Questars Race 2
Bagging some Beacons
Ian Grace (Team endurancelife) / 09.06.2009
After a very pleasing result at their first event, Team Endurancelife couldn’t wait to get their second race underway. Mark Bottomley and Ian Grace were joined by their newest team member, Erika Henson, to make up a mixed team of three, for entry into the Questars Brecon Beacons race. This event was a 6hr points score race based out of the large village hall at Llangynidr in the Brecon Beacons, with checkpoints scattered over the surrounding hills and vales. A fabulous location for an adventure race - situated right on the tranquil Monmouthshire and Brecon canal (running parallel with the River Usk), close to Talybont Reservoir with it’s technical cycle tracks and trails and surrounded by hills. What more could you ask for? We had entered the masters race, giving us 6 hours to visit as many checkpoints as we dare in the allotted time. The 3 standard disciplines of kayaking, mountain biking and running were split into separate stages, with a trip to transition required between each. We had been allocated a 55 minute time slot for our kayak section, which would start 3 hours and 20 minutes into our race. This gave us enough time, we thought, to bag all the bike section checkpoints before transitioning to foot and running the 1k to the kayak start. After utilising the full time allowed for the kayak stage, we would then crack on with the run, visiting as many cps in the time we had left.
Shortly after the race briefing and our final kit checks, our start time of 10:18 came round and we were off. The weather was incredible! With very few clouds in the sky, and only a light breeze, we knew that we were going to have a tough day!
We had a circular cycle route planned out that took in every one of the cycle checkpoints. The first CP on our route was easy to locate but involved a brutal road climb. Once at the top, we settled into our rhythm and continued clocking up CPs on the initial sections of road.
A killer off-road section meant some uphill pushing on foot. This was followed by a long slog up through a forest which brought us out onto some good open country bridleways. With a bit more CP gathering, we headed towards Talybont Reservoir, a location we had cycled a few weeks previous. We were fully aware of the steep rocky ascents and descents that were going to greet us ...
After much bumping (and wishing we had full suspension bikes) we managed to collect all of the Talybont CPs before a fast forest track section brought us out by the dam. After a quick confirmation that we were still on schedule we continued with our planned route. Some slow uphill road sections, a few more CPs and a fast road section down into Llangynidr, left us with one final decision - do we go for the last cycle checkpoint (a straight out and back along a very steep uphill road) and risk eating into our valuable kayaking time or do we head straight back to transition with possibly a few minutes to spare?See All Event Posts
