Questars New Forest
Date: 1st April 2006
Race Type: Adventure Race
Disciplines: Mountain Biking, Kayaking Trail running, Navigation.
Team: Gary, Keith & Steve
Location: New Forest, Hampshire
www.questars.co.uk
Steve: Bleary eyed after my five o'clock start, we pulled into Brockenhurst College. This was our second New Forest race in three weeks, but this time we would be racing in the eastern side.
After registration, we received our start time (09.31), kayak time slot (10.30-11.30) and map. The Kayak transition was to be in Beaulieu, which was about 8km, so we decided to ditch our initial strategy and start on the bikes. This would give us the advantage of easily reaching the kayaking on time. The only downside would be that we are all strongest at the end of a race on two wheels (well, we like to sit down later on!), so we do not generally favour running last.
09.31 and we were off. Then, a couple of hundred yards down the road, we came to an abrupt halt with another team, as we waited for a passing train at the railway crossing. Once we were off again, we found ourselves racing along at the other teams pace, only passing them as the stopped to look at the map. A minute later, we realised that they (and we) had missed the first turning. This seemed a common mistake, as another couple of teams raced past us in the wrong direction.
Over the first hour, we picked up four checkpoints on the way to Beaulieu, including the "April's Fool" CP32 (a biking Checkpoint that had been coloured on the map as a Running Checkpoint), leaving just two CPs South of Beaulieu.
Keith: And so to the make or break section of the race, river kayaking. Speed and agility on the water are of the utmost importance and we had neither of these. Three fat blokes in two kayaks is a recipe for chaos and that’s what ensued.
The first checkpoint was missing presumably sunk and so it was onto the second. The checkpoint was halfway up the bank of the river, I was swiftly out of the kayak and straight into mud up to my knees, moving was virtually impossible made even worse by the howls of laughter from Steve and Gary in the second boat. By the time I’d made it back to the boat the air was thick with expletives and my feet and cycling shorts thick with mud. The third checkpoint was also missing and so we struck out for the forth and fifth. We gave up the idea of towing at this point as progress was painfully slow with two kayaks joined together but pointing in different directions.
With the last two checkpoint in the bag it was the long slow paddle back to the slipway. Gary said this bit would be easy as we would have the wind behind us and the tide with us. Lying bastard. As Steve and Gary disappeared into the distance I struggled to keep in a straight line. With small waves coming over the bow and the wind blowing me of course making any headway was difficult. Eventually the slipway was reached, kayaks and life vests deposited and we were back on the bikes and dry land.
Steve: After a quick bite to eat, we were back on the bikes trying to warm up after a good soaking from the River. We quickly gathered the two remaining Southerly CPs, then headed North in a loop to try and get all the other biking points. The next two hours passed without incident until we struggled to find CP24 near a campsite. This was due to tiredness, so we decided to abandon the last bike CP and head back to base.
After a slightly quicker transition than is our normal (no cups of tea this time!) we were off on foot. After our initial enthusiasm evaporated 500 yards down the road, we settled into a jog the flat bits and walk up the hills routine. Unfortunately, we bit off a bit more than we could chew and headed too far North to CP3. On the return leg, we knew that we should be running all the way to get back in time, but those leg muscles weren't playing ball!
We eventually returned ten minutes late, which was a great disappointment, but we still enjoyed our day. We came 37th out of 77 overall in the Masters Race, and 15th out of 30 in the Mens Teams Category.
