The Sting in Stirling
Runaway Leaders
Rob Howard / 22.08.2012
Overnight the competitive situation of the race has changed, for the leaders, and for those teams trying to complete the full course.
When Team Mountain Hardwear returned to Mar Lodge after their orienteering run Anthony Emmet was unwell, and this quickly turned into a state of near collapse, forcing the team to stop. He had bashed his shin during a capsize on the river Tay (his leg had been briefly caught) and this was troubling him, but all he could express about he felt was ‘Something is not right!’ While the medic checked him over team mate Sally Ozanne put a tent up hoping a couple of hours sleep would be enough for a recovery, but the report from the medic wasn’t encouraging and in Ozanne’s words, “He just seemed to let go.”
The team were found somewhere to sleep in the lodge and Emmett was up and around in the morning when the team officially retired from the race, the first to do so. Mountain Hardwear are participating in the World Championships in a few weeks time in France and recovery for that race will be their priority now.
This has left Team adidas TERREX as the runaway leaders of the race – they reached House of Mark at the end of the cycling stage early on Wednesday morning and had set out on the long trek over the Cairngorm mountains from there while the majority of teams were still at Mar Lodge. They now have a huge lead and Nick Gracie’s comment is that for them this is not a long race. “Their final racing time will be something like 3 and a half days,” he said, “something very fast and they’ll have had a lot of sleep too.”
One factor in this is that the last two CP’s on the long trek, 37 and 38, have been withdrawn to allow more of the teams still on the full course the opportunity to complete it. Currently there are 10 teams in this position, but most are well behind adidas TERREX and this decision will give them a lot of encouragement.
The other side of the coin is that is shortens the course for the leaders too, and they will most likely be back at Grandtully on the River Tay over 12 hours before the paddling stage restart time. The event is almost turning into a stage race for them, which just shows the difficulty of setting a course to meet world elite standards and encouraging rookie teams into expedition adventure racing at the same time.
As of Wednesday morning one other team was non-competitive, this is Rocky Road who had Maria Dixon pull out with hypothermia, though she hopes she might rejoin the team later for the kayaking.
At Mar Lodge this morning it was a scene of feverish activity as lots of teams were still in transition as the 8am deadline to move out of the hall approached. They were busy eating, resting and packing as the organisers gradually began to shift all the bags outside onto a tarpaulin and the office was moved into another estate building.
Moving transition outside is yet another trial for the racers as the midge swarms are fierce this morning! (All the experienced Scottish racers have their midge head nets with them.)
SleepMonsters
