Trailplus Keep the Adventure in Adventure Racing with a Cumbrian Commotion

Paul Magner (Trailplus) / 25.03.2013

Not many event organisers ever have reason to celebrate a low turn-out for an event but last Saturday TrailPlus’ Paul Magner did just that!

 Whilst much of the nation (and most of Cumbria) battened down the hatches and stayed indoors due to severe winter weather, “Cumbrian Commotion” (round one of this year’s Trailplus Adventure Challenge series) remarkably went ahead at Grizedale Visitor Centre in the South Lake District.

115 teams managed to make their way to the venue and were greeted with a winter wonderland of snow, in places in biblical proportions. The final briefing from Magner gave way to a spontaneous mass snowball fight, which you can see here and shows that everyone was out to enjoy themselves, whatever the conditions.

A short, but testing, opening run stage of just over 2km led into a dramatically shortened mountain bike leg. Short it may have been in distance (12km) but certainly not in terms of pure graft and the lung power required. Not that the conditions were preventing a storming performance from Team Haglofs UK who were soon extending a commanding lead.

The comparative calm of the event hub gave way to a raging and biting easterly wind on top of Carron Crag as teams ran up, over and down to the kayaking challenge. This too had to be curtailed with a course loop set very much within a more sheltered bay area close to a Narnia-esque Machell’s Coppice.

And then the return … a gruelling climb back up over the fell and down to the finish. In final acknowledgement to the conditions, the usual cargo net scramble was omitted - well it was buried beneath 10 inches of snow.

Team Haglofs winning time of 2hrs 24mins 36 secs gave them a 12 minute margin over the Transition Tramps-Mark 2. As if to epitomise the commitment of so many, the winning all-female team, Ruff Riders, made it all the way up from London.

And if the performances on course were impressive they were matched by a host of marshals, medics and water safety personnel, whose efforts ensured that all in all, there was not so much “commotion” in Cumbria after all.

[Footnote: Event organisers, TrailPlus, offered a free transfer to those teams opting not to travel and the vast majority have already opted for Cumbria Commotion in 2014.]

The remaining races in the series are in October and December and you can find all the details of these and other Trailplus events at www.trailplus.com.

View Results; http://www.trailplus.com/adventure-challenge-series-results.php

View Photos; By RandR Photos http://www.trailplus.com/event-photos.php