CARE Adventure Race
Racing for CARE
Neil Munro (CARE International) / 03.04.2007
Swinley Forest, Bracknell played host to the fourth CARE Adventure Race on Saturday 31st March 2007. The 2007 event was split into two sections – orienteering on foot and orienteering on a mountain bike. Teams had five hours to collect as many control points as possible, half of which could be collected during the foot section and the other half could only be collected during the bike section. This year, as a change to the normal format, teams were allowed to choose how they split their time between foot and bike within the allowed 5 hours, the only rule being that they had to complete a minimum of an hour on each.
Each orienteering point had a different value attached to it. To win this race teams would need to apply astute course strategy to ensure maximum points in the allotted time.
If the physical challenge was not enough, the race was made harder with the introduction of mental challenges at the start of the race and at the swap over period between foot and bike.
Eighteen teams participated on the day, with a wide range of experience in adventure racing. The teams were broken down into three categories which related to the number of competitors in each team; this allowed all of the teams a fair chance of winning a prize.
The race started at 10am. One person from each team had to collect a mathematic riddle from just beyond the start line and race back to the rest of their team. Once the team had completed the riddle, they were issued with a map and clip card and were free to start collecting as many orienteering points on foot. There were early leaders in each of the three sections after the running section of the event with ‘ To Mandy‘, ‘ Hewlett-Packard ‘ and ‘BP Team 2’ setting the early pace, with them all clearing the course in 2 hours 56, 3 hours 8 and 2 hours 39 respectively.See All Event Posts
