Race 9, 2 Day Adventure Race, Coniston, 28/04/2012

This weekend I did my first adventure race. It was fun but I hadn't done any running so my legs got completely trashed after the first stage, which was a nuisance.  Stage 1 was a run over a couple of massive mountains. We had to scale up the side of them, not on a path and the biggest was all rocky at the top so it was more of a scramble. The way up was actually OK, it was the way down that hurt. My knees and calves felt like they were ripping apart. It damaged me for the whole weekend too! We were doing OK but then messed up as we ran out of time and couldn't get the two big point controls we were planning to get. Even then we couldn't make it back in time so ended up losing the majority of our points. We didn't really take into account the huge mountains in the way when we planned how long it would take to get back. We were out for 2.5 hours, half an hour late!

The start

Then it was a 4.5 hour bike stage. This was good, legs were fine on the bike and we went on some brilliant rocky ascents and descents. I love biking in the Lake District! Even on the bikes it soon became apparent that we couldn't get back on time so we dropped down off the hills and cycled back along the road the whole length of Coniston. We ended up being 10 mins late so lost some points but not as disastrous as this morning. Now I was struggling to walk and getting up was almost impossible! I was very worried about my legs.

We next had a 90 min running night stage. We learned from this morning and plotted ourselves a much smaller loop. It wasn't half as vertical as this morning, but all the controls were still up big hills.. We set of quite slowly as I was struggling to do anything more than a power walk. As the stage went on we did pick it up a bit and we properly ran the last mile back, because it was flat and we wanted keep all our points for once! The route we did was really nice, it went over nice grassy hills and up steep rocky paths. The 2nd control we got was at the bottom of a waterfall and you had to reach out over the water to get it. The weather was brill and it was a really nice warm night stage. We were only 2 mins late back too so a vast improvement on this morning.

Me shuffling along in the night stage

Gill skipping along in the night stage

No dinner! And no sleep for a 2nd night running! Legs were really bad this morning so I decided to do the kayak stage and miss the final fell run. I actually couldn't even of walked it because it goes up and down the Coniston Old Man. The kayak stage was great fun. I've only been in a kayak on holiday once so didn't know how it would go. Gill does kayak so she put me in the front. It didn't seem to be the ideal place when we got out into the lake. It's was very windy with lots of waves all coming into the boat  and into my face! It was great fun though. We were pretty slow but that was a good thing because the other people gave the control positions away. We turned down wind and were going well, then had to cross the lake, that was interesting as the waves were all coming from the side then. We did a conservative loop as we didn't know how long it would take. We were back 20 mins early I think! That makes a change for us. 

My pink wellies kept my feet toasty warm :-)

We are in sync and everything!

All in all it was fun but I think it has wrecked my knees for a while. I enjoyed the social side and trying the different things but don't think I'll be doing another one any time soon!

Race 8: MTBO ultra long, Denmark

The final race of the MTBO camp was a mass start ultra long. We started off the bike with the map face down on the floor. On the start everyone picked up the map and ran to their bike and set off. It was made more interesting by having some clusters of controls that you could get in any order and the 1st three were like it. It meant that you had to find the start triangle and plan the 1st three controls in the blink of an eye. I spotted an obvious route straight away and was off in the pack - unusual for me in an elite race! Most people turned to find different ones but there were a few who went my way. I liked the free order controls, there were three groups of them. We did 29 in total and I found I just couldn't pedal fast enough along the fireroads. Also I was starving, not ideal!

There was no sand or anything today, just fire roads and some nice woody singletrack. A couple of steeper descents and climbs, it is harder than normal to ride on technical stuff because I have the big size map board on the bars. I ended up in 14th place, beat a couple of people and also someone mispunched. 

Very happy with this years camp, last year I was always last and kept getting lost. This year I didn't get lost and I was never last! I enjoyed racing the elite girls where as last year I was a nervous wreck because I couldn't do it. More foot-o and get myself fit again and I could even start to do well! :-)

Race 7: MTBO sprint, Denmark

2nd race of the day was a sprint in the forest. You could start whenever so all the GB team started at about the same time. We all went off in different directions but found ourselves in a GB train to number 4, which was quite cool. But it distracted me too much and I messed up the one after, went down a turning too early and lost 3.5 mins sorting it out. Then later on I met up with another GB boy (Peter) and was chattering to him and missed a turning so I had to go back for that one. Apart from that it was fine, I came 20th, my big mistakes didn't do me any favours today, I learnt I need to properly concentrate always and not chatter to my team mates!

Green is fast and red is stationary

Race 6: MTBO middle long, Denmark

Todays first race was a tour de France start middle long. It was fun because we all got our maps then followed the lead out car. It turned left and we all went right and the race started. There were people on the floor on the 2nd corner, I was quite near the back so could see where everyone went. There were groups splitting off all over the place, which was interesting as we all had the same number one. Then a load of men's elite came past the other way and it was chaos for a moment, when it cleared I found that my route choice was definitely the minority one. But my choice was made so I ploughed on and was with a scattering of 4-5 people for a while. I fell off at number 2! Had a stupid cleat moment and ended up on the floor. I kept seeing trains of elite men coming  towards me, but I only saw the odd few women's elite. I was pretty much at the back. I passed a few women's elite when they paused or messed up and then I did a couple of really silly mistakes and they were in front again. Right near the end I met John, we did 2 together and on the final straight I could see a women elite in front so I sprinted after her and she paused at a junction so I flew past her, got the last control and into the taped area where she couldn't get past. It was great but I did the most stupid things because of all the action around me!

Green is fast and red is stationary

Race 5: MTBO long (world ranking), Denmark

The 2nd world ranking event of the camp. It was a good one. I had an early start, 2nd out of elite women. That was great though because they trickled past and so I was never lonely! It was cold today, I was the only one in shorts and t-shirt.. It was tough going because it was all sandy near the sea, one of the tracks went along the edge of the beach and that was really hard work. My legs were pretty rubbish, but I did the course just fine and never got lost or anything. It turns out that the foot-o I did this winter has completely transformed my navigation, which is brill news. The 5 months off over winter is killing me though, very unfit! And that was more pronounced in the long race. Anyway, I managed to beat a couple of elites again today and got myself some world ranking points so very happy with my progress :-)

Green is fast and red is stopped