Dynamic Adventure Racing Endurance
Racing in the Valley of the Giant
Gary Vallance - Usual Suspects / 31.01.2007
When we arrived at Race HQ, in the vale of the Cerne Abbas Giant, we considered ourselves fairly prepared. However, amidst the excitement of our first Dynamic Adventure Race, things quickly became hectic. As we were handed pre-marked maps we noticed scores of fellow racers were already hunkered down, chewing pen lids, planning routes. A glimpse outside revealed bikes already in the transition area, and at once we felt the pressure.Just over an hour later and off we went – three minutes behind our allotted start time. Definitely some lessons learned already.
Lacking decent cycle lights we biked first, setting off to the south in a clockwise rotation, to attempt a stage clearance. We were hoping to get the big hills out of the way early, to give us some recovery time before the run, and with the checkpoint values showing no obvious duds we figured we’d assess our strategy as we went.
Within minutes we closed on our first control, having climbed 100m in the kilometre to CP1. Already it was clear to me that I wasn’t 100%. The dead feeling in my legs didn’t bode well, but I hoped I’d settle in soon enough.
Cabbages and Cramp
Southward we promptly left the tarmac to despatch controls two and three, at which point I dropped our first navigational clanger and sent us past our trail junction, following similarly confused racers. Our cabbage field deviation cost us time and energy, but I was more concerned with how the exertion was affecting my concentration.
I gave myself a quick talking to, and we cleared the next half dozen reasonably smoothly. A few long uphill slogs on thick Dorset clag left me feeling decidedly mortal, but the grins returned during the swift downhill sections as we made our way over the ridgelines.
Unfortunately the smiles were short lived. Feeling a snagging in my chain I looked down to see one of my links hanging forlornly off the side of the chainwheel. We stopped for repairs, but in the short time it took to split and rejoin the chain, James discovered a puncture in his rear tyre. Eventually we restarted, but the lactic acid had been pooling in my legs and I was wrecked by the top of the next climb.See All Event Posts
