Phil’s Physical Challenges

Rob / 07.07.2002

The latest Phil Humphreys’ production, the second of the Ford Adventure Series, may have come as something of a shock to those who took part in the first race in Thetford Forest. This one was much, much harder. All the teams but two finished the whole course at Thetford, but this time around only 15 from 76 teams crossed the finish line with all the controls and within the time limit. It seems lots of people made the mistake of asking Phil for “more physical challenges� after the jigsaw puzzles and padlock games in race one. And they got them. In abundance.

They also got tougher navigation and a longer course in a superb area which was probably new country to everyone taking part. Ashdown Forest is best known as the setting for ‘Winnie the Pooh’ and most of the course was inside the picturesque Pippingford Park. It’s a small area, even for a one-day race, but it’s hilly, has a mix of open country and mature woodland, a series of lakes, and an extensive network of tracks and trails. It’s also used as an MOD training area and some elements of the challenges on the course are more regularly used by reluctant recruits than by avid adventure racers.

�I’m told there are Gurkhas out there� Phil said in the briefing, “and once they’ve pulled their knife they must draw blood!� That may have been a slight exaggeration but there was the sound of gunfire from time to time, and the more alarming sight of teenagers with machine guns crawling through the bushes. As the course used some controls several times he gave a warning not to ‘pre-clip’ them at the first visit and said that there might be the odd queue at some challenges. At this point he added: “They are more entertaining this time though, so you get to laugh at those in front.� Beware when race directors call challenges “entertaining�! There was a request for everyone to finish in the 5 hour time limit (by 4pm) as well. “You can cut the course short if you wish,� was the advice, but as it turned out almost everyone had to do that.�

The start was on foot with a lot of new teams and a couple of elite trios running under sponsor\'s names – The North Face and Wadenhoe High Five. Among those new to the race were a Runners’ World readers team who’d only met up that morning. They’d bought energy bars and bananas, taken a bit of advice from Sean Fishpool, the magazine’s deputy editor, who is an experienced racer, and were expecting mud. They were laughing and joking as though they’d known each other far longer, taking their first adventure race in the right spirit. They just wanted to have fun and get round – in that order.

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