Thursday 24 December 2009

Open 5 Adventure Race

After a friend mentioned she had entered the Open5 adventure race at Hope, I investigated what it involved. On finding it consisted of Mountain Biking and Running, and having to collect as many checkpoints as possible in 5 hours, I was keen to give it a go. With the event on my home terrain in the Dark Peak, it made sense for this to be my first and to get the hang of how to plan my time, and how to divided the 5 hours between biking and running.

I decided to mountain bike first, where the controls were north of Hope, up Mam Tor, in the Edale Valley, Snake Pass and Ladybower Reservoirs. I managed to collect all controls except 3, and in hindsight made a mistake by going up Whinstone Lee Tor to pick up 25 points, as in doing this, it took 50 minutes to get up and down. Had I stayed low and missed out the climb, I would have saved about 35 minutes. 


On to the run. After what felt like a quick transition, I was off running in some clean trousers and indoor trainers. I quickly realised my mistake in not owning a pair of XC running trainers when I hit the mud on the footpaths and struggled to stay upright, travelling in all directions bar the one I wanted! 

Given my legs were quite happy doing 3.5 hours on the bike, they weren’t so happy to do 90 minutes of running, and mud aside, I really wasn’t going anywhere quickly. Jelly legs and muscles that didn’t work saw me take a long time. Say no more.

Despite the running, I ended up finishing 3rd, and for a change, won a few prizes :-) Results can be found here www.openadventure.com/results/0910/peaks/female_solo.html 

Race Analysis followed where I think had I missed out the afore-mentioned ‘top-of-the-hill’ control and perhaps control 4, I would have had an additional 45 minutes to collect 50 points on the run, thereby gaining an extra 10 points overall. Either that, or I just need to run faster. 

For the future, I have decided to run first for 2 hours, as it is probably easier for my legs to run and then bike, as well as being able to travel further!!

Many thanks to Craft for the much needed warm winter kit and to Natural Balance Foods for the excessive amounts of yummy protein and energy bars I consumed throughout the race. Also thanks to Ultrasport for the electrolyte drink, which certainly prevented my mind from switching off as I got tired.

www.openadventure.com/results.php results and route analysis.