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Bowhill long duathlon and mini adventures
I was very remiss last month, as I never got round to writing about the Bowhill long duathlon! It was the last in the series and lived up to all expectations with fun trails, water and lots of mud.
This time I went down with Andy, who took lots of photographs, but only after he had ‘tested out’ the run course and only just made it back in time for us racers to start! I will let the pictures tell the story of a very fun day.
As far as the results go, I had a fantastic bike ride and was leading for 12 minutes on the run! Things went a bit downhill from there, as my run was slower than last year and I was overtaken by both Jo and Caroline. I still came 3rd though – another bottle of beer for Andy, and I was 2nd in the series – another bottle of beer for Glen! He also got lucky with some homemade chocolate marshmallow icing biscuity things I rustled up the night before.
Easy to use space for up to 6 bikes! I am not used to this luxury.
Fast forward a few weeks and it was time for a mini mountain bike adventure. Andreas is a friend of mine who is training to become a ride leader and wanted to get some experience. He had chosen a route and came to me for some company. I willingly obliged and brought along Marie and Elizabeth, who were equally up for some wild fun.
The only downside was my sleep deprivation in the week leading up to it – with two early morning swims, a trip to London and a 5.30am pick up on Saturday morning! We drove up to Taynuilt and had half an hour to wait for the train to Tyndrum, where we would start the ride back again. I was most impressed with the bike carriage provision – easy space to get into for 6 bikes!
The ride was a mix of wide tracks with little tricky bits thrown in and quite a rough crossing over the watershed in Glen Finglass. We had chosen well: we were riding into a strong headwind all the way, with additional rain at several points, just to give us a free facial, as Marie put it! 😀
Whilst Marie and Andreas jostled for position and rode on ahead, I was more than happy to ride further back with Elizabeth chatting about holiday plans, races and life in general. That is, when we could hear each other over the roar of the wind in our ears.
This was another excuse to try out some new portables – on the menu were polenta squares (tasty but turned out a bit squishy), French toast cake (very good, especially with added sultanas), potato and ginger rice balls (surprisingly OK) and my favourite from last time, sweet potato cakes. I also had a few Quorn mini eggs, just for good measure.
Shame I didn’t eat more of them before I nearly bonked an hour in, or wanted to stop, lie down and sleep halfway through. All good Itera training, I told myself. I’d love to go back and enjoy the fantastic scenery and amazing waterfalls another time – though waterfalls are always better when it’s raining! I enjoyed the random bog walk / bridge hunt, which was the only part of the day where we really had to do any navigation. On the second ‘looking for the path’ occasion, right near the end, I asked someone how to get to another bridge, even though the others said that was cheating!
We ended the day in the Real Food Café as we drove back through Tyndrum. I must have been feeling funny, as in addition to my usual soup choice, I found myself ordering a plate of chips and cheese! I am not a big chip fan, preferring spicy potato wedges instead. I found a good spot for these though. Full tummy, warm clean clothes, not too far home and I was definitely ready for my bed!
Finally, this weekend I was in the Lake District for Lucy’s wedding party. She had chosen somewhere close enough to Kendal for us to get to without a car, but not so close we could stagger back there at the end! So I found a gem of a B&B just a mile along a country lane, complete with a genial host and an upstairs lounge with word burning stove and balcony.
Breakfast is served upstairs
Sunny balcony
We made a weekend of it. Even riding to the B&B on Friday night was interesting, as we picked our way there in the dark, made a turning down the wrong steep hill just as it started sleeting and finally went to three wrong farms before we got the right one …
On Saturday we went for a run to Staveley, to try out Wilf’s cafe. We were supposed to walk back, but ran out of time and had to run instead – suddenly we had covered 26km! Perfect preparation for a night of ceilidh dancing.
On Sunday we took advantage of the sunny weather and went for a 97km road bike ride taking in three counties (Cumbria, North Yorkshire and Lancashire) and a huge variety of landscapes. Andy praised me for finding something approaching a flattish route when we were staying in the Lake District, though the one long climb to get into Barbondale did nearly finish him off. Although I almost always talk about MTB adventures, this does prove I sometimes ride a road bike 🙂 . I’ve got half an eye on the Coniston Old Man triathlon coming up in June. This is the only triathlon I’ve entered so far this year, and I want to give it a decent go!
Fantastic bike route!
Somewhere in the last few weeks we also had our club prize giving evening. Here’s me with the handicap trophy for triathlon. Last year was the first year I raced a lot of triathlon, so my handicap rating was favourable. I also did well in quite a few of the qualifying races (which were all in Scotland), helping me to come out on top. It will be going to someone new next year, but meanwhile I have to find somewhere to keep this rock! (it’s very heavy …)
Club triathlon handicap trophy held aloft = weight training!
Next report will be from the final Open 5 of the series, where I’ll be back in the Lake District again!
Haglöfs Open 5 Cannock Chase
This month’s Open 5 was on Cannock Chase, close to where I grew up.
On Saturday I met up with a friend (Emma) from university that I haven’t seen for about 15 years. She has three energetic young boys and we went out for some fun on the Chase. My memories of coming here as a child are quite dim, but I do remember dragging a large branch around for a whole walk, only to be told when we got back to the car that I wasn’t allowed to take it home. I was so disappointed! Emma’s oldest son decided we should try and re-enact the scene:
A jolly time was had by all and I enjoyed soaking up some sunshine. I could tell the trails were going to be good going for the race. They were all stony, gravelly and sandy – you could hardly tell we have had a lot of rain recently.
My brother and I on Cannock Chase – I was 6.
Also with my dad, who still wears a bobble hat!
On Sunday I was picked up by Ed and Sophie. Lucy was at a wedding, so we couldn’t race together. Sophie was one of the event planners for the February event, and had agreed to race with me this time. We had only spoken a couple of times beforehand, but I had a feeling we were going to have fun!
An innovation for this event was to try out some recipes from the new ‘Feed Zone Portables’ book that Andy bought me. The premise is that sports bars and gels can be hard on your stomach when racing / training, and you can do better with home-made stuff that is higher in water and tastier. I don’t do things by halves, so went for three new things all at once: sweet potato cakes (gluten free and also containing sticky rice), banana and walnut two-bite pies (made with an almond milk crust) and spinach and courgette frittatas. I think Sophie was jealous! They were very tasty and easy to eat – I’ll make them again.
Feed Zone Portables, the result of a busy evening in the kitchen
When we got the map you could tell it was a committing sort of bike route. There were a cluster of controls at the far bottom of the map, involving riding a lot of the one-way man-made singletrack with no get-out routes across the main road. Trails like this also tend to do lots of little wiggles that don’t show on the map and are generally slower to ride than an open wide track. This means it can be hard to judge distance and speed. For these reasons (and because heavy rain was forecast for later), we chose to bike first.
When we got the control values we did some hasty re-planning and set off to navigate the maze of tracks in the forest, some marked on the map, some unmarked. Yes, it was another one of those days, it seems to be a bit of a theme this series! As we headed along a bridleway to a short stretch of road, the path got narrower and we could hear guns. The path appeared to be blocked off and we were on the edge of a grouse shooting area. Looking at our gps trace later, we were definitely in the right place, but someone had obviously decided they didn’t want the public using the right of way. As we found a way out and pedalled up the hill, the sound of shots being fired was quite stressful – I was glad to get out of there!
The ride was going very well. Sophie was better at the technical riding than me, but we were both having fun. I did have to persuade her that we were going the quicker, more boring way a couple of times (“but I like the singletrack though!”). We decided to go for two extra controls at the bottom, before rejoining the trail. As we passed two guys, one said to his mate: “prepare yourself for a whole world of pain now” … well, we had to zigzag up a hill just to come down again, but I wouldn’t say it was that bad!
Colour coordinated planning (we had the same colour highlighters as well!)
A bit later we had to deal with the disconcerting feeling of riding across open heathland, where the map said there were trees. We were trusting in all the other features that said we were in the right place (contours, a car park, a bridleway sign, the other tracks in the right places). At times like this you wonder if you have just made the map fit what you want to believe, but it was with some excitement that I confidently said, pointing: “and the control should be on that corner over there” … and it was! High fives!
As we went round I was enjoying Sophie’s ‘helpful hints’ for the navigation. ‘So we turn left now’ (no, right), ‘Is it here?!’ (no, another km to go), ‘are you sure this is the way to number 17?’ (no, it’s not, because we’re not going there yet) etc. Afterwards, she said it was a good job I had applied the ‘Soph Filter’ 🙂 . To be entirely fair, some of the suggestions were actually useful!
We got back somewhat later than planned, after 3h35. However, we knew this had been the risk and was the reason we had biked first. Our transition was slow, but we spent some time planning a sensible shortish run, taking account of the control values.
When I race with Lucy, who has a lot of orienteering experience, I don’t even look at the map for the run. This time was different and I was out of practice! With the pressure to get back on time, I felt a bit stressed. We kept going though and Sophie was decisive and confident enough in our speed to take us to an extra control which was high scoring. Minor panic as I had read the description as “on fingerpost”, but there was no fingerpost! We checked the map, definitely the right place … but I had got the wrong description. We needed a tree, and there it was! Phew.
Luckily it was downhill almost all of the way back and my running legs seemed to have warmed up. We made good progress and finally crossed the line only 62 seconds late (4 penalty points) – 3 seconds earlier and we’d have only lost 2! Not to worry, it was a respectable score and we were happy with how things had gone. To round off a fab weekend, the heavy rain even arrived two hours late, so we got packed up in the dry.
Female pairs podium
We had done enough to win the female pair category, which we were both really pleased with for our first time racing together. Sophie was super-cheerful all the way round and we had a great time. We didn’t make any significant mistakes and weren’t very late back, for once. Still, it is only Caroline who has yet made me get back on time (at Innerleithen) 🙂 .
This result also means that Lucy and I have won the series even though there is one race left to go, as no-one can catch us up now.
I loved my weekend on Cannock Chase and can recommend it for a visit! Now looking forward to the last Open 5 in this series, in the Lake District.
Haglöfs Open 5 North Downs
The one we got away with.
The North Downs are a long way from where I live, but close to where my aunt and uncle live. I went down for the weekend with my mum and spent a happy couple of hours on Saturday riding around the trails near Epsom. This is a spot with many horses and many bridleways. I was hardly on a road for any of the route, though I got a taste of the conditions I might face a bit further west during the race.
Andy did his first ever trail race in the dark the night before and loved it. You can read his report here. I was teased for not doing both races, and though I was tempted, common sense won for once!
Lucy had put in a fantastic effort at the Marmot Dark Mountains event the week before this race. 68km non stop in the dark in the Peak District in 12.5 hours – respect! It was a last minute decision for her to come down. We want to win the female pairs category in the series, and for complicated reasons it turned out we’d have to do this one. Unfortunately, Lucy was racing tired and with a sore knee.
Planning to bike and bike …
We had a plan. To bike a lot and run a little. So we planned an insanely ambitious bike route. After a last minute mechanical panic we were the last to start and headed off into the sunshine for a bike ride. I have to admit we might have been enjoying it just a little bit too much. There was the ‘path’ which resembled a small stream, the mud baths, the hills, the huge puddles so deep my bottom bracket needed attention when I got home … and it even seemed quite warm. No Buffs necessary! We managed to keep up a good conversation and all was going well.
That is until we made a bad navigation error and didn’t realise until one muddy, hard going kilometre later. A road? There should be no road down here … after some circling in the forest on tracks marked and unmarked, we followed Lucy’s trusty nose and came out at a bunker. We were back on track but had lost a whopping 20 minutes of time.
Transition – muddy and late!
Just after this, we got a bit crazy. We debated bike controls vs. run controls and just how well Lucy would actually be able to run. We decided on the madness of just a bit more biking, then overshot the turning twice. What a comedy of errors! On a road back to transition we time trialled it into transition with Ant Emmet, who was telling us he had over-cooked the bike. So had we, but sort of on purpose!
For the first time, we were arriving at transition as everyone else was heading back to the event centre. We had to be careful to dib the right box (‘transition in’ not ‘finish’) and had just half an hour left for the run. For optimal scoring in an Open 5, the consensus is usually to do roughly 3h of biking and 2h of running. But the race is also strategic and we had to have a strategy that would work for us on the day.
Transition action shot!
Unfortunately, we still managed to stretch ourselves too far on the run, collecting 3 controls but clocking in just over 10 minutes late. We got 25 penalty points, which was not great. I was more concerned though that we weren’t making Lucy’s knee worse as we picked up pace back to the finish.
Our score was very low and we sat anxiously at prize giving. Would it have been enough? It turned out most scores were lower than usual; the course had been a tough one. However, we only came 29th overall, when we would be aiming for the top 10 on our best days. Still, we just about got away with it, and won our class, giving us 3 wins to defend the series with two races to go.
Matching kit on the run
Many thanks to my mum for doing a lot of driving and to my aunt and uncle for their hospitality. It is amazing how you can fit three people and a mountain bike with big wheels into a small Ford Ka. As we set off after the race I nipped into the nearest shop for some food – a bag of Flamin’ Hot Monster Munches, a can of Dr Pepper and a yoghurt; salt, sugar and protein – all essential post-race nutritional groups covered!
Despite the lack of racing ‘class’, I still had a fabulous day and we both agreed what a fun bike ride we’d had 😀
And finally, I was presented with my ‘10,000 points’ award. This means I have done enough Open 5s in my lifetime to amass this many points and join the club with 4 other women (for now). Hurrah!
10 THOUSAND points!!
Tri-Trail Foxlake and Bowhill medium duathlon
Two race reports for the price of one!
Tri-Trail Foxlake
I did the tri-trail event at Foxlake a few weeks ago. In some ways it was very good, in other ways it was very disappointing! It was a 14km trail running race along the coast near Dunbar (East Scotland). I entered late but got a lift with Anne in her red sports car 🙂 . Four of us headed over together, nattering and telling stories all the way.
It was a very brisk morning, hard frost everywhere. In short, the race was flat and fast. My disappointment was in coming 11th … my worst result and the only one outside the top 10 in well over a year. Excuses? Hmm … it was too flat, too dry, too short, too … in fact, there were just a lot of faster girls than me there! Not even a mis-navigation by a group in front helped my position – they still beat me even though they ran further!
On the other hand, it was a pretty route and my time was quicker than I thought it would be. The best bit of the day was the camaraderie and banter, and a trip to Mimi’s on the way home for some rather gigantic French toast. Perfect post-race refuelling!
“Four go to Dunbar!”
I suspect this was a classic case of misalignment in expectations and commitment between my conscious (I want to do well! I always want to do well!) and my sub-conscious (this is a training run, it is practice for bigger things).
Bowhill Medium Duathlon
Fast forward a couple of weeks and it was time for the second event in the Bowhill winter off-road duathlon series. This was the ‘medium’ distance. These races are supposedly short, medium and long, but these terms are all relative. To my mind they are very short, short, and quite short.
Anyway, on race morning it was raining. On the way over, it turned to sleet and the temperature reading from the car thermometer dropped by a couple of degrees. It was also very windy. We arrived later than usual but I was organised and didn’t need or want to hang about in the rain anyway.
After getting ready I stuck to my plan of keeping my waterproof on and riding in my giant lobster gloves. I had a number belt though – couldn’t believe some people were putting pins through their waterproof jackets – surely that can’t be good for them?!
It was a mass start on the bike. I planned to be about row 2 but end up right at the front with Jo (super fast girl) on my left and Chris (super fast guy) on my right, 3 of us from the same club lining up! On the horn, off we went. There were a few wobbles and people were rushing past me. I had to hold my nerve, but was soon heading up the hill in contact with a front group of about 15. Up and up we went.
Mud, what mud? I’m far left, Jo centre. Despite my face, I was having fun!
On the first down a couple of people passed me and Jo disappeared. ‘Usual story’, I thought. Second downhill something took hold of my brain. I kidded myself that the new tyres and tubeless set up would ‘make me go faster’ and started hammering it down a very stony, bumpy fireroad. Rain and sleet were falling from above, whilst mud flew up from below. The occasional coniferous tree branch took a swipe from the side. I couldn’t see a lot and just hung on and hoped for the best. At the bottom I popped round a corner and there was Jo just in front again! I caught up and followed her through the trees. Every time I attempted a pass though, she accelerated, so I just sat in behind all the way to transition. Same situation again, I might try something different! However, this was an awesome bike ride and I knew it would be the highlight of my day.
Even though I faffed a bit changing shoes and getting my coat and big gloves off, I was first lady out of transition!
I have no memory of this pretty scene! (will upgrade pic when it becomes available)
Then reality struck. We were on foot and Jo came past and whizzed off. She is a class runner. I gritted my teeth and got stuck in. The run was much less exciting than the bike. For most of it I could see almost no-one ahead or behind. I just kept going and hoped I wouldn’t be caught. In the end, my cushion from the bike was enough to see me keep 2nd place, though I still have a lot of work to do on that run! I was 21st overall, maybe I can break into the top 20 next time?
Abandoned kit in transition. More mud.
At prizegiving I managed to collect two beers – one for the Glen (the driver) and one for Andy. Along with the finisher’s (veggie for me) haggis, it wasn’t a bad morning’s work! 😀
Thanks to Bob Marshall and Zupix for most of the photos.
Haglöfs Open 5 Hamsterley Forest
The two-week run up to the January Open 5 event went better than usual for me. I traditionally get some sort of bug around this time of year. This time was no different, but I managed to shake it off quite effectively. I also came to the race straight from 2 weeks of Christmas holiday. This meant I’d only had a mountain bike to play on and consequently had done a lot more Open 5–like riding than usual. My head and legs were tuned!
I got a lift to the race from Alan, who fortuitously lives near to my mum and also has a nice barn not too far from the event centre. We hadn’t met before and I was very grateful for the help. We went up on Saturday, got settled and I stuffed myself with pasta before a quick trip to the pub (orange and lemonade; I’m a ‘serious’ racer, don’t you know 😉 ) and into bed. In the morning it was very frosty and icy on the roads, so it took as little while longer to get there than expected. Lucy was already ready and waiting for me.
Does this look like serious planning?!
We picked up the maps and had a quick plan. I think for once we both felt more like catching up with friends and chatting! The start was a couple of km away down a hill. It was still cold, so I was glad to get running.
We went straight up a hill, with me desperately trying to find enough air to talk and run at the same time. After the first control we were out onto open moorland. The ‘footpath’ was vague / non-existent and we were soon lifting our legs up over the heather.
My ankles held up well, but it was rather hard work and we weren’t moving very fast. This influenced our decision on route choice as we headed a long way out to the corner of the map along well made paths. After a 3km run downhill on a fireroad where I was still having trouble keeping up with Lucy (it’s not just the rough stuff!), I was tired for a different reason. ‘Are we nearly there yet?’, I kept asking. We decided to pick up a 15 pointer that was more or less on the way home, then got slightly misplaced looking for the final control worth 30 points. We made our way through low hanging tree branches, waded across a large river and squelched around until we found it. I was on the tow for the last 20 minutes and was glad of the extra assistance.
A typical view, heather, heather, heather
We joked that this was Lucy’s day to make me run extra instead of me making her bike extra! We got into transition after 2h15 compared to our normal target of 2h. The bike map was awkward with high-value controls at both ends of a map stretching across the diagonal. If we had known the control values before starting, I think it would have been better to bike first – but that decision is already made before you get them!
It was uphill again, with Lucy trying out a new-to-her 29er bike. There were some loud crunching noises and comedy spinning legs as gears were changed in the wrong direction, and one no-harm-done fall as the cleats failed to disengage. The biggest problem was the chain suck after we had been through mud, which caused a few stop-dead moments.
The route included a couple of sections of red grade singletrack which were a lot of fun. I whooped a bit as we flew along. I misjudged the quickest route between two of the controls in the forest and we met up again with a couple of friends we had passed going the same way. Then I saw James Kirby the photographer and was so excited! He missed us last time …
Big Grin!
After a while the cold was getting to us. We had more stops than usual to put on coats and try to make cold fingers work with fiddly zips and buckles. I was conscious Lucy wasn’t her usual zooming self but there wasn’t much I could do about the cold, other than hope for another uphill … which only meant more hard work! At least the nice couple out for a walk cheered us up when they said: “you’re doing much better than the last lot who came past!”
We finished with a road section around Hamsterley. I took the opportunity to give a few helpful pushes where I could, but my legs were starting to pop as well. We got back to the finish only a few minutes late and made good use of the trail centre bike wash.
At prizegiving, we found we had won our category, though our overall score / placing was a bit down on where we’d be on our best days. Looking at the ways other people went, a more circular run across the heathery stuff might have been better. These things are easy to work out later though, sitting at home with a computer and a cup of tea! It just shows how getting the right strategy is such an important part of these races. You make reasoned decisions and live with them. The impact can vary from ‘slight’, to ‘get away with it’, to ‘disaster’!
I still had a great day out and really enjoyed both the running and biking. My spirits were immeasurably higher than last month and it was the best way to finish off the holidays. I knew it was a tough day as I was rather light-headed when I finished and needed to eat immediately. I was also barely capable of doing anything the next day, even after pizza and 11h sleep 😮 .
I headed home in a car full of podium placers – me, Chris (male pairs) and Anna (female pairs). Second set of thanks for a lift in one weekend 🙂 . It was good to get back home!
One last comment on this race – I was testing out my new (Christmas present) Amphibia X-Bag. It’s designed as a triathlon transition bag but also worked perfectly as an Open 5 transition bag …. My run pack and kit, my bike pack and kit, shoes, water, spare jacket, bits and bobs – all swallowed up into one bag and I could still pedal with it comfortably over my shoulder. I’m looking forward to putting it though its paces some more this year 😀
Bowhill duathlon – short
My last race of the year! Off-road duathlon returned to Bowhill estate in style. This was the first of three popular events over the winter. It was the ‘short’ – to be followed later by the ‘medium’ and ‘long’. Whereas the next two are bike / run, this one was run / bike. It was also the one I missed last year, so it was an all new experience.
No snow or ice were in attendance yet, but we had had a big storm a few days before. This meant the course had a few extra tree trunk obstacles to jump over and bike around. The run went up through the woods, before turning and working its way back down again. I knew I had to start strongly and either minimise my losses or maximise my gains, depending on who in the competition I was comparing myself to! I also tried to get it in my head that this was *short*, so no long, steady pace allowed …
The up all went well. I ran the whole way and, after the initial rush, held my position. Then we had to go down, and it felt like people were pouring past me. I was nervous about my ankles (as always), but especially so as my left one was still a bit stiff from going over on it at the previous week’s Open 5. Jo Thom from my club, a very strong runner, was up front. A relay girl had come past. As we came back to transition, Caroline (teammate at Innerleithen Open 5) overtook me. I was a bit surprised, as I’d seen her at the start line telling me her back was too sore to race! Glen, a clubmate and driver for the day, also caught me up here and I reckon he was feeling pretty pleased with himself 😀 .
Out onto the mountain bike and I was on Caroline’s heels. She’s very proficient technically and I was following her along the twisty trail through the woods. I could tell she wasn’t fully herself though, as I took the opportunity of a straight wide bit to overtake. In fact, I was overtaking quite a few people (including Glen – ha ha!), which was me getting my own back after the downhill running losses. This was quite a skill, as you generally had to leave the obvious riding line and plough through rough, bumpy, twiggy bits instead. It required some commitment and power, but was quite fun!
I didn’t let up all the way round. I remembered what it had felt like at the Hallocross (a night-time Halloween cyclocross race), riding hard and fast for a short time. I tried to be a bit aggressive and make my legs burn. The hills in the middle third felt nippy but I was reviving again at the end. All the while, I was conscious that anyone could be charging up behind me, so I sprinted up the road to the finish where my mum was waiting. She was visiting for the weekend and is my ultimate support crew. She was asking me a lot of questions though, and I could hardly breathe, let alone answer them!
In the end, I held onto second. Jo kept the lead from the start. My friend Elizabeth was third. It was her I battled with at Hallocross (where she beat me), and her time for the bike leg was 1 second faster than me – I was glad I had kept the pressure up all the way! Caroline held onto 4th despite her bad back. Full results here.
It was a fun way finish the year. Next time I race my MTB it will have been converted to tubeless with different tyres (hopefully no more puncture / tyre fitting traumas) at its ‘birthplace’, Moonglu in Ripon. I’m looking forward to getting out some more 🙂
Haglöfs Open 5 Forest of Dean
The trip this far down south was a logistical epic, but did involve a bonus visit to see Andy, half a day with Lucy’s friend Catherine and a pleasant (accidental!) diversion to spaghetti junction, which is very close to where I grew up! The phone app got us round and round and round until we popped back up on the motorway in the right direction :-).
Made me feel all nostalgic …
Planning
I was feeling a bit off, I was tired and my head seemed all foggy and ached as we looked at the maps. I even managed to miss the fact that we were sat at a table with Chrissie Wellington, although I did think she looked vaguely familiar! Before we set off to transition I was all over the place, and we had to lock and unlock the van about 3 times. Finally I had everything I needed in the right places and we were ready to go.
We ran first, with Lucy navigating as usual. I was glad I didn’t have to think. I just clutched my map in my hand and concentrated on keeping up as best I could. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, Lucy doesn’t really do sympathy, more like tough love! We ran fast along the river. I think Lucy was secretly aiming for the number 32 to 29 speed record (we might have even got it!). Four of us ran across a bouncy bridge together, causing some strange harmonic (and not so harmonic) motion effects.
Forests full of fallen leaves
I started to feel more positive and enjoy the woods and scooshing through the leaves after we visited King Arthur’s cave for a helping of magic dust. Up to a trig point and back down again, but then I went over on my ankle. It was a sore one. I needed to sit and catch my breath and wait for the intense but short-lived pain that is peculiar to slightly twisted ankles to subside. Lucy had barely paused before she disappeared ever downwards, so there was no time to feel sorry for myself. I proceeded (even more) cautiously until we were back on more even ground.
This is where I got hitched up to the tow for the last 25 minutes of running. It made a difference as I got a little tug over the tricky bits and times when I unconsciously slowed, but I was keeping pace in other sections. Lucy asked my opinion about going for one last control on the way back, but I was incapable of a cogent answer and left her to decide. We went straight back and got in just when we would plan to (2hr2mins).
Now it was my turn to look at a map. After we had been given the control values at the start, I had revised our initial plan and come up with a better route. I was relieved to get us to the first checkpoint correctly. The forest was much more fun than the usual Forestry Commission type, lots of beech and other trees and more natural paths. But there were tracks all over the ground that weren’t on the map, and some on the map that weren’t on the ground. Tracks all marked in the same way also varied wildly in their surface type and rideability!
There was a control here – I can’t believe I didn’t notice it was a railway artefact!
We found this out as we struggled to get between our 2nd and 3rd controls. Both path options we went for were very overgrown and rough. At this point, race director James ran past looking very cheerful! He commented later that we were gassing, but in actual fact we were debating what to do ;-). In the end we shouldered our bikes and set off up the hill, slipping and sliding and struggling across fallen trees and up little steep banks. Eventually we reached a better path, but were confused about where it brought us out. We lost some time, but got where we needed to eventually.
A long, fast road section followed, but then I had a head flunk. We collected a control and almost turned back the wrong way before Lucy spotted my mistake. I felt flustered and through the next couple of junctions it got worse as I lacked confidence in what we were doing and missed seeing a fire road on the map. Lucy got a teensy bit cross with my hesitation and took over. In retrospect, I was right to be confused as our gps trace shows we rode on paths not marked on the map for a km. But Lucy was right to follow her instinct as we were going in the same direction and other map features meant we knew when we came out in the right place. I fought with my mind a bit but determined to get over it. I just let Lucy lead through the next long section of singletrack and gave myself time to sort my head out. It was fun riding and we were there to enjoy ourselves, after all!
My favourite control location!
We were soon at the decision point about where else to go in the time left. We had designed our route to give us lots of different options at the end, with a road ride back to the finish. We had an hour left, which based on our average speed so far was enough to do the shortest loop back. We set off, but a few minutes later I said “hmmm, Lucy, I’ve been thinking, and we seriously might be able to go out and get number 19 as well”. I have a habit of doing this and being much too optimistic, but this time I was confident, as our speed on the road should be much faster and it was worth 20 points! Luckily Lucy agreed and we went for it. Last summer she was out of running action for a long while, and therefore doing more biking. It showed as there was no help needed and in the final leg back we were taking turns to draft in a two-up time trial. Definitely the right decision, as we rolled in only 2.5 minutes late (6 penalty points).
My tummy muscles were spasming and I was a bit light headed. Definitely something wasn’t quite right! But although we hadn’t got as many controls as we sometimes do, we thought it had been a tough course. Lucy did also admit that we had run harder than usual, which made me feel a bit better. At prize giving (results), it turned out we had done very well and I really cheered up – we were only beaten by a male pair and 6 male solos. My favourite bit was the ‘oooooh’ in the hall when our score was announced :-).
Nothing left!
Conversation and chat resumed at normal levels after we stopped at the services and I stocked my body up on sugary and salty items. It was good to compete with Lucy again after so many months, and to find we hadn’t lost what we learnt last year about how to have a good race together.
The best bit of the journey home was the train trip back from Doncaster. I’d saved up some reward points from my extensive train travel across the UK and been able to get a free first class seat. Loads of leg room, free wifi and complimentary second breakfast were much appreciated by this weary adventure racer!
The Abernethy DARE
I only just made it to this race, but was very glad I did!
This was an event in the SMBO series. I haven’t been able to get to many of them this year due to other commitments. But this one wasn’t too far away, I was at home and I found a lift via Facebook. Perfect! I was looking forward to 3 hours of mountan biking and collecting checkpoints somewhere new.
Beautiful forest
The day before was a Friday. I had got up very early that morning to go for a swim. I was feeling tired and knew I had to be up promptly to ride across town to my pick up point. So at 9:30pm I started getting my bike ready and was looking forward to going to bed. Then I found I had an almost-flat tyre. My thought process went something like this:
- Oh no, it’s a real pain to fix punctures on this bike
- It’s only a slow one, I can just pump it up and race
- If I do that, I will worry all the way round
- Better fix it now, and have peace of mind
- Oh no, it’s a real pain to fix punctures on this bike
I set about fixing the puncture. The only straightforward part of this operation was taking the front wheel off the bike. After that it all went wrong. Suffice to say that the job involved multiple types of tyre levers, YouTube videos, heat, talc, swearing, tears, a very stubborn and spiky thorn, tick removers, two defective brand new inner tubes, blisters and an extra pair of hands and moral support from along the road. Jim was my saviour! 3 hours later it was 12:30am, I waved goodbye to Jim and fell into bed exhausted.
After all that, getting to the race and starting seemed a breeze.
It was a fabulous event with a great atmosphere. The £1 entry fee deal had drawn people in and there were lots of ‘generation’ teams (1 kid + 1 adult) out enjoying themselves. Throw in some sunshine, fun trails, a well planned map and amazing home baking and this was one not to be missed!
Abernethy is a small town in the north of Fife, just south of Perth and the Firth of Tay. It is famous for an old round tower, which is where the first checkpoint was. It is not famous for biscuits, which were named after a person, not the place! The event area had a network of trails, forest tracks, farm roads and minor roads. There were lots of ways in and out and round, and everyone was doing different things.
I opted to go clockwise, gain height on a road then wiggle around ‘on the top’ (these terms are all relative!) before a big down and back up again. Along the way, some of the views across the Tay were beautiful, and the forests were still golden in colour. You can see where I and others went and what you might do differently if you go to the routegadget. I even uploaded my gps route for you :-). You’ll just have to guess at the points values though!
Hurrah! Both tyres still inflated.
After a couple of hours, some crazed dogs alerted me to a minor navigational error. I took the opportunity to stop, refold the rather large map (A3) and decide what I had time left for. Unfortunately, when I estimated how far it was to go, logic told me that just the shortest option was tight, even though I really wanted to throw in a few more at the end! I set off again in a bit more of a hurry, visiting an old castle and searching for a checkpoint on a skeleton in the middle of a long, dark, spoooooky tunnel! We warned to bring a light for this one. Soon I was dashing back along the road to the finish, only a few minutes late.
My score was high enough to win the small female solos class. Results. On a day when I wasn’t so tired from a hard training week and puncture fixing fiascos I think I would have been able to fit in at least a couple more. I was told the two I had in mind were fun to get as well! 🙂 But I was happy to have enjoyed myself and explored such a great new area.
Part of my prize (a Buff) went straight to Andy, who was delighted! I’ll think of something to put the Alpine Bikes voucher towards later.
Thanks to the organiser, Keith Leinster, for putting on such a well planned event and taking me somewhere new. Thanks also to Raymond for the photos, to Marc and Ewan for getting me from here to there and back again and to Jim for getting me as far as the front door :D.
Haglöfs Open 5 Innerleithen
My return to racing after a ‘rest’ period!
Before the Open 5 … Where have I been for a month?!
Well, after the Snowman race, I was due a break and really needed it. I was a bit tired of racing and spent the week at my dad’s relaxing. OK, so I included a couple of long bike rides and a ‘romp’ up and down a mountain in that time, but I also had nothing else to do except cook, eat, sleep and laze around!
A short break at the top of a Welsh hill road, with views out to sea
That was fun. The next couple of weeks I rode my bike to work and did the minimum of running to keep things ticking over. That included a couple of 5km Parkruns – still chasing that elusive 20 minute barrier though!
Hallocross
On Thursday 31st October, I marked the end of recovering by heading out for a local Halloween special. A cyclocross race in the dark in fancy dress! It was a whole lot of fun and I had an excellent battle with my friend Elizabeth – though she got the better of me in the end and accused me of cornering like a roadie … oops. She came an excellent 2nd. I was a bit frustrated to come 4th. I was beaten by 3rd place by less time (18 secs) than I gave away at the start (74 secs) by not being assertive and waiting near the front of the mass of riders. Hey hum, it wasn’t a serious race and it got my legs working at a speed I’m not used to! It also forced me to abandon my fear of slidy mud riding, at least temporarily.
Ghostly Hallocross riders: thanks to Addy Pope for the picture
Haglöfs Open 5 Innerleithen
I missed the first race in the Open 5 series because of the Snowman. I wasn’t going to do the same for the next, especially as it was almost on my doorstep. At least, it was at my local trail centre, 45km away. I raced with Lucy all of last year, but she couldn’t make it for this one. Not to worry, Caroline lives just a few hundred metres from the event centre and agreed to race with me. I was excited, as we have been trying to get together for a few times now, and this was the first time it had worked out. The fact that after she had agreed to it, she asked ‘oh, is there running in it too?’ didn’t faze me – she was in now, no going back 😀
A happy prize giving!
I wanted to ride over the day before, but the weather was rubbish. I settled for an afternoon and evening catching up with jobs before heading out for a lift from the bypass the next morning. Halfway through town, a car with bikes on the back came past, pulled over and offered me a lift. Many thanks to Anna and Chris!
Because I had been at home the night before, I didn’t really feel in race mode. But once I arrived and got the map, I was soon right back into it! We struggled to decide what we might do for the bike, though I knew from experience that it was a good idea to study the contours in the forest very carefully.
At the start we got the control values and set off confidently straight up the hill on the run. We had a nice circuit ready for this. At one point we considered crossing a pathless felled area. I pondered that ‘Lucy would make us go that way’, but we decided not to. That is, until a few hundred metres later an easier opening appeared and we took off! Caroline was good at finding a route through the tricky bits and confidently led us back down hill next to a stream. At a sheepfold we debated whether to go up again before we went back … going back was the right decision as we arrived in transition after almost exactly 2h. The last couple of km had been tough for me – nothing new there then!
Views from near the top of Minch Moor
Onto the bikes and we were straight back up the same hill we had started on the run. We nearly made it before we spun out and then were soon on a singletrack leading to the top of Minch Moor. I love that hill! Steady gradient, rocky and a fabulous power climb with huge panoramic views at the top. We didn’t stop long to admire them though, as we headed for a muddy out and back on the Southern Upland Way. Apparently at the control we bumped into my friend Andy, but I totally ignored him … I mean … failed to notice him! On the other hand, we unwittingly gave him a ‘good tip’ as we confidently stated out loud that it was definitely not worth going out further to the next control along. Tales back at race HQ confirmed it!
The ride had plenty of technical challenge. As well as the rocky climb, we now had a muddy ascent, where you had to search for firmer ground, feeling whether your wheels would grip and constantly adjusting position and scanning ahead. Next we were screeching downhill again on the man-made trail, and I was working hard to keep up as Caroline demonstrated her superior descending prowess!
The points allocation for the bike leg made it hard to come up with an ‘elegant’ route. We had to do a few out and backs. Later, back at home, I spotted a potentially better route, but I am not sure we would have had time to execute it anyway. As the race drew to a close we did one last long out and back. I wanted to collect at least two, maybe three controls out there, but the clock was ticking and we were slowing. I faced one of those difficult decisions as we stood at the track / road junction and Caroline said ‘you decide’. I was feeling good, but I could see she was not, and we had 9km into a headwind to go.
Drafting. Not far to go now!
I decided to just turn back and faced the final technical challenge! We didn’t have a tow line, but the headwind was strong. We decided Caroline would draft me, so I had to find the right pace and then use my internal power meter to keep a consistent effort back to the finish. 😀 Another good decision for the day, we got in with 3 minutes to spare. How unlike me!
At prizegiving we found out we had won our category and come 7th overall. So despite the pain, we had achieved a respectable score and it was safe to ask Caroline if she had enjoyed the experience :-). She said she did, and we certainly appreciated the lovely Haglofs gilet we both got as a prize. I don’t know if I will persuade Caroline out again now that she really knows what she’s letting herself in for, but in any case we had a great time out in the autumn sunshine!
Many thanks to Open Adventure for putting on the race and to James Kirby for the Open 5 photos.
Snowman Triathlon 2013
The new incarnation of this race in Snowdonia is not to be underestimated. By the time I finished, I was exhausted and craving sweets, Pepsi and baked beans.
The water for the 750m swim was on the cold side, but not unbearable. I couldn’t decide where to position myself though. The shoreline on our left jutted out and we had to swim between that and a buoy on our right, before angling left to the next buoy, where we turned right. To the left, and I would get trapped in shallow water against the shore. To the right, and I might get squeezed as we passed the buoys.
I opted for the middle, which was a mistake! The hooter went, we sprinted, I got mangled, shoved, and pushed under water. I nearly panicked but had to hold my nerve. It was all made harder by the fact we were swimming into a strong headwind. There were lots of white horses making the water even rougher than it already was with the flailing arms and legs. As we turned right I was being physically pushed and elbowed. I got a bit fed up and started fighting back, giving a few elbow shoves of my own. It finally got easier after this and I worked on swimming harder.
Get me out of here!
Compared to last year, the bike course had been more than doubled in length to 69km and included some significant hills. We had driven round it the day before, but it didn’t give the same sense of steepness that the legs felt during the race!
The first section was uphill into a headwind. A group of guys came past drafting, but I just tried to ignore them. We were soon on a fast, twisting, almost single lane descent. I was very pleased that no cars tried to come past and I got down safely. The next section was slightly downhill and very fast.
Suddenly two girls came past together, working hard. My competitive urge kicked in and I picked up the pace to stay near them. We turned to go up something described as ‘the wall’ in the briefing notes. I hoped here that my standard road bike compared to their TT bikes might help … but they were strong bikers and halfway up we were still together. I changed gears and heard a funny noise. I glanced down and saw a tough little stick wedged around my rear derailleur. The timing couldn’t be worse! I had to stop, get off, yank it out – and by then they were gone and out of sight. From chatting later to some of the other competitors who also saw them pass, they stayed close for a lot of the ride. In some ways I was glad I wasn’t tempted to tag along and risk falling foul of drafting rules (7m is a big gap). I might also have been too tired to run! On the other hand, I was on my own again and mentally battling to keep my pace.
Hills and high speed!
After a bit of a ‘wobble’ I made sure I ate and drank everything I had on me and it had a good effect. I got up the big long hill past the slate caverns, overtaking a couple of men on the way. Some lovely people in the middle of nowhere were clapping. When I waved I got a fabulous cheer. Most welcome! The descent on the other side was amazingly awesome. I glanced down at my gps a couple of times and saw I was going at over 80km/h! Wowee. A record. 😀
I was feeling good now and fired up the final hill to transition, keeping my average speed well above target.
Setting off on the run I saw Andy, who shouted encouragement at me. We had to run to the top of Moel Siabod and back down again. Climbing the mountain was much harder than last year. I think this was due to the longer, hillier bike. Every time I attempted something faster than a shuffle, my lower back screamed at me to stand up straight – which isn’t helpful when you need to lean into the hill to run! Eventually things got better. The top of the mountain was shrouded in fog and it was blowing a gale. I was cold but didn’t stop to put my jacket on. It did illustrate why there were rules to take full windproof body cover though – which I’m sure many didn’t from what I saw them carrying (or not!).
Just starting the final section
Turning at the top I descended quite well – for me. The killer of this run is the final section. You’re almost back where you started, when you have to take a detour through the forest on a fireroad that demands you run fast. My legs were burning but I was determined to finish hard! In the end, my run time was slower than last year, which I was disappointed about. However, I really had nothing left at the end and felt I couldn’t have done much more. I was 5th female (though funnily, first in my age group as I was beaten by 4 veteran ladies!).
Jane Hansom took a well deserved win with a flying run. A natural fell runner in the making?! Rhian, who was in contention for the series had tummy problems on the bike and decided not to run up a mountain. It must have been a tough decision for her. The two fast cyclists, Rebecca Slack and Suzetta Guerrini took the other podium spots. Results.
I’m tired…
My confidence took a bit of a knock knowing there were a few girls way ahead on the bike. It is usually my best leg of the race. I also thought I might do better with the longer distances. In fact, reviewing the results in context compared to the full field, my bike was good and it was the run which really let me down – as is often the case! I also finished 31st overall, out of 175 (27th fastest bike), which is alright.
Sometimes I find it hard to judge my performance as there are so many variables. I can race and perform well but not place as high because of stronger competition or more depth in the field. Or maybe sometimes I just don’t perform as well as I could. This time, factors could include end of season accumulated fatigue or low motivation.
But in the end, I know I definitely feel ready for a break. Time for a week off work and 4 weeks off racing. 🙂
Post-race relaxation – making marzipan Chelsea buns!
Thanks Andy Kirkland for the photos!
Planet Byde 