How The Race Works

Rob Howard / 10.08.2014

Although ITERA is following the standard ARWS rules for expedition races in the series there are always variations in how individual races run, so here’s a general run down of how things work at ITERA.

In this race teams are given all their maps, which are pre-marked with the course, and a route book with instructions. Open Adventure put a lot of work into their race maps (they are the best in the business) and keep the route book and instructions as clear and simple as they can.

Racers all have a timing chip attached to their wrist to record their times in (and sometimes out) of checkpoints (CP’s). They have one each, attached to their wrists with a secure band (like a hospital tag) to ensure all team members visit a checkpoint.

All teams are also given a tracking unit, so the race and those of you following at home can see where they are!  These help the race keep everyone safe, can resolve disputes and distract friends and family from their work all week. They are very addictive! Coverage will be good but won’t be 100% and there may be times when the trackers are not moving but this isn’t a cause for concern. Teams could be sleeping and there is a caving checkpoint where they leave them outside for example.

There are transition areas (TA’s) between stages and some teams may spend a long time at these.

The course has been designed to allow all the teams to get to the finish line by managing how many of the checkpoints they visit. On day one all of the checkpoints are mandatory, so everyone will be doing the same thing up to the zipline challenge and after that there are only a couple of mandatory checkpoints, and teams can choose whether or not to visit the rest.

Their route book specifies a penalty time for each checkpoint, so they know what the penalty will be if they miss one. So, for example, if they don’t go to the Snowdon summit CP there is a 6 hour penalty. At the finish the race will be scored on time taken on the course.

This can be a bit confusing as teams who are the furthest on the course may not necessarily be winning - they could have a lot of penalties from taking a shorter route. (The leaderboard on the live race website will show who has done what, and the penalties they have.)

The expectation is that the top teams will complete the whole course and others will need to miss checkpoints along the way to make the finish, which they have to reach before the cut off at 09.00 on Saturday 16^th.  (The winners are expected on Friday afternoon.)

Teams who have missed a checkpoint will be listed on the leaderboard as Short Course, but this will apply to most of the teams.

Teams are restricted in where they can go as there are some areas out of bounds and in generally they are not allowed on main roads.

The race also has a system of coloured race bibs. All the teams will start with 3 red and one white bib – if they miss a checkpoint they swap the white bib for a black one to show they are a short course team.

There are also two important cut-off times along the way.

The first is at Portmeirion and teams leave there by 2pm on Tuesday to paddle to Barmouth. They have to be off the water by 8pm.

The second is on Thursday when they must start the paddle on the River Wye by 2pm and be off the water by 9pm.

The last thing to keep in mind is that the course is subject to change due to bad weather, which given the forecast could happen. This particularly applies to the paddling stages (sea state and wind), and some of the mountain scrambles (wind and wet weather).

There are contingencies for everything of course and as the race progresses we’ll keep you posted on exactly what is happening.

You can follow the live race webiste at http://live.itera.co.uk/index.htm 

­

See All Stories On This Race