Blog Archives
Haglöfs Open 5 Church Stretton
An amazing end to a successful series!
There was an Open 5 race in Church Stretton in November 2011. I enjoyed that race, did well and was looking forward to repeating the experience this month. Lucy has had issues with a chest infection and her asthma. Earlier in the week it was looking doubtful whether she would be able to race at all. When she decided she could, I was so pleased! We caused some confusion though, as we appeared on the start list as solos – I didn’t check in at 11pm on Thursday night to combine our entries online :-).
“But what about …?”
We did our usual planning, with a bit of squabbling (James K – how dare you say we were like an old married couple?!). I came up with an inspired bike route option at the last minute. It turned out to be useless though, as the control values meant it was sub-optimal – it was back to plan A when we started! The values also threw out our expected run course, so Lucy did a hasty re-plan before we set off up onto the Long Mynd.
As Lucy was still recovering, our speed on the flat wasn’t as rapid as usual. However, we kept a nice even pace and covered about the same amount of ground. We didn’t see James the photographer when we were out on the course. Now I know why, as he was taking pictures of people on footpaths, whilst I was being whisked around on the ‘direct’ routes straight up and down! This was all very well, except for my inability to go downhill at anything like Lucy’s speed. I felt guilty as I saw her standing around waiting at the bottom more than once, but marvelled at the accuracy at which we arrived at controls.
Footpaths are for the faint-hearted
I vetoed a detour to a 5 pointer even though it wasn’t that far away. But I couldn’t get away with the one final trip up and down a short steep hill near the finish for a final 10 points. We finished the run in 2 hours and had only missed out 10 points altogether. A good start!
We set off on the bike and immediately got caught up in bank holiday traffic jams. We pondered what James T would say if we asked for time credits … “well, we got stuck behind all these cars for like, ages…”
Even though we were soon pedalling up an insanely steep hill on a road, I still felt this sense of mental and physical relief that I had finished the run without mishap and could get on with cycling :D. It wasn’t long before we were up on the ridge of the Long Mynd, enjoying a fast grassy out-and-back, then zooming along the ‘motorway’ of the ridge, dodging everyone else enjoying the bank holiday at a more leisurely pace!
After we came down the other side we had a decision to make about how many of the controls dotted around the lanes to go for. We chose ‘most of them’ on the assumption of a brisk pace. It was a bit optimistic, especially when we added in an extra couple of km for another control! But I also came up with a cunning plan to save us some time on the way back. It meant missing out the fun singletrack descent, but would be shorter and faster.
We had to push our bikes back onto the top of the ridge and it was a struggle. It was hot, steep and my calves were screaming. Our rear wheels clicked in unison as we ascended in silence. But it only took us 15 minutes rather than an estimated 30, so we regained some time.
We flew down a fire road (apart from my hesitation at the wrong forest edge) and popped out onto the road. At the next junction we had a decision point.
My legs hurt ….
I had estimated it was 6km back to the finish (actually 6.2km; not bad). It was on roads, but they were lumpy and Lucy had warned me she didn’t have a sprint finish in her legs. So I thought 3 mins / km = 18mins. Let’s say 20. We had the option of an out and back to a 25 point control. On the way there I said “We need another 10 minutes for that”. Lucy looked at the map and said “you must be joking. That’s 3km! It will take longer than that” (actually, 3.1km – see, we’re good at this map lark!). I thought maybe she was right.
We got to the junction with 24 minutes left but an estimate of 30+ minutes to go. I was trying to be sensible and told myself I’m always too optimistic. I was getting resigned to a cruise back to the finish, when Lucy turned left.
What?! This is crazy, how come Lucy is taking more risks than me?! Later she said it just wasn’t worth dithering and she didn’t want to finish the series coming in slowly. She was right. We took off, got the control and back again in 11 minutes. Now we just had to get home along the road, not forgetting the final control we passed on the way. It was my turn to make up for being slow on the run descents, so I gave Lucy a power-assisted finish and 14.5 minutes later, we blasted in, dibbed and collapsed! Only 2.5 minutes late (6 penalty points). Brilliant!
My legs still hurt …
Like the end of the race, it was fantastic to end the whole series on a high. We have got better and better at working together and the results show it. This time we were 8th overall (one up from last month) and well clear of all the other female teams and solos. A win in our category and a win for the series! Hurrah!
Haglöfs Open 5 Lake District
This was the 6th race in the series and my favourite so far (not counting the first one, which I planned, so of course it was great! 😉 ).
I had treated myself to a stay in a ‘camping pod’ because it’s something I’ve wanted to do for ages. I’ve seen a few around the country, but every time I’ve had the opportunity, they’ve been fully booked! I almost wished it would rain so I could feel smug and dry in my wooden hut, but it stayed sunny all weekend. 🙂
The view from Whinlatter pass to the camping pods
On race day things seemed a little more rushed than usual. Lucy was having last minute gear issues (thanks to Jon for helping with that!), whilst I was squinting at a map trying to work out a bike route through the forests.
We set off confidently on the run; Lucy was navigating as usual, though I think she was making up our route as she went along! It turns out that it was very effective, as our contour profile was quite efficient. The promise of summiting Grisedale Pike was tempting. Well, to Lucy … but I was pulling faces because it ‘looked a long way up’! We decided against that control and a cairn on the same ridge and turned for home.
Smiling in the sunshine!
We knew this would get us back a bit short on the run (we normally aim for 2 hours, and got in after 1h40). But we also knew that the bike leg was committing. Although we planned to go round it anti-clockwise and give ourselves escape options at the end, those escapes would mean dropping high value controls in the forests. It turned out it was the right decision to leave the two 10 and 15 pointers which had tried to lure us and save the time for later.
Out on the bike and it was my turn to map-read. Control number 2 had been discounted before we even set off on the run – it was so far out of the way we hadn’t even noticed it when planning and took ages to find it when we were marking the control values! We quickly decided the other control to miss was number 10. It was only worth 10 points and involved losing height early on. Both were good decisions.
So, we were sailing along nicely, making good progress. The first 5 controls were quite close together, but soon we started climbing. And climbing. And climbing. 10km uphill in total! The next 3 controls took 1h10m to collect. We knew there was some fun to come though. We dropped into the top of Whinlatter forest, after some slightly tricky navigation where the compass even made an appearance.
First the run went up, then the bike went up
At this point we joined the singletrack of the Altura trail north loop. Lucy shot off like an antelope, whilst I messed up a hairpin bend, got off, fell over on ice, wished my tyres were softer and generally lost it a bit. As we zoomed past the visitor centre, along a stretch of very fast blue route and onto another fire road, Lucy was still pulling away on the hill. Now, it wasn’t technical any more and I wondered what was going on. The first suspects for me on occasions like this when my mojo seems to have vanished are: 1) food and 2) water. I ate, drank and miraculously recovered!
There was still snow up on the higher north-facing slopes
The singletrack on the south loop consequently went much better. I remember racing up here in my first ever Open Adventure race 4 years ago! The red trail makes long switchbacks up a steep hill. Alex Pilkington (who finished 2nd) had overtaken us and seemed not far away on the fire road we were aiming for – but we still had some distance to ride! Soon enough we got there and were rapidly descending. We did a very fun section of the blue ‘Quercus’ route and then back onto fire roads and a bridleway to the finish.
I came round the final bend a little too fast, saw a rut, panicked, braked too hard and crashed into an unyielding fence. Owww! My first reaction was to check I hadn’t made a hole in my new favourite jersey to match the mysterious one which has appeared on the other side – but all was still intact so I was relieved ;-). We were less than 2 minutes from the finish and blasted in 6.5 minutes early.
I was on a bit of a high, as it was one of those days where we got to the end and I didn’t think we’d do anything very different if we went round again.
It felt like we had done a lot of climbing. Reviewing our route, it turned out we had! 45% more climb on the run and 36% more on the bike, compared to our average over the rest of this series. In a way though, I enjoyed this as it was a proper tough challenge and it felt like we’d really earned our result. Tactically we also made the right choices, and it was worth the couple of minutes we spent debating out on the run.
Now we can relax … on the way back to download
The results were read out and we had a really good win. We were chuffed! Especially as this was also the first time we have made it into the overall top 10 as a pair (we were 9th, beaten by a mixed pair, a male pair and six male solos). As a pair, we just keep getting better together at the moment.
Since I made my plan for the year, I’ve stuck to it, done eight races and been in the top 3 every time. For next weekend I have snuck in an extra race – the Tour of the Meldons time trial. This will be on a road bike and sadly I expect my podium streak to end. I’ve never managed better than 4th in this local race. This year it is also a Scottish Championship, so the competition will be even greater! It’s all part of my training though, getting my mind and body ready for the Slateman triathlon in May.
Haglöfs Open 5 Yorkshire Dales
I’ve just come back from a fabulous weekend away in Yorkshire!
This Open 5 had the advantage of being located quite close to my brother and his wife. My dad also fancied a visit, so I managed to combine racing with visiting family, eating out and being thoroughly looked after by my dad’s friends Jim and Penny. Thanks all!
On to the race. My dad chucked me out of the car at 8:45 and set off back home. I wandered in to the hall to find Lucy so that we could register and start planning. Up until Wednesday I had been psyching myself up to race solo as she had been ill with the dreaded lurgy for 7 weeks! However, she made a last minute recovery and felt up to racing. Unfortunately, at 6pm on Thursday I was struck down too! Luckily by Sunday I felt a bit brighter.
So it was that the two of us raced with Lucy sounding like she was on 20 a day, and my throat and lungs burning with every breath. Still, it didn’t seem to affect our performance. In fact, we seemed to be more relaxed, chatty and in control than usual! Maybe we should race like this all the time …
Where we went
After my decent run at Bowhill I was excited to see how my legs would be. We set off and I was pleased to see that the normal springy running Lucy had returned after last month’s strange episode. I followed her round like a faithful dog and didn’t interfere ;-).
Everything went pretty smoothly. With about 2km to go I hitched onto the tow. I was just keeping up but didn’t want to kill myself only to suffer on the bike. The effect was mostly motivational, plus the little reminder tug to keep up when my concentration lapsed :-).
In just over 2 hours we came into transition and were soon biking. What a great course! Loads of riding, fast and dry and almost no pushing. We knew we had two big hills near the start, but loved the downhill in between. On the long drag to the trig point my lungs were on fire, but we were soon there (well, after 30 minutes!) and admiring the panoramic views.
That big hill in the middle took half an hour!
Nothing would make us ride to Malham, hidden a long way down in a steep valley! Instead we whizzed around on top. After a few moments debate we did a long out and back to a control stuck in the middle of the map worth 20 points. For a while I thought it might be close for time, but we were soon hammering down a fast grassy, rocky track. We faced just 8km of almost our only road of the day back to the finish.
It soon transpired we were going faster than I expected. There’s always a first for everything! This was even better than we had hoped. For a complicated reason relating to series scoring, any minutes early we could get in were a bonus. We finished in 4h45mins with 575 points.
Series leaders for the first time this year!
Enough to comfortably win our class. I am now the owner of a nice Haglöfs bag that I think Andy would steal, if only it wasn’t so PINK!
After that, my only task was to cycle the 14km back to Skipton with all my kit to catch a train. I have to say, I was slowly falling apart and needed no persuading when, halfway there, a fellow racer pulled up in a car and offered me a lift. Many, many thanks Pete!
This race was planned by Tom and Dawn. Dawn is going back home to America and we’ll miss her. I was touched by the gift of a wooden bowl she had hand turned herself. Bye bye Dawn!
Dawn made this bowl for me.
Haglöfs Open 5 Cheddar
The February Open 5 was in Cheddar. It was so far away from home (one big train, one little train and a 17km cycle) that I decided to make a long weekend of it. As a result, my pre-race prep consisted of squeezing through tight holes underground, admiring the cliff top views, buying cave aged cheese and eating pasties, Somerset cider and apple cake and local ice cream. I was even lucky enough to be treated to a dose of actual sunshine. Nice!
Squeezing through a small, muddy, underground hole!
Me absorbed in the map. Lucy feigning interest in the map!
On to race day and the more serious business of the weekend. Lucy had requested a bike start this time. On our own, she normally bikes first and I normally run first. Since we’ve done it my way the first two times, it only seemed fair to switch!
In fact, for this race it was probably the right thing to do anyway as the bike course was very committing. Many people who biked second got caught out, and there were some big names rolling in very late with large penalties.
It all started well and we were picking up lots of points. I was happy that we had made the right choice of direction (anti-clockwise), because we got up the first very steep hill on a road and weren’t spending a lot of time pushing. Although there were sections of tarmac, they were frequently punctuated by fun off-road excursions. We were bouncing down one such rocky track. Lucy was having a great time; I was at the limit of my technical ability. Then another guy squeezed past me very close, I lost my nerve and suddenly I was crashing to the ground. I lay there winded for a few seconds assessing the damage. Sore arm, bruised hip, knocked knee, squint bar end. Nothing broken, so slightly shakily I set off again.
Biking, smiling
I was under instructions to navigate a course lasting 3h. Not long after the crash we had to make some choices about controls. I lost the ability to decide and Lucy had to step in and do it for me! We were off on a short detour with a few extra hills. It looked like we would get back to transition 10-15 minutes later than planned, but we were moving well and it didn’t make sense to ride past them. In retrospect, the control we should have missed to save time was the very first one we got!
After that the course got slower, but I perked up again and felt confident. We had a long, rough fire road climb through some woods followed by another rocky, slippy descent. I even managed to stay upright. But Lucy was beginning to tire of biking, and it wasn’t a good place to try and push or tow. Despite a speedy finish through town (straight past my B&B) we had been out much longer than planned.
Jacob’s Ladder – down we go!
We were in and out of transition quickly, but only had 1.5h left for running. I don’t think Lucy was best pleased with my timing! We started well with a leg burning trip to the top of the lookout tower and back down the steps of Jacob’s Ladder. It was then a walk straight back up a very steep hill to a dark cave with the control hidden in a corner.
I was still feeling cheerful but Lucy was not her usual sprightly self. Though we were running again through sticky mud off the top of the hill, I was keeping up just fine and not dying like I usually do! I started trying to help with the navigation but this was a big mistake. I wasn’t taking an overall view of our route and distance / time travelled so my interjections weren’t properly reasoned. Meanwhile, Lucy had hit a wall (not literally!) and didn’t have the energy to tell me to shut up and let her get on with it.
All this meant we ended up lured to Totty Pot – after the mistake of Titty Hill in the South Downs, this should never have happened! And then we were cutting it short, dashing for home, but too late. We jogged in 12.5 minutes late = 35 penalty points.
Synchronised running!
This was a bit disappointing. If we’d kept clear heads on the run we could have made a sensible loop and got back on time. When I first started racing solo I made mistake after mistake. I learnt from all of them, though you can’t always eliminate or predict everything. Racing as a pair is different from being solo. It’s like going through it all again. This one is definitely going down in the book – don’t interfere with the other person’s nav unless they ask you too! Racing with someone else is also about getting to know each other, so that you can still be an effective team even when the going gets tough.
Despite it being a hard race for us, it was still enough for a win in the female pairs. And for now at least, we are leading the series :-). Full results here.
The only challenge left for me was how to carry my prize purple Haglöfs holdall back home!
Haglöfs Open 5 North York Moors
Only 5 days after my first race of the year, it was time to go again! This time I was in Yorkshire, doing an Open 5 on the North York Moors, starting near Scarborough. The chest infection had pretty much cleared up, so apart from doing almost no exercise for a couple of weeks (extended ‘taper’?!), I was ready to go.
I was racing with Lucy for the second time in this series. We stuck with the same format as last time for kit, navigation and running first. We cut it very fine getting to the remote transition in time to start before the 10am cut off! It was warm and mostly dry all day, but some of the paths and tracks were very muddy.
Controls – these are what we’re after!
Setting off on the run I felt better than last time. It seems some extra running before Christmas might have made a difference. 😉 Lucy did a great job on the navigation. In the woods we had some interesting route choices involving steep scrambling up and down banks. I didn’t know I would literally have to ‘eat dirt’ as I trailed behind up one section! 😀 We were aiming to be out for 2 hours on the run, and after about 1h30 I was beginning to feel it in my legs. Lucy had brought a bungee tow rope this time. She said “yes!” when I asked if she was still feeling frisky, so I cheerfully hitched on for the last section!
Going so fast it’s all just a blur!
Into transition after exactly 2 hours and then we were off on the bikes. It felt wonderful! My joy was short-lived though, as we were soon pushing up a long, rocky and steep track. I hadn’t found my bike mojo yet and felt sluggish with the navigation. Descending through the forest I also took a tumble which knocked the air out of me. It was probably a good thing that Lucy was still heading downwards, as I didn’t have time to sit around feeling sorry for myself! We got to a road, I pulled myself together and felt good for the rest of the race.
As we headed up the final big hill on our planned route I realised we were covering ground a lot quicker than usual. We added in an easy control and carried on. The funniest moment of the race was approaching a ford but not being able to work out where the road went afterwards – because it looked like a river! Two pairs of very wet and soggy feet later we emerged and carried on our way.
The road / ford / river!
At a final junction we had a choice – get back 20 minutes early or take a risk to do an out and back for 15 more points. Despite saying we wouldn’t take silly risks after last time, we went for it. It was all on fast road and I couldn’t face getting back that early! 🙂 This was a really inefficient way to get this one. If we had realised sooner how fast the course was, we should have collected it and another nearby control much earlier on.
This time the risk paid off and after a lung-busting dash for the line we were back less than a minute late – only 2 penalty points. We were pretty chuffed and felt like it had been a good race. I thought we had worked together well and we got 553 points.
At prize giving we found we had come 2nd. The winning pair from the Pentlands race (Jessica and Rowena) had scooped 575, which was a fantastic score. We were beaten by a better team on the day! But it did leave me thinking … could we have done more and if we meet again do we have a chance of winning?
Podium – I think that’s our tired look …
Well, we knew we had made a small nav error on the run (costing 1-2 minutes). I made a tactical mistake on the bike, probably collecting two controls in the ‘wrong’ order – the distance was the same but we did extra climbing (I know, I just can’t resist a good hill!). After looking at other people’s routes I can also see a more efficient route to one run control (800m shorter – that’s 3 minutes!). We should have committed to two of the bike controls earlier on – saving ourselves 2km and collecting an extra 10 points. And I think our transition could be a couple of minutes quicker!
Perhaps if you add all of this together we could squeeze out that 20 extra points. But hindsight is wonderful and it’s almost impossible to have a 100% perfect race. The others still got back 14 minutes early as well! I think we will just have to get faster! 😀
Full results.
Next year is nearly here!
It’s time I had some race plans for 2013!
About this time last year I had some vague ideas for 2012. It was then that I decided to enter the Celtman and get myself a coach to make sure I did myself justice.
2012 was a massive year, with the Celtman and the Terrex Sting in Stirling 5-day event. I found it really hard to recover from the Sting. After feeling better, racing and then feeling worse again a couple of times, I had to take a good 6-8 weeks “off”. This meant no hard training.
Celtman Finisher
End of The Sting – little did I know how long it would take to get over this!
I started thinking … so what did I learn? And what next?
I put my down-time to good use planning for next year. I decided the Celtman was a bit too logistically complex, expensive and time consuming to do two years in a row. One of the biggest adventure races in the UK next year is the Coast to Coast. However, it involves a lot of kayaking and I’m not sure I could dedicate enough training time to do it competitively.
First question: What did I enjoy about this year? I really thrived on having a target which I had to work towards. When I entered the Celtman I couldn’t have done the race within the time limits. I also found that I was good at ‘normal’ triathlons. Coming 2nd at the Slateman was a revelation – I really enjoyed the head-to-head racing and the satisfaction of doing well in a competitive field. And having Scott as my coach worked really well, so he’s still on board for 2013 :D.
Turns out I’m quite good at this
I believe that it’s important to make the most of your strengths. I love mountain biking and always will – but my technical skills will never be the best. From this year’s events I realised that I have the strength and endurance needed to be good on a road bike. I also swim well, especially outdoors. Back in 1999 I stopped running because I got so frustrated with injuries. Running is still hard due to recurrent niggles. But it seems I can produce a half-decent run on not a lot of training!
I can cope with a bit of this … even if I’m often chasing!
Lastly, I like variety and need to do keep ‘doing different things’ or ‘doing things differently’!
Love this and even do it for recreational purposes!
Thinking about all this helped me to narrow down my choices.
I decided on my target: a middle distance triathlon. This is 1900m swim, 90km road bike and 21km run. It should take about 5 hours. Why did I choose this?
- I excel at this race duration.
- I will use my swimming and road biking strengths.
- I can still do fun mountain biking and adventure racing as training. This is especially true over the winter.
- I can recover much more easily from this distance. Weeks rather than months!
But .. I could finish a middle distance triathlon next week if I wanted to. So where’s the challenge?
I’m going to enter the Scottish Middle Distance championships in Aberfeldy. I’ll set myself stretching target times that I couldn’t achieve now.
The next question was – how do I structure my year to achieve that? This was an iterative process. I started with a full list of all the races I fancied doing. There were 47 of them in 12 months!! I talked to Andy about how things fitted together. He is an experienced triathlete and fully qualified cycling coach, so knows a thing or two, even if we don’t always agree ;-).
Of course, I also asked my coach, Scott. My list went back and forth a couple of times. I listened to their advice and reluctantly removed a few races and switched others from off-road to on-road. I also deleted events which looked a bit dull – I still want interesting courses and scenery!
I will need to be quicker. My endurance and pacing are already very good. So my lead up races are mostly shorter on-road triathlons with open water swims. They have similar physiological demands to a middle distance tri, but will help me get faster. I should also recover from them quickly. I need to watch how much travelling I have to do, and think about how I can combine races with family visits!
Before then I will keep doing the Open 5s. The plan is to do them with Lucy in the female pairs category. This will keep things interesting (I did them solo last year). A target once a month through the winter also helps keep me training hard when it’s cold, dark and wet outside.
After Aberfeldy I will just do what I feel like – which may include the Craggy off-road tri and a 24h MTB race – I haven’t done one for so many years!
So here’s the plan … no doubt I will have to change and adjust it as the year unfolds, but at least I have something to start with :-).
Haglöfs Open 5 South Downs
Lucy and I had a plan. A plan to race the Open 5s together. Until last Wednesday that wasn’t going to start until January though. I was going to do the South Downs Open 5 solo as a warm up (against my better judgement about the practicalities of travel to these far flung locations). Lucy decided to come last minute – and suddenly I was pairing up!
After a ‘slightly arduous’ train journey to Leeds on Friday afternoon, I met up with Dawn and Tom and we set off for Liphook. A smooth run through and we ready for a nice ride round the area on Saturday morning.
Well, two of us were ready and one of us (Tom) wanted to sleep in and needed encouragement to come out and play! Then one of us (me) decided to pop into Liphook Cycles to get some new cleats (my foot kept flying off the pedal). I’m glad Dawn told me to change them right away – as it was practically impossible! After much drilling, rummaging in boxes for shoe plates and tutting at the state of my old bolts, the new cleats were safely installed by the mechanic. I thought for a moment I was going to have to buy new shoes on the spot! Many thanks to the guys in the shop who helped me out :-).
Finally we were on our way. We started with a nice pootle along a bridleway which was promising in parts, but interrupted by sticky mud holes. This was followed by a lovely ride up the only hill we could find. Even Tom was heard to say “it isn’t much of a hill”, though you wouldn’t know it from the complaints that followed later! Highlight of the ride were the Belted Galloway cattle, christened ‘pandas’ by Tom.
Race day was bright and cold. It was exciting to be racing as a pair. Number 1s on our bikes and legs. A good omen?
I went through my usual planning routine for the bike, with Lucy breaking from her traditions to do it with me! I wanted to look carefully as the map was covered in different rights of ways and not-rights of ways. Lucy did most of the run route planning and we were ready to go.
Planning, my style
We ran first – I prefer it this way though Lucy normally goes the other way round. With five more races to go there’s time to experiment. Straight out from the start we were sprinting! Yikes, I was thinking I wasn’t sure I could keep this pace up … then we promptly got lost!
Who has done / said these things before?
- Maybe that path just isn’t on the map?
- The fences must be different now.
- What we see doesn’t fit where we think we are. Let’s just ignore it!
- I think my compass isn’t working properly.
- If we just run up here maybe it will all be alright …
After narrowly avoiding getting sucked into ‘crowd indecision’ with everyone else who was lost, we nipped through a gap in the trees marked ‘serpent trail’. I knew it should go past one of the controls eventually, as we had ridden some sections of it the day before. Then we were saved! An info board! With a map and a ‘you are here’ arrow! As Andy will tell you, I love info boards and have never loved one as much as this.
After a 20 minute / 2.5km detour we were on our way again and Lucy navigated the rest of the run faultlessly. I huffed and puffed behind her and felt guilty for asking her to slow down sometimes to let me drink / eat / breathe. I did well at being trusting as I never looked at the map once we got moving, though I didn’t have time to anyway!
We timed arrival into transition perfectly – we left after exactly 2 hours and started bombing it along a road. My legs felt the run in them when we hit the first hill, but I soon recovered. I loved going up Blackdown hill on the firm trails and racing down a fast descent. The rest of the ride was nearly all on road, punctuated with little off-road forays. This suits me from a race point of view, though it can be less interesting.
We finished the riding on a similar note to the way we started the run – with a mistake! I was looking after bike map reading. We wanted to squeeze in an extra 15 pointer and get ourselves over 500. We were also lured by the control location … ‘Titty Hill’. Unfortunately, I under-estimated the distance to get this and get back. On reflection, my route choice between the last 5 controls was also sub-optimal by about 3km.
How is Lucy smiling?! I feel sick!
We ran out of time 3.5km from the finish, just after we had been reduced to pushing our bikes up a road bit of hill. I had missed the fact we were on the Roman Road, and couldn’t savour riding through ‘Shufflesheeps’. My legs were empty, I felt a bit sick and I longed for the finish line. I told myself since giving up is never an option, the only thing for it was to turn off the brain, urge Lucy on and get us up to the end as soon as possible.
Glasses all steamed up and still not recovered!
I was grimacing as we approached the finish banner and was glad it was over! 14:25 late = 45 penalty points giving us 465 overall. Slightly disappointing. However, with two significant errors it wasn’t so bad … and you never know how anyone else’s race has gone until you get the results. So we were delighted to find we had won the female pairs category. A lovely purple Haglöfs fleece in the prize bag made my day. I even found energy to help push the car back onto the road for a bump start when we found it with a flat battery :D.
I feel like we have room to improve and could get stronger as a pair than we were solo. All fired up for next time now! Scarborough, January 2013 – the date’s in my diary!
Here is Lucy’s report.
And the full results.
Haglöfs Open5 Series – Pentland Hills (Course Planner!)
The first round in the Haglöfs Open 5 series for 2012/2013 was on my home ground in the Pentland Hills near Edinburgh. For once I was not competing, but had spent 11 months planning the event.
The Pentland Hills, looking good
I was delighted last year to be invited to plan the first Open 5 course north of the border in Scotland. I was excited but also knew I had standards to maintain – expectations from competitors and Open Adventure would be high! The part of event planning I really wanted to do was the maps. By the time the event morning dawned bright and crisp, they were burnt onto my brain! The Pentland Hills have an amazing network of paths and tracks. Unfortunately, a lot of them aren’t shown on the Ordnance Survey maps, and even the 1:50k and 1:25k versions are not consistent. So one big job was to get out onto the hills and get gps traces ready for uploading. This translated into a lot of late nights fine tuning the map. I was really getting into the detail, but knew it was needed.
Spot Tom approaching a control by a difficult route!
Something I really enjoyed was getting out on foot much more than I would normally. The planner guidelines instructed me to be adventurous with control placements on the run, so I was busy exploring off-piste options; I had fun finding a little tree in a gully, a stake on a rather steep hill at the base of a crag, and a dilapidated stile in a wooded valley with an innocent looking little bog of doom at the top (I know this caught at least one person out!).
On Saturday we had to place all the controls. Luckily we got a sunny day for the job. I was a little surprised to be sent out on foot – though at least I had come prepared with my trainers! My ‘little’ loop took longer than expected as I dawdled a bit enjoying the views, making sure the controls were really firmly attached and triple-checking I had put the right one in the right location… Then there was a short but surprisingly muddy bike loop, and a second run to double check a couple of placements. We moved both of them a few metres, so it was worth it! I felt reassured that the trio who went out on their bikes and did a route including the ‘infamous’ number 20 (only visited by two teams in the race) said they had a fantastic ride. All that was left to do was wait. The maps were printed, the control descriptions were ready and 31 little boxes were sitting out on the hills…
It was a VERY early start! We went up to Bonaly Primary School to get set up. I had sore legs from the previous day’s exertions (though that dodgy knee was OK). How odd to be there starting a race day like that!
Eek, they’re all looking at my course!
As people started arriving I was getting nervous. Looking round the room there were so many top racers who had made the trip up, and I couldn’t believe they were all going out on my course … would it be up to scratch? One of the challenges in planning an event like this is to design something that is almost (but not quite) clearable by the very best, but still fun with plenty of route options for total beginners and everyone in between.
Other considerations include making sure that the course is still interesting with good options in bad weather, it uses interesting trails, it is off-road as much as possible and that control placement and values and mapping of tracks discourages use of the boggier routes. The sort of strategic challenge I enjoy!
I had a flurry of questions about the map (the favourite was one about whether a certain ‘footpath’ was out of bounds – yes, because it was actually a power line!). I also loved seeing so many new people who looked excited at the prospect of heading out in the sunshine.
The girder control, views across Edinburgh and the Forth.
Once the last racers had left the hall to get started, I wandered outside to cheer people off and chat to the marshals. We had to make a late decision to use the school playground as the start / finish / transition area. Not the normal scenic field, but it was quite funky and people liked it being close and not muddy! The hopscotch funnel into the transition / finish area was an optional challenge (sadly worth zero extra points).
Waiting for the first people into transition was more exciting than I expected. Seeing competitors come and go with various tales (spoken and unspoken!) of fun, mud, exertion and adventure was rewarding. I was anxiously waiting for the racers we thought would be at the top end of the field to come in. I was under no illusions that if I had got it right, no-one should clear the course! Had I made it hard enough? They started coming in from the running after 1h45m – I thought that would be enough that they wouldn’t clear the bike course and started to relax a bit.
Later, I was looking after the finishing control box, with Lisa giving me ‘feedback’ when I forgot my lines 😀 (“Well done, did you enjoy it? Please download in the hall as soon as you can!”). I got a bit over-excited and nearly tripped over the gantry several times, narrowly avoiding injury.
Even round-the-world cyclists can look a bit tired at the end of an Open 5
In the final analysis, the highest scorer (Kim Collison) got 570 out of a total 600 – perfect! I also got some fantastic positive feedback on the course design and the weather (for which I take all personal credit).
I was proud that people who had travelled to compete had been treated to a great showcase of what my area can offer. Plenty of local people also turned out – some experienced adventure racers, some new to the whole thing.
Special mention to Anna Sloan who topped the female solos after losing her partner at the last minute. Also to our celebrity, Mark Beaumont who was 3rd in Male pairs!
On reflection, all the hard work was worth it. Next time round I will be back to racing though!
Results:
Full results are here.
Blogs:
Andy was supporting and dog-sitting. Here’s his blip.
And here’s a view from a competitor – Dawn’s blog.
Pictures:
Official ones from James Kirby.
And some from Andy Kirkland.
Polaris Challenge – Askrigg, Wensleydale
I had hardly had time to get over the disappointments of the Sandman before it was time for the next race. I had entered the Polaris Challenge a week later! I spent the week feeling tired and wondering why on earth I had signed up for this. By the time I got to 15:30 on Thursday afternoon I didn’t think I would make it through Friday and asked my boss for an ‘emergency day off’ (to be deducted from annual leave, of course!). He agreed – and what a good decision it was.
I relaxed on Thursday night, had a lie in on Friday, sorted out my packing without panicking and did a few chores before it was time to get the train. By then I was feeling much more positive and cheerful about the whole venture :-).
I entered the race as a female pair with Lucy Harris. Lucy and I spent the winter sparring over the Open 5 series, so we knew we ought to be well matched! This was a bit of an experiment to test that out and to see how we got on working with each other instead of the usual head to head.
By the time we had registered and got to Lucy’s friend’s very nearby house for the night, it was late. I wanted to examine maps, the others wanted to chat! I looked at the map anyway, after they had gone to bed, and felt better for it :-). The difference between this and an Open 5 is the size of the thing. 4x A4! It was also very pink, which suggested many contours.
The map
Me all cozy in sleeping bag in roomy tent!
This event had the option of an overnight camp at a remote location, which we took. It brought back many memories for me of my first ever adventure racing event. Myself and Robert got hopelessly stuck on ‘indistinct paths’ in a place named ‘Hannel Bog’. On day 1 we lost all our points for lateness, didn’t have much food and squeezed into a tiny tent for the night. This time it was going to be different!
For a start, I persuaded Lucy to let us take the really roomy tent at a 500g weight penalty, in exchange for leaving behind the big stove, my thermarest and some unnecessary extra food. The sun was shining; we set off in high spirits. As others passed us we carried on at our own pace, chatting away non-stop. I had a bad time between hours 4 and 5 but then got a new high, especially as we really started racing along about an hour from the end (7 hours in total).
At the camp location we were surprised to find that we were up near the two leading mixed pairs on points, and just in front of Iwona, who well and truly beat me last year in the solo category.
As the cold started to bite we dived into our toasty down sleeping bags well fed and happy. We chatted until ‘late’ – or so everyone commented the next day, but it was only about 10pm!
Day 2 started cold and misty. The atmosphere seemed different from the previous day, perhaps also because we thought we should take it seriously now. We got caught up with some people dithering over navigation and it was a distraction. Lucy was also not feeling as good as the day before. It turned out she had a bit of a cold coming on. But we got ourselves untangled and cleared our minds.
Our route seemed OK until we found ourselves bumping down a highly technical ‘byway’ = narrow, rocky, rooty, strewn with vicious stinging nettles! Then we emerged onto the road and followed an arrow for a ‘bridleway’ = overgrown and covered in those big leafy giant rhubarb like plants you get near water. We were heading for the ‘ford’ of which there was little sign. After considering turning round and going the long way round the road, I suggested we were here for the adventure and should go this way, even if no-one else clearly ever did. We eventually clambered out with very wet feet and big smiles (well, from me anyway!)
The stones were definitely NOT visible, and neither was the track clearly defined as it is in this shot!
© Copyright Gordon Hatton and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
The second half of the 5-hour day went well, and we were moving at a good speed similar to the day before. After an agonising debate on a final control (would penalties wipe out all 60 points it was worth?) we sped to the finish. We thought it had all gone OK. But straight after download we realised something was awry. Our Saturday score was 11th best, but on Sunday we were only 26th and about 100 points down! This was a bit of a low point. However, on reflection our route choice wasn’t daft – we just didn’t have quite enough oomph on the day to pull it off properly at the end. There were also one or two smart tweaks that would have saved us energy or got more points for effort earlier on.
These things can happen, but we were 17th overall and first female pair. More importantly, we did get on and we did have fun!
I also learnt what happens to Lucy when she gets a bit low on food. Some sort of mild mania sets in. We got back to the van to find two flat tyres. Lucy assured me this was normal and that she would fix it with her track pump. Whilst I was half naked in the back of the van trying to get changed, the pump broke and I could hear panic going on outside but could do nothing! As soon as I was decent, I hopped out and suggested using my trail pump. I got going and it was truly working (slowly) – though it felt faintly ridiculous pumping up a tyre with the weight of a van above with this:
Luckily a man came and helped us out with a proper compressor, and wasn’t until we had to try and negotiate incompetent reversers in the train station car park that the craziness set in again! 😉
Adidas Terrex Sting in Stirling – reports from the race
Last week I spent 5 days ‘holiday’ competing in a team of 4 at the Adidas Terrex Sting in Stirling. This is a non-stop 5 day adventure race. You can read all about it here.
During the race we had to do mandatory blogs … Well, we were told they were mandatory but not every team did them, and we almost missed one or two because we didn’t know when we were supposed to write! But I was very keen to fulfil my allotted role as team blogger, even when we were grumpy, ready to go, and had to wait 5 minutes for a computer to be turned on for us! I don’t know how the team let me get away with that one – thanks guys :-).
Our team were ‘AVT Asset Management’. Here’s our profile, some photos and links to our reports from the race. I don’t know how long this page will be up for though, so I have copied the content here too, for safe keeping :D. There’s also a few extra pictures in the reports – many thanks to James Kirby and Open Adventure.
Team profile
Reports from the race
Trail mail
Reflections on the race to follow!
Planet Byde 