New Balance Open24 Adventure Race

Sat July 25 2009
Listed by Mountain Cat
Entrants (1) Club Pred Run Pred Bike Pred Run Run T1 Bike T2 Run Total
Mountain Cat 2nd female pair with 1290 points :-)

I was feeling pretty nervous beforehand, as I knew there would be a sea kayaking stage & I haven't kayaked since I was about 14 (my race partner was similar - just a few hours experience in a kayak). However, it turned out to be really good fun, and I loved it. 

The course was basically a lap of north Northumberland with the first 2 stages heading north through the national park & the Cheviots, then east to the sea, down the coast & to the finish at Alnwick. The kayak stage out at sea was cancelled & replaced by a bike stage due to dangerous winds/currents, which was good given that we found the idea of kayaking out to the Farne islands pretty terrifying! 

The first 2 stages in the Northumberland National Park were tough. Running/walking in the Cheviots (stage 2) was quite taxing - they're pretty wild & pathless - the ground is really rough going so most of it wasn't really runnable.

The other 4 weren't too bad though, and because the 2 hard stages were right at the beginning you got to do them (a) in daylight (the trek through the Cheviots finished just as the sun was setting - amazing scenery) and (b) while still comparatively fresh, which was good. 

There were several 'special stage' highlights to break it up as well: a gorge scramble/swim which culminated in a leap into a gorge (best if you don't look down first); abseiling down the walls of Chillingham Castle in the dark at about 2am (the castle was floodlit, which made it really spectacular); an orienteering style course in the dark around Chillingham Castle, using a terrible hand-drawn map which wasn't to scale (I think it was meant to add to the challenge!). 

Because the kayak stage was cancelled, there was one incredibly easy stage (you just had to do a short, flat bike ride down the coast instead), so we used the spare time to relax, eat & try to get some kip. We spent a large chunk of it sitting by Bamburgh castle watching the sun rise over the North Sea & eating malt loaf & jelly babies. Lots of other people had the same idea - it was weird progressing down the coast & every now and then coming across a couple of competitors snoozing on a harbour, or by a beach. Very surreal if you're a local though, I imagine... Unaffiliated 0

Photos

No photos added yet
  • Add Photo







Back To Top
X

Free training & racing tools for runners, cyclists, swimmers & walkers.

Fetcheveryone lets you analyse your training, find races, plot routes, chat in our forum, get advice, play games - and more! Nothing is behind a paywall, and it'll stay that way thanks to our awesome community!
Get Started
Click here to join 112,109 Fetchies!
Already a Fetchie? Sign in here