Sweatshop Trailplus Adventure Race Series
Sacks, Crawls and Slippery Walls
Paul Magner - Trailplus / 04.08.2003
The second race in the Sweatshop - TrailPlus Adventure Race Series saw excellent weather for the 46 teams with a new start format ……a sack race! Each team of three had a short run to collect their team sack and then had to ensure that one leg from each member was in the sack as they manoeuvred themselves in a forward direction ... at varying speeds!Following a further 800m run the event ‘proper’ kicked off with a two-lap, 13-mile mountain-bike section over fast well made tracks but also some excellent sections of single track through fantastic wooded areas. Along the way there was a tough sand bag challenge at Chimera bridge, \' the bog\' to negotiate and, just prior to transition, the Pontoon Bike Challenge.
Race favourites and past winners, the Blue Notes, were slightly behind after the sack challenge but a strong performance on the bikes and some bad mechanical luck for Team MTB saw them take a good lead going into transition. The question was could anyone catch them?
The run to the kayaks was on some great trails over a variety of surfaces including some energy sapping sand just when you least wanted it. Teams were keeping well hydrated by making good use of the SIS fluid stations but it was still the Blue Notes showing the most fluidity on the course.
Getting onto the water came as a pleasant relief to many until they realised that they had to retrieve their paddles, positioned on a small island 25 metres from the shore! Positions were changing with some good technique being shown while others were finding it easier to go in circles!
Off the water and straight into The Commando Crawl Challenge -under the cargo net which many found pretty tough!! (Especially as all competitors were still required to wear their buoyancy aids.) A number of expletives could be heard. The race leaders were away but it was very close for the mixed team places with 4 or 5 teams all within a couple of minutes.
A water crossing at East Creek led into the final trail run for home, including an uphill section involving more testing terrain. On to the home straight and the \'Pontoon Run Challenge\' to cross and then the infamous \' Slippery Wall\' and over the finish line.
The Blue Notes winning time of 2hr 25min and 03 was well clear of Team MTB (2hr 44min 58) and Ingarfield Condor (2hr 46 min 16), who vowed to return for the final event on September 20th at full strength. It was a very close run thing for the first mixed team with Damned Madness just over a half a minute ahead of Menage a Trois.
Over 55 teams have already entered the September event, which will feature a totally new mountain bike route, and, no doubt, some more damned madness!See All Event Posts
