Open Adventure Coast to Coast
A Day in the Dales
Rob Howard / 30.08.2009
The first stage of day 3 was a run up into the Yorkshire Dales National Park, beginning with a long, steady climb to standing stones on Nine Standards Rigg, and once again solos and teams were set off in reverse order, with the slowest leaving first at 06.00 and the rest following at 4 minute intervals. This method of compressing the field by the end of the day is working well and today the first finishers got the best of the conditions as they reached the stones in bright sunny weather and could take in the impressive surrounding views. The wind was still blowing strongly, and it wasn’t long before a new wave of clouds swept in, blotting out the sun, and the summit by the time the later starters arrived. This caused some navigational problems and both solo race leaders Liam Drew and Nicola MacLeod took the wrong routes and lost significant time. MacLeod backtracked to the summit to make sure she was on the correct path.
The path they were looking for was the winter route of the C2C which the National Park asked the race to use as the higher summer route was so wet and boggy. So was the winter path in places, and at least one racer disappeared into the bog up to his waist! The winter route took teams along the Keld road for a distance, and once again some racers lost their way, missing the footpath turning across to Whitsun Dale and having to run back up the road to find it.
The road had support vehicles scattered along it at every available pulling off spot, all waiting to see their racers pass before they moved down the transition at Keld. (They were not allowed to assist racers here, but with very limited space at Keld there was no room for them all to wait there.) One of the vans got stuck, which was almost inevitable given the boggy ground and the need to pull off of the road.
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