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Slip Sliding in Staveley

Julia Baron (Team Accelerate Adventure Racing) / 23.12.2008

We’d known it was going to be an interesting race after arriving in the lakes the night prior to the most recent Open 5. Walking into Ambleside and struggling to stay on our feet on the pavements, made us realise that whilst the snow and ice from the previous week might have melted in Sheffield, it was still lying on the roads, fields and fells of the lakes, and was almost certainly going to cause us some fun and games!

The morning of the race dawned cold and misty, and the first challenge came in just walking from the car to the registration in the village hall without falling and breaking any limbs! There had been a big entry to the race, and despite the conditions, it seemed that most people who’d entered were there raring to go.

We were the only Accelerate pair out on the day, and as Eddie and I had won the previous round in Blanchland, we had yellow ‘series leaders’ name boards on our bikes and shirts. (This was a first for me and so I was pretty excited and proud of the shiny yellow “Baron� emblazoned on the front of my bike…Eddie on the other hand has probably been a series leader more times than I have ever raced an open 5, so didn’t seem quite as excited!)

Our race plan had been to bike first and collect as many points as possible, then run afterwards and collect whatever we could in the time left. However, this plan soon changed after walking to the start/transition area, and seeing how treacherous the roads were. We decided to run first as we thought some of the ice on the roads might have melted by the time we came to bike.

Eddie took charge of the navigating and route decisions, and led us out on a clockwise route, heading up from the start onto Brunt Fell (probably a good viewpoint on a clear day but not much to see on the day of the race!). It felt more like the walk-in to a day’s winter climbing than an open 5, kicking steps in the snow up the hillside! From here, a hard going and frustrating section followed, of trying to run and continually breaking through the crust of, at times, knee deep snow. Just when we thought we’d come across a more solid section that we could run across the top of ... we’d fall through and jar our knees again!

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