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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!!
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 😀
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!
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.
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.
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.
Planet Byde 