| The Build Up: |
"Oh my God, what was I thinking? How did I let you talk me into this?" said Chris as we pulled into the school's car park. "You have reached your destination" squawked my Tom-Tom sat-nav. There were already a large number of people unloading mountain bikes and gear from their vehicles. We got out and stretched after the 80 mile drive and began unloading out bikes and gear. Discovering that one of my pedals was cross-threaded I decided that I would ride with one clip-over and one foot trap - possibly not the best decision but time was short. I left Chris sorting out his running gear and proceeded to race registration for the quick formality of signing in and collecting maps and numbers. I was relieved to see that the area the race was taking place in was the area we had discussed and researched on the maps before. In fact we were even correct about the location of a number of the checkpoints! We secured our bikes in the transition zone and walked down to the main briefing discussing routes and strategies.
Our strategy had to be flexible as there were a number of dummy checkpoints that we would only find out about at the start of the race. We planned to start with the running discipline, move on to canoe and then finish on the bikes spending about 1:30 hours on the run, 1:00 hours on the canoe and 2:30 hours on the bike. The run would take a core circular route and take in one of 3 possible high points checkpoints. The canoe stage would take us about 1km down the canal to the last checkpoint and then back. The bike stage would take us to the North and West in a massive loop and then back in a zig-zag pattern picking up checkpoints on the way. There were a number of high-points checkpoints to the North and West of our bike loop but we decided that we would keep them in reserve for when we were closer and we would review our bike plan at that point.
As we geared up at the start line I could feel my nerves, it had been over 2 months since my last adventure race and although the weather was warm and sunny I was still not happy as it was forecast to rain later. We were called forwards, given the list of dummy and real checkpoints and dipped into the master control. The clock was now running - 5 hours of racing lay ahead.
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| Being run ragged: |
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We ran a few metres down to a clear area where we stopped and I quickly crossed out the dummy checkpoints on the map and with luck, two of the dummy running points were two of our three high-points checkpoints - Our route had been decided for us. We quickly stowed our gear and set of at a brisk pace making the first checkpoint in 6 minutes. The second was a bit harder as the path we needed to take was hidden from view but after some effort we found it and made the next checkpoint at the 22 minute mark. Chris was finding the run quite hard as he is a mountain biker and it is a common fact that bikers don't run! After half an hour we were on target for our 3rd checkpoint but I felt Chris was having too much of a hard time in the sunshine, teamwork is all important when racing and you have to look after your team mates! "Come on you slowcoach" I joked as I heard Chris's laboured breathing behind me. I'm not sure what the reply was but I'm pretty sure it questioned my parentage ;-) We were now at the highest point of our run and it was all downhill or flat from now on. A brief detour through some nettles saw us make the 3rd checkpoint followed by a determined 1.5km slog to the 4th. We were now on the home stretch - one more checkpoint, 2km and nearly all of it was on a flat canal towpath. We came into the canoe transition area at 1 hour 20 minutes, almost bang on time.
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| Canoeing, well we were in a boat and we were wet... |
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We had just covered 8.5km and were hoping for a little bit of an easy ride on the canoe stage. We caught our breath, reviewed our strategy and strapped into a two man canoe. As we paddled off down the canal we both quickly realised that we were not very good canoeists. We bounced of the left bank then the right bank then the left bank again. Following a decidedly wobbly route we progressed over a kilometre downstream and reached the furthest checkpoint. We then turned around and struck for home picking up the checkpoints (the banks, other canoes and a few canal boats) along the way. After one hour we had reached transition again and we were almost keeping a semi-straight line in the canoe! Just think - with a motor we could have been REALLY dangerous! I stood up and realised that I was soaked through, "That's all I need!" I thought rather irritably, "Wet shoes, wet socks. Perfect" Oh how I would regret those thoughts later!
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| Biking to the top of the world! |
A quick jog back up to the bike transition area we got ready for the cycling stage. We checked the route we had planned and crossed off the dummy checkpoints. This called for a rethink on our route as one of the checkpoints we were going for was a dummy. Chris suggested we go even further North and pick up a high value checkpoint - "The White Horse Trail" sounded well-maintained, it was on the map and all! After this checkpoint we would wheel round and see how much energy we had if we wanted to go for two of the most extreme checkpoints. We set out and I set a hard pace from the outset, determined to show Chris that I was an accomplished biker. We made the first checkpoint in good time but it was getting colder and more clouded as we went on. We then rode back to the main road and straight up the main hill. We had decided that to make the best progress uphill we would use roads and this definitely paid off, the hill was about 100ft high and we made great progress up it. The rain started to fall as we reached the top and turned left onto a pathway and headed out across the crest of the downs. After 5 minutes it was raining very hard and we were soaked through. We had picked up another checkpoint but we still had a long hard ride ahead of us. Rain was coming down sideways, stinging my face and turning the dust on the road to mud, this was not so much fun. We reached the next checkpoint and after a quick descent we joined the White Horse Trail... It was a nightmare, very narrow, 6ft nettles and brambles overhanging the trail - we had a 1.5km descent through this. We made what progress we could but Chris crashed and cut his knee open. I saw the cut, I saw blood, I saw white and thought "Oh God, he's hit the bone..."
Thankfully it was not bone, Chris let me bandage him up and he caught his breath. In fact I suspect he was quite warm and dry in the bottom of the bush he had fallen into and I was blocking the wind! After a few minutes he said he was fit to go on so we re-mounted and made it into the woods, thankfully the path widened and became a forest road as the nettles and brambles died out. We struck up the hills on this road and then descended the other side in search of the checkpoint and found it exactly where it was supposed to be. This was decision time, we were cold, wet and Chris was carrying an injury so we decided not to risk everything we had achieved by heading for a high value checkpoint and we headed for home and the low value checkpoints around the finish line. This turned out to be a good plan as 15 minutes later with the wind and the rain really laying into us Chris got cramp in his legs. We managed another 200 metres before he got it again. We stopped while he massaged his legs and we were then able to continue. We reached the descent into the vale and belted down the path only to find some bright spark had put a gate halfway down the hill. Brakes squealing in the wet we managed to stop in time without too much fuss. We proceeded down the trail and picked up the next checkpoint before I got a wheel caught in a gully and was unable to get my foot out of the trap in time. I took the full force of the fall on my right shoulder, fortunately the wet ground was now nice and soft but it was still a good 6 foot to fall down! I got myself back up, put the pedal down and did exactly the same thing again. "I'm getting a little tired of this" I said as Chris offered me encouragement and suggested that next time I fit stabilisers to the bike. We had had a bit of a break here and caught a second wind which saw us mop up the next 3 checkpoints easily. We turned and headed for the finish in the driving rain, finishing in 4 hours and 38 minutes.
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| Post Event: |
We probably had time for one of the high value checkpoints on the bike stage but we might have injured ourselves, got punctures, run into trouble, who knows? You can always second guess and say "What if?" but overall we achieved what we set out to do and finishing in the top half of the teams was a great achievement, especially for Chris on his first adventure race!
I am thinking about team names, team members and taking this forwards as a team of 3 or 4 of us for next year...
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