Questars Summer Series Race 5 - Cotswolds

A Record Entry for the Cotswold Questars Completes the 2024 Summer Series

Rob Howard / 30.09.2024

A sunny day in the Cotswolds brought the Questars 2024 Summer series to a close, and the September date was probably the best weather across the whole series!   The race had a record entry and they enjoyed racing in perfect weather in the countryside around Stroud, with the courses set in the steep sided valleys to the North of the town.  In the briefing Joe Selby promised lots of hills, which is old news, and never fake news, as he promises that at most races!

The competitors came from far afield with one group travelling from France for a racing holiday.  They explained they were having a 4 day break in the Cotswolds and that “there is not this style of orienteering adventure race in France.”  France probably has more adventure races than the rest of Europe put together, yet word had reached them of the flexible and fun Questars format!

As always thetrio courses included a kayak stage of one hour maximum, with a time slot the teams and racers had to work around when planning how long to spend on each stage.  The paddle for this race was on the Stroudwater Canal, which has been recently restored and there were checkpoints in both directions from the put-in location near Ryeford.  Most of the points were to the West and there were some picturesque locations, notably St. Cyr’s Church and the brick, semi-circle arch of the Nutshell Bridge.  There were some very low bridges to limbo-kayak under as well!

Many run checkpoints were on the outskirts of town and quite a few racers said the hardest navigation was finding footpaths through housing estates.  Those further out were either side of the village of Randwick and route planning required careful contour counting!  Those who made it the checkpoint furthest north, R28 on the trig point on Haresfield Beacon, were rewarded with an expansive view out over Berkeley Vale towards the Severn Estuary and the Welsh hills beyond. 

The biking checkpoints were mainly to the North East, scattered all around the village of Painswick on country roads and bridleways, and often on steep slopes.  There were some on the Cotswold Way and a cluster close to town, with a couple sited close to run checkpoints to catch out those thinking ‘it’s somewhere around here ... ah, here it is!”  Checkpoint B13 was right in the middle of Painswick, which is a beautiful village and also one of the busiest tourist hotspots in the Cotswolds!  Tourist awareness was needed here!

At the finish back at the Archway School Sports Centre racers sat in the hall or out on the grassy bank on the edge of the playing field, to exchange race stories and compare routes.  

Team ‘Turning 40’, an all male team of 4 in their first race, summed up the day as ‘simply awesome’.  Chris Watkins said, “The big hill descent was a great way to finish ... and it was a nice surprise to find out where we were!”  He continued, “The day was well organised and as first timers we found everyone so friendly, plus the course was as challenging as we wanted it to be.  We got a bit carried away on the run, the hills were hard and we cramped on the kayaks.  We’ll be back but have to train better for the next one!”

Another newbie was June Kingsbury, doing her first adventure race at age 66.  She was racing with her daughter Julia and said, “It was lovely to race together after Julia convinced me to have a go.  I’m more of a runner and we’ve orienteered together but I’d not heard of Questars before.  The low bridges on the kayak were fun and we even helped bring in a lost kayak as well!  Julia had her eyes on the map and I was looking around so we made a good team and I think it almost all went to plan!”   They scored 553 points and were called up in the prize giving as winners in the Trio Novice female category.

Another mother and daughter were Sally and Maisie Eade (15).  Sally said, “I last did a Questars race 20 years ago and was excited to find it was still going as I needed an adventure!  I didn’t know anyone who might do it all ... then I thought Maisie could!  I’m impressed we raced the whole time, and she didn’t moan at all!  We both did some navigation and we even overtook 5 other kayaks!  We had a lovely day.”

An even younger racer was Eddie Otter (12), who goes to the Archway School and who persuaded his parents Malcolm and Heidi to race. “I guess local knowledge helped a bit,” he said, “but it was really tough and our running wasn’t that good.  Still I’d definitely do it again!”

This was despite a whopping 108 penalty points for being nearly 54 minutes late.  The family hadn’t understood the rules and it seem were having too much fun to come back in.  Heidi said, “It’s like learning a new board game; you have to figure out the rules and learn the best strategy!”

Someone else with local knowledge (who knows the rules well) is Nick Gracie, who used to live in the area.  Nick has won pretty much everything in the world of adventure racing, including a World Championship, and with Katherina Pedersen, notched up the top team score of the day at 871 points.  The pair was also 3rd overall in the Series table, with Pedersen the highest female racer and Gracie the top Vet.

Top score on the day came from Masters solo winner Tom Hards with 936 points and the highest solo female score was 793 by Helen Chapman.  The full results for all categories can be found at; https://www.sportident.co.uk/results/Questars/2024/Round5/

The win by Hards was not enough to take the summer series title, which went to Carl Silver.  With 4 scores to count across the 5summer series events, Silver recorded his 4th score in the final race, where he finished 5th in the Trio Masters open solo.  After his joint high score at the previous race in the Mendips it was enough to pip Hards to the series title, his first after many years of racing. 

In all, there were four new Series winners and four new names on the Questars Series Winners fingerpost (which is on display at all races) with Silver, Pedersen and Gracie being joined by Ella Pyman who won the female Vets category.

The full series results can be seen at https://www.sportident.co.uk/results/Questars/2024/Series/ and there are a total of 808 racers listed across all of the events through the summer; South Downs, New Forest, Peak District (2-day), Mendips and Cotswolds.  Entries are increasing so 1000 racers is not out of reach for summer 2025, but before that comes the Winter Series, which begins on November 9th in the Berkshire Downs.

For more information about Questars and all of the winter series dates see www.questars.co.u