Dynamic Adventure Racing Endurance

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Go, Go at Llandogo

Alli Northcott (Team The North Face) / 15.05.2007

Un-phased by the forecast, competitors arrived on Saturday like swarming bees to the village of Llangdogo for the last of the DAR Endurance races before the summer break.

From this new and picturesque event base in the Wye Valley we were promised a tough course, taking in some fantastic trails and sweet single track and we were not to be disappointed. Course planner, Tom Gibbs, allowed us a sneaky look at his home training area and chose some of the more interesting CP venues with which to test competitor’s stamina and navigation.

The briefing began; warnings of steep drop offs, slippery technical sections and out-of-bounds areas made us slightly nervous as we put together a route. Looking at the map it was obvious that strategy and route selection as well as fitness and endurance would be the key to scoring high. Tom had prepared a course containing a maximum of 38km of running and 75km of biking, ensuring no-one would be able to clear the course and if they did, he was willing to treat them to a well deserved pint or two!

Up and Away

The rain began to fall just as the first teams left the start. Choosing to run first, I quickly found my calves burning as I tackled the route to the first checkpoint, inevitably out of the valley and pretty much vertical! A tough start, but once up on the ridge the running along the next piece of trail was exactly where you’d choose to run for fun ...

Navigation, although reasonably straight forward, was something that needed to be concentrated on, orientation and ground reading essential in open access woodland area.. With any lapse of concentration it was easy to take the wrong trail! The running course wove its way along more great trails, some technical and with just the right amount of height gain and loss to make you feel like you were working hard!See All Event Posts