adidas TERREX Swift
Sunshine and Satisfaction
Rob Howard / 04.06.2012
The race wrapped up at 11.20 on a sunny Monday Bank Holiday morning in Settle town centre when Team endurancelife strolled up to the finish line. They were the last team to finish, and also the last fully ranked team, having completed the whole course and come in 4th place overall. There was a large crowd of officials and interested tourists to cheer them in and the race will close in the main square with the prize giving at one o’clock.
Teams had finished steadily through the morning, with Mountain Hardwear taking second place and For Goodness Shakes Nectar coming in third in the hours of darkness. The FGS team looked in better shape than the teams ahead of them and Course Planner Dave Johnson said, “They ran the race at their own pace, while the front two teams pushed each other at a harder pace.” (The top 3 were the only fully ranked teams until endurancelife came in as the last finishers.)
As the morning progressed the holiday crowds grew and the sun came out to warm everyone up and many of the teams said the sunrise on the Three Peaks was one of the highlights of the race. Claire Maxted of the Trail Running team commented, “It was really misty at dawn but then the sun burnt it off and there was a fantastic view.” Other teams picked different highlights.
Paul Pickering of endurancelife said his was the paddling on the river Lune and this was one of several parts of the course the race had worked really hard to get access to. None of the competitors will have paddled it before and all enjoyed starting in the Dales and then making their way down through the City of Lancaster and out to the coastal estuary. It was a journey in itself. Race Director James Thurlow said he was very grateful for the support of the National Park – at Hawes the race was even allowed to use the National Park offices. “They are really supportive,” he said, “and trust us to do things correctly, and we recognise it’s a privilege to be allowed to hold these kind of events in the National Park.”
The mountain bike orienteering was very popular too, and Team Sardine will not forget getting into the technical ‘play park’ in the dark and struggling to find their way out again. They were one of the many short coursed teams who made choices on what parts of the course to do, and this worked well, with all the teams finishing in good time having taken different options. Many missed the two furthest mountain biking controls on the long cycle ride, and as the race drew to a close several had to miss out some of the Three Peaks.
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