National Indoor Adventure Race

Teams and Heats

Rob / 21.03.2002

So, who was up for this mad public escapade? Most of the top racers in the U.K. that’s who. There were a few comments about not wanting to risk injury when there were other ‘more important’ things to do, but once racers were side by side that was forgotten. Noel Hanna of Team Bridgedale did say it “wasn’t like an A.R., more like a triathlon� but the format did test endurance, basic skills in the main AR disciplines and teamwork. Given the constraints there wasn’t much else to do.

It was mentally challenging too, and not just to keep going round and round, up and down, or to ride/paddle/climb in one place. It was critical to remember to use the Sportident electronic punches to log points (and teams did forget) and in the heat of the race the ‘simple’ act of taking down the North Face tent, packing it and throwing it in the back of a Renault Kangoo caused no end of confusion and lost time. (Yes, there was a car in the arena too – and some ‘trees’.) Next time around the tent had to be put up – and so on, and so on ……

There were 2 heats on each of the first 2 days and race sponsors The North Face got off to a good start when their team, lead by UK Marketing Director Keith Byrne, won Heat one just ahead of Team Runner’s World. What was immediately clear was that the points weighting favoured the Simulator Stage, so most of the points were going to come from there. It was going to be a case of ‘eyeballs out’ for that half-hour if you wanted to do well. (Competitors did 10 minutes on each simulator, always in the same pairs.)

What Ju Panter, a former pro-biker, didn’t realise was that the bike score was only based on the number of wheel revolutions, not distance covered. She set her bike to a high level of resistance for most of the ride, working harder for less revolutions, while Astrid Wheatcroft of TNF pedalled furiously in lowest gear and scored much faster. And Runner’s World only lost the race by 24 points with a total of 3490!

Heat 2 was marred by a nasty accident on the ramp outside. Hywel Davies of Team Lowe Alpine landed badly at the foot of the slippery slope, suffering a serious break of his ankle and leg. The ramp was taken out of the course and scores adjusted. Team Genetic Potential won with the highest qualifying score from any heat (4199pts) and were clearly one of the favourites for the final.

They were led by Marc Laithwaite, who put careful thought into tactics and team selection. Marc is a former Quadrathlete and had teamed up with Fiona Lothian, a duathlete who has been ranked as highly as 3rd in the world, and Dan Corner a former member of the GB Slalom Canoe team who won the last Duathlon world champs. Neither had rock climbed before, but Marc was opting for speed specialists. He also volunteered to compete on Friday, giving his team a full days rest before the final.

On the second day Team Albatross won heat one, not surprising really. The team included Steve Birkinshaw, (a former ACE races series winner who was on the 7th placed team in last year’s Discovery World Champs in Switzerland), Morgan Donelly who has had highly place finishes in both Adrenalin Rush, & the Hebridean Challenge, and Lesley Patterson, a full time triathlete.

Also comfortable winners in the afternoon heat were Parrot/Lythgoe, who were the 7th placed team in the World Champs, won the first Adrenalin Rush and led last years Southern Traverse. They chalked up an amazing score on the simulators, and behind them Team Montane came from 4th to second with a big finish on the simulators to win a final place as one of 2 fastest losers. Both now had to come back next morning for the 4 hour final to compete against teams who had had more rest. (The other qualifiers were Bridgedale Ireland who were second behind Genetic Potential on Friday.)