Mountain Hardwear Open5 Adventure Race Series #1
A First Open Adventure
Suzanne Bikerdike / 12.03.2009
Take two runners, a couple of bikes, a set of compulsory kit (in duplicate), a brace of sandwiches and a heavy dose of misguided enthusiasm and you have conjured up a pretty good picture of Helena Deeney and I as we arrived ridiculously early for our first attempt at an Open 5 race.For those of you who are unfamiliar with these races, they comprise a 5 hour combination of mountain biking and running, over a self-navigation course. For those of you familiar with Helena and myself you will know that we are both totally ill-equipped to even sanely attempt such a race. (Let me explain - we took an unintentional scenic detour on the way to Malham (!?), and so had no higher hopes than making a few checkpoints without getting comprehensively lost, and had amassed a grand total of 4 1/2hrs bike training in the previous year between us).
Frantic phone calls the day before had culminated in an almost full set of kit - we were missing a triangular bandage but thought we may be able to bluster our way through the kit check with a quick demonstration of how to turn your Helle into an emergency sling.
Parked in the field we were befriended by a couple of capable and experienced mountain bikers who became more and more bemused by our discussions regarding the merits of having cycle shoes and running shoes (a point Helena had neglected to tell me), whether to just wear everything that we had brought - or more to the point that Helena had brought - just in case (answer - yes), and our frankly appalling attempts at tying our numbers to the bikes with some garden ties. Still, they politely replied to our basic questioning about what to do with the map, when we were going to be told which points actually scored points (a secret that is only revealed once you cross the start line), and what the special extra notes meant.
Every now and then Eddie Winslow popped over to give us guidance whilst munching on yet another gel carefully selected from the back of his car that looked like it contained the entire contents of a gel distribution depot. Our honey sandwiches somehow seemed inadequate ...
Still, we’d devised a route - stay on the roads as much as possible, avoid going up paths - only ride down them, and don’t waste too much energy early on.
Checkpoint 10 was chosen as our first goal, and we had a rough plan for after that. We watched as everyone flooded out of the field and turned right, but we resolutely stuck to our decision (check 10 was left) as it had the added bonus that it gave us the opportunity to visit the loos at the visitor centre en route …See All Event Posts
