Middle Pack

The view from the middle of the pack

Great weather greeted the competitors for the first Open 5 adventure race of the year at Dalby Forest. This course had been designed by Open adventure regular Paul Gomersall and used the forest and surrounding footpaths and bridleways to the maximum.

The running stage was an great mix of muddy fields, fells and fire roads with the odd stream crossing thrown in there for good measure. Some difficult route choices thrown in there for anyone wanting to clear the running stage.

The mountain biking was a tricky stage with the use of slightly outdated maps and many of the roads and trails not marked on the map. This caused at points packs of competitors hunting in the wrong place for checkpoints. CP33 anyone?

Overall a fast course that really was not affected by recent the recent rain apart from the odd boggy field and a great venue for such an event.

The male solo was the tightest class with Andy Conn nearly clearing the course with 570 points followed closely by Phil Scarf, only 5 points behind despite coming back nearly 12 minutes late and Alistair Morris again 5 points behind him. A very competitive start to the series.

The womens solos was won very convincingly by Heather Dawes of Inov-8 with 533 points. She was a full 49 points ahead of her nearest competitor, Julia Barron with 484 points and Emily Brooks came in 3rd with 465. Heather has to be a favorite for the series if she keeps that form up.

Ian Hughes and Andy Shorney from Skinfit won the male pairs convincingly with 570 points. A great result to match the solo winner on points and hold off the two Accelerate teams of Matthew Davis / Eddie Winslow and Adam Haynes / David Spence with 555 and 548 respectively. Female pairs won by Danielle Sheridan and Jessica Weston from Enduroar.com with 405 followed by Jessie Gebhard and Jessica Anstee (367). Third went to Nicky Jaquiery and Jo Foster (365). Mixed pairs was 1st Andy Mitchell / Jill Hume (549), 2nd Andrew Shaw / Nicola Parker (525) and 3rd Andrea Davison / Jonathan Ellis (490)

So where was middle pack? Well 11th in Male solos with 493 points. Unfortunately missing out on a valuable 25 pointer after getting lost on the singletrack trails.

Show on map

February kicks off with the popular LDWA event Rombalds Stride on February 2nd. A 25 mile run or walk around Otley Chevin and Rombalds Moor. Albeit a walkers event this is usually 50% runners. The Pennine Bridleway relays are on the next day (3rd Feb) so may keep entries down this year.

The 9th February brings the Wadsworth Trog (20m and 4000″). The 1/2 trog is also on the same day and is a 9 mile course with 1500″ ascent. Winter hill is a popular event on the 10th organised by Horwich Harriers. Pre-entry is advised as otherwise the entry fee doubles.

The 24th Feb has two great races at different ends of the spectrum. Ilkley Harriers have their ever popular short Ilkley Moor fell race which manages to cram in 1260″ of ascent into 5 mile. A course record of 35.31 set in 2004 is there to be beaten although the 43.48 female record set in 1996 may fall first. The second great race is over in the Isle of Man. The Arthur Jones Fell Race organised by the Manx Fell Runners is the first AL race of the year.

There are a number of other great events across the country. Check out the FRA fixtures handbook for all the details. If you are not a member of the FRA then JOIN NOW! 

The Rat Race Urban Adventure Series are releasing a new format for the 2008 season that will be launched at the Birmingham NEC at the Outdoors adventure show. It is as the title suggests a 9am – 5pm race around Birmingham taking in all the usual Rat Race adventures including running, mountain biking, climbing, and kayaking plus a few surprises along the way.

Hopefully this format will be copied across a few more cities this year?

The rest of the Rat Race series is their traditional two day formats in Bristol, Edinburgh and London on 14/15 June, 19/20 July and 27/28 Sept respectively.

Runfurther.com has announced most of their races for their 2008 series. So no reason not to be training over the winter months.

The Montrail Ultra Running championship 2008 will be run over 12 races during the year. These are split into 4 short, medium and long races. Your best score in 4 races (with at least 1 at each distance) goes towards a final series score. Other awards for highest total in all events and a number of spot prizes along the way hopefully keeps most running.

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The 2008 date for the Rab Mountain Marathon has been released a couple of weeks ago. This year it will be held somewhere in Northern England on 27th and 28th September.

The entries are being limited to ensure that it is being kept as a low key affair so get them entries in as soon as possible.

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