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A Self Service Course

Rob Howard / 26.08.2010

The race briefing was held in the small local cinema at Keswick, which was almost full when the 35 starting teams were assembled. The race is organized by Open Adventure and the founder and Race Director James Thurlow introduced himself, though in truth all but a few of the racers know him well. His company runs a range of races from 5 hours to 24 hours, and is known for careful planning and logistics in their race delivery. The briefing was to reflect that as he said, “This won’t be a 3 hour epic briefing like some races and we are not answering questions on the route, all the answers are in the route book. It should take 30 minutes or so!�

His new race has the backing of sponsors adidas and is the latest in a line of multiday races in the UK going back to the early 90’s and including The Western Isles Challenge, Adrenalin Rush, The British Championships and Wilderness ARC, which hosted the 2007 World Championships. (The Race Director from that Wolrd Champs, Phil Humphreys is competing here.

The format for this race, which is part of the ARWorld Series, has a British twist to it, as unusually there are no mandatory controls. The full route is 400km and Thurlow said he expects 6 or 7 teams to visit all the checkpoints and special challenges and cover the complete distance, with the winners anticipated to arrive back in Keswick in the early hours of next Monday morning. Other teams will need to short cut some stages and sections and Thurlow impressed on them the need to realistically assess their speed and ability, and to “leave something in the tank for the second half of the race.� He added, “the transition time cut-offs are generous, so if you are pushing those you are in trouble.�

Teams will all be ranked together depending on how much of the course they’ve done and those who do take shorter routes know they cannot leave a transition until a team on the full course does so. There is a GPRS race tracking and timing system on the event website to follow the progress of the teams, but remember teams well advanced on the course may have cut some sections, so the tracking data has to be compared to the leaderboard for a true race position.

Other issues which came up in the briefing were that all teams had a spare sportident chip (so no excuses for losing a timing card as not all CP’s are manned), definitely no support, and as this is an area well populated with racers and their friends … no stopping off at their houses! “The rule is that if others can’t stay there then you can’t,� said Thurlow.

He gave a strong emphasis to a team’s duty to look after themselves and make their own decisions. The race has demanded strict kayaking qualifications and he said, “There are no safely boats, you should be able to look after yourselves and make your own judgment calls.� Before Bruce Duncan answered a few technical route sections he concluded, “My measure of success is not publicity or the a fast winning time, it is getting the maximum number of teams to the finish line, and that you all have fun and enjoy it.�

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