Our challenge was part of the Trail Plus Adventure Challenge Series which, in their words… “Is an action-packed, adrenaline-fuelled adventure journey for teams of three. Staying together at all times, your group of weekend warriors will be challenged to complete an off-road, multi-terrain odyssey including 10k of trail running, 25km of mountain biking and 1km of kayak canoeing. For good measure we’ll throw in some special challenges including our signature finish ….The Slippery Wall!
So after an intensive group training session (singular) some nice printed shirts, a quick clean of the bikes, we were off! The event took place at Longoor Camp (Ministry of Defence land), and the terrain was rugged and hilly. However the sun had broken through and the earlier frost had dried up the puddles! The start was staggered and the run and cycling was split into several sections. This meant that of the 185 team completing, the field became quite spread out. Being our first ever challenge together and of this nature we set ourselves a target of 3hrs 30mins to complete the course, so the watch became our nemesis.
After scaling the hills in the running sections, avoiding the crashes in the first mountain biking lap and keeping as dry as possible in the canoeing section, we approached our last cycling section before the final assault course. After a double take at the watch, I realised that if we pushed hard we could make it home in under 3hrs! After this revelation, if by magic, the lactic acid left our legs, the sweat dried on our brows and the notion of pacing ourselves went out the window! With less congestion on the final mountain bike lap, we pushed hard, overtaking everyone we came across. Our lungs were burning and legs were aching as we tore down the last downhill section, suddenly the finish line was sight. Our changeover back to our running gear was swift (Nick didn’t even have time to eat another bag of crisps) as we hit the assault course.
As we approached the signature finish (The slipper Wall which was approximately a 10ft wall covered in slimy water), Richard shouts “I have an idea”, so as myself and Richard literally threw Nick to the top of the wall, we then scrabbled to the top ourselves, before sliding down to our finish. We had made it!
Unfortunately, we didn’t quite manage sub 3hrs but we finished in a cracking time of 3hrs 7mins. Also to our surprise we finished in 55th place out of 175 finishers. A great effort from the team and thanks for all the support from the GDS staff.
Watch this space, I heard Toughguy (http://www.toughguy.co.uk/ ) was muted as the next GDS Challenge!