The Wan Dae Adventure Race
Wan Dae in the Pentlands
Chris Morgan (Team Top Bananas) / 25.08.2010
Top-Bananas was represented by Marty, and myself in the Cask Strength (8 hour) race, and by Bec's and Karen in the Simply Blended (5 hour) race.
After last year when the top 8 teams in the cask strength event cleared the course (Kiwi Steve took under 6 hours), Stuart was promising that this years course was going to be longer and tougher! The race started with a short run to the bikes, where the maps & scores were given out.
Frustratingly for us solos, the scores were on the reverse side of the map, which meant having to continually turn over to see what was what. Riding along the mandatory track I was trying to plan my route. It was clear that the course was much bigger this year, and it was going to much tougher to clear it. I came up with a quick plan, but decided that at some point I would have to stop and mark the scores onto the map so I could see what was what.
I headed off to the activity checkpoint first, assuming that it would be high scoring. Looking behind me I couldn't see anyone following me, and was wondering whether I was really going about this in the right way. Having done the activity, there were still no other teams in sight, so I set about marking up my map and seeing what was what. Dissapointingly the activity checkpoint was actually one of the lower scoring checkpoints. There were high scoring checkpoints in all 4 corners of the map, so I decided to head up and over Allermuir hill, and down the the 50 pointer on the souterrain before working back toward the kayaking.
Obviously I have a short memory, as having pedalled up that hill in the Rat Race only a month or two ago I was grinding my way up it again. Looking behind, there was still no-one following me - which doesn't normally bode well. The descent down the the souterrain was (as always) fun. From the souterrain I headed back past Glencorse reservoir and over to the kayaking.
The kayaking was on Threipmuir which has now been refilled (for those non-locals, the reservoir has been empty for maintenance for a few months), I was half expecting to arrive at the kayaking to find no water! It's always frustrating paddling the SOT's on your own, all the more so when it's windy. Fortunately the kayak was fairly short, and the windiest part was just after launching. Some solo competitors struggled with the wind, Ross left the shelter of the launch point and got caught by the wind. After pirouetting 5 times he decided that discretion was the better part of valour, and headed back in!
After the kayaking I decided to head off around a big loop over the Bore Stane and through Nine mile burn before heading back over the Pentlands to the running stage at the Howe. Unfortunately in my haste I cycled straight past one of the checkpoints on the way out by Bavelaw, only realising I hadn't dibbed it when I had to look at the back of the map out at the next checkpoint (3km down the road) to work out where it was.
Luckily rather than having to do a 6km round trip to get it then and there I figured I could leave it until after the running, and just add about 3km. The ride up and over the Bore Stane was great, although I added a little extra to my distance following the larger track to a gate at the top, rather than following the smaller track that turned off. Heading down to North Esk reservoir was good fun. There was then a short bit of hike-a-bike up Paties hill, followed by a fast descent (in hindsight it would probably have been better to head out and along the A702). Then it was back up and over the Pentlands again via Monks Rigg down to the running.
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