averagejoes-ar

Last Saturday (28th January) was the 2nd round of the CCAR Winter Race Series. The ‘Skirmish on the Bann’ was centred around the University of Ulster at Coleraine and the race area covered the area north between Portstewart and Portrush and out towards Bushmills. There wasn’t much preparation leading up to the event. My sac was quickly sorted out on Friday night and the pedals on the bike changed over to my ‘power grip’. The forecast for the race was dry, but cold. The only change from the last race was I decided to just wear a long sleeve thermal under my Golite wind-top, carry less fluid in my hydration bladder, but use a 750ml bottle on the bike.

The rest of the ‘Mandatory’ kit I had already pre-packed and simply lifted it from the kit box and threw them into my sac. Half an hour to sort everything out – I like races like this.

I was racing again with Richard Numan and there was a wee bit of a panic on Saturday morning when Richard, driving up from Dublin, was running slightly late and didn’t arrive until 9:25am (the race start was for 10am). Panic was over and we both got quickly sorted for the start. Again, before the start of the race, everyone was trying to work out where Des (the planner) was going to send us. The control sheet didn’t really give anything away, but we were told there was a 32km bonus loop for teams who made it back by 3pm.

The race began with a run around the football pitches for one of the team members. When they returned and joined up again with their team mate, both were given a short task to collect a series of numbers from ‘photo clues’ on a A4 sheet. With the correct answer you were then allowed access to your bikes. At this point we still did not have a map of the course. Once on the bikes we have to follow and ‘arrowed’ route around and along some muddy trails that lead out to the back of the university campus. A couple of teams missed one of the turn offs and Richard and I quickly realized we were one of the first 5 teams away.

Once we finally got the map it was quickly down to business. The first section took us towards Portstewart via the back roads and muddy lanes. At TA 3 the first task was a run along the seafront and up past the Dominican College – we had to count the benches along the final stretch. There was a SI box, which marked the turn around point and then it was a simple run back to the bikes.

Arriving at the bikes we were given an A-Z map of the town and had to complete a MTBO task around the streets of Portstewart. The controls could be visited in any order, except and last one which was to mark the exit point back onto the main map. The MTBO was great and quite tricky. The best route choice was not obvious as the streets around the houses mostly ended in cul-de-sacs … We arrived at the final control with Team Bro Where art tho? (Ian and Brian Lockington) and we could see that there was just two teams ahead of us (Team Passing Wind – Billy Reed & Gerry Kingston and Team Dogleap – Peter Cole & Peter Crommie). They were less than a couple of minutes ahead of us.

The next bit of biking was along the coast road into Portrush. The next TA was in the Car Park at the south end of the seafront. Now off the bike we were given another task and more running to do. The task was to follow photo clues of landmarks which lead to each control. Once at the control you should be able to see the next photo clue from where you where standing. I was a very good task and something different to just following the map again.

Back on the bikes and it was a bit of a long ride to B14. There was an obvious route choice, but we decided to follow the road around, rather than go onto the beach. The road option was slightly longer, but the road would have been faster rather trying to ride over sand. The task at B14 was fairly simple with one teammate being blind folded and the other leading him or her around a short taped course, up and down the sand dunes. Quickly we were back on the bikes and following the route back to the University. After 5km we reached B16 and another interesting task – a bit of orienteering around a caravan park using an aerial photograph. Unusual, but great fun.

We were having our own great little battle with Ian and Brian Lockington, which made the racing even more fun. Both teams lost a bit of time at B18 as we weren’t too sure whether to go straight down to the kayaks or up the the start/finish. A quick read at the instruction sheet and we headed up to the transition at the start/finish line.

Now running down to the kayaks, we could see that Passing Wind and Team Dogleap were still not that far ahead of us – even with our slight delay at B18.

The kayak was a simple 2.5km up and back along the River Bann. Richard and I quickly got into a good rhythm and managed to get some clear water between us and Ian and Brian Lockington. Kayaking felt really good and even those I thought it may have been a bit too far for a lot of ‘newbie’ teams, I really enjoyed it.

Back up at the university we were given an orienteering map of the campus grounds and had to complete and 8 control course. It was quite a long course (5km) and with more running, my legs were starting to feel it. Control 6 was at the gym and we had to do a series of five 1 minute circuits before we could continue. During the circuits I managed to stretch out my legs and they felt alot better running around the last two controls to the finish.

Over 4 hours of hard racing and I was glad to reach the end…..bugger ……32km bonus loop!! We made the cut off time and so raced off on the bikes after Ian and Brian Lockington, who had managed to get a 2 minute lead over us from the orienteering loop.

The bonus loop was quite simple, ride out to Bushmills as fast as you can and then back following the same run in as the earlier biking loop.

It was about 12km out along the B17 road to Bushmills. Riding into Bushmills I spied the route back out and made a mental note of it. The control at BL1 was at the Bushmill’s Activity Centre. We had a short task of completing the short permanent orienteering course around the centre’s grounds. Billy and Gerry were still in the grounds when we arrived so again I knew we were only a few minutes behind them.

We managed to get back out onto the bikes before Ian and Brian Lockington and quickly lost sight of them on the road out of Bushmills. The route back was straight forward and it was a matter of keeping a good pace going. Leaving BL5 I noticed my front tyre was slightly soft. Damn, not a puncture with less than 3 km to go. Luckily it was a slow enough puncture that I manged to ride back to the finish with not too much trouble – I didn’t fancy running the last couple of km with a bike on my shoulder.

The finish line was gladly received. That was a tough race. Fast, with great navigation tasks and some good route choices available. Only four teams managed to do the bonus loop, which showed how tough the course was. Richard and I held on to third place by a good 10 minutes, but ended up 15 minutes behind Billy and Gerry, who got second. The two Peters flew around the bonus loop and grab a well deserved 1st place.

Super race, maybe a bit too tough for the majority of teams, but most people I spoke to had really enjoyed it.

For me it was one of the best CCAR races I have raced. It felt like a proper ‘short’ one day adventure race – the only thing that was missing was a mountain in the middle somewhere. It had bits for everyone – whether they were good runners, good navigators, good bikers or good kayakers (though a bit short to make a difference on the paddling leg) …..the trick was to try and be good at everything……or to have the team with strengths in each. This is why I love adventure racing… the variety of activities, the unknown, the team mates and the different locations. It does not have to be 5 days in the wilderness to be a great race …. 5 hours around the north coast is just as fun.

The only negative was the race was too tough for the CCAR series, which I think needs to stay at that level to help introduce the concept of adventure racing to the ‘newbie’ weekend warrior, rather than kill then on the first go. ……… but I totally enjoyed it and had that buzzing feeling at the end of the race that you know you have pushed myself.

I do secretly hope that the odd ‘tough’ race like this one still makes an appearance at the CCAR every now and then.

Well done to everyone involved.

Results

More excellent photos from Richard Wilkinson