UK Pairs head to Poland

Russ Ladkin Team Snowcard.co.uk / 02.03.2006

How does entering the High Peak Marathon get you to Poland? Simple really. You put in some entries and aren't lucky enough to be picked out. You look around for something else to do in early March. There's the World Series Bergson Winter Challenge event but no team and it looks pretty serious. But hang on, there's a shorter race taking place alongside the Masters event. The Speed race is 150 km/ 40 hours and is for pairs. A forum post on Sleepmonsters.co.uk, a few exchanged e-mails and before you know it there are three teams entered:

Snowcard.co.uk - Russ Ladkin, John Cameron
Cotswold Outdoor - Ed Procter, Ian MacNab
Titan UK - Ryan Elliott, Jason Bailey

There are over 60 pairs in total, the majority from Poland, but several from Czech Republic, The Netherlands and also Estonia and Latvia. Venturing abroad gives us a few more things to think about: Flights are relatively cheap but we have to pay extra for the bikes, the English translations of the Polish details are not always easy to follow and race insurance is mandatory for overseas competitors - Snowcard have a suitable policy level above their normal winter/adventurous sports cover.

The organisers have been very welcoming and helpful, arranging transport from the airport and advising on pre-race accommodation. They have also answered our numerous kit questions, so we think we know what we ought to have. Footwear has been the hardest to choose as we don't want anything too
heavy but equally we don't want frozen toes.