British Adventure Racing Championship Final
The Weather Turns
Rob / 29.09.2003
He was right, they were going to get wet, not just from the boggy ground, but from heavy rain too. After a cold night the skies had filled with cloud in the early morning, heavy downpours had already hit the campsite, and there was more to come on the trek to Llyn Gwynant. Even so Anthony Emmet of Thorlos One enjoyed it. “That was a good run,� he said, “and the 5 minute split meant teams kept together more. The final descent was slippy though, any carelessness and you were on your backside.�
Saab Salomon had been the first to arrive at the soggy field beside the Glaslyn river, followed by Sealskinz High5, then the remaining 3 teams a few minutes later. Graeme Hobson of Sealskinz High 5 had hoped to pull out more of lead over Thorlos One. “We put a lot of effort in there and only made up a couple of minutes,� he said. “We’ll have to do more if we’re to catch them.� “Maybe we’ll do better on this next stage�, said Gill Watson.
No Worries were last to arrive with James Thurlow being towed. “I don’t like the running so much he said – and that’s almost all there is today. Give me a bike anytime.� At least he now had an hour’s time-out before the canoe/climb stage on the lake. (The idea of a canoe slalom had been dropped.) When the hour was up the team had to split. Two would take a kayak out onto the lake and around to the foot of a rock face, which overhung the shore. The others would run around and abseil down this into the waiting kayaks, then the whole team had to reach another CP at the far end of the lake and get back to the transition area.
A bit of extra spice was added by the scoring system. The quickest team would keep their time and the rest would get a penalty of the difference between their time and the quickest. Each minute later was multiplied by 5 (up to a maximum of 45 minutes), so every minute would be vital.
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