Haglofs Open5 Adventure Race
23 Little Seconds ...
Adrian Hall / 09.10.2013
23 seconds.
23 little seconds.
It’s a 23 seconds that will haunt me for the rest of my racing career.
Sunday 6th October dawned as a beautiful morning over Ilkley as 200 or so racers prepped their bikes, packed their snacks and tried to guess the active controls on the map. This included many Aireinteers and Ilkley Harriers for whom this was their first taste of Adventure Racing, Open5 style. Up until now, the nearest that these highly rated events has been to our stomping ground has been Grassington, and that was only back in the spring. So an event like this on our doorstep was a wonderful opportunity.
For those of you that don’t know, this is a 5 hour score event run on 1:25000 maps for the run section and 1:50000 for the MTB section. You’re given a map of both sections with controls marked on, but you don’t know the points, or even which controls are ‘live’ until you start. Rules are you must do at least one of each control and you can only ‘transition’ once.
I used to race with a Dave Wilby (Ilkley Harriers Fell Captain, sometime orienteer and all round racing snake) but he wasn’t available, so I was flying solo. At Grassington I had dragged a newbie friend out but had broken him ... and no-one else seemed to want to come and play. I was a bit nervous of racing solo – 5 hours is a long time to be inside your own head, especially when running low on fuel and starting to make mistakes.
My plan was to clear the run in a target time of 2 hours and then see where I got to on the MTB. I’ve always been a stronger runner than biker but over the past few years I’ve been doing a lot more biking to reduce the stress on my joints. Things didn’t start well as I forgot to start my stopwatch and had to guess that I had been marking the map up for 5 minutes and adjust the remaining time to cope with that.
The running route took me up Owler Park Road and over to Nesfield, up to the top of Beamsley Beacon and at this point things looked interesting. I was passing people but no-one else joined me for the run over to Round Hill for a sneaky 10 pointer before dropping back down to meet the crowds again. Unlike many ‘O’ Score events, more distant controls on Open5’s tend to have lower points values, which makes the differentiation at the top even harder.
Zig-zagging back down from concrete square and into Middleton Woods for the last few controls got me back into transition at bang on 2 hours. I’d cleared the run in 1h 55m which was pleasing. At this point I started to wonder if I could clear the whole thing. A transition time of 3:13 (which was quite slow compared to many top flight competitors – it’s time lost not moving) and I was out on the bike. I headed back up Owler Park road, over to Langbar, dropped off towards Nesfield to pick up a lonely control, then onto Long Ridge below Beamsley Beacon. It was a hard slog over to the woods the other side of Denton Moor, but a difficult route choice to come back out of woods and drop towards Denton for another lonely control, just to double back to the top.
Back into the Swinsty woods, over the dam and then the biggest decision – whether to go to Pennypot Lane to pick up a 15 pointer way out in the far corner of the map. At this point I thought I still had a slim chance of clearing the bike, so I went for it, despite knowing what was coming up…
I had a little trouble finding this control and lost 3 minutes or so looking for it – navigation on a 1:50,000 map, looking for an SI box with some red and white tape on, is frustrating for an orienteer used to the detail of a 1:10,000 O map. It requires a little blind faith I think.
Back onto the roads, I headed for the big one – drop down to the ford in the Washburn valley, then the dreaded Dob Park hill. I’d like to say I flew up here, but it was first gear and painful. On the climb I came to the sad conclusion that with only 25 minutes to go, I couldn’t afford to drop to the 15 pointer just above Otley and then have to climb up into both Asquith and Denton in turn. So I turned across the top of the moor and dropped down into Asquith.
It was here that I met up with Renee and Ian and we raced hard along the back road, leapfrogging all the way. I was blowing hard and everything was screaming at me as we pushed into the headwind, but I knew that time was not on my side. Being late is O.K., but not if it negates the extra few points you’ve pushed for.
Finishing is such blessed relief and I drank so much tea and juice that I realised that I had been dehydrated for the last hour or so due to the unseasonably warm weather. It’s amazing how much this can take out of you.
Download confirmed that I had been 3:52 over time, which meant a penalty of 8 points, but only 15 points dropped out of a possible 600. To my surprise, no-one had cleared it yet and that sudden bloom of hope appeared … had I done enough? Was it possible that I might have managed a high placing?
At the prize giving, the wait was unbearable. Then James (OpenAdventure) announces the Male solo results – 5th place - 514 points, 4th place - 550 – oh my, I’m top 3!
The top 3 were separated by only 2 points ...
On 575 points, Ant Emmet (Team Mountain Hardwear and a seasoned AR racer)!
On equal points at 577, but with a time 23 seconds slower than the winner: Adrian Hall!
And the winner, Alex Pilkington (Team Mountain Hardwear)
Mixed emotions
2nd Wow!
23 seconds.
23 seconds.
So many places that 23 seconds were wasted.
But then I suppose that there were so many places that 23 seconds may have been gained. I pushed hard. I didn’t rest, I didn’t slack. I did pace myself.
There’s always a “what if” to give us something to talk about in the bar afterwards.
After coming back from injury I thought might end my running career it takes some management to keep my body functioning for this sort of pounding, and it’s not all plain sailing. Massage, physio, stretching, the dreaded foam roller and hockey ball, and the support of my lovely family.
It’s good to know that there life in the old dog yet.
See All Event Posts
