Middle Pack

At the start of the year I was sure that I was going to do 3 of the series as the venues were places I wanted to race. Loving racing in the Peak District and Sedbergh and spending many an hour riding round Haworth made this a must do in the calender.

As the series approached I was getting more and more unsure if I was able to do the series but in the end I went with opinion that an adventure race is less pressure on the foot as I am not racing head to head therefore can go at my own speed and I don’t have to run hard. So I decided to enter the Peak District race and see what happens.

First race was great fun, I ran first and as with most adventure races the run was mainly on paths and tracks so nothing too technical for my fragile foot. I managed to come into transition with a good haul, more than I expected then time to change to the bike.

A slight mishap with my shoes when the velcro fastening snapped, meaning I had to zip tie my shoe to my foot but soon enough I was off again. This was my first time riding in the Peak District. I have ran there many times but never really much on the bridleways. Loved it! Although there were a few scary moments with big boulders and slippy tyres but I managed it back and got in at 7th place in the male solos meaning I had scored my first top 10 ever in adventure racing.

Haworth in the South Pennines was the venue for the third race in the series and my second race.  This was another race that I was eager to do, having ran around that area and been mountain biking many times around that area it was finally a race where I had a bit of local knowledge.

The day of the race was perfect weather for it! Grey and overcast. As usual I set off running first, soon ticking off controls and taking the odd direct line short cut on bearing in low cloud that saved a lot of time as I wasn’t running very well. The bike was good fun although came back quite late and lost a load of points as I was a bit greedy near the end. I still managed 11th so was quite happy with the result.

Sedbergh was the last one that I was going to do of the series. This time I could tell my lack of training was starting to kick in. The run was hard work and just not fun. Never really felt comfortable and was knackered.

The bike was okay and started off quite well and at a fair speed. Soon I realised I had forgotted any food or gels so had to do the last 3 hours with just some nuun. Also got a puncture so the day wasn’t really going too well. Then on the final checkpoint I managed to twist my ankle when putting my foot down off the bike.

All in all I didn’t feel very competitive but did enjoy the day. Weather was great and the course was interesting and well set. I managed to come home 12th but was well off the pace and there was some very high scores on the day.

Now the series has ended, I have come out 10th for the series. Happy with that as know there is room to get better and fitter, yet was better than I thought I would do at the start of the series.

Its been a while since I did an an adventure race. In fact over a year, and that was a dark and white 6 hour event in macc forest. Unfortunatly I missed out on the recent Open 5 series due to injury.

I haven’t trained properly for a while and only started running training this week after a lengthy abscence but thought the new 4 hour events may be a good option just to see what my levels of fitness are. Figuring I didn’t have to do too much running if I didn’t have to.

An early sunday start and a drive down to the start was the only uneventful part of the day. After registering and getting sorted I set off on my way. First 2 controls went fine, but this is where things started to go wrong. A mechanical problem on the bike and a wasted 15 minutes trying to sort out my chain and rear derailler as my gears decided not to shift properly and my chain had jammed between cassette and derailler. I may have fiddled a bit too much trying to work it out as I was then just missing gears. Then there was a lot of crunching and grinding, especially from my little gears.

The next couple of controls and I was distracted by my bike but was getting back on pace, only for a slight error sending me over the bars and me banging my rear derailler on a rock this time. So again more faff and a bloody elbow and a wasted 10 minutes as loads of people I had passed overtook asking if I had a puncture? Soon I was up again only to again fly over the bars, luckily onto smooth grass and I was soon back up again and on the bike. My head really wasn’t in it today!

I eventually found that middle chain ring meant i was okay with my gears so stayed in this until the transition for the running stage. Some steep hills and long road sections made this a bit of a bind but was just good to be moving and not having to pull out due to my mechanical numptiness. I was however running very late.

The run was an orienteering course in Lyme Park, the setting for pride and prejudice. I was a bit longer than I thought it would be. The tendon in my foot ached and I was a bit nervous on it but was good to put on my inov8s for the first time this year. They really are like slippers. It did show me though that I have a long way to go before I am realistically fell race ready. It was tough and I chose a route with heavily tussockked grass.

Back on the bike and I was now up against it. I chose my route back to the finish and pushed as hard as I could with my 9 gears. Not good enough as I was 16 minutes late and losing 60 hard earned points. Finishing with 157 points and 8th out of 10 in the male solo under 40s .

On the plus side, some of my splits on the bike are not too bad, although you can see where I had mechanicals. Probably wasting 25 minutes overall and a further couple of minutes with being in the wrong gear for a lot of the rest of the race. I also enjoyed being out and about racing for first time in a long time.

Probably the best thing for me was I learnt how to set up gears. After the race I set upon my gears both front and back and got them running smoother than ever before.Thanks to the sheldon brown, the park tools website and shimano’s tech centre. Just wish it was that easy to get myself up and running smoothly.

Sadly, fitness has suffered more than I thought, especially my running. My nav and route choice is another that has suffered having not used a map in 6 months. I was unable to choose a route and when I did my time estimates were considerably out. I am unsure if this is due to my fitness levels not being what they were or lack of nav practise. Probably both.

Thanks to Dark and White for another great event. A great location and good to see them trying different things. With an ‘O’ course and two bike stages you really had to think about timings and route. This is shown by the amount of people who arrived late.

My only critisism is that I am not sure that 4 hours is long enough and I did prefer the 6 hour format. I guess it is a move to appeal to more people and last years 6 or 3 hour would be an nightmare to administer and also reduce the results.

The next event is in conjuntion with the Sheffield Cliffhanger event, so should be a busy one and I am guessing that the special stage will be slap baing in the middle of the event.

Wow is it that time already? Well not quite yet but my mind is starting to wander to the winter season racing and Open Adventure and their Open 5 series could feature heavily over the bleak cold months.

There has been a bit of a shake up this year with all the Open 5 races being a lot closer to each other without the gap for summer of previous series. This makes more sense than having the break for summer and also gives people motivation to get out and about when it is dark, wet and cold outside. They are now going to be the 1st weekend of the month apart from a break in January whilst you recover from all the festivities.

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The weather held and the snow melted in most of the course in time for the first of the Dark and White ‘Skins’ 6 in the peaks adventure races. The location being Macclesfield Forest and surrounding hills. There was two special stages crammed into this 6 hour event. A abseil and an orienteering course using a different scale map to the standard 1:25k OS maps both at Teggs Nose Country Park. Each racer was given an allocated time for the abseil therefore reducing congestion and queuing and this worked very well. It also meant that racers route choices were vastly different and there was a lot less following in evidence as everyone had to be at abseil transition at different times and a route had to be chosen based on their abseil time.A weird start to the race as you had to set off on bikes and you was handed a black and white map to get you to the place to get your control descriptions then go back to the start to get your map. You could then set off racing either running or on foot. Not really sure if this part was necessary although on speaking with the organisers they noted that as people were already on the bikes that a lot of them stayed on the bike and did that section first. This despite being more points on foot.

My abseil was a morning one and I only had about 1 hour of racing to do before my allotted time so bike section was my chosen starter (also as I had been having a discussion with another person about why we always run first so thought I would try the other way) The usual dark & white approach was in full force here. Always laid back but very well organised. Less glitz than other races but some tough courses and some great racing. There was something for everyone at this race. The beginners could have a good go at a challenging but accessible course and for the more experienced there was a tough challenging course with strong opposition. In the end the winner of the Mens category was Bob Johnston from Dark peak fell runners, Nick Gracie and John Laughlin in the male team, Heather Dawes after a strong performance at Open 5 coming home with the womens solo. Full results at the Dark and White site

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After a great start to the year with some fast and close racing at both the Open 5 and the Dynamic Adventure Race series Challenger and Endurance series there is a bit of a lull in February.

Someone obviously forgot to tell the Dark and White boys this as they have a full month of Adventure Racing and Trailquests packed into this inhospitable month (I say this as it is snowing outside as I type).

The first weekend of February kicks off with the opening event in the 6 in the peaks series from Dark and White. This one is going to be based in Macclesfield Forest and is a 6 hour event with running, mountain biking and the special feature of abseiling. This year Skins are the main sponsors for the The D&W team always hold good informal events so regardless of the snow drifts this will be a good one.

They are also holding a MTB trailquest and a biking weekend and even would be holding a further event if it was not for lack of entries into their night MTB score events. Busy lads and they keep this rate up throughout the year!