45:54 (how long?!)
Real time starting stage – Sunday 13:44:01
Race time starting stage – 28:44:01
Stage time - 16:31:08

We always knew the trek would be the crux of the race for us. 65km is long enough on fresh legs (the furthest I’ve trekked to date in one go is probably about 50 km), but after so much distance it is a real challenge. Learning from our earlier kit experience, we packed extra layers this time. After around 5 hours we summited Whernside, then rather than take the usual route directly to Ingleborough, we had to descent via the long tail some 8km out the way to a distant CP before turning back towards the 2nd of the three peaks.

As night fell, we summited Ingleborough. There were 2 route choices to descend, both approximately the same distance, and I think we chose the wrong one. The route that looked most direct was along a permissive track, the other taking the established path back to Horton-in-Ribblesdale before heading North towards the caving CP. Taking the main path would have probably been a safer and faster option. Our route actually included a little height gain which is never a good thing.

When we eventually hit the valley road, I started to get a little tired. Obviously this is not uncommon in such a race, but rather than being a temporary blip, it was taking me a long time to wake up again. I asked Stu to take on the nav and give me a tow for a while. Sometime later and things were not improving.

We had a slight hiccup finding the caving CP, and at this point I was no use whatsoever. I had no idea what planet I was on, let alone where to find a check point in the dark. But after a few minutes I realised that I was letting the team down. My main role in the team is navigating, everyone else is physically fitter than me, but it’s my job to make sure we waste no time getting lost. So I woke up, figured out where we were, where we needed to go, and 5 minutes later we were at the start of the caving special stage.

I’ve not really considering going caving before. Being 6’5″, the thought of crawling underground through streams and narrows has never really called out to me. But the great thing about AR is that it gives you the opportunity to try new things. I now know that caving is definitely not for me. The instructors gave us a brief briefing and essentially said “keep moving down stream until you get to the end”. A short abseil into a stream and straight into a tunnel about 4 foot high. My legs were not loving this already. The tunnel continued along for too long, then gradually got narrower and I was on hands and rather painful knees. Eventually we reached what appeared to be a dead end, the only way through was to squeeze through a hole about the size of a loo seat. The rest of the team were ahead of me, and Stu was telling me to essentially bend my knee backwards in order to get through. The whole time I was expecting to cramp up and get stuck forever. I can see how people get a bit panicked in such situations. Anyway, we eventually found the end, dibbed, and got the hell out of there. We were at long last on the final “dash” for home. I was awake again and all was good – for now.

The only obvious route to Pen Y Gent was via a permissive path. Path is probably the wrong word; permissive bog from hell is a more accurate. It took much longer than expected to reach the last summit, and I had descended into cuckoo land again. Stu did a fantastic job of navigating while towing me. I was unable to focus on anything, and I kept falling down holes. I was also convinced we were missing the 5th member of our team (of 4). Renee forced me to keep eating, but I was massively dehydrated and struggled to chew and swallow anything. After a slight paddy about the lack of gels and chocolate available, we were at the final summit and all that remained was a downhill ‘jog’ for ~12 km to the finish. As the morning light broke through I woke up slightly, but still managed to fall asleep while walking a few times. For some reason we had a little sprint finish and the race was over, 45 hours after it all began.

The Finish Line

Real time finish – Monday 06:15:09
Race time finish - 45:15:09

At the finish line, we were told that we were sitting in 6th place. We were the top ‘short course’ team, 2 teams had already completed the full course (adidas and Mountain Hardware) and 3 teams remained on the long course. It looked like FGS! Nectar and Endurancelife would be back in time, but CamRacers were along way from home still. They had some balls to go for those far mountain bike CPs, and I hoped they would have enough in the tank to get back in time. Unfortunately, they didn’t and had to miss out the final 2 peaks and caving. Also MOXIE racers had pulled out just after we passed them on the way up Whernside, which was a great shame. This left is as the highest placed ‘short course’ team (anyone who misses a CP is classed as short course), and with just 4 teams completing the full course, left us in 5th overall. Although slightly disappointing not to have completed the full course, we were more than happy with our overall result. I really enjoyed racing teams throughout the race, it added an extra dimension to the who experience and I look forward to competing again at the Sting is a few months time.

Looking Back

The race timings and course tracking can be found here. As always I’ve done a bit of analysis with the numbers. The big question; could we have completed the long course?

Well according to the trusty spreadsheet; yes, with 1 minute to spare! Okay, so that might have been pushing a little, but assuming we took the same time as CamRacers to get the additional CPs, we would have saved the hour it took us to cut along the valley, but we would have had to take an extra hours sleep somewhere to be able to continue moving as a decent pace. That all adds up to an extra 6 hours 44 min of racing, which would have had us finishing at 12:59, or 1 minute before the course closed. Now that would have been an epic ending, arriving just in time for prize giving!

Okay, okay, I know it’s not as straight forward as that, another ~7 hours of racing would have taken it’s toll, would we have been able to complete the trek, would we have bailed out etc, but still it’s going to stay at the back of my mind should a similar situation arise at another race. I’d adamant that we are capable of completing a full course; fingers crossed for the Sting…

Thanks

There are endless people who have all helped us get this far, and who continue to help us on our way to Scotland in August.

Our sponsors who have been so generous in kitting us out for these events, to make sure we have everything we need to get around in one piece, as fast as possible. Now we just need to make sure we put the right kit in our bags! In particular, a massive thanks to Frontier Investment Management for assisting with our entry fees.

Jon Dakeyne and Leeds Canoe Club for the loan of their canoes. Kelvin for some expert canoe coaching, although we still have a lot more to learn!

Everyone who tracked our progress online, it’s like having supporters all the way around, knowing that you are watching from a far.

Rob Bridges for abseiling coaching/certification. How long until we see you on the AR circuit?

My uni mates for not giving me too much of a hard time for missing our 10 year reunion to do this race. Friends and family for not moaning too much that training generally takes precedent over most other social obligations.

Mike and everyone at Crossfit Leeds for motivating me to keep up my strength training (with the hope of avoiding injury – so far so good). My physio, Graeme Everard at Carnegie Physiotherapy, for whatever you did that stopped my legs from falling apart.

Open Adventure, Adidas, planner Dave Johnson, Tom (Logistics) Needham and all other volunteers and organisations who helped stage the event. James Kirby, Rob Howard (Sleepmonsters) and Dave MacFarlane for race photos.

The Adidas TERREX Swift is here!

Posted on 31 May 2012 by Ian

The final details for our little race this weekend have been announced; no corner of the Dales will be un-explored. 5km run, 37km canoe, 89km mountain bike, 16km trek, 92km mountain bike and a final 65km trek. Plus what ever special stages lie in wait, expected to include caving, abseiling, orienteering, maybe some mountain biking around Gisburn and who knows what else? Then there is the compettive side; with some strong teams lined up, who knows how we will perform against some of the top names in UK and international adventure racing.

You can follow the race with live GPS tracking and updates at http://live.adidas-ar.com/. I’m not sure if there is a message the teams function this time, but feel free to leave any words of encouragement below, or on our facebook page. Or try and find us along the route!

Open Adventure 2 Day

Posted on 1 May 2012 by Ian

Ahead of this event, it seemed like a lot of people were eagerly awaiting this race. For those that have been involved in the AR community for a few years, the Open Adventure 2 Day was essentially the return of a very popular format of the infamous ACE Races from ‘back in the day’. One thing was for sure, there wouldn’t be much time for relaxing.

With Stu unavailable, it was time to give my friend Matt a call. I’ve dragged Matt along to a couple of adventure races before; the London Rat Race and the Open 5+ last year. So we had a team of 4, but looking at the teams that had entered in advance, it looked like a strong field. It would be a good chance to see how we stood up against our competition for later in the year.

The event HQ and campsite was based at Coniston, South Lake District. This would act as the hub for the weekends activities. After arriving on the Friday night and pitching up our tent, we tried to get an early night ready for the first briefing early on Saturday morning. Day one consisted of an orienteering stage, closely followed by a mountain bike section. When night fell there would also be a night orienteering stage. Day 2 was to consist of some kayaking and a run.

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STAGE 1 – Orienteering (2 hours)

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After an hour bike ride to the remote transition with all our bike and orienteering kit in a small bag, we switched to fell running shoes and started running. Heading out of Chapel Site, an area I’ve often driven past on the way to to Langdales but never walked in, we were soon panting our way up the nearest steep path to the first check point. The sun was shining, and navigation was going pretty well. We probably picked the most efficient route, but with time ticking away we had to drop the last 2 checkpoints to make sure we were back on time. 3 teams managed to clear the course in or around the 2 hours. Initially I was overly cautious to make sure we were not late, but considering the large amount of points available per CP this was not necessarily the right approach. For example, we could probably have picked up the last 2 CPs in around 20 minutes, which would have gained up 80 points, but made us ~10 minutes late and losing 35 points, so a net gain of 45. However, I only figured this all out last night, a bit late now! Never mind, we were just saving our legs for the next event… (We were the 5th placed team)

STAGE 2 – Bike (4.5 hours)

We had to commence the next stage within an hour of finishing, so we relaxed in the sun and ate. Studying the A3 map, there were no obvious routes and loops to take in, event planner, ex-world adventure racing champion Tom Gibbs had decided to test our route choice skills. In general, we were to head towards Grizedale to explore the woods, trails and hills.

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One puncture and one aborted CP later (after heading to a distant CP on the far East of the map, we made the decision to cut our losses as on further consideration it was too far away, which it turns out was a good decision) we committed to a loop to the far South. Fortunately we got the timings spot on, and even with Matt finding out what it’s like to bonk on a bike, we finished with a few minutes to spare. It felt like we didn’t pick the CPs off in a nice order so I wasn’t expecting a strong score, but the results showed us in 4th for the stage, 5th overall.

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I also have to mention the ridiculous achievement of team Mountain Hardware. 10 minutes into the stage, Sally’s rear mech hanger broke. Rather than pack it all in and cut to the finish, one of the team, Kim, handed his bike to Sally and set about running along with the rest of the team while another team mate pushed the broken bike along. After overtaking a few teams and making it to Grizedale visitor’s centre some 20 km later, then managed to hire a bike and pick up a few more CPs. They came joint top on for the stage! NEVER GIVE UP.

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STAGE 3 – Night Orienteering (1.5 hours)

Right, time to capitalise on all the night orienteering training over the winter I’ve been doing with my local orienteering club, Airenteers. We also had our fantastic new lights from out sponsors to try out, the Hope R4 (In summary, they are great for trail running and navigation, as well as cycling, full review to come soon).

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All was going to plan, we hit the 2 check points I was worried about in the open without any problems. Then, somehow I managed to lead us in a big circle and ended up where we started! I was totally disorientated, and it look me a few minutes to ‘reset’ my sense of direction. It was such a strange feeling, maybe that’s how people feel who just cannot navigate no matter how much they try. Fortunately the rest of the team recognised that we had already been there and set us back in the right direction. However, time was rapidly running out and we would have to get a move on to get back in time.

Now for the second mistake, trying to save valuable seconds, I took a direct route through the woods along a ‘track’ rather than stick to a footpath. Basically the track didn’t go where I thought it would, I panicked and rather then take a bearing, we kept running until we hit a path. This made us miss the final CP and lose a few minutes. Some frantic running for the final 2km saw us arrive 4 minutes late, and 6th on the stage. That last mistake cost us 2nd place! Although in fairness it looked like pretty much all the teams had a few issues on the course, so I guess it could have been worse.

By the end of the day, there were only 4 points between the top 3 teams; then just 10 points or so between us and CamRacers fighting it out for 4th.

STAGE 4 – Kayak (1.5 hours)

The wind had picked up over night, which made for an interesting kayaking stage. Most of the team started within a few minutes of each other, and the first 20 minutes or so was a rather frantic head to head race. Then I made another silly decision, to cut off one too many check points. I was expecting the wind on the return leg to slow us more than it did. We were 8th on the stage. We finished with time to spare, and I was pretty sure CamRacers would have collected one more CP than us. This meant we would have to beat them by some 18 minutes on the final run to take 4th.

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STAGE 5 – Trail Run (as fast as you can!)

As a team, we were probably strongest at running than any other discipline. The route was straight up Coniston Old Man, along the (very) windy ridge to Swirl End and back via a lovely steady descent. Despite being overtaken by Adidas TERREX and Mountain Hardware, we pushed hard and tried to but some distance between us and CamRacers.

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Conditions on top were interesting, with the wind along the ridge strong enough to swipe you off your feet, we had to resort to hands and feet at one point. Fortunately we were on our way down the mountain before the hail came! My Montane velo windproof really came into it’s own, keeping the wind-chill at bay, but no annoying flapping or excessive sweating, and at only 135g. Matt actually opted to wear the Montane Air jacket, which despite being a full waterproof (3 layer eVent) was still breathable enough to be comfortable on the steep climb up.

One final push for a sprint finish saw us complete the run in 2h3min, 4th for the stage.

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Results

As it turned out, we only beat CamRacers by 9 minutes on the run, so we held on to 5th. Actually, we were lucky not to get caught by team Enduracelife who had a strong 2nd day. Still, had a great weekend of racing, learnt a lot and is great to see who we are likely to be racing later in the year at the Swift and Sting. Most importantly, no injuries picked up and our Montane kit help up well in the varied conditions. Fortunately the heavens only decided to open up during the prize giving, still our waterproofs did their job!

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Results here
Pics as always, from the Talented Mr Kirby

Open 5 – Peaks, Dovedale

Posted on 3 April 2012 by Ian

The final race of this seasons Open 5 series was a great way to wave goodbye to the winter. The sun was out, the trails were dry and we were looking forward to the first race to count towards the 2012 UK Adventure Racing team championships.

This time, Renee and I entered the mixed pairs, and Andy and Stu entered the male pairs. We decided to race as two separate teams this time, so that we would be classed as competitive and our scores would count towards the championships. (Last race we were a non-compettive 4, so we could get used to racing as a team, as we will need to do in the longer races later in the year)

As usual, we elected to run first. Generally I prefer to do this, as long as the bike does not commit us to a big loop with no escape should time run short. As I hadn’t run for 8 weeks (due to a lacrosse injury), the sensible thing to do would have been to plan a shorter run route. However, my only attempt of making the route short was to take the ‘direct’ route between CP 34 and 39. This involved a river crossing and climb straight up the steepest hill to be found in the area, with a good sprinkling of brambles and cliffs thrown in for good measure. After about an hour we found ourselves right at the bottom of the map with a long run back home. Still, the scenery in along the Dovedale Valley was well worth it.

Renee and I were in after 2 hours 7 minutes, having dropped just two 10 pointers (CP 36 and 31). Andy and Stu completed the run 7 minutes quicker, but at the expense of 15 points so really we were neck and neck. We would have to push hard to make sure we picked up all the large pointers on the bike.

The bike started well, taking the obvious loop anticlockwise from transition to CP4. Renee was leading the charge, and demonstrating why she kicks ass at cyclocross. Speaking of which, I think everyone racing that day wished they had a cyclocross bike. The event was about 90% on road, and this was certainly not a time to be trying out my new thick tyres. As it turns out, they (Racing Ralphs) are not too bad on road compared to my old thick (2.2″) tyres and I don’t feel like I’m hanging on for dear life every time I venture down some single track, like I do with my thinner, faster (1.9″) semi-slicks.

The route choice was quite straight forward until we ventured to the NE of the map and time started to slip away. It was clear that we were not going to be clearing the bike section in 3 hours, so dropping the 2 furthest 10 pointers was an easy decision (6 & 1). The main decision was if we were going to have time to pick up the final 20 points (CP3) on the way in. I decided to leave this to the very end, so we could assess based on how much time we had left. I asked Renee if she could hang on for a final 15 minute push (neglecting to tell her that I was doubting if I could), and we committed.

Cut to the finish line, and Andy and Stu were there to greet us. A quick debrief and it turned out that we had matched them for points on the bike, but had gained those extra 15 points on the run. However they were on time, we were late back. The question was how late. Along the run, I’d managed to stop my watch for a few minutes when taking a layer off. So as a result, I didn’t really know how late we were. If we were under 7 minutes late we would have beaten our team mates.

The printer spat out the results; 5 hours…… 8 minutes and 5 seconds, so close! We collected 560 points, but lost 18 points leaving 542. The guys had a solid 545. It came down to 65 seconds after 5 hours of racing. As a team we were very pleased to see how well matched we all are as a unit.

Now for the full event results, had we or the guys done enough to finish on the podium? The male pairs had a very strong field, and Andy and Stu placed 5th. Mixed pairs wasn’t too slack either, with all the previous winners from earlier races competing. Renee and I came 2nd, 13 points (or 7 minutes) behind Ant Emmet and Sally Ozanne from Team Mountain Hardwear.

It was great to find both teams placing so well, it really makes each decision out in the race all the more important, and every second not moving in the right direction critical. After a bit of Excel geekiness, it looks like if we would have taken a different route in picking up the last few CPs on the bike (15, 3, 8, 5, finish) and not (15, 8, 5, 3, finish) we would have saved about 10 minutes. But then I guess that is why Adventure Racing is so addictive, there is always the ‘what if’.

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Results and maps here

Thanks to James Kirby and Open Adventure for the pics