Chase The Ace

Rob / 25.04.2002

“I’ve got some unfinished business with ACE Races, and want to finally win it, but it’s hard as there is always someone new popping up, like the guy starting a minute behind me.� Chris McSweeny was talking as he got ready to race at ACE Base, which was once again at Birches Valley on the edge of Cannock Chase – the same venue as the last ACE in 2001.

The man he was worried about was Brendan Bolland, a top class navigator and runner. He never mentioned Tom Gibbs, who beat him to the title last year, maybe as Gibbs was playing down his chances. “I’ve been injured and unable to run for 6 weeks so will take it easy.� Gibbs said, as a pig swooped low overhead. Neither of them mentioned Marc Laithwaite.

The competition was just as intense in all the other classes. Annette Morris, the defending ladies champion had Liz Cowell to contend with, Andy Smith and Howard Lowe knew David Fryer and Kim Collison would once again push them all the way in the male pairs and the team favourites ‘The North Face’ had some problems of their own. Both Keith Byrne and Paul McCarty had been in the Red Bull Northern Exposure earlier in the week, and McCarty had been pulled out due to severe sickness.

“I only started eating again yesterday,� he said, “my girlfriend thinks I’m mad …… and she’s probably right!� After the first couple of hours of the X-country challenge he had more troubles. “I thought it was a 3 hour run, then I found out it was 4! The team towed me the last hour – I was running on empty.� (They seemed to be the only team towing in the race.)

There were lots of trails on the hilly heath land, not all marked on the map, so careful attention was needed, and Laithwaite lost ground on this first stage through navigational errors. It was to be the story of his race, fast but with too many mistakes. Gibbs raced back in knowing he’d cleared all the controls, but was disgusted to find he was 7 seconds late, incurring a point penalty.

In the past, with timing on a watch he’d have got away with it, but Sportident electronic timing was now in use, and that times to the second. A lot of competitors were new to the system, where each racer or team has an electronic key to put into a control box at each checkpoint. The marshals had to shout a lot to remind them what to do, but when they got back and were immediately given a print out of their checkpoints and times they were impressed. All except Gibbs! He still lead though.

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