The Sting in Stirling
The Prize Giving
Rob Howard / 25.08.2012
The adidas TERREX Sting in Stirling adventure race came to a close early this afternoon with the prize giving ceremony at The Peak sports centre. A mountainous buffet of good food had once again been laid on Clive Ramsay catering in the main hall and once everyone had had their fill Nick Gracie started the proceedings by asking all the teams to give themselves a round of applause for all their efforts and saying he hoped they’d enjoyed their journey through an amazing part of Scotland.
“We really wanted the race to be a journey and I hope you appreciated that element of the event,” he said. “We also wanted as many teams as possible teams to finish and I think we succeeded in that with 23 teams completing and all the teams except one having at least racer get across the line. And I know Team Mountain Hardwear could have continued after their injury but wisely saved themselves for the World Champs in 3 weeks time. Compared to other World Series events that is a great finish rate.”
He thanked The Peak for their amazing hospitality as a venue and HQ saying they couldn’t have done more to help, and Clive Ramsay got a big round of applause for his 24 hour extreme catering service, as did the volunteers for all their efforts.
The ‘Spirit of the Event’ award was given to Team Tri Active Stirling who decided to enter 18 months ago and threw themselves into Adventure Racing with great enthusiasm. Nick Gracie held up a copy of the Stirling Observer newspaper with a picture of the team on the front cover. There was one medal to give out too, to David Mortlock of Team AVT Asset Management who had the misfortune to crash on the final bike ride and had to go to hospital. (He has promised to finish the ride within the next month!)
The prize giving followed with the top 3 receiving awards and Team Moxie Racers being applauded as the 4th team to finish the full route. James Thurlow gave out the handsome silver trophies and the winners also received certificates for their free entry to the AR World Championships in France in a few weeks time. The winners, Team adidas TERREX, had a final race time of 85 hours (3 and a half days) and the full results are now on the Open Adventure website.
Gracie commented ; “I honestly don’t think it is so important how fast you go as long as you enjoy the experience, with all its highs and lows.” He added, “I’ll give you two top tips as well. Don’t ever retire between 2 and 5 am as everyone feels rubbish then, and if you have to take pedals on and off then get a bigger bike box!”
James Thurlow wrapped things up by saying Open Adventure would once again run their Coast to Coast challenge next year and would return with another expedition race in 2014.
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