Mountain Hardwear Open5 Adventure Race Series #2
Adventure for All in the Dales
Heather Dawe (Team Inov-8) / 12.03.2008
The second Open5 of 2008 and the second time this year the event has been held within God’s Own County. On the very edge of the eastern Yorkshire Dales, Nidderdale is well known as a top mountain bike and running venue. The event centre was in Pateley Bridge, a fine market town in the heart of the dale. With wide open moorland, craggy gritstone edges, steep sided woodland and loads of hills, all within a stones throw from Pateley, there was plenty of scope for a challenging day out and the event planner, Dave Johnson did not disappoint.Open5s are well known for being friendly events - great for beginners and more experienced competitors alike. Furthermore, these events attract people from a variety of disciplines; orienteers rub shoulders with triathletes, fell runners, mountain bikers and adventure racers. This eclectic blend often makes for interesting racing, particularly as triathletes improve their navigation, the orienteers gain some stamina, the mountain bikers find their running legs and the fell runners realise that it really is worth looking at the map from time to time!
Competitors arrived to park in the showground in the centre of town. The weather was mixed, sunny with the odd cold shower blowing down the valley. A glance at the map at registration revealed there was going to be a lot of climbing! Not too surprising given that Pateley Bridge is in a steep sided valley - there were plenty of checkpoints on both sides of the river. A further glance showed a new challenge for an Open5 event, a micro-navigation section in the Guisecliff Wood area on the south side of the run map – the orienteers amongst us had big smiles on their faces!
The start and transition area was right next to the car park, in the cattle market and showground. Clearly the local farmers are more used to other types of event; there was a sign right next to the start saying ‘Carcass Competition’. Maybe this could be a new third discipline for very tired competitors at the end of the event? The glory was taken this time around however by marshall Ian Hughes, who still looked half dead after the racing the High Peak Marathon on Friday night into Saturday morning.See All Event Posts
