Open 5 Pateley Bridge 9 March 2008

This was the second Open 5 event of 2008 and again attracted a number of racers from the ‘DTC Multisports Branch’.  Dave Morrow and Belinda Shorney were again racing in the mixed pairs, Luggy and Stuart Hufton decided to have a go in the male pairs.  Andy Shorney was racing as a male solo this time (as Ian was recovering from the High Peak Marathon) and I was racing again in the female solo class. 

In the week prior to the race I had been keeping an eye on the entry list and was hopeful of being competitive in my class (I had finished 4th in the first Open 5 in January) – until the Friday when a whole load of additional competitors appeared who I knew were pretty handy!  After that I decided that the event would just have to be a long endurance session with some transition practice!

The event format covers mountain biking and trail running, with a 5 hour time limit.  The objective is to navigate round the biking and running maps visiting as many control locations (marked on the map) in the time allowed.  Control locations are allocated points values, which are only provided to you when you start the race, and the aim is to maximise the points you score.  If you are late back, points start to be deducted, with increasing penalties the later back you are (so not a good idea!).

Having got to registration nice and early, I was able to spend a while looking at the map and planning a provisional route – probably to the extent of over-planning and getting into a ‘tiz’ about it all.  Luckily Dave and Andy were on hand to calm me down – thanks guys!  (Ian was keeping well out the way by helping out at registration!).

Anyway, I decided I had dithered enough and it was time to get started.  As usual, I planned to do the bike section first and gave myself about 3 hours to complete that before starting on the run.  I always do the race this way round, as I feel reasonably practiced at running off the bike and if you do get a mechanical on the bike, there is still the opportunity to ‘recover’.

Having started, I was given the control descriptions.  As predicted by Andy, control number 10 was a high value control and I had to slightly replan my route to make sure I didn’t miss it.  It was soon apparent why it was such a high value, as a very long climb into the wind ensued!

Having visited this checkpoint, there was no let-up in the effort and a fairly long bridleway section followed to get to the next point.  I was somewhat dismayed to notice at this point that an hour had passed and I still had only one control – it felt like I had totally blown my race plan.  I tried to console myself with the thought that others must be in a similar situation.

After the next control it was a pretty fast, but long, road descent nearly back into Pateley Bridge before heading northwards where a number of controls were clustered reasonably close together, which looked promising until closer inspection of the map revealed yet another lung-busting climb – and more snow showers!

At this point, I started to encounter quite a few other competitors.  Sadly they were all male and stronger than me on the climbs – to the extent that I was not capable of getting on their wheel and getting dragged up the hill.  However, I got my reward at the top as when I arrived at the next control location I spotted the control box on a large standing stone behind the dry stone wall, unlike all the blokes who were standing around aimlessly looking completely in the wrong direction!!

Having got the control I was quickly on my way.  Interestingly, some of the blokes caught me up on the next climb, but this time decided to ride with me.

Looking at the map I knew that I was now at my decision point and had to decide how many more controls to ‘bag’ before heading back to transition.  In the end, I believe I made the right decision and got back into transition in around 3 hours (but not before another horrible climb – this one defeated me and I had to get off and push for a while, which I felt did not bode particularly well for the run). On return to transition, I tried to be reasonably slick to maximise my run time.  Four minutes is probably a tad slow for a triathlon J, but this did give me time to empty my bike repair kit out of the rucksack, down a few jaffa cakes and finally get my running shoes on (a bit of a struggle with damp socks!!). On the run, there was an additional ‘micro navigation’ (i.e. orienteering stage).  Not surprisingly, this was on top of another hill, but with 5 controls on offer in a relatively small area, all worth 15 points, it was important to make sure enough time was allocated to get there and back. As a result I decided to tackle the climb up to this area at the start of the run, taking in two controls on the way.  By this time, the steepness of the ascent reduced me to a slow walk as I slogged up the hill. I collected another control on the top of the hillside, before entering the forest area where the micro-nav transition area was.  This was in the middle of the forest next to a tarn, which was lucky, as when my route plan into the transition went slightly awry, I was able to stand on top of the cliff and see the tarn and a route down towards it. At transition, Ian was one of the marshals handing out maps.  He was very helpful – pointing out the scale (only 1:5,000) and also suggesting I thought about which way I was going after this stage, which helped me plan my route round the course.

The map was an orienteering map, but with such a big scale, it had lots of features on it, making it very confusing – even picking the paths out from the contours was tricky.  I decided that I needed to take it very slow and tick things off as I went by.  I also decided that I needed to leave myself half an hour at the end to collect a couple more running controls before finishing.

In the end, I collected four out of the five orienteering controls.  At the first control, I was certain I was in the right place but couldn’t see it – until I just looked round the tree I was standing next to and there it was – duh!  For the second control, I bumped into Andy and so was able to ‘collaborate’ on this one.  We also discussed the route to the third control, but then he ran off and left me!!  I managed to find it ok and then the final one was on my way out of the forest.  A bit of map juggling ensued to work out where I was on the overall map versus how that translated on the orienteering map.  I confirmed my position with another competitor heading down the hill.

The final two controls were both on the ‘flat’ alongside the River Nidd.  I had left these till last, as I knew I would be feeling pretty tired, but would probably be able to cope with running on the flat.

Having got the penultimate control, I had 20 minutes left to collect a control on the far side of the finish.  I knew I couldn’t afford to miss this one because it was worth 20 points and its close location to the start/finish area meant that my fellow competitors would also have got this.  In spite of the idea of using the race as training, by the time I was on the run in, I had my ‘race head’ on and was running in considerable discomfort.  Having negotiated my way through a bit of a built up area, I was pleased to see the bridge where the control was located.  Just to make my tired hamstrings hurt even more, the control was placed under a concrete ‘mushroom’ which you had to grovel to reach L.

After that it was a straight run back to the town centre and out the other side to the finish.  Looking at my watch I knew I had time to spare, but also knew that the time you finish can have a bearing on the result (in the case of a points-tie), so I pushed all the way to the finish line – didn’t even have time to smile for the camera!  I finally finished in 4 hours 50 minutes.  Potentially this meant I would have had time for another control, but by then I really had had enough!

Having finished the race, it was a case of getting back to the van (very slowly!), getting changed and having some lovely veg chilli from Wilfs.  In the queue I caught up with the rest of the DTC team, who had had mixed fortunes in the race.  Dave and Bea had 3 punctures on the bike, which effectively scuppered their race.  Martin and Stuart seemed to have had a good time and Andy was joint top scorer with 510 points, but looked like he would end up with second place as another competitor had got the same points, but in less time.

When it came to the prize giving, Andy was confirmed in second place as male solo and, to my great surprise, I also got second place in the female solo!  I had actually tied on points with another competitor, but, unlike Andy, had the advantage of being back earlier than them.  Studying the results later, I found that the number of points I scored would have secured 6th place in the male pairs, 8th in the male solos and 4th in the mixed pairs – not too bad for a training event, I don’t think!

Dave and Bea, in spite of all their mechanicals, still managed 250 points and Luggy and Stuart scored 335 points.

The next race takes place in the Lake District on May 18th.  I’m sure it will be well attended again by folks from DTC, so if anyone else fancies having a go, give us a shout – it is a great way to get a long winter session in and certainly beats riding on grotty roads!

For more information, check out www.openadventure.com  In the results section it is also possible to look at maps of the race showing who went where (under race analysis).