Dynamic Adventure Racing
A Blazing Start to the Dynamic Year
Nicky Thomas - Dynamic Adventure Racing / 08.02.2006
What a day!! The sun came out and slowly defrosted the beautiful and vast Wiltshire countryside. As the sun rose, the competitors started appearing from all over the UK to join the 100 competitors who’d entered the first Dynamic Adventure Race of the year. It wasn’t long before the maps were marked up and the questions being asked around route choice, points strategy and whether to climb to the top of the rather large ridge in the distance!
As the race directors and helpers gave advice to the adventure racing virgins, the more experienced did their kit checks and prepared their muscles for what lay ahead. With a clearable run course, those returning from previous races tore off with one thing in mind, to get all the checkpoints in the shortest possible time! The less confident took time to mark up the points and take a long look at what was realistically possible in the 2-hour time window.
Within 1 hr 40 minutes Dave Smith and the West Country Wassocks were home with the full 300 points under their belts, four male pairs also cleared the course making that category the most competitive for the day. It wasn’t long before everyone was home and started planning for the 3-hour bike stage.
The bike course was more challenging than the run, especially with the mandatory single-track section at the start, which wove its way through some thick woods, up a very muddy hill and through a relatively deep stream. This being the first single track that a number of competitors had ever completed, there was the usual fear and adrenalin pumping through the veins! The quicker competitors completed the stage in just under 10 minutes whilst others took well over twice that time.
After a hard ride, the competitors returned, happy if not a little cold, downloaded and promptly started marking their maps up for the final stage, the night navigation. It would take them into the woods to the north of the hall and challenge even the most experienced of navigators. The course was teasing people to go long and collect a lot of checkpoints on the return leg, the challenge was – would they make it back on time?See All Event Posts
