New Balance Open5+ in the Lake District
Open5 With Attitude
Rob Howard / 21.05.2009
Keswick was the venue for the first of the New Balance Open Adventure Endurance Series, starting off with the Open5+, an extension of the regular Open5 format adding more activities to the run/ride/navigation habitual competitors are used to. Exactly what these would be was kept secret until teams had registered and picked up their course notes - they’d just been told they’d get wet! So, it was no surprise to find the challenges included a swim and a ghyll scramble, along with a control in a mine tunnel and something called the ‘Berlin Wall’. Registration was at Rawnsley Hall near Keswick town centre, a site which was being used by the Keswick Mountain Festival, which the Open5+ was a part of. This allowed those taking part to enjoy some of the shows and activities over the weekend as well. (Some had heard Leo Houlding’s talk on Friday night and others were off to listen to Mike Stroud or James Cracknell after the race.)
The registration tent and start/finish was by a cycle display area and crane bungee jump, and just down the road a triathlon was starting. Teams collected their Sportident dibbers along with the notes describing the day’s format, helmets if they didn’t have their own, and their bright red New Balance bibs. As the only winners from the previous series the only pair to get yellow leader’s bibs (with their names on!) were Kim Collison and Neil Hamblin. Neil described these as “a bright target to aim at�.
The notes explained the start was at the Winlatter Visitor Centre, a few kilometres and a steep uphill ride away, with the stern instruction, “Miss the start and you miss the event�, followed by the more comforting “there is a tea shop if arrive early�. Each of the challenges was described and it was the cold swim to Otterbield island which most said they were not looking forward to! New Balance kit bags were provided for the remote transition and soon after 10.00 everyone was on their bikes making their way to Winlatter for the start.
Winlatter has a range of superb single-track trails and these were being used for the first part of the race, starting with a short loop to the North and a steep uphill which James Thurlow promised would “sort out the boys from the girls� (no doubt regretting his choice of words straight away!). With the ride to Winlatter and a time-out allowed at the ghyll scramble he admitted this was ‘an Open6 by stealth� before setting everyone on their way from under the New Balance start arch.See All Event Posts
