National Indoor Adventure Race
The Pace Hots Up
Rob / 15.03.2003
Saturday morning at ‘The Outdoors Show’ someone had switched the heating on and contestants in the first heat of the Indoor Championships were soon dripping with sweat as they took part in what Keith Byrne described as “The Group of Death�. It certainly looked like the toughest of the 4 heats to qualify from.The only defending Champion, Ben Bardsley, was there with Team Saab Salomon, who had to be clear favourites, and ‘The North Face’ had pulled in Emma Pooley (from last year’s successful ‘Team Light Blue Machine’) as a last minute replacement. Neil Atkinson, who was in the winning team at the British Championships, was leading a strong team of ACE Race regulars called ‘The Joy of Socks’ (sponsored by Sealskinz!) and Gill Watson and Keith Read from last year’s Ford Ranger winning team were back as Rubicon/Sealskinz with Lee Rankin.
As the halls filled to capacity the heating was turned off, but in the arena the pace would just get hotter as the hours ticked by. Rubicon/Sealskinz were off to a flying start on the Simulator stage, which was always going to be one of their strengths and Keith Read in particular put in an amazing performance on the rotating climbing wall, virtually climbing over the top of it much of the time!
In the corner of the arena on Jacob’s Ladder Emma Pooley was finding it hard to reach up to the next rung, but that was not a problem for Sean Bennett of ‘Joy of Socks’ – who stands 6’6�. Sometimes height has it’s advantages! Saab Salomon got off to a poor start on the ladder too, struggling to work out how best to deal with it.
Lost in the Woods
Even after 2 rotations it wasn’t clear what the relative positions were but when the teams left the halls for the cool, fresh air in the woods outside Rubicon/Sealskinz lost their strong position on the navigation challenge. Each time they got off the bikes and tried to follow the given bearings they seemed to get lost. All of the controls were in one big clearing, but at one point they disappeared off into the woods for many minutes before reappearing with Gill Watson shouting, “We’re lost�.
The same thing happened to The North Face at the first attempt as Chris McSweeny lost track of the distance he’d covered, but they went back and tried again. Saab Salomon looked confident but were not always at the right control and Neil Atkinson admitted if he wasn’t sure he guessed, but he did it quickly and carried on. Mudskippers had problems of a different kind when Mark Moran lost a pedal and had to borrow a marshal’s bike, then complained the brakes were not too good! Only Peel Adventure were fast and accurate, but then they did have two former international orienteers in the team! See All Event Posts
