ACE Races 1-Day Team Adventure Series
Chase Challenges & Choices
Rob / 27.08.2003
By the time they gasped their way up a steep hill to the map give out, wiped the sweat out of their eyes and took a look at the course they should have got the message, but it’s hard to make a choice to cut out checkpoints one and two of 18, and most pressed on with the full 16km run. Then, tired and with time running out, more difficult choices had to be made by all but the leaders later on in the day.
For ACE Race regulars the venue at Birches Valley, Cannock Chase, may have been a familiar one, and on a bank holiday weekend there were not quite so many teams as usual. The third and last race of the series was still highly competitive though and Cannock Chase is ideal for a one-day event, with a mix of woodland and heath on dry, sandy ground, and plenty of navigational choices. Sometimes too many, as there are hundreds of trails and tracks, and many are not marked on the map.
The run to the map give out after an 11.00am mass start was 5km, which took teams down into the Sherbrook valley and then steeply up to a trig point where Graham Ford (and dogs) were waiting to hand out the maps which revealed the course. The leaders, ‘Team 10’ and ‘Taking the Pith’ grabbed their maps and hardly broke stride, and with good reason as close behind them came the top two teams of the series to date, ‘Peel Adventure’ and ‘Sealskinz/HighFive’. Peel Adventure had brought in Pete James to join his sister Jenny and Dave Peel, and were hot favourites for the series title.
Later teams were happy to stop and catch their breath, and realised by this time the hot sticky weather was going to make the course hard. There was a return to the start/finish area at CP5, where drinks were available, but one drinks stop in 5 hours wasn’t a lot. Carrying hydration packs or bum bags for drinks and bike bottles was an important part of race preparation, overlooked by some.
SleepMonsters
