Behind the Scenes: Yorkshire Dales Open 5, 3 Mar 2013

The March 2013 Haglofs Open 5 was in my backyard.  More or less.  Or at least it was my backyard before I decided to change careers and move to Utah to pursue a job in nutrition.   So I am writing this from thousands of miles away now and wish all of my friends in England a rather tearful goodbye. 

But back to the race, or should I say race planning.  Knowing that this would be my last event in the UK (almost literally as I flew out the next day) I volunteered to help Tom Needham with the planning of the race.  As it turned out, Tom had other things come up and didn't have much time to plan, so I was happy to step up and do a bit more.  My last tour of the local moors, I guess you could say. 

I started with the run course, and with a blank map started wandering around the countryside looking for cool things to attach controls to.   My map soon became littered with notes, cool places to attach controls, cool things to see, and I discovered much more about my lovely backyard than I had imagined.

After the notes came a few meetings with Nicki, more recce time, more revising, and finally the maps.  There were some bumps in the road.  Who knew I wasn't supposed to attach controls to things that weren't actually a feature on the map?  But that tree is out the middle of nowhere all by itself, and it's really cool, can't we use it anyway?!  We got creative with a few locations, and I sacrificed my favorite tree because there was absolutely nothing near it we could use.   (Racers, you got lucky as that saved a bit of up and down on the run!).  Our first bike recce was a muddy, snowy mess...it took us 5 hours to get around half of the course and it was very slow going.   Mentally I was saying YES!...no one is going to clear my course!

When the time came to put out the controls, it hadn't rained for a few days and the going was marginally better.   But the winds were howling and we had two long days of fighting our way out onto the moors while attempting to drive to as many as we could.   When we split up to do some of the run, I  put out a couple of controls, then finally arrived at my final location.  Doh!  I had left all of my cables back at the last control!  #$%@   Huffing back to get my supplies took the energy out of me, and I left the lone control for the next morning instead.

Race day was perfect.  The weather had been dry for 2 weeks, the trails were super fast, it wasn't sunny but at least it wasn't cold or windy either.     I enjoyed the day spent in transition checking all of the racers in and out and watching the smiles on their faces.  A minor hiccup was in the form of a stolen control, near an intersection.  A replacement was put out but that couldn't account for time lost searching for it, sorry.   The leaders didn't seem to care, as they were on the way to clearing the course with time to spare...in perfect weather that's bound to happen.   All in all, everything seemed to go smoothly, even the setup and teardown of the new yellow Haglofs sign.

So thanks everyone for coming to race in my old backyard.  I miss you all, and you are welcome to come visit me in my new backyard, anytime!

Sarah finds my favorite tree!

Adrian on the limestone pavement

The cow "pandas" make a reappearance

Open 5, North York Moors, 6 Jan 2013

For the third month in a row, the weather at the latest Open 5 winter race series has been perfect.  Considering the record rainfalls that have deluged the whole country, this is no mean feat.   The race, held this month near Scarborough in the North York Moors, was even almost warm, at least for January.   Fog blanketed the hills, the transition field held only a scattering of frost, and it hadn't rained in at least a couple of days.   Sunshine, even.  At least for a few minutes here and there. 


Rob and I had caught a ride over with Andy and son Harry, so the drive passed quickly as we caught up on news.  Once registered, the place filled up with old friends, and it was hard to get to talk to everyone.   Sarah had brought a visiting teammate from the states, Adrian had decided to give another Open 5 a go (his last one was the unfortunately flooded Yorkshire Dales race a year ago when we raced as a team), and a crowd of familiar faces trickled in from around the country.

Rob's goal for the day was to see the ocean, so he took off walking toward Scarborough.  (Evidentally we were further away from the town than it seemed, because he had a rather long walk to and from the event center).  He eventually did find the water, and even made it back again as the race was winding down.

The start line was about 1 mile from the registration, to get us closer to the good scenery and farther away from busy roads.  I precariously balanced my bag on my handlebars and coasted downhill to the field.  It was chilly enough that I was happy to get away and start racing.   Right away on the run, I had to make a choice about going out of my way for a control...was it worth it, or not?  I went for this one knowing it might cut into my biking time later.  (It didn't).

I bumped into Adrian a few controls down the road, and we yo-yo'd around the course for a while, not together but getting lost in tiny increments enough to end up at the same controls again and again.  The forest tracks were confusing and muddy and fun, and after and an hour I was pleased to come out on the other side without losing myself.  It was there I made my first and only mistake of the day, which was skipping a 10 pointer that was just beyond the distance that made it worth getting, as if I had some sort of scientific rational for making route choice decisions on such a unique course.   Four hours later I would regret that decision. 

For the meantime, though I felt pretty good about my progress, and kept at a steady run for the other half of the run, getting back to transition just when I wanted.  The bike started off with a big hill...big in these parts meaning a couple hundred meters high...definitely not a mountain or anything.  Controls started getting ticked off the list pretty quickly, and then I was back in another forest.   I snuck in a shortcut on a random forest trail, and found myself, as I usually do in these races, all alone, peacefully enjoying the scenery.

And then came the mud.  A singeltrack trail down a hill that just kept getting deeper.  All I could think was that I was happy to be riding down the hill rather than slogging up.  At the bottom, I was coated in mud and then saw a sign for a "ford".   It turns out the road was the ford...for at least a quarter of a mile, the river/stream/water was diverted onto the tarmac, and racers zipped here and there through the water.  A control route led off from the flood, up a flooded narrow trail.  I left my bike at the bottom, narrowly within the rules, and soaked my feet walking upstream to the control.   Plenty of wet bikers around, but at least our bikes were getting cleaned in the stream! 

It was then that the remaining controls started looking a little thin, and my time left started looking a little long.  I usually don't have this problem.  I had one longer option left, and I debated it for several turns.  Remember last month I tried to do to much and lost due to late return penalties.  This time I opted to skip the long detour and get back safely early.  Much too early.   I pedaled easily, soaked up the scenery, enjoyed just being in the moment, and looked around me at the countryside.  After all, I wouldn't be seeing this too much longer.   Even after slowing down, I got back to the finish 20 minutes early.   I had "the perfect race" finally, except for the early return, but I knew in my heart that it wouldn't be enough for the win. 

Sure enough, I scored higher than I ever had before, but everything is relative.  Three of my competitors scored even higher and sent me back to a distant 4th place.   Oddly enough, my score was enough to put me in 1st place for the series....at least for now.   I won't be around to finish the series, so it's a temporary ascendence, but enjoyable anyway! 

Everyone seemed to have a good day, what with the nice weather and fast biking.  Given the state of mud on the trails, I rather suspect that the controls had been placed to keep us off the worst of the flooded stuff, which might account for the fast racing...or it might not.   All I know is that when I come back with mud splattered on my face and a big grin, it's been a fun day. 


Adrian at the finish!



Andy and Harry looking excited at the start



...and much muddier at the finish



Dark/White Mini-MM, 16 Dec 2012

My second visit to the Peak District in less than a week.  Luckily no rain this time, although the clouds were laying low over the tops.   As I was munching an ever-present apple while walking over to the start hall, I ran into teammate Jon and a carload of his mates, all of which I had met at varying events over the years.   Of course they have a friendly rivalry going between them, so the race was on immediately. 

This Dark/White Event was a 4 hour mini orienteering event.  Although 4 hours of running can only be considered "mini" when you consider their flagship event of the year is a two-day overnight with 11-13 hours of running! Collect as many controls worth high points as you can and get back within the time limit.   I always prefer these orienteering-style events to the straight-line distance because thinking and route planning can trump pure speed. Yay for me 'cuz I'm pretty slow.   Now the challenge was to see if my calculating route could beat the hares.  More specifically, Jon and his mates Tim, Mike and Paul! 

Jon and I agreed to start out together, but after a couple of controls it was clear that I was hyperventilating and he was running away from me.   He took off and I was navigating on my own through the fabled bog district that is the top of Kinder Scout.  (I wore a bright orange shirt just in case I got stuck in one and needed to be rescued! )

Navigation was pretty tricky, especially for a few moments when the fog covered the plateau and I could see nothing but lumpy bogs.  There was a lot of elevation involved, including some sliding descents down gullies and heart-pounding slogs back up again.  It was tough going even downhill, as the heather and dead ferns threatened to catch my shoes with every step and give me a wind-milling excuse for a faceplant.  There was even a few snowdrifts left along the trail at the top.   The tough terrain meant that I used my compass more in this race than I have in all my other races combined...my sense of direction was gone today.   Luckily the compass doesn't have off days, even when your own senses make you think it's broken!

As in most races, the navigation went pretty well until the last hour, when I started calculating how long I needed to get back to the hall before I ran out of time.  Then it seemed the hills got higher and the terrain got tougher, until I doubted I would be back in 4 hours or even 5!.  Luckily, with the finish down in the valley, it was a downhill run to the end, and I was only 5 minutes late, not a big deal in this series.  

Jon was already at the finish, looking well rested from coming in 20 minutes early.  My grin got pretty big when I realized I had tied him in points...I still don't know how that is possible.  Tim and Mike were there too, having taken some eccentric route choices, to say the least.   Since Tim hates being beat by women, it was quite fun to, well...beat him.   By a pretty good margin, I must say!  Paul was nowhere to be seen, and since he had started with us, we knew his late penaties were racking up.  He finally showed up 25 minutes late...needless to say, his final points were only marginally above 0.   Paul's adventures had included running 90 degrees off his intended heading for quite a long time, and then suddenly finding a control that was not at all what he was looking for.   Much less being a long ways from the finish without much time left! 

It was all in good fun, though, and a nice day out with even the sun making an appearance.  Although as one of the shortest days of the year, it appears to hover on the horizon and constantly get in your eyes when you're trying to run, as though it is a sunset which never sets.  Am I really complaining about the sun being out?  Surely not?!? 

It was great to see the guys again....I am acutely aware now that I only have 2 months or so left to live in the UK and see the friends I've made around the country.  Although I'm really excited to move to Utah and start a new career and explore desert terrain, I'll be sad to leave the beautiful country and the friendly people here.

Overall Results

Split Times by Class

No photos from me but check out some good ones by Steve!

Dark/White MTB Orienteering, 9 Dec 2012

What a wacky weather weekend!   On Saturday morning, I was up in the Dales for a short run, and it was cold, calm and clear with few inches of snow on the ground.  Unexpected, really, as there is no snow in Harrogate at all.  It was cold enough I actually wrote my teammates in the Peak district to ask if conditions were icy down there, as the next day I was supposed to ride my mountain bike in a race.  Never recommended when black ice could be around! 

The Peak district wasn't as snowy, and indeed one of my teammates was racing in the Dark/White event as well.  So we met up early the next morning for the 3 hour orienteering event.  I was miserably huddled in my car, as conditions were definitely not icy anymore.  The temperature had risen considerably above freezing, but with it had come buckets of rainfall (isolated over the Peaks, from what I can tell of the radar after the fact).  It was also what I call gale-force windy...the kind of wind that should not happen unless a hurricane eye is nearby, but somehow does anyway. 

We convinced ourselves that since we were there, we should get out of the car and go race.  Gavin and I stuck together for company in our miserableness, along with Nick, who left us behind on the first big hill.  Starting out of a valley town called Hope, as in I "hope" I get back to the car so I can warm up and dry off!, so our only option was to go up a hill.  We choose to go up a hill into the wind, and struggled just to go forward.  At one point, I was pushing my bike up the hill, and a big gust of wind stopped my forward progress, and pushed me back down the hill a few steps.  Impossible to describe how scary that is. 

Gavin met a woman halfway up the hill who had lost her map to the wind (it was probably in London already) and gallantly gave her his map, so he was stuck with riding by my navigation then.  She went on to beat us, how fair is that!?!

Once at the top, our route choice took us along country lanes flooded with rainwater.  Except that the day before they had been frozen, and still had large ice chunks floating in them.  At that point I bitterly regretted not wearing my waterproof socks for warmth!  Although after riding through a deep puddle with water up to my bike axles, it would have gone over the top anyway.   My feet started a slow decline into a state of frozen numbness. 

Our route choices kept leading us farther from Hope, only to be taken partially literally.   In a few lucky sections we flew along with our backs to the wind barely touching the pedals with our frozen feet.  With an hour to go, we turned for home and found that there was a lot of downhill between us and Hope, and even the wind wasn't an issue.  At some point the sun had even come out, which between the wind and the puddles we hadn't really noticed!  I guess there is hope for us after all.  We finished 10 minutes early, which wasn't a minute too soon to save my wooden feet, which I thawed out with dry socks, warm tea, and the car heater.  Plus I gave Gavin a ride to his in-laws and got invited in for a meal! 

Postscript:  After taking my map off my mapboard, which had been folded on fairly carefully to avoid losing it to the gusts and wet, I noticed that we had missed a nearby control which was under a crease.  Bummer.   The trials of wind and rain.  

But it was fun anyway.  Did I just say that?

Dark/White Mini-Orienteering, Coniston, 11 Nov 2012

Wow, another sunny day for a race...although this has been a very wet fall, I've gotten really lucky with time on the hills lately. I am now jinxed for all future events.

The second Dark/White Mini-Mountain Marathon was based in Coniston.  I hadn't been to the Lake District since early July, so it was nice to see the hills again.  Rob was even driving up with me, so I could watch the scenery rather than concentrating on the road.  Windermere reservoir was completely fogged in, but sky was blue when we arrived in Coniston with no chance of rain for the race.

Rob headed off to walk along the water's edge while I knew my day would be spent climbing a lot of elevation.  The area for the race was centered on Coniston Old Man...although I went all the way around the summit, I didn't actually go up and over it.  But there were plenty of other steep hills to make up for that!

I didn't feet terribly great at the start and wondered temporarily if I should just walk around rather than push myself.  That feeling lasted until I got on the clock, and then as predicted I was off and running.  Although I kept my effort to about 90% today...no need to push too hard.

Of course, it had been raining.  A lot.  Every stream and beck was still running almost in flood, so the ground underfoot was like a mini-river.  Sloshing through cold water for minutes at a time out on route was very chilling to my toes...to the point where my feet actually went numb a couple of times. 

I have a love/hate relationship with the Lake District.  I love the views, and often I hate the footing under me.  The rocks tend to be sharp and uneven, likely to be slippery and unstable.  A slip on some steep sections could mean not just a sprained ankle, but a bone busted in so many pieces that only a helicopter could get me out again.   Luckily, I stayed in one piece for the race, but I know my speed suffered as I picked my way down a few cliffy areas to controls. 

But overall, a really fun day out in the hills, amazing clear views of the valleys around me.  I was happy with my navigation and even got in a few minutes early so I didn't have to sprint to the finish.  These navigational races are my favorite type of events...I get to choose how hard and fast I race and which route to take. 

Results are here:  http://www.darkandwhite.co.uk/results/conistonsplittimesbyclassv2.html

Open 5, Scotland, 4 Nov 2012

The opening race of the Haglofs 2012-2013 Open 5 Series is now in the books.  Many of us have been waiting immpatiently all summer for these races to start up again...short, sharp, great competition, and smooth organization.  What more can you ask for in a race, really?

Since Open 5 series races are spread around the whole of the UK, the first one required the long drive up to Scotland.   This would only be my 4th visit up there, and Tom was willing to share the drive up, so the time went fast as I saw more new scenery.  Even the weather cooperated, sunshine and calm winds making us squint up at the hills as we arrived at the start hall.   Come to think of it, the weather for these events is either really good, or really, REALLY bad....perhaps that's the nature of a winter series.  There were chunks of ice in all the mud puddles, so although the sun was shining our feet were very cold. 

The Pentlands is a tiny area of wildness on the edge of Edinburgh, barely far enough way from the motorway to be quiet, yet rough and tough as any fell I've run on.   Rosemary Byde was the guest course planner for the event, commuting from her flat in the city to find exciting places to hide the controls.   And a wonderful job she did too (especially as I ended coming back on time!)

I had a bit of a panic at the starting line, when I really just didn't want to start.  I think mentally it just meant the line between when I was studying the map and all things were possible, to the time when I could potentially get lost, muddy, crash, come back late, or even have perfect race.  Perhaps I was used to racing these events with Sarah, and something just didn't feel right about going out solo!   I got past that "failure to start" moment, and headed off up the narrow lane into the hills, sharing it with cars, bikes, and a few ponies.   The run went really well, I have to say.  I collected all the controls I planned on getting and was back within 2 hours.  Although I came back a little dirtier, after butt-sliding down a steep hill on the grass, and then slipping in the mud.  After regaining my feet I must have looked like I had rolled in red clay....and I wasn't the only one. 

Back out on the bike, I choose the hardest sections first, knowing that I could always zoom home on the roads on the back half of the circle if I was late.  Unfortunately most of the high value controls were on the backside of the circle too!  The trails started out really terrible...steep, boggy, and mostly unridable.  I was pushing my bike, cursing the mud, and wondering if it would ever get better.  Where were all the nice trails everyone was raving about?!?!   In the meantime, I spent 1 hr 40 minutes of my remaining time on the first 1/3 of the bike circle.   The math really didn't add up with that, meaning that I then had 1 hr 20 minutes to do 2/3 of the circle.  Impossible?   I started wondering how many HOURS I would be back late to the finish....

Luckily for me, the trails improved when I reached a reservoir, and I sped along on tarmac and level trails to the bottom half of my route and the highest value control of the day.  Whew.   Although there were still a lot of controls to find and I couldn't afford to make any mistakes.  The land continued to be pretty flat, with fast trails, and I found myself with with possibly enough time to everything I wanted.  Well, not everything I wanted, but everything I could realistically collect!   However there was one off-road section remaining and if it was boggy I knew I would get back late.  I skipped a control immediately, to make sure that I could get back on time, which I did with 4 minutes to spare.

I felt like I had done really well, and I was happy with my route choices in the end.  Much happier than I had been 1 hr 40 minutes into the bike section, that's for sure!   Unfortunately two other female solos were able to best me by just 5 points to push me down into 3rd place.  Kudos to them and the race is on for next month!  

Nidderdale Bike Orienteering, 13 Oct 2012

How cool is it to have a checkpoint near my house! 

This was the last race in the summer series of the North Yorkshire Mountain Bike Orienteering club (NYMBO) (although I missed all the rest of them).  The race was held in Dacre Banks in the Nidderdale valley, which is only a couple of miles from my house, so I rode my bike to the start as a little warm-up.   The race map, I was excited to see, covered the area including Brimham Rocks and my own backyard to the south!   Due to my accumulated forays on foot and bike into the neighborhood, I knew all of the roads and trails pretty well.   I figured this would help me out with my route choices. 

It was another absolutely gorgeous weekend in Yorkshire, sunny, calm, and not too cold.  (Two in a row, I know that's almost unheard of!?!)  It was really muddy from all the recent rains, though, so I rapidly got my feet wet and my bike muddy and stayed that way for the rest of the 4 hour score course.   There are plenty of hills leading out of the river vally, and the course designers put controls on what seemed like all of them!  I was able to plan a route that seemed like it would avoid at least a few, plus get some high value controls on the edges of the map.  (Plus I was able to avoid a really nasty muddy trail near my house). 

Time got away from me at the end, and I was a few minutes late into the finish, but I had a really good day out.  Guess local knowledge really does help, as I ended up first lady overall, and 13th out of 85 participants. 

Results are HERE

Rab Mountain Marathon, 6-7 Oct 2012

Sarah and I are back together again for the 2012 Rab Mountain Marathon.  After all, we did win the Elite class last year (although we actually aren't that fast).  Not that we were gunning for it again...our summer activities had been pretty energetic and we had agreed that walking might be a more fun way to see the area.  However, we had still entered the "Elite" class, only because the extra hour each day of competition meant that we had less time to be cold in camp.  (Rab, if you are reading this, please rename the Elite category as Long, instead.  After all, it's just the same course over 13 hours instead of 11 over the two days).  Perhaps then more people would enter this category and we would have some, errr...competition.  Yup... newsflash... we won our class again this year, but this time because we were the only entries.  Bummer.

Anyway, this year's Rab MM was up in the Cheviots, near the border of Scotland.   This would be a first visit to the area for me, and I was prepped for it by friends with horror stories of the bogs, which must be running full given the large amounts of rain falling this year!   But the weather forecast was good, actually great...my fingers were crossed the whole week that the sunshine would actually stick around.  The stars were out for the drive up, which went fast as Sarah, Tony and Paul kept me awake and entertained. 

The Rab is a score event, meaning that each control is assigned a point value, and the more controls you can reach in the time limit, the more points you finish with.  The challenge is to choose a route which nets lots of high value controls while still reaching the finish within the time limit.   Unfortunately the highest value controls are also some of the hardest to reach, for example a hilltop, a boggy valley, a steep climb, or just tough, nasty tussocky ground. 

We managed to get lost trying to find our first checkpoint.  Yep the very first one.  I guess we weren't mentally switched on to our navigation yet.  In any case it took the first hour to get to any points to our name, which was quite pathetic.  We picked it up a little after that, making good progress towards the highest point in the area, known as The Cheviot.   Very original.   However, our progress bogged down (literally), when we hit the steep climb to Hedgehope Hill, and then the peat hags that followed after.  It was several hours of slogging through terrain that was sometimes boggy, often very bumpy, and covered with heather or dead ferns.  Tough going.   Hours of tough going.  I managed to faceplant myself at least 3 times, luckily always when I was carrying the camera so Sarah couldn't record my indignities.  She did laugh...and then always gave me a hand back up!

Finally we reached the Pennine Way on top of the Cheviot at about 800 meters.  We felt rediculously speedy running on the sections of large paving stones, which somehow hadn't sunk into the bogs below them (yet).   The control with the highest value of the day would have required us to leave the nice stones and take off back into the bogs.  Luckily for our feet, we were running out of time and couldn't get to it.  Instead we picked up a couple of easier points, and made it into midcamp with just 3 minutes to spare.






It was a nice evening in camp, with my tiny alcohol stove cooking away (it really isn't meant to cook meals for 2 hungry people, as it took about an hour of constantly cooking water to get us both warm and fed.)  Well, fed anyway.  By the time the sun went away, we were wearing all of our clothing and starting to get chilled despite the hot chocolate. Paul was especially cold as he had forgetten any spare socks!  We were happy to climb into our tents for the night at the late old time of 6 pm.  Yes, we went to bed at 6 pm...and happy to be there.   We hadn't gotten much sleep the night before so being horizontal felt great.   Although my Klymit sleeping mat had developed a slow leak, so I slept basically on the grass with no padding...that wasn't so nice. 
 

Last year's prize kept us warm overnight!

12 hours later, we forced ourselves to crawl out of the warm (but wet) tent and start packing up.  It was still dark, as the later date this year for the Rab meant that we had a full HOUR more of darkness than last year.  Yup, we are losing 4 Minutes of daylight every day in October here.  The tent, soaked from dew and our own breathing, had made our sleeping bags damp as well.  It's hard to stay away from the fabric walls with two people inside a tent really sized for one.  As soon as we were out of the tent, the wetness cooled quickly, and as I was taking it down, it all suddenly flashed into ice.  It was cold.  The grass was frosty and my fingers were freezing.  Good motivation to get going and warm up out on the course. 

Despite the cold, we knew it was going to be another beautiful day of sunshine.  As we ran, the layers started coming off one by one until we were down to just a shirt and tights.  A few more degrees and we would have been wishing for shorts, with no wind and the sun actually adding warmth to the day.  We had learned a little from our route on Day 1, and chose controls on Day 2 which would keep us to known tracks and roads as much as possible.  As we went back east to the finish, the lumps and bumps (translation: hills and peat hags) got smaller and smaller.  Our traveling speed actually got faster on the level terrain, despite the tiredness in our legs, and we picked up more points on the second day than on the first.  With an hour less of racing.  Yay.  It was nice to finish but I could have stayed out in the sunshine a lot longer, given that we don't actually see that much of it here. 

Rab put on a great race as usual.  I'm sure they order up good weather months in advance for this!

Results are HERE

(Several photos courtesy of Dark & White) 

At the finish

Paul, Tony and I relaxing in camp



4 Border Collies waiting patiently for their farmer!