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Open 24 Lake District 30/31st July 2005 The Open 24 was billed as 24 hours of adventure and it certainly lived up to that.
The race was organised as 4 score stages, each with a transition window of a few hours. So on each stage a team could choose how many controls to try and visit and also whether to spend more or less time on each stage. Each stage also had an optional, but high scoring special stage of excitement. We had plotted all the controls beforehand, which seeing as there were around 120 was a good thing. Just before the start, the 'dummy' controls were announced and also the special challenges ... apart from the first stage.
There was quite a northerly wind blowing down the lake so paddling the Canadian Canoes was tricky. We had already estimated points per hour and decided we ought to aim to clear all the paddling controls. Quite a bit of water was coming into the boats and we ad to stop a couple of times to empty them. Gear was soon sloshing around the bottom. Despite having written down bearings beforehand we managed to head up the lake too far and wasted 15 minutes coming back. 5:30 of paddling was a long time and we were glad to reach the end at Ambleside, put on dry clothes and get on the bikes. For the cycle stage we opted to head out East over into Kentmere but it meant we had a bit of a race back to Rydal Hall to make the 10pm dealine for the Ghyll challenge. We made it by 10 minutes but found it had been forced to close early because of darkness (we were later credited with some of the points). A bit annoyed, partly with ourselves for not doing it first we continued in the dark to collect controls in Elterwater and Grasmere before heading to the transition at the end of Langdale. 4 km out, Jeff's derailure came off. We rigged a running repair but the chain eventually broke and came off so he was towed the last stage. To cap it all Zoe got a puncture in the last 2km as well, but rode on. We were late for the transition and thought we were going to be disqualified but in fact were just penalized points. It was also pretty uncertain how we were going to do the bike stage in the morning! We licked our wounds and drank from the tea urn. Looking back, we faffed for a whole hour here! Learning from the water stage we headed straight for the abseil challenge. This was a tandem abseil but pretty straightforward and not too long on Raven Crag although it was hard to know quite how long in the dark! Then we set off over Landale Pikes into the mist and cold. Lost the track at times and collected a few people sitting on Loft Crag asking where the CP was to carry on to Pike of Stickle summit. We continued around the head of Mickleden, Angle Tarn and back into Langdale as it got light. Back at the farm, we were slow to get going again. Mended the puncture and a marhshall bailed us out when Jeff and I were going to swap run/cycle by giving Jeff his bike. We cycled over to Coniston at which stage I was having great trouble keeping my eyes open and took in some CPs up the Walna Scar Rd. There was also a tunnel CP challenge and quarry swim here which woke us up. Zoe needed a bit of a sit down and some encouragement but got going again. Only one more control before heading down to Lake Coniston for the swim across. Jeff took my gear but I was still the slowest. No cramps though. Out of wetsuits it was into the last stage across the fells to Lake Windermere. Time was tight here. Especially so once we tried going across the fells which were head high bracken and not many trails. We were all getting a bit tired. Me especialy once we hit the road. Food didn't help - I was probably not drinking enough for what was now a hot sunny day. We were 20 minutes late costing lots of points as well as having to miss controls we were close to in order to get to the finish. We were in the top half of the finishers despite things not really going to plan. The tough last bits of fell caught a lot of people out timewise. Weiry but an excellent event with great choices and fantastic coutryside with the bonus of the challenges. Can't wait for next years!
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FURTHER PAGES Cambridge Adventure Race Group 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001
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