Dynamic Adventure Racing

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Slip Sliding on the Sunny South Downs

Rob / 29.01.2004

Dynamic Adventure hosted their first two races of the season last weekend in the sleepy village of East Dean nestled at the foot of the South Downs. The race directors had even managed to arrange sunshine for the competitors who braved the arctic winds.

Dynamic Adventure Racing Plus

Saturday was the first of the new race series, Dynamic Adventure Racing Plus. With a prize pool of £800 for the series winners, it was no surprise that there was an avid interest in which teams were taking part. 50 racers turned up for the first Adventure Race of the year in the UK.

The competitors picked up all the grid references for the 36 checkpoints upon registration (18 run, 18 bike). They then had to decide which section they would tackle first, knowing that whether they ran or biked second, at least 2 hours of it would be in the dark. Competitors had a total of 8 hours in which to collect as many checkpoints as possible, with a penalty checkpoint being docked for every five minutes they were late back.

At the race briefing the competitors were warned of the chalky downs and how they could easily slip and embarrass themselves when running and climbing. A more serious warning came with the very muddy mountain bike section which had led to race director, Jonathan Mayne, going over his handlebars twice when putting out the course on Thursday and Friday – one of the accidents was so severe that he snapped the his fancy Shimano XTR derailer and dented his rather fragile pride!

The most severe warning came last with the explanation of a shoot in the woods north of Race Base, making it imperative that competitors kept to the footpaths and bridleways, as the consequences of not doing so would literally mean that they would get shot!

Most teams opted for the mountain bike section first, knowing that it was clearable and then attempting to clear the largest number of run checkpoints in the time they had left. The first Dynamic Adventure Racing Plus of the year was going to be more favourable to runners.See All Event Posts