DAR Endurance Race
“Rude� Awakening in Sleepy Sydling St. Nicholas
Matt Unsworth / 09.04.2009
Dynamics Adventure Racing’s second 8 hour Endurance race of 2009 was entitled Dorset Hills. Residing in Monmouthshire where I still refer to the Black Mountains as hills, I thought that, outside of the Isle of Purbeck, the words Dorset and hills shouldn’t be put together. I was to be proved wrong.The lead up to Saturday 14th March 2009 felt like an adventure in its own right. Work commitments had kept me away from home most of the week. Those with a family will sympathise. I managed to sneak away from, a temporary for me, Solihull office at 6pm on the Friday with just an hour to fight the M42/M5/M50 to pick my son up from Monmouth Beavers some 70 miles away. Some time with the kids before their bedtime then attention could turn to eating and sorting my kit … including a puncture to mend. Finally it was back on the motorway system to drive to my folks near Bath. A glance at the clock before bed confirmed it was already Saturday!
At least I slept well and Saturday dawned with a gorgeous sunrise and only a little more than an hour to get to DAR HQ. The week’s weather had been good and today it looked like it was going to be a spring stunner …. should be dry and fast I thought …. hope that Westerly doesn’t pick up anymore though. I hadn’t noticed that the A37 had been slowly rising since I’d left Yeovil. It all became apparent when I turned off towards base camp for the day, sleepy Sydling St Nicholas. A stunning series of steep ridges was laid out in front of me. Umm, the days first rude awakening, Dorset “Hills� it is then.
I race as one half of a male pair, however, my partner Gary Davies had left me high and dry with a 6 month secondment to Montreal. Today I was on my tod and somewhat dreading trying to stay motivated for a 4 hour run as I usually simply follow Gary’s hard to miss behind for this stage before taking the lead during the MTBing.
We always run first and try to clear the course but being on my own I thought I’d clear most and concentrate on leaving enough time to clear the bike. This soon changed when measuring the run as a tad over 30km to clear the course, a little less than usual. I would have to clear it.See All Event Posts
