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The Race Finishes in Keswick

Rob Howard / 30.08.2010

After the early arrival of the winners the remaining teams made their way to the finishing line throughout the morning and into the early afternoon. As the cold of the night gave way to a warm summers day and the empty streets filled with Bank Holiday visitors the teams beached their open canoes, ran across the park and up the bustling main street to finish.

One of the advantages of an open choice course is that teams can aim to meet a fixed finishing time and all knew they had to complete as much of the course as they could before the closure time of 12.00. As a result teams were finishing at regular intervals to be cheered in by a big crowd of spectators and greeted by Bruce Duncan and James Thurlow. Duncan was handing out the race medals and Thurlow got a variety of responses when he asked teams for their high and low points of the race.

One of the earlier finishers were second placed Accelerate B and Dan Halliday said the slide in Church Beck was a high point (one of the more popular answers), while the low point was sitting freezing in a bothy bag waiting for the abseil on Esk Buttress. (The wet trek on the central fells was another popular answer ... not surprisingly.) Halliday was one of the younger competitors in the race at 24, while his team mate Cas Bullard is 26 and they were among a high number of younger racers taking part. Halliday was also in his first multiday race as was another of his team, Dave Spence, so the Accelerate result was an impressive one.

Another young team were Fit4Purpose and for Ryan Richards finishing was the fulfilment of an ambition held for 7 years. After seeing a film of Eco Challenge on TV he’d volunteered at ACE Races at the age of 17 and then gone on to race in many ACE Race and Open Adventure events. “It’s all about finding the right team and partner for racing,� he said, “and we’ve moved up from 12 and 24 hour events for this one. We only had 3 hours sleep during the race and we now know our weaknesses in long races and can work on them for next time.�

A much more experienced team with a background in many Open Adventure Races were Anquet/ClaritylFA.co.uk, one of many teams with 2 male and 2 female racers. In this case the team were two married couples, Ian and Judith Hughes, and David and Ruth Johnson. “That was a totally amazing journey,� said Ian Hughes, “a really life enhancing experience. The sunset on Matterdale Common last night was a great moment for us, and Dave was moved close to tears. I think we do these races because we can and to see where they lead us. We’ll probably still be talking about this for years to come. “ His wife added, “We’ve had a great time and we are still friends ... and still married!�

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