Adidas Terrex Report

The Lake District was host to one of the most eagerly awaited adventure races on the UK calendar  for 2010 over the weekend of the 27th-30 August.

 The adidas Terrex, organised by adventure racing's premier event specialist Open Adventure, was to be the UK round of the adventure racing World Series, the course was outlined to start on Friday 27th August and finish at 12pm on the Monday. However as is true to Open Adventure form, the event was to be preceded by the Prologue on the Thursday evening, where teams were seen 'hammering it' around the streets of Keswick in a four person relay event including running, orienteering, swimming and kayaking in and on Derwent Water.

Run stage dibbing during the Prologue. Image - James Swann

The Prologue saw all 32 teams entered in to the main event, plus a few more that weren't, take to the streets competing for top spot, those who found themselves behind the winners would take on a penalty the next day in the main event. The rules were written and the time that a team came in behind the leaders was then tripled and applied to the race the next day.

Sally Ozanne of Team planetFear.com during the Prologue.

In fine form one of our two teams entered in to the event - Team planetFear.com - came first in the Prologue, as Sally's pre-event nerves began to come under control. Jake Morgan of Team planetFear B said 'The pace was furious and I can't remember the last time my heart pounded as fast.' See Team planetFear B's Race blog here>

For those who don't already know the story of Sally Ozanne and her quite literal last-minute involvement with Team planetFear.com, you may find it useful to check out her blog and gain insight in to the three days she had to physically and mentally prepare for the biggest race of her life, after the team suffered the loss of one its key members. 

Derwent swim during the Prologue. Image - Rebecca Tatham

Competitors pass the newly opened planetFear store during the Prologue orienteer.

The event proper saw a 7am gathering on the shoreline of Morecambe Bay on Friday 27th August, across the sands from where the teams had gathered in Keswick, the teams were transported to Hest Bank near Lancaster. Cedric Robinson the 'Queen's Guide to the Sands' marked out a course of safe passage for the competitors crossing the bay. 

Dawn greeted the competitors on the sands of Morecambe Bay for the start of the adidas Terrex 2010.

 Over the next four days competitors would negotiate over 400km of planned terrain taking in 60+ control points on a linear course. The weather had been forecast positively all weekend and the Friday morning start began with clear cool skies.

The 22km run over the sands of Morecambe Bay led teams in to the first transition stage at Holker Hall, on to the second leg of the course on mountain bikes. Sally Ozanne Stated 'A little trot across the bay. Super surprised on how fast other teams set off. We decided to take it easy. 22km over sand at first sounded pretty much like hard work but it was not that bad.'

The first of the bike stages would cover around 110km, taking competitors out over the Western fells of the Lakes over Ulpha Fell via Devoke Water to Ravenglass, back over Harter Fell and a hike-a-bike, finishing with a descent down Walna in the dark to the Church Beck special stage at Coniston.

Some teams unsure whether to take on the total submersion of Church Beck, a challenge stiff enough in the day, let alone at night after a hard day racing on foot and bike, however with a 3 hour penalty incurred if the stage was skipped most teams dug deep and got in. Jake said  'After the epic hike-a-bike was a special stage in Church Beck, Coniston. I had done the jumps there before but never at night... the bottomless slide..was very intimidating in the dark. Emily hates jumping in to water and after not managing to throw herself off got Matt to push her in. Shivering we headed back to our bikes to change, elated at a successful stage.'

Through the night followed stages that took on the length of Coniston Water kayaking, a short run stage over the Furness Fells down in to Lakeside on the shore of Windermere, followed by a Kayak stage completing the full length of Windermere, and back to the car ferry on the lake. Competitors then completed a short mountain bike stage that took them through Claife Heights and in to Great Langdale.

Sally of Team planetFear.com stated 'This stage was one of my highlights. As we were riding along, the helicopter came in super close to film us. For some odd reason we picked up pace and flew along and before we know it we were at Langdale.'

The weather closed in on the Langdale Valley.

The night stage that followed was one which would test not only the team's abilities to cope with fatigue, lack of sleep, navigation in terrible weather and technical stages including an abseil from Esk Buttress, but also their ability to work together as teams and keep each other's moral high.

The forecast that had been observed in the days prior to the race had not mentioned gale force winds and sheet rain on the central fells for the whole night and although teams were technically prepared, many found the short course alternatives at this point in the race overwhelmingly tempting. Jake remarked, 'as it went dark the nav got harder and as we crossed the top of England's highest mountain at midnight, in lashing wind and rain, I wondered if we had done the right thing, we were committed now though as we were at the far point of our trek.'

As morning brought a vast improvement in the weather on day three, the teams headed out of Langdale on mountain bikes for the 3rd bike stage of four in the race.

By this point race organiser James Thurlow and course designer Bruce Duncan had been 'modifying' the course a little. It was deemed that with the pace of the vast number of teams - not excluding the fastest on the course - the current route that was proposed would be too long for teams to complete it by the Monday deadline, therefore decisions had been made to cut out the Kentmere and Longsleddale loops on the bike stage, with teams heading straight out and on up High Street.

The bike stage led on to the final kayak which took in the full length of Ullswater which most teams managed to complete in around 1 hour 30mins and also with most teams operating on anything between 0-4 hours sleep in total.  

Ant Emmet takes on local farm reared beef before the Ullswater kayak.

Teams quickly changed from kayaks to the final long run stage which would see them take in St Sunday Crag, Helvellyn, Raise and the Dodds down in to transition at Dockray.

Team adidas Terrex take 5mins for interviews at the Dockray transition. 

Night was falling again and teams began their final stages in darkness taking in the last mountain bike stage around and behind Skiddaw, moving along the western side of Bassenthwaite Lake and up in to the forest of Whinlatter.

Bassenthwaite and Skiddaw viewed from Whinlatter on a clear final night of the Terrex.

From this point the end was almost in sight, all that remained was a small orienteering course on foot at the southern end on Derwent water and a kayak orienteer back up the length of the lake and towards the finish line at the Moot Hall in the centre of Keswick.

Team adidas Terrex were the first to cross the rather quiet finish line at 6.50am on Monday the 30th August, with Team Accelerate B second. The very last team to arrive in to the finish - Team planetFear.com - were over half an hour late, after being given a 45 min allowance for delays out of their control earlier in the course. But despite arriving at the finish line so late, they cleared the whole course but received a 2 hour penalty for being out of time on the last two controls. Therefore Team planetFear.com came in third when all was accounted for.

Team planetFear.com and Team planetFear B.

Jake and Matt doing...something...with their hands... 

More details and full results can be found on the adidas Terrex website.

All images and video unless otherwise stated - Dave MacFarlane planetFear.

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