The adidas Terrex Adventure Race
A Fast and Furious Prologue
Rob Howard / 26.08.2010
At 07.30 the race began with a run out of town and over Castle Head hill, and there was a mass sprint to get going off the line. It didn’t take long for the pace to take a toll, with Dan Halliday of Team Accelerate taking a tumble on the rocky hillside path. He lost time and finished with a few knocks but will be OK for the race.
First back off the run was the runner from the Oxford University Orienteering team, setting an incredibly fast pace and the field was already very well spread. Next up was a street orienteering stage around the town, so local knowledge was handy for some. Fastest here by a distance was Steve Birkinshaw, a late addition to the adidas Terrex team and a former international orienteer, and he set off Nicola MacLeod on the run swim stage.
This took the athletes down to Derwent Water to swim to an island 50m offshore to get the checkpoint. With no wetsuits it was a cold swim and the leaders also struggled to find the checkpoint on the large island, losing a little time. .Phil Humprhreys said, “The water was really cold and when I came out I was staggering around like I was drunk! He wasn’t the only one having difficulty. Fi Spotswood of Team FJS fell and bashed her knees as she lost her footing too.
The final stage was a run/kayak and the leading two teams racing back to the Moot Hall together were two of the race favourites, adidas Terrex and Team Planetfear.com. They finished side by side, but adidas Terrex were given a 5 minute penalty for not securing a PFD on the swim properly as instructed by a marshal, and with prologue time differences being multiplied by 3 this will mean a frustrating 15 minute time out at the first transition tomorrow. Not a great start for the current World Champions and race favourites.
The full prologue results will be on the race website.
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