With just days to go before the Open 24 race I received a call from Zoe saying that she had broken her arm in 2 places during a trailquest race she was doing. She had taken a nasty tumble from her bike and managed a clean break across her radius.
That evening I made a number of called to fit ladies that i knew but the notice period was just too short. Luckily someone alerted me to the fact that there was another female racer who also had lost her partner and so i was fast to make the call. Elizabeth Adams agreed to join me for the weekend.
The race began and Elizabeth and I were first out of the starting blocks to collect the check point values and off we went on our bikes. As we peddled furiously down the lane I was planning our route based on check point values and distances. I'd taken a call that in the 5hrs we had to get to our transition point we should easily be able to cover approximately 40km which mean't travelling at an average speed of 8k. We got the first 3 check points fairly easily but our speed was drastically slower. Unfortunately I didn't have a tow and so we needed to stick at a pace that was manageable for both of us. After check point 4 we had a long climb on very rough terrain and ended up pushing our bikes through these bogs. Again our pace dropped and i knew we needed to speed straight towards the transition in order not to miss the cut off. We got there with 12 mins to spare and unfortunately had to miss out the gyhll scrambeling worth 175pts in order not to miss the cut off point.
On to the foot section and we collected 6 check points, our pace was a little better as we jogged around most of the course. It was nearing 10pm and the light was fading. We got to transition 2 where we were about to endure a long nightime mtb section. Luckily it was mainly on road and bridleways however we were soon to find out that the bridleways were so badly over grown that on occasions we had to cut out way through the throrns and bracken! At approx 1.00pm we arrived at the Castle where we had some special stages such as absailing, chambre of horrors and orientering. This was great fun and we flew around the course. Our spirits were high. At this point we were also informed that the next stage, the kayaking stage, had been cancelled due to poor weather. I was gutted.
We mounted our bikes again and continues on with stage 3 which had now become an even longer accumilation of stage 3 &4 to make up for the lack of kayaking. The kayak stage was where I was hoping to make the most points so it was a real shame this was cancelled. After 9hrs on our bikes we arrived at our next tansition with an hour to spare. Elizabeth was very tired as I'd been really pushing her around the course and we were both suffering from rather sore bottoms!
More and more teams arrived at the transition and everyone by now was looking exausted. It was 6.00am in the morning and we'd all been going for 18hrs.
Next stage was a beautiful coastal run of 13k with 8 check points. I was feeling very fresh and ready to run. We all set off and Elizabeth did really well to keep a jog up for the whole section. We completed the course in a little over 2hrs. Finishing this stage we arrived at our final transition point where a further 4hrs of biking was ahead of us. We had decided to collect just a few check point on the way to the finish and get back with plenty of time to spare. This we did. I think Elizabeth could have killed me when i suggested we try to pick up an additional 3 check points. She informed me tht she may just blow up and could we please head straigh back. This we did and it was great to finish suc a challenging course.
It was a great chance for me to focus on getting lots of navigation and tactics practice in. We learned that we were good in transition with minimal faffing and this really helped the race to flow smoothly. All in all it was a very fun race that i would certainly do again. Learning point however is to put loads of mossi spray on before being attacked - I've not been able to sleep for 2 days due to the damn itching!!!
Maria & Zoe 1st placed Female Pair in the Keswick Open5+
