Quest ARS
A Day Out in Derbyshire
Pippa McDougall/Quest / 12.09.2002
The 6th event in the Quest Adventure Race Series was held at Carsington Water near Ashbourne in Derbyshire. Despite a poor weather forecast, the sun arrived and the rain held off until after the last team had finished, making it a beautiful day for running, cycling and paddling across the Peak District! The running and cycling stages took the teams across parts of the High Peak and Tissington Trails, a great route with some beautiful scenery.
In all, we had a total of 30 teams taking part and the course began with all the teams racing to the water\'s edge and paddling across Carsington Water in order to reach a maximum of 5 checkpoints. Apart from the Men\'s, Ladies, Mixed and Veteran categories, we also ran Novice and Masters this time. The Novice race being 5 ½ hrs in length and the Masters 6 hrs. The Novice group also had the advantage of being shown where the check points are on the map whilst the masters had to plot the grid references themselves. As in our last few races, competitors could choose how many check points to visit, thereby making the race as hard or as easy as they like.
On completion of the canoeing stage the slightly damp competitors returned to the transition area to hand in their clipper cards where they then had the choice to either continue with the mountain bike stage or the running stage. Many strategies were obviously being thought through as to which was the best order to do these stages in, although finally the field was evenly split with about half the teams running and half cycling.
The running stage was obviously a high point for one of our Veteran Solo entrants - Frank Hird (The Plodder) who scored an excellent 375 questars out of a possible 410, the highest score of that stage. Whilst the Mountain Biking proved to be the bonus for Men\'s Solo entry Daniel Straw who managed a fantastic 440 questars out of a possible 500.
In the end, however, it was most definitely a day for the Veterans. In the overall rankings Frank Hird was 3rd with 845 questars, Pete Robinson was second with 865 questars and the winner was David (Dark Horse) Hunt with a staggering 970 questars! All three of them veterans, showing the benefits of combining fitness with experience.
Results- Overall Winner & Veteran Winner - The Dark Horse - 970 Questars
- Men\'s - Superstars - 770 Questars
- Ladies\' - Spider Monkeys - 590 Questars
- Solo Men\'s - Mickey No Mates Kenyon - 845 Questars
- Mixed - Highgate Harriers - 735 Questars
- Novices - Rhubarb & Custard - 835 Questars
SleepMonsters
