Ace Race 2-day Series #1
Castle Capers
Rob Howard / 26.04.2007
Most arrived in the hours of darkness after a long drive, and by morning the sheep pasture below the castle had become a campsite set around the event marquee and the unmissably huge Buff mobile home, which most of the race staff emerged from on a murky, damp Saturday morning.
The entry was low for this first race, perhaps as a result of the venue in Scotland, so the campsite was a small one. Race planner John Laughlin revealed that just 6 weeks ago the field had been a quagmire and he was considering using a different venue and ironically his main problem now, after a 6 week drought, was low water levels in the river! Course planners can’t win sometimes.
There were many new ACE Race competitors among those assembled for the first briefing, with few pairs taking part, but a strong solo entry. With the World Championships only a month away the team entry was strongest of all, including defending ACE Race title holders, Team SleepMonsters/Inov-8, British Champions Aberdeen Asset Management, newly sponsored Inov-8 and planetFear teams, and Total-adventure.co.uk all taking part.
Hill and Forests
Day one of the race was back to a 3 stage format, starting with the X-Country run, which would take competitors into the surrounding forest and through pastures to a small group of rolling hills topped by a checkpoint on Auchenbainzie Hill (302m).
There were 10 checkpoints on these hills and surrounding valleys and a further 9 in the forests. When marking their positions prior to the start there was a slight readjustment after it was realised Bruce Duncan, who had produced the grid references couldn’t count! He’d made his own roamer marked along the side, 1,2,3,5 ... At least he was at the right venue though – Wilf’s catering van had followed directions to last years venue in Galloway! (They realised when they’d almost got there and still arrived in good time.)
SleepMonsters
