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A Good 8 Hour Day in Dorset

Ben Turner / 30.09.2009

The map was thrust into our hands and the stopwatch started. We had one minute to plan the kayak leg and begin to assess the run and bike sections. One minute I thought? ... that's easily long enough to plan five check points and take a look over the other sections. <br />
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‘Right we'll get this CP, head through this channel, grab that CP, out to here for that, around this island to here, over to the pontoon and then back to transition... now let's take a look at the other… and before I had a chance to say ‘sections the event marshal bellows ‘time's up! We dibbed and ran off to kayak out into Poole harbour. <br />
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We were competing in the Endurance Life Dorset Raid 8 hour event. The sun was beating down as we grabbed one of the beloved sit-on-top's and headed for the waters' edge. After a quick first checkpoint it quickly became apparent that the islands forming the channel we had planned to head through where actually submerged as it was high tide ... slightly unexpected but we were still on our bearing to Brownsea Island. <br />
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As we approached shore it became clear the bearing was spot-on as other racers who set off before us where dibbing just ahead. But wait?... Why were they running up and down the beach? Some of the teams clearly considered it faster to keep the kayaking between checkpoints as short as possible and then run the remainder. A tactic which we had not even considered but after some heated debate (read as arguing!) quickly concluded it would make little difference so we chose to stick with the original plan. <br />
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The next kayaking checkpoint fell quickly and before long we were heading back to transition against a now fast moving tide. On the approach we could see a few racers floundering around but couldn't make out what was going on ... little did we know the tide had gone out enough to reveal a 30 meter mud beach before reaching shore. Something I'm sure the organisers from Endurance Life knew would happen! After jumping out of the kayak and sinking to my knees we also floundered back to terra firma.<br />
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Through transition a quick change of shoes and socks was now essential before heading out onto the run. It seemed to us that the course should be clearable and therefore we caimed to do this. The next part seems a blur to me as we headed across moorland and through marsh as checkpoints fell one after another with ease. Then we came back to the shore and a very long section down a sandy beach. I put my partner on the tow line for this section and we got our heads down for the sandy slog.

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