Questars
High Tides and High Spirits in the New Forest
10.04.2006
They were rewarded with bright and blustery conditions that made for some fun on the water and brilliant views across the varied terrain of the Forest. Overnight heavy rain had added to the standing water in some parts of the forest heaths and also to that other commodity much beloved of adventure racers - the mud! Just as well there were four changing rooms and hot showers available afterwards as well as a very popular bike hosing service.
There was great anticipation in the air as teams readied themselves, got their kit to the bike transition zone and reviewed their course map. Pre-marked with the locations of the trail running, mountain biking and kayaking checkpoints it was soon clear that there were many possible route choices. The extensive course stretched between the event centre at Brockenhurst and the kayaking transition point at the head of the Beaulieu River and also deep into the Forest and open heathlands. Whilst relatively flat the New Forest should never be underestimated in providing some challenging country, as teams were soon to discover.
As teams crossed the start line they received a laminated card detailing the descriptions of the checkpoints, their values and which three of the run and bike stages were the illusive dummy ones - marked on the map but not actually existing. This disclosure led a number of teams to quickly re-evaluate their outline plan and swap to using their mountain bikes first to cover the ground and pick up as many points as possible en route to the river.
SleepMonsters
