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ACE Race 2-day June 4-5th 2005 Back to Camp Windermere Back to the Lakes and Low Wray Campsite for ACE Race Base in the second of the 2-day 2005 series. My first experiences in a kayak were whilst working for Camp Windermere based next door to the campsite and I hadn't been back for over 15 years. It took a while to regain my bearings, but it was all still there. I was a little late arriving on the friday due to all the traffic and we spent far too long chatting in the marquee, so it was straight to bed and sort everything in the morning. An early start but the midges were already up when I emerged... The 7:30 briefing explained the logistics for the day and included a weather forecast that covered just about everything except hurricane and blizzards! The first task was to pack for biking and running and cycle with everything over to Coniston and up the Walna Scar Rd. There was a half hour start window in which to start the run. Most people were early at Coniston and rather than stand around at the start getting cold and wet chose refuge in Coniston. It was quite a sight to see all these rough, tough Adventure Racers squeezed in under the public toilet and visitor centre roofs and even a few inside the visitor centre until they were kindly asked to leave! Compass work in the Clouds over Coniston The trail run took in three checkpoints to take us up the Old Man of Coniston and around the top of Dow Crags before rejoining the Walna Scar road for a descent to complete the circuit. There was good incentive to keep moving in the rain and wind seeing as we were only in shorts and windproof tops. The clouds obscured quite how far we had to climb, so we pushed quite hard. Julian Birkinshaw soon came past us and we managed to tuck in behind him for a couple of minutes but he had disappeared from view by the time we reached the summit trig point. Going from a big tourist trail to a mix of paths leaving the trig point needing careful attention to the compass and caught a few teams out. Once at the coll, following the ridge along Dow Crags should have been straight forward but we still managed to stray a couple of times in the mist before starting the rapid run down the Walna Scar road and even into a few patches of sun as we broke below the cloud. We were 5th of the male pairs, taking 73 minutes compared to the fastest time of the day of 62 minutes. Our main rivals and winners of the first 2-day event Jonathan Emberton and Phil Scarf took just 19 seconds less than us - little did we know quite how close it would be all weekend. Grappling with Grizedale We now had an hour to recover as best we could and cycle back to Grizedale Forest to start a 5 hour mountain biking score. Race Director, Phil Humphreys had already warned us to start our stopwatches to avoid penalties from starting late. We weren't quite that disciplined but luckily managed to start just 30 seconds inside the hour! The control and points description give out was chaos as one after another we discovered that we couldn't get our pens to work on the wet or greasy laminated maps, having to resort to writing down the points values wherever we could. Phil had produced a very well planned set of controls which no one was quite able to clear in the allotted 5 hours. Nearly all the controls were in Grizedale itself with none close to the finishing point back at ACE Base, so the time back to the finish had to be estimated quite carefully. There was no simple logical route, forcing us to constantly twist and turn back on ourselves around the forest trails to collect the various points. At one main crossroads in the middle of the forest we passed through so many times, the last time we didn't even need to check which way to go, there was only one track left that we hadn't been on yet! It also meant ascending and descending several times from the main ridge. The key to planning here was to chose carefully to ascend the better trails, make use of the road around the bottom and to look carefully at the contours. We cleared all the controls from the main section of forest but had to look at which other ones we could manage. We were averaging 12 km/hr, a definite improvement on the speed in the Coed-y-Brenin forest, although this dropped towards the end as both our gear changers started to play up with all the accumulated mud and grit. The final high scoring control was up on Claife Heights and it was hard to know quite how long it would take us to get back via this route compared to going around the roads, but we had to give it a go. A slow climb but we managed to cycle some of it followed by a welcome rapid descent back to camp which got us back 5 minutes inside the time limit, which would probably have enabled us to reach one further control had we calculated the timing better. We achieved 400 pts out of 500 and were joint 1st for the stage in the male pairs along with Ian Mulvey who scored 440 pts but lost 40 in late penalties. Neck and Neck at Night After a far too short nap and probably not enough food it was all too soon time for the 8:30 evening briefing. The night navigation started and finished from ACE base up into Claife Heights with 90 minutes allowed and teams started in reverse ranking order, making us off at nearly 10:30 pm when it would be both darker and also mean we were unlikely to get to bed much before 1am by the time we had eaten and changed. Unfortunately there were only a couple of route choices to the first controls, so by the time we reached them we were queueing to punch. There was one far away control worth a massive 60 points to tempt people to push themselves but few people went for it. Jeff and I both felt tired at different parts of this stage. Having originally allowed 20 minutes to run in back to the finish, this was ignored as our brains ceased to take firm decisions. We caught up with Phil Emberton towards the end and saw him heading in towards the end as we pushed on for an extra control, knowing that we would certainly be late. A penultimate control was abandoned having marked the wrong stream/track junction losing us 20 pts. Luckily the downhill legs were working and we were only 8 minutes late so not into the serious penalties after 10 minutes. We were 3rd with 364 points after penalties. Jonathan and Phil took 1st with the addition of their Vet handicap to register 374 pts. So the overnight totals stood at 1220 for us and 1214 for Jonathan and Phil - all to play for on the Sunday. Up, Down and all around Loughrigg The two hour orienteering score stage was revealed to be on Loughrigg, a really intricate, contoured area between Rydal water and Ambleside. Another cycle over to Rydal water to be confronted with a large number of controls, most of which seemed to be on hill tops and in re-entrants. Either the heat/humidity of the warmer day or not eating enough in recovery the night before, I found it really tough. Jeff planned a good route attempting to minimize the climb but still involving a significant amount. His attention to the intricate detail also meant we were leading other people in to some of the 'bingo' controls. Our route took us along to the West on the hill above High Close YHA, then back along the Rydal water side before heading up to the summit trig point and back down to the base at the far side. A final set of twisting legs took us once more back over for a final control at the back of one of the Rydal caves, splashing through the water in front of all the tourists. I was just about managing to keep up with Jeff but finding it tough as he was even running some of the uphill. We met Jonathan and Phil for the last two controls, chasing them down to finish one second apart. They scored 400 pts. We had managed 425 but were 8 minutes late reducing it to 409. However with their 12 Vet points, our lead had been reduced by a further 3 points. We were winning by just 3 points going into the final stage. Pipped on the Paddle! As fate would have it, we now both had 75 minutes in order to cycle back to ACE Base, prepare for the kayaking and start. So realistically we were destined to start around the same time. Our three point lead would give us a 30 second lead on the kayak but Jon/Phil would earn a 6 point Handicap. We needed to beat them by 30 seconds to win the event. With just a minute to spare we set off around the headland of the first bay, followed only 5 seconds later by Jonathan and Phil. Just as we headed out, we saw a cut-through between the reeds that we had missed. Jonathan and Phil headed straight for it and were already in the lead! Strong paddling soon brought us back level and sat on their wake for most of the 3km to the first check point. We managed to punch a little quicker and got back on the water a fraction ahead. I tried to steer us on a direct route to the far turning control while Jonathan and Phil took a route closer to the coast in flatter water. Neither of us could break away. I was starting to feel really tired but the platypus tube was just out of reach and I dared not stop paddling! It was still neck and neck at the far control as we turned for the 6km race to the finish. It was horrible! What is normally a personal battle against the clock (points are allocated according to your time behind the winners), this was a head to head race at the end of a long weekend of competition that would decide the winners in the last few kilometres. We knew we were doing a good pace as we passed a few other pairs on the return journey but still side by side with Jon/Phil. Turning the final headlands, we both dug in deep, but they still eased ahead whatever we did. They beat us to the shore by 30 seconds, taking first place by just 6 points out of a total of 2000. Jon/Phil took 2nd place in the kayaking and we were 3rd for the stage no doubt due to our personal race. A tough weekend which pushed us to the end and lots of 'if only's all very well in retrospect! However 2nd was a place better than in the first event and we look forward to the final event of the series... |
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