Helly Hansen Adventure Race Series 2
Legging it Round Longmoor
Rob Howard / 21.10.2008
Race two in the 08/09 Helly Hansen Adventure Race Series was back at the Longmoor army camp, it’s first ever venue and still the most popular. With over 300 teams of three on the start line the event set a new record for the number of competitors in a UK adventure race and despite a few drops of rain during the hectic registration period the day turned out fine and dry. It was perfect weather for the race, which made best use of the forest and sandy heath land normally used for army training, live firing and tank training. (The course is scattered with spent bullets, shell cases, fox-holes and ruined buildings and machinery.)
For this year the start/finish area was moved to an old airstrip beside the A3 trunk road and with the parking alongside and the installation of a mobile unit with a sound system it all worked well. The local army cadets helped get everyone through registration and the first of two starts even took place a couple of minutes early. As always at Longmoor there were a good number of spectators to cheer on the teams, and there were lots of first time racers too. In total 155 bikes were hired for the day – and with two 14km MTB laps through the woods, including some technical sections, it was going to be a hard day for those with little riding experience.
Apart from the new start/finish there were a couple more changes to the ‘regular’ plan for the Longmoor event, including separating the two mountain biking loops. In the past these have always run consecutively, but with so many competitors safety dictated they were split up with a run to the kayaking stage between them. This proved more popular than riding for so long as well as avoiding congestion on the narrow trails.
The other change was described as ‘kayaking with a difference’, but until they got there no one knew what the difference was!
The race began with two starts 10 minutes apart and the first stage was a short run which helped separate out the teams before they picked up their bikes. The competitors streamed away through the woods towards the big sand dunes used for tank training, then circled back to transition to pick up their bikes for the first mtb loop. They had to leap a small ditch with bikes on their shoulders to get going, then headed out past the camp buildings, a Bailey bridge and a ruined tank into the Longmoor Inclosure and Weavers Down.See All Event Posts
