OpenAdventure -Open 5 Series (Hebden Bridge)
Record Entries at First Open 5 of the Year
Stuart Hale (Team Accelerate) / 24.01.2006
The first Open 5 event of the year began after a frosty dawn in and around the Pennines north of Hebden Bridge. Local course designer Mick Kenyon had certainly laid the challenge with a route that involved plenty of ‘up’ using the areas steep sided valleys.Competitors were not to be put off. James Thurlow, Event Director, was pleased to see the number of entries topping 150, the highest for an Open 5 event, including the usual keen and eager adventure racers and many ‘virgins’.
Many racers clearly left their start until the last possible moment and as the queue lengthened it seemed that everyone was waiting for the ‘gun to go’. There were competitors just about everywhere as they found any flat surface to make final adjustments to their route plan and mark their map. More experienced racers quickly passed through the start area deciding to make any changes on the hoof.
The vast majority of the racers initially headed out onto the run and Mick Kenyon explained that he had cleared the run, in training, in around 90 minutes – one assumes he knew where he was going!! Mick also explained, “It’s going to be hilly and slippy�, and so it proved. Competitors returning to the transition area gave the impression of having been in a mud fight, with some looking as though they had been bog-swimming.
One or two found themselves hub deep in mud and performing double back twists and somersaults over their handlebars – oh yes Keith (Read) you were spotted! Those running seemed to have fared little better in the mud stakes with one or two demonstrating the art of applying ‘face packs’ whilst on the move.
As competitors reached transition is was interesting to note that many had a different outlook on dealing with the ‘third discipline’. The more experienced were in, out and gone again in minutes whilst others opted for the more relaxed ‘Picnic-approach’. One group had a novel approach as they waited for friends to arrive. They changed, they chatted and they ate carrots…..
By the end of the event many of the racers had clearly seen enough hills for one day and a few more had also seen a close up of the local peat bogs, most likely on more than one occasion. Some had even decided to cross Hebden Water for a wash and as Kath Woodley put it she now had “ice cream feet�.See All Event Posts
