endurancelife Classic
Life\'s Ups and Downs
Jon Brooke - Pictures Richard Trestain / 07.04.2004
Although there are already more great events in the adventure racing calendar than I have time to do I was quite excited by the format of the Endurancelife classic on the 28th of March and decided to give it a go. The race involved a four mile kayak, 12 mile run and a 20 mile mountain bike and although we were issued with maps the course was also marked, so the idea was that there should be very little, if any navigation, which I thought would be nice for a change. Most of all I liked the location, Kingsbridge in south Devon, which meant the kayak was going to be down an estuary, and a lot of the run along a cliff path. The bike course looked good too, very hilly with some interesting looking steep off-road descents.
Arriving at the event HQ on Saturday night the organisation was very good. We were at the Kingsbridge rugby club so there was plenty of camping (around the pitch), hot food from the club kitchen, and best of all a bar, so I had a beer and chatted to a couple of the other competitors.
Sunday morning was overcast but fine and the race started with a bit of a mad sprint across the rugby pitch to a stile leading to a path down to the harbour. This was one of the few small cock-ups in the route planning I thought, as there must have been a bit of a queue for people at the back of the scrum. Luckily I wasn’t too far back and was soon on my way to the start of the kayak.
Although the race was originally open only to those using the organisers’ sit-on-top plastic boats, late in the day it was also opened up to those with their own kayaks, racing in a separate category – so as the fleet took to the water a few competitors in K1 racing boats shot off ahead. Racing down an estuary made the paddle a bit more fun than the usual circuit of a lake or reservoir and the plastic boats were also superior to Sevylor inflatable boats – not much quicker, but more comfortable to sit in and without the risk of punctures.See All Event Posts
