Decisions, decisions!!

Up at 4.30am, set off by 5.30am. First Costa stop 2 hours away! It was going to be a long day!

I teamed up with Rach from Grasmere, and the Haglofs rep Graham. We headed down to the Shropshire hills. I didn't even know there were hills in Shropshire! I was soon about to find out that there were! We were taking part in the second race of the Haglofs Open 5 series run by Open Adventure. It was Rach's and mine first solo adventure race. I really had no idea what I was letting myself into!

We registered; got our maps, race numbers, and then got set prepping ourselves. Make shift map boards were zip tied onto handlebars, and then the big decision! On putting things in my bag, would I actually need it, then removing it a couple of minutes later. All these decisions, I had no idea which were the right ones, no experiences to gauge on. That was the theme of the entire day: should I, shouldn't I, can I , can't I, but to be honest, I hadn't a clue.

So after getting some handy hints from Graham and ....... about route and checkpoint choice, I made a rough route in my head, with plenty of escape routes depending on how I was feeling. I had only decided through this last week to do the race, so I had made little preparation, and had decided to try and wing it, thinking 'oh, it only lasts 5 hours'. I was about to find out how very wrong I was.

I was bleeped through the start, my 5 hours was counting down, and I was passed a sheet with the points value of each checkpoint. I quickly wrote on the map the number of points next to the corresponding checkpoint, and off I ran! I made good time, finding my first 3 checkpoints easy enough, slowly making my way uphill. Then as I reached the plateau, I had to decide where to head next; my calfs were already starting to feel the burn by this point, 45 minutes in, not good! There was a checkpoint to the east 500m away, but I would have to run back along the same path to get back onto my original plan, so an extra kilometre of running. I started towards it, and as I ran, I thought how much more tired I would feel after that extra kilometre, and it was still early in the race, so stopped and turned around sticking to the original plan.

A lot of the route was like this checkpoint, especially on the bike stage, with a rough circular route with checkpoints on each side, where you went off route to the checkpoint then retraced your steps back to the circular route. These checkpoints were described as in-out points; it was quicker to deviate to them rather than trying to include them into one large circular route.

So I was back on the original plan, having lost a bit of time due to slow decision making, thinking I really had to get some points soon. It then got better and the rest of the run stage went pretty smoothly and faster than I thought. I was back for my transition to the bike after 1h 45 mins. The transition was pretty slow, taking 13 minutes, I later found out the fastest was around 10 seconds, so definitely something to work on for next race. I got ready for the bike stage, wrote the point values on the map and made a rough route, helmet on and good to go!

I am definitely a stronger rider than I am a runner, and this worked well for me, as the overall points are slightly skewed towards the bike stage. However one thing I had never done before was to have my map taped onto a board attached to my handlebars! I never realised how hard it would be to read whilst riding, especially because I couldn't orientate the map.

Down the road, up a short bridleway, short stretch of lane and muddy grass slope to climb for 400m to the second checkpoint. Beep went the dipper as it logged I'd been there! The bridleway carried on up the grassy hill to the next checkpoint but at this point I remembered what the Haglofs guru's said 'its faster and more efficient to climb on road, even if its a little further'. So I turned round and started pedalling and skidding, in control of course, back down to the lane. None of the other racers followed me. I had to double back by 200m down the hill to this checkpoint after my road climb, but didn't see any of the other guys that were around the previous checkpoint, so I was either ahead and they were back down the slope or I was miles behind, I still don't know.

The bike stage was going really well, collecting some big points as I went across the tops, with maybe 4 in-outs to checkpoints. I was continually having to make spur of the moment decisions whether to attempt particular checkpoints due to my constant battle with time!

At 4h 05mins I eventually made it to my last planned checkpoint before heading back to the finish. 55 mins left, loads of time I thought. Suddenly these guys came over the hill, dipped their bleepers and went up again, so I thought if they've got time for some more so had I. I dragged myself back up the hill, legs definitely fading now, making it back to the road and down a small valley towards this extra checkpoint then to the finish.

It was the best singletrack I had ridden all day, loving it, really fast, no problems until... the inevitable hissssssss. No way, not now, 40mins to go. A front wheel puncture! I moved off the trail, and changed the inner tube faster than ever before. Got to make it back in time, big penalties if you overrun. So going as fast as I dare I made it to the last checkpoint. Now to the finish. Just over 30mins left but 7km to go, I hit the tarmac and I have never dug so deep, lowest gear, head down, I wanted to finish in time! Coming back into Church Stretton, I recognised a street from earlier on. Not far now.

I made it to the finish in 4:49mins with 435 points. Coming 27th out of 62 male solos was a bonus. Well chuffed! Can't wait for the next one, let the training begin. Bacup, Lancashire 4th December, hope to see you there!!