Dynamic Adventure Racing Plus

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A Game of Two Halves

Fi Spotswood (Team SleepMonsters) / 12.03.2006

Another Sunday, another stiff back, sore legs, tender toes and dirt under the finger nails.

The 2nd DA in the New Forest was a fast and furious affair. The terrain was open and rolling with little technical biking and a good amount of road. The forest tracks were wide and gravelled and the commons were a web of soft, worn grassy paths, well used to the thunder of horses hooves.

Starting at noon, competitors enjoyed a fairly leisurely morning, marking up the maps, discussing route choices and drinking cup after cup of hot coffee from Flossie\'s kitchen. Novices soon discovered the reason for needing so much time before the start to \'faff\'. However organised you are there is normally a mad rush in the last 10 minutes. Laminate the map, fill up the camelbaks, lay out transition kit, recheck the route, clear the dibber, kit check. Where\'s the description card?

Dynamics - and particularly this one - are great for novices. The navigation is not too technical although can easily pose a challenge if concentration should drop. The terrain isn\'t too energy sapping - and particularly with the clement weather we experienced - and the best bit for newbies is the wonderful welcome we all receive. Nicky and Simon et al always make you feel part of the gang. They never shy away from helping with map marking or offering route choice tips to those who need it. Coupled with the amazing food (Flossie always knows exactly what we all crave) DAs make for a great day out.

Having said all that about how cosy and fluffy it all is, the race itself is never a walk in a park. There is nothing fluffy about running 20 miles and then biking 40 miles. Sometimes more. Even the fittest of teams can get unstuck. Welcoming they may be, but they aren\'t out there in the dark when you\'re lost in the woods with cup of hot tea telling you it\'ll all be ok in the end.

This event saw a record number of teams complete all 36 check points. Tom Gibbs did this in a remarkable time of 5hrs 53mins, but then Tom is pretty remarkable all round. We (Team Sleepmonsters) completed in just shy of the 8hr cut off (the first time ever for me) and even my novice boyfriend and his slightly less novice partner completed shortly after us. (Can you call a 3hr marathon runner and a KIMM veteran novices?)See All Event Posts