Keswick Open5 Adventure Report – Updated with Photos!

Steve Birkinshaw (pictured with his team Inov-8 Goretex team mates for the AR Worlds) competed in the Keswick Open 5 Adventure Race over the weekend with Dave Wilby and has sent us this report:The 3rd Open5 Adventure race of the year was held at Keswick on 13th May with around 220 competitors. This was also the first event in the Endurance Series that also includes the Open12 and Open24 events.Registration and the event centre were at Keswick school where the competitors received a map with all the checkpoints marked on. The running one on a 1:25000 map on one side and the mountain biking on a 1:50000 map on the other side. The aim was to get as high a score as possible by visiting checkpoints within the 5 hours, with the choice as to whether to mtb. or run first and when to transition between the two up to the competitors. The start/finish for the event was in Stair, a 20 minute cycle from the event centre. After starting, a description list with the values of all the checkpoints was given to competitors. Some of the checkpoints were dummy?s and the values of the checkpoints ranged from 5 points to 40 points. Higher valued checkpoints were generally in easy to reach locations and lower valued ones the furthest away. This has the effect of making everyone?s points much closer together and for the top competitors major decisions are required early on deciding which of the low points scorers to miss.The running section was mainly along the western shore of Derwent water and around Cat Bells. There was a checkpoint on the top of Cat Bells but it was only worth 10 points and it was a difficult decision about whether it was worth going for it. The MTB had an obvious loop around Borrowdale with the classic cycle along the bridleway from the bottom of Honister Pass past Castle Crag to Grange. There was also a good choice of checkpoints in Whinlatter forest. The highest scores for the event were all in the Male Pairs class. This was won by Tim Higginbottom and Chris Near (Team Inov-8), with second place going to Steve Birkinshaw and Dave Wilby (Team Inov-8) and third place to Pete James and Norman Dunroy (Team Inov-8). Jane Hodgson and Sue Heywood (Saddleworth Runners) won the Female Pairs, Caroline Bullard and Eddie Winslow (Accelerate) won the mixed pairs, Simon Enderby (Sabar Crewe Tigers) won the male solo class and Emily Brooks won the female solo class. Full results can be found at http://www.openadventure.com/results.htm The event was really well organised by James and Lisa Thurlow and their team of helpers. It was a great day out in superb scenery with a nice variety of terrain for running and biking. The race analysis where you can see which route everyone has taken and their times between checkpoints is also great for looking at afterwards. We have just received these photos from the organiser (sorry we don´t have any captions but it does look like another great event from the Open Adventure Team…

QuellePlanetFear