Mountain Hardwear Open5 Adventure Race Series #3
Team Cotswold at the Open5
Paul Vousden (Cotswold) / 23.05.2008
This event must have felt a little risky in its planning. There was no parking other than on the street and the start was a 20 minute ride from the town. These two ingredients are never popular with racers but it was not a big problem and it didn’t seem to put people off in the slightest. Any inconveniences were soon forgiven as right from the start we were on to the fells, and enjoying superb Lakeland running and biking.
The attention to detail that goes into an Open 5 makes me smile. Registration always runs like clockwork and I love the fact that inside our little personalised race pack there is always the exact amount of pre marked maps, quality race numbers, zip ties and even safety pins. I guess it’s the small things like this that the Open 5 great value as well as great racing.
As this particular Open 5 marked the opening round of the Endurance Series it had attracted some familiar faces that do not always travel to the races in the North, and it seemed that the competition would be fierce. I guess a lot of people would have travelled a long distance for such a relatively short race, so it would seem only logical that Open Adventure would pull out all the stops to make their commitment worthwhile.
I was racing with Fredilina Young to make up team Cotswold for this race and after a pretty good effort at the last Open 5 we were keen to improve. Setting off on the run first, as our strongest discipline, we were thrilled to waste no time in gaining height. Virtually straight up - 150m to cp29 to then head north and on to the Dunnerdale Fells. The trails were dry and the running fast and fantastic. Navigationally this event was a little tougher than Open 5 of late. The fells were a maze of knolls, crags, tarns and there was a very significant path network not marked on the map. All the checkpoints were exactly as marked though. There were some post -race stories circling about cp33 missing, but it was definitely there chained to sheepfold.
It was almost a shame to have to go and transition, but as there were many more points available we left ourselves with a good 2.5 hours for the bike.
The bike stage did not offer any kind of logical route choice. The post race analysis on openadventure.com certainly confirms it. There were big tempting points littered among steep hills and tricky sections of bridleway. Everyone I spoke to after the race was in equal bemusement about route choice. I don’t know if this improves the racing or not, but it did make for good post race banter.
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