As I drove into Blanchland on Sunday morning the sun was peaking through and the roads weren’t too icy. The race venue looked very professional with the new Open Adventure flags and hoardings on display. James had said the area could be a bit muddy if there wasn’t a sharp frost so it was looking like we might be in for a mud fest.
Registration was a hubbub of chatter as people caught up with friends and discussed route choices, and the OMM over tea and bacon butties prepared by the local Village Hall Committee. I planned a rough route and decided to run first and bike second. Rarely for an Open 5, I thought some people might clear the course, so the dummy checkpoints would be key in deciding what to miss rather than what to go for. Having dibbed out and picked up the checkpoint values I was immediately given the dilemma of how long to spend on foot. There were more points available on the bike leg but some significant road sections, so I decided to go for a 2 hour run and 3 hour bike split. I had planned to start to the West of the course and was someway in before I realised this was where the obvious points to drop were. That meant I was committed to my route choice right from the start, though looking at the race analysis there appears many different routes taken, so there probably wasn’t an optimal choice.
The run went well over a mixture of road, laid path and then up onto the moor. I was a little too busy enjoying the views and forgot to turn left to the fairly obvious chimney (with its 3 snowmen), which meant I was one of the slowest on this leg (note to self read the control description and remember you cover ground much faster on a 1:25000 map!). I headed out over the moor getting a bit chilly as there was a slight breeze but it was still very clear. Next CP was a 5 pointer that was slightly off route, but seemed silly to miss, I crossed a fence and didn’t spot any tape so carried on looking for a boundary stone. I soon realised I’d gone too far (not sure why I didn’t twig a boundary stone would be under a fence!) and turned back to see Chris Morgan dibbing. I picked up the CP and ran with him over the moor before dropping towards the finish on a fast bridleway and road. A quick detour to the waterfall, where James’s ‘slippery’ note proved accurate as I slid rather uncomfortably onto a rock, saw me into transition at 1:58 - so right on time.
The bike course was equally difficult to choose a route, particularly as the run had been in a different area so I’d got no insight to the conditions on the moor. As I went onto Birkside Fell, I mistakenly followed a bridleway sign which had fallen over and was pointing the wrong way, so I had to backtrack to pick up The Carriers Way. The track was continuous mud between one inch and 8 inches deep, which played havoc with my bike. My brand new front brake pads were destroyed just on this flat section and I soon had chain suck. It was all cycleable (just!) though, except when someone was coming the other way, which of course a lot were as there were only a couple of routes off the track. There seems to have been as many route choices as there were competitors so this didn’t seem to limit options.
Towards the forest there were more trails on the ground than on the map and more boggy ground. As I descended I had one of those comedy moments when I inadvertently cut across some apparently pristine bog, of course within seconds the bike was vertical and I was up to my elbows in mud while still sitting on the saddle! I managed to swim out of the fetid mud soup and continue on my way, but the grinding paste concoction not only finished my rear brakes but coated the cassette so thoroughly I couldn’t get the chain to bite in the top two gears. More mud in the forest had teams sliding all over the place and I saw a couple of near misses with the trees. I was then out on the road for a while but the bike was now grinding and squeaking alarmingly. I had one hour left, so decided to pick up the Northerly checkpoint before heading back through the forest. I was surprised to see so many riders still so far out, as I thought I’d left it quite late in the start window and was tight on time for my home run. This was the moment I dread when racing solo as my legs suddenly started to tie up and a bonk was imminent. Shovelling in gel and some fluid I started walking up a forest track taking a final look at the map. This was the point I realised I’d mismarked the scores and hadn’t noted a 35 pointer on the return leg. I got back on the bike and worked hard through the forest checkpoints disheartened by some deep muddy paths but made it out onto the road quicker than I expected. I was now on the brink of running out of time, so the calculations of whether it was worth going for 35 points and forfeiting some of them by being late back, or heading straight in was playing on my mind as I careered down the hill with some other riders. Those in front opened the gate so in a squealing, screeching cacophony of metal on metal and mud I turned up the track only to realise my legs were dead and I would lose more points than I could get, so it was back to the road for a sprint finish. I made my way as swiftly as possible through the locals and other racers, only to dib in the wrong control box and finish a few seconds late (apologies to the team who had timed it better and were walking down the finish shoot as I veered past!).
It had stayed clear all day but as the sun was setting it started getting cold so it was time for some warm clothes before a baked potato and slice of cake from the hard working village committee while James and Lisa worked out the final placings.
I was 7th which reflected the number of mistakes I made, next time a clean, fast run and bike is needed!
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