Open 5 Adventure Race, Shropshire Hills, 6 Nov 2011

The second race of the Haglöfs 2011/2012 Open5 Series was held in Church Stretton in Shropshire. Sarah and I had a very early start to make the long trek down from up north, which we were dreading.  But even the drive was beautiful, as a brilliant sunrise gave us views of fog-covered valleys with the tops of trees breaking through.  It promised to be a perfect day, with light winds and a cloud-LESS sky.  How often does that happen!?!

My only previous visit to this area was on the LDWA Housman 100, which featured the Long Mynd ridge from about mile 73-80.  You may recall that during this part I was bawling my eyes out this was a pretty tough section of the 100 miler for me, and I didn't have good memories of the ridge at all.  I was hoping to change that today.

From a little research on the ‘net, I had discovered that the Long Mynd area was well-known for its great mountain biking trails (and also hopefully discovered which trails were better avoided!)   At registration I was gratified to see that the MTB map covered the exact area that I had predicted, and felt as prepared as I could be without having recce’d the area ahead of time.  We messed around studying the map until we almost ran out of time in the start window, and began to hurry it up.  The sun was out, but it still felt quite chilly, so a reluctance to strip down to our race clothing might have held us up a bit!

For our second Open5 together, Sarah and I had made some adjustments to our kit to match our speed to each other.   Turns out this meant I was carrying the pack on the run, while Sarah was floating free as a bird with no luggage bouncing on her back!   We had also reluctantly agreed to leave the camera at home, which I’m sure saved us 20 minutes at least 30 seconds.  Although it really was a shame, with the brilliant sunshine we sure could have taken some blurry wonderful photos while running down the singletrack!   The plan worked out perfectly, though, we ran at the same speed through a run course that had it all…lovely trails, great views, and a bit of heather-bashing. 

Several run-ins with our biggest competition, Fi and Fiona (were they following us?) gave us motivation to keep the pace high and nab all the points we could.    We discovered afterwards that we had run/ridden almost identical routes as they had, which gave a very positive spin to our navigational choices.

Our run route went a bit long and we were back into transition in 2 hours 10 minutes.   A quick change of shoes and some map faffing (Sarah had left her map board at home, but who knew that zip ties work just as well?) and we were headed out again.   Within a mile I realized that my back tyre was really low, and Sarah came to the rescue by actually knowing how to use the CO2 pump that I had always carried with me and never needed to use.   (Note to self…try out gear at home).  Within minutes we were back on the road.

From that point it was a long slog up a grassy trail all the way to the top of the Mynd.  Far from having a nice ride along the ridge, the controls then took us down/up, down/up, down/up, and up some more.    To keep stay close together on the hills, we pulled out the tow rope and tried it out for the first time.  Just a length of cord tied to my backpack, with Sarah holding the other end at her handlebars, it worked quite well.  Although I never felt much pull on it, so I think just having it there gave a physiological boost and helped match our speeds.

Time started running out on us while we were still high on the ridge, and reluctantly we had to sacrifice last control on our list, which included the best downhill singletrack in the area.  Bummer.  We took a shorter route instead, but still found ourselves dibbing the last control high on the ridge with only 15 minutes to go.  I started to worry.  The descent was a long, steep, never-ending grassy pasture track, and as I rattled down with my brakes clenched, I made a mental note to check my brake pads after the race.  Finally we bottomed out and hit (I mean, we opened) our first (and last) gate of the whole race. 

Back on the road, we had 3k or so to go with just 5 minutes left on the clock.   You guessed it, that wasn’t enough time.   My watch gave me the bad-news splits, and although we pedaled our little hearts out, we finished over 6 minutes late.   Dibbing in, we were still thrilled to see a score of 491, meaning that we had left less than 100 points out on the course.  It was another perfect race, as our final control still gave us more points than we lost in late penalties. 

We were still stuffing our starving bodies with jacket potatoes and sticky toffee pudding (kudos to the caterers!) when the awards ceremony started.  Event planner Jims’ face made a big “O” as he looked at the scores for the women’s pairs, and he commented that it was very close.   Having tied for first the last event, we were getting used to this (!), and waited for the 3^rd place score to be read out.  490 points for Jill and Sharon (3^rd again).  YES…that meant we were 2^nd (again).   Fiona and Fi took first, but were only 3 points ahead of us.  Turns out they had taken a wrong turn near the finish and came in late as well.  We had expected them to be way ahead of us, so 3 points felt like nothing. 

Two close seconds put us in the lead for the series, although in our category I predict it's going to take 3 perfect 100s to actually win.  We're sitting at 199.39 after 2 so we'll see if our other races go as well (fingers crossed!)

We hid from the camerawomen this race and hence there are no photos of us, but I've stolen borrowed a few others from the Open Adventure photographers.  Mostly they just showcase the absolutely brilliant sunshine and wonderful views we had while racing!  Results and photos here.



Coast to Coast AR Television Broadcast dates

You may have noticed a film crew out during your last running race or triathlon.  Dream Team Television covers many popular fell running, triathlon and adventure racing events in the UK.  I certainly ran into a few cameramen (not literally!) during the 4 days of the Adidas TERREX Coast to Coast Adventure Race.   Even got to wave to the helicopter as the race leaders passed me going over a heather-covered moor. 

Dream Team broadcasts air on UK Channel 4 throughout the year.   Here's the link, notice that times and dates may change http://www.dreamteamtelevision.co.uk/broadcast-dates/

I may be featured in one of their next productions, as I finished third woman in the Coast to Coast Adventure Race back in August! 

adidas TERREX Coast to Coast
Part 1 – Sunday November 13th 6.55–7.20 on Channel 4

Part 2 - Sunday November 20th 0730 am (or could be at 0655)

(If you don't have UK TV then hopefully there will be an online version available later)

I can't wait to see it, as this was the coolest race I've ever done, loved every minute!  

Round Rotherham, 50 Mile, 15 Oct 2011

Well, the 2nd time is the charm for this race, I guess.  This is the first time I've repeated a race since moving to the UK, and my results are night and day, literally.  In 2010 I started in the dark with the walkers, got horribly lost, and finished in the dark.  In 2011, I started in daylight with the runners, and finished well before the sun went down. 

In the hall before the start, I ran into Nick, (his photos are here) who I hadn't seen since bumping into him in the middle of the night on the Open24, if that even counts.  Also met fellow blogger Mike (good photos of the day) who was attempting his first Round Rotherham but knew the area well having grown up here. 

From the tiny bumbags that many runners were carrying, we concluded that there were no kit requirements, joy! I gleefully left all the normal junk in the car, carried my smallest pack (still almost empty) and didn't even have a waterproof top (gasp!).  It was chilly at the start, so I finally got to try out my Pertex jacket, usually passed over for a fully waterproof version.

The forcast was for sun, light winds, and nice temperatures.  In other words, a beautiful day to be out running.  My goal was to not get lost, and perhaps even attempt a sub 10 hour race.  The dry conditions meant that the course would be fast, and with only gentle undulations it is a very runnable route.   I think even road shoes would have worked for me today, but I was happy wearing comfy trail shoes.

With 6 miles clicked over in the first hour to give me a bit of cushion later, I settled into a steady 5 mph pace, which is what I would need to finish in 10 hours.  I found I could actually keep up a pace quite a bit faster than than, but with lost time at checkpoints and walking up a few hills, it all averaged out.

I had only minor bumps in the race, including somehow choking on a cracker I had eaten 5 minutes before at the first checkpoint.  Somehow a stray crumb worked its way down the wrong tube, and I coughed until tears were streaming down my face.  The guy behind me was concerned and made sure I had water in hand.  Luckily it sorted itself out shortly after. 

Then, just before the second checkpoint, I tripped over a pebble and did a faceplant onto a gravel road.  The same guy happend to be behind me again, and gave me a hand up after I checked all my moving parts for injuries.  Escaping with just a few scratches, I continued on for a drama free rest of the race. 

Never got lost!!!!!   Again I had a really fun time navigating using the Wainwright style maps that make it a whole different experience than map reading.  I noticed a lot more landmarks along the way because I was really forced to watch for signs and turnoffs.  It was amazing how much of the route I recognized from the year before.  I gave a middle finger salute to the bridge that had caused me almost 10 extra miles of running in 2010, and noticed a few other spots where I had gotten a little lost.  Not this time.  Many thanks to Henry Marsden for his meticulous upkeep of the route and the maps. 

With a few hours left to go, I was still on pace for 10 hours, until I flipped to the last page and realized that the course wasn't 80k , it was 81k!  An extra kilometer to run suddenly seemed to far to go.  So did running another 3 hours at a pace that was already hurting quite a bit.  However, the miles kept clicking over, and finally I was running through the part of the course that I had covered in the dark last year.  I knew if I could keep it up for just a bit longer I might make it.   With a few miles left to go, I picked up a follower who had lost his maps, and we attempted to run to the finish, laughing at how hard we were trying to beat an arbitrary time limit, and concluding that 9:59 was no better than 10:01.  Anyway, the finish flags came in sight when my watch still showed 10:00 hours flat, and I finished with a time of 10:00:36.    Definitely a PR as last year it had taken me 14:30 with my 10 mile detour!

Results on Henry's website can be found here

Open 5 Lake District, 2 Oct 2011

For my third Open 5 adventure race, I teamed up with Sarah Keast, as we figured that women's pairs gave us the best chance of being competitive, and even (dare I say it) winning something.   Sarah and I run and bike at about the same pace, and since we managed to share a small tent together on the Rab Mountain Marathon last weekend without any troubles, I guess we work together pretty well!   There are 7 races in this year's winter Haglofs Open 5 series, so we are hoping to get in as many as we can, schedules and weather permitting, of course.  We are calling ourselves "Team 29er" as we have matching mountain bikes with big wheels, hopefully an advantage on the biking sections!

Well, after a week of the nicest weather I've seen yet in the UK, normal conditions returned on race day, so we woke up to drizzle and clouds.  The race started in Staveley just on the edge of the Lakes district.  I could have sworn I had never been there before, until we got the maps at registration and I overheard mention of the night biking section of the Open24 back in July.  Suddenly memories of a horrible rough trail ridden at 3 in the morning came rushing back to me, and I pointed out that particular trail to Sarah so we could make sure and not ride it!   But the location immediately made much more sense to me and a few checkpoints were even similar to what we had found on the Open 24, so that helped us decide our route choices for the mountain bike section. 



No, we're not lost.  I just look lost.

 We decided to run first, and after dibbing out, quickly plotted all the controls for the bike and the run.  This helped us decide how long and how far we would run, to give us time to get back for lots of biking, as there were more points available on the bike section.  It was calm and muggy (can that word even apply in the UK?), and we were quickly sweating even in a t-shirt.  Sarah had forgotten her watch, so I was calling out time splits as the sweat dripped off our noses.  The run route was easily broken up into two loops (unfortunately we had to run right back past transition halfway through).  We made good time and only had to knock a couple of controls off of our planned, if somewhat ambitious, route. The second loop was a boggy hill with several lumpy tops, which made for an interesting search of one control with just a description of "rock on knoll" or something like that!  We found it quickly enough after splattering mud up to our knees, and we were back in transition just outside of the 2 hours we had allocated ourselves. 

With three hours left on the bike, right out of the gate it was a steep uphill to a control wirth a lot of points.  Sarah was threatening to throw up after eating a gel and pushing hard up the hill, but luckily she didn't and we carried on.  I must say that there were a lot of hills involved in the route we had picked, but we managed to avoid any really rough, unridable sections by working the roads as much as we could.  Even so, the minutes passed quickly and we wondered if we would have to sacrifice a few controls to get back in time.

Fortunately, the next off-road section was very rideable, and I even caught puny air on a few rocks, finally feeling comfortable on my new bike. We did run a bit low on water as it was a warm day, and refilled from a questionable source just to wet our throats a bit.  There were a lot of gates to open and close, which must have slowed us up quite a bit, but we reached the road back to Stavely with 45 minutes to go.  This gave us time to backtrack on the road and pick up some large points at controls which were easy to reach.  I kept a close eye on the clock, calculating that we could pick up everything we had planned on and still make it back on time.  Sarah was cursing behind me when I turned up a gravel road to the last detour, but she gamely held onto my wheel.  With 15 minutes to go, we were turning the pedals for all we were worth for the mostly downhill run back into town.   Luckily we didn't let up even after it seemed we would make it, as we came back into the finish chute with less than 15 seconds left on our 5 hour deadline!



Sarah collapses at the finish....

 We felt we had done pretty well, and I anticipated that a few penalty points might have been enough to drop us out of contention.  It was a nail-biting long wait for the awards ceremony, helped along by some yummy veggie pasta and baked potato provided by Wilf's Cafe.  When third place in women's pairs was announced (and the score was lower than ours), we started bouncing up and down in excitement.  Well, turns out we tied for first (in points) but came second as the winning pair came in 7 minutes ahead of us.  

Tied for first sounds so much better, though, doesn't it?  :)


And then is smiling again a few minutes later!

It was a great day out on the hills, as always, a perfect start to the series, and we'll see you all next month for the Open5 in Shropshire!

2nd in Women's Pairs



Rab Mountain Marathon, Wales, 24-25 Sept 2011

A Mountain Marathon isn't really a marathon, unless you want it to be one.  Or two, or three...   Actually it's two days of mountain orienteering, while carrying enough gear to camp in the mountains and cook your own meals.  Mountain Marathons seem to be quite a tradition in the UK, as events fills up and amazing amounts of people are willing to carry their own gear and potentially suffer bad weather while camping with minimal equipment.  While you can do it solo, my friend Sarah convinced me to enter the Rab MM with her a pair, meaning that we could share the weight of tent and stove, toothbrush, etc.

We arrived in northern Wales on Friday night, and wondered if the bad weather was going to make the weekend a nightmare.  Weather forecasts predicted rain, wind, and fog on the mountaintops, oh joy.  While camping near the car that evening, I kept expecting the wind gusts to tear the tent apart, and didn't get a wink of sleep.    Mist arrived the next morning, and the dampness followed us all the way to the start.   After making a chaotic mess on the floor of the school while Sarah and I sorted our gear and hopelessly tried to make our packs lighter, we fit everything in (including way too much food), and set off. 

Yes, the winds were strong.   

So much for the waterproof socks...

Yes, it rained a bit. 
Yes, there was a bit of fog. 
Yes, my pack was heavier than I have ever imagined carrying (while running, at least). 
Yes, the footing was boggy, bumpy, rough, trackless, and unfirm.
Yes, the hills were really steep and torturous. 

But you know what? After a couple of hours I was really enjoying myself, even as I worried that we would get soaking wet in our minimalist tent and freeze to death that night.  :) 

I even (somewhat successfully) used a compass bearing to navigate between a couple of points we went to.  Although I must admit that our navigation was mostly by lemming (i.e. other fools ahead of us marking the points by digging in their packs right next to the dibbers!)
  

Photo courtesy of Gill Watson

Amazingly enough, the sun came out and the wind dropped in the afternoon, and the views over the sea to Anglesey were clear and beautiful as the tide receded.  Sarah and I had entered the Elite class, meaning that our time limit was an hour longer than most of the entries (truly, we just did it to minimize the time we might have to hunker down in the tent during a long soggy night).  So after 7 hours of racing, as we dropped down into camp, most people had already finished and set up their tents. 

We were quickly hailed by an assorted motley crew of other adventure racers, (including Tom, Gill, Karen, Mick, Dave, Emma, et al), and set up our tent near them.  Water came from a clear, fast flowing stream, and we could finally relax, change into a dry shirt (what luxury!), and get warm in the sunshine.  With several hours left to kill before dark, we all spent the time cooking multiple courses of cous cous, ramen, and hot chocolate, listening to the banter of the camp, and enjoying the nice weather. 

Sarah's tent was indeed minimalist, but we managed to fit in pretty comfortably, and the tight space probably helped keep some heat in against the chilly night.  I only had an old summer sleeping bag so I was grateful I didn't have to take extreme measures to keep warm.   

Gill brings a (plastic) bottle of wine all the way to camp!

The next morning was still calm, sunny, and almost warm.  While it had taken me a few hours to get into the MM mood the day before, this morning I was ready to hit the hills and capture as many points as we could get to in our 6 hour time limit.  Unfortunately, many of the points with high values were repeats of the day before, but we did manage to see new terrain while linking them all together into a fast route. 

The wind picked up significantly during the morning to gusts of over 50 mph, but our route meant it wasn't a headwind too often.  I did make sure to keep a really good grip on my map as it was the only thing not attached to my backpack!

We made really good time by finding a few hidden small trails, and added more points to our route with revised fast pace.  With 40 minutes to the deadline, we were still 4 kilometers from the finish and climbing a big hill.  Our legs were trashed, I was panting like a maniac when we dibbed in at the summit, and then it was a long run down a slope to the final checkpoint and the finish.   Just as I was saying something to the effect of, "If we push we can still make it", I tripped and fell into a bog.  Then had to beg Sarah to give me a hand up, I was laughing too hard and felt like a upside-down turtle!  We carried on, through another bog that almost covered my knees for a few steps, unfortuntely Sarah had to come through the same spot as well! 


At the finish!

10 minutes left and 1k to go, we were running as hard as we could (which meant a geriatric walker could have easily passed us), and saw the finish flags with less than a minute left.  In fact, after getting our results, we realized that we had finished with just 20 seconds before the penalties would have kicked in!

We had been behind our competition after the first day of racing, so didn't expect to pull ahead of them.  So when the Rab reps started pulling out the prizes for the awards ceremony, we wondered if we should stay for it or not.   Well, that was a definite YES after we checked the results sheet and found ourselves in 1st PLACE! 

We were grinning like loons when our names were called and we walked up to receive our prizes, which were Rab down sleeping bags.  Perfect timing for me as I had been eyeing them after sleeping chilly in my old bag anyway!  Hmmm, perhaps now I'll have to do another MM, just to use the new sleeping bag!  :)

Results are HERE
 

Sarah and I after the first day, with the field of tents already set up in the valley (to the left of the photo)





1st in Elite Women's category, and our booty, a Rab down sleeping bag!

  

(Photos courtesy of Sarah Keast, and thanks for carrying the camera so I didn't have to!)



I want one of these! (Klymit Inertia X sleeping mat)


Additional Photos of Saturday and Sunday here, we made it into a few of them! (below)



Definitely want one of these sleeping mats!



At the finish!

 

Adidas TERREX Coast To Coast 2011, Day 4

Continued from Coast to Coast, Day 3

Stage 14: Cycle through Vale of York

The final day started with a cold, early morning bike over to Osmotherley and down to Swainby.  The extra early start mean leaving shortly after 5 a.m. for some, but I had moved up a few places on the board (yay!) and headed out at 5:36.  It was still dark enough to need lights, but there was no traffic and again we had a tailwind.  My legs were feeling pretty tortured after 3 days of racing so I took it easy to get warmed up for the following run stage.  It sure felt like it was all uphill, though, and my pace was much slower than I had anticipated.  My goal for the day was to finish in under 30 hours total racing, which mean I would need under about 6 hours 30 minutes on the day. 

Stage 15: Run over Carlton Bank
The run stage finally arrived and there was a chilly wind blowing us up the North Yorkshire Moors.  The bogs of the Dales were long gone, replaced with level paving stones and an obvious path along the Cleveland Way over Carlton Bank.  I had come this way as part of the Osmotherley Phoenix in 2010, so I recognized a good bit of the route and could worry a bit less about my direction finding.  I still managed to go off trail while scrambling up some rocks, but quite minimal and I wanted to see some heather up close, really!  Back on the flagstones, they led all the way down to the road where a steep descent brought us to the next transition area. 


Yup, I always run with my eyes closed...can see the beautiful blooming heather better that way...


Stage 16: MTB across North Yorkshire Moors
With the last run done, it was just our cycle legs which would carry us the rest of the way to Robin Hood's Bay.  Going back up the steep road to the Cleveland Way meant a hike-a-bike for me, but as I was walking up faster than the guy riding in front of me I figured I was the smart one.  Back on the trail, it really was more hike-a-bike with some choosing to carry the bikes up the steep steps.   It wasn't as tough as I had feared, though, and I pulled away from the teams behind me once reaching the path along the moors.  It was level fast riding along the trail and the disused railway, and I made good progress towards my time goals here. 

A few muddy shortcuts and some tarmac sections bridged me over to the long descent to Glaisdale.  By this time I was tired and sore, but also wishing somehow that there was another day of racing as I was having so much fun!  The path was rocky and muddy but also fast, and with my 29er wheels I kept ahead of the teams behind me, managing to get through both MTB stages without falling off!  Progress! 

Stage 17: Cycle along Esk Valley


The camera crew records my finish!

 With clean road tyres I soon found myself pushing my bike up the last steep hill on the final stage.  I tried to do some math in my head (hard to do when exercising, really) and concluded that there was plenty of time to reach the finish for under 30 hours, but pride kept me racing hard.  Unfortunately my tired legs didn't have much left in them, and I strugged to keep up with teams around me riding with MTB tyres.  Finally we were on the graveled old railway which leads up and over the moor, and the ocean came into sight!   My shoes were waiting for me in the transition area, and I tore out of there down the hill toward the finish.   My muscles were all but giving up on me by that point but I knew in two minutes I could finally finish.  I guess my brain was shutting down as well because I forgot to dib in at the finish line and had to go back and get it!  At any rate it was a relief to wear the finisher's medal and clap for the teams starting to stream in.



Trying to breath after 4 days of hard racing...

 I was happy to have held off the leaders for the day as within 5 minutes it seemed most of the front-runners were sprinting in.  The finish area started heaving with people and I found a spot on the grass to watch all the action.  After everyone finished, we had the awards ceremony, and amazingly enough I held in there to finish third in the women's category.  Although there was no photo finish needed, as I was over 4 hours behind Sally in 2nd and 6 hours ahead of Ruth in 4th. 



From left to right:  Sally Ozanne (2nd), Fiona McBryde (1st), Dawn Westrum (3rd)

Stage 4 results are here      Overall results are here  

After I got home, I did some race analysis, and figured out that of 4-5 hours I lost to the women ahead of me, one full hour of it was in transition!  Ouch!!  I thought I had been getting through tranisition pretty fast, and Rob was starting to get the hang of it by the last couple of days.  But I'll have to get faster at those for sure.

My Excel Spreadsheet of all the results + transition times is here

Also lost quite a bit of time on the kayak as I was using a plastic sea kayak and the fast competitors all had surf skis.  Probably lost another hour or two there.  Also lost quite a bit of time on the run sections but no excuses, I guess they are just faster than me as I came into the race as fit as I had every been.   Was psyched that I kept up with them on the biking sections for the most part. 

Most happy that I never got lost, didn't have a flat, didn't get injured, and Rob never got lost either!   Never ever expected to win, was really just hoping to finish, so the 3rd place was just extra credit.  This was a my longest race ever, but I finished feeling pretty strong and confident, so definitely already looking ahead to to the 2 day non-stop Swift and 4-5 day Sting in Sterling next year! 

But most of all, really just enjoyed every minute of my journey across England!
 

Rob and I both happy to reach the finish line!



The Team winners




From Sea to Sea on the Coast to Coast....

 

Adidas TERREX Coast To Coast 2011, Day 3

Continued from Coast to Coast, Day 2

Stage 11: Run over Nine Standards
Well, to start the day off we had a run out of Kirkby Stephen up to the Nine Standards Rigg. 

Home territory!

  I had been up to the peak before on the Yomp Mountain Challenge in 2010, but it had been so foggy that day I hadn't even realized that there was anything but a random checkpoint on top of a hill!  So it was nice to see the 9 rock cairns silhouetted against the sun as we climbed up to them.  It was a gentle gradient but after 2 days of racing for over 8 hours each day, I took it nice and steady to save some running legs for the downhill half. 

It was a bit muddy getting up to the top but nothing too serious...at least until we dibbed in at the cairns and started down the east side.  In a bit of confusion, the race briefing the evening before directed us to take the summer route, but the directions given turned out to be the winter route on the signage.  Anyway, everyone ahead of me was following the winter route so I went that way too.  Immediately there were lines of black scars crossing the route, each one a bog which may or may not eat your shoes for breakfast.  I saw the guy ahead of me sink in past his knees, offered to pull him out (!), and then made sure I stayed well away from that spot.  Also tightened my shoe laces to make sure they stayed on me feet.  It was a long, muddy run down to the creek and then along the trail following the water.   I fell into bogs a few times and was caked in mud from the knees down...even took a bit of a spill, luckily in clean water!

The last few miles of the run seemed to drag on forever, as this was the longest run section of the C2C and also the boggiest.  I was happy to finally see my bike even if it would mean more mud! 

Stage 12: MTB along Swaledale
I had been dreading the MTB stages a bit as I haven't had more than a few months of mountain biking experience and still don't feel too confident off-road on the really technical stuff.  However I was pleasantly surprised at the route and was able to ride most of it and enjoy it.  The first half of the stage was along a river valley with wonderfull views of the steeps cliffs and dales around us.  I had never visited that part of the Yorkshire Dales so it was an introduction to the terrain in my own backyard! 

There were plenty of mud puddles involved in the route but the skies were clear and blue, it wasn't too windy, and for the most part the winds were behind us.  Climbing out of the valley was a really steep push up a grassy bank (dropping the bike would have meant chasing it back down the hill a hundred yards!).  Once out on the moor, the path was mostly rideable again, and the purple heather was beautiful.  I started hearing the helicoptor nearby, and sure enough, looking behind me showed 2 yellow jerseys of the leading team catching up. 



Transition at Castle Bolton

 Earning the top of the hill was wonderful, as it meant a long, gradual descent down to the next transition at Castle Bolton.  I swept along at top speed and managed not to rattle anything loose (like my water bottle), catching a few last boggy sections right before getting waved in by Rob to get my wheels swapped over for the road section. 

Stage 13: Cycle through the Vale of York
It was a shorter day with only 3 stages (appropriate for the 3rd day), and I was feeling strong as I rode away from the Castle.  It was open route choice over to Northallerton; but with a pinch point at where we could cross the Motorway, there was a pretty obvious route.  By this time the wind was blowing pretty strong, but with a westerly route direction it was mostly a tailwind and quite flat as well.  I punched the accelerator and covered the 32 miles in 1 hour 47 minutes.  I don't think my MTB will ever average that speed again...  I came into town after putting some time back into Alex (Solo #15), as we had a friendly competition going on mid-pack, only to lose a few minutes waiting for a train.  I was in good company though with a few race leaders stopped there as well.  I was still able to finish with a time under 7 hours total, which had been my goal for the day.  At the finish, there was no Rob waiting for me, and it turned out he would arrive 25 minutes after me, totally surprised that I had beat him there!

I sat in the sunshine at the finish and watched the rest of the racers come in, reflecting that I had enjoyed every stage of the race so far.  None of the stages had been so long that I got tired of them, and after a couple of hours it was always time to switch to another discipline and head out again.  The thought of this race had terrified me back when I signed up for it, but now it was turning into a pleasant weekend of racing and a wonderful way of seeing the terrain of my new country. 

Day 3 results are here

Coming up next... Coast to Coast, Day 4


Waiting for Rob at the finish....



 

Road wheels on and ready for the tarmac