Dynamic Adventure

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Staying on the Right Track

Simon Thomas / 20.05.2003

Event 3 – May 11th 2003, Bracknell Forest, Berkshire.

St. Anne’s Church Hall in Bagshot provided the base for the third event in the Dynamic Adventure series for 2003. Once again the event was full and many latecomers in the preceding week were unfortunately too late to register. Over 70% of the field were embarking on their first adventure race and were looking forward to what lay ahead, and members of Dynamic Adventure were busy giving advice before the first stage in an attempt to lessen the mistakes that were inevitable.

Although Bracknell Forest is a fairly confined space for an adventure race, Jonathan Mayne did a great job in designing a course that remained challenging for the experienced, but offered many options for the novices. At the briefing it was pointed out that there were about 30% more tracks on the course than were marked on the map, which was bound to cause confusion. Competitors were going to have to use their compasses and pacing to avoid taking the wrong path.

To make things a little different and challenge everybody’s fitness, Jonathan reversed the stages, starting with the 3 hour bike stage that was split into two courses. The first contained 12 checkpoints and the second 6. However, in order to start the second course, all competitors must have successfully visited all 12 checkpoints in the first course. They were then faced with marking their maps again with the remaining 6 checkpoints as the clock continued to run, putting pressure on them to plot the grid references accurately.

Stage 1 proved to be fast and furious for some, but not Paul Ainsworth, who suffered a broken axle and pushed his bike round half the course! The course was cleared by 6 solos/pairs and the most impressive was by John Worth (19) who didn’t even break into a sweat! The fastest clearance was by Ross Parker & Karl Baltie (35) and Julia Panter & Ed Proctor (51) who took just 2 hours 30 minutes to collect all 450 points on offer. For newcomers Michelle Hadland & Mike Collison (55) time management was more of a challenge, arriving back 36 minutes late and therefore loosing 150 points in penalties!

The second stage, a 2 hour run, came all too soon for those that were late from stage 1 but they all managed a fast turnaround and all left on time. For many this was a chance to explore the rabbit warren of paths that exist and even an opportunity to take routes using compass bearings to save time and distance. For many it took time to adjust to running after a 3 hour bike stage and it was evident that there were many tired legs dragging themselves around the course. 300 points were on offer, but nobody managed to get them all. See All Event Posts