IROC races

[abd]

Becks - I will be travelling south to Harrogate and can give you a lift should you still be needing one and that this is any good for you. Andy

[Becks]

Thanks Andy - I've had to pull out thanks to stupid lab stuff - I now have to be in the lab all day Saturday. So instead I'm taking in Graythwaite on my way to Liverpool. The offer is much appreciated though.

[DanH]

Ow ow ow, I can hardly walk today.

That was the hardest weekend of racing I've done in a long time. Around 9 hours of flat out racing. (although flat out got gradually slower throughout the weekend!)

Thanks to all the organisers and marshalls for a great weekend. The first fell race was run almost like it was a one off and set everyone up for a painful 24 hours.

In summary, Morgan was a class above the rest and I'm a wimp on a mountain bike.

Highlight of the weekend for me was the start of the night 'o' score event. It was a mass start and we (the orienteers) dearly wanted to get away without Morgan tagging behind. We tried hiding in the group at the start and slink away towards the back. We thought we had managed it as we went a different way to most others but then saw Morgan streaking towards us! Fortunately he chose to tag onto Tim Higginbotham who was 2nd in the overall standings but who injured himself allowing us to get away. We were like a bunch of kids at the start!

[ba-ba]

I went - not to race but to act as Lucy's 'Support Team' (and ended up marshaling a bit in the night) - good weekend, I intend to get on the bike a bit more and have a crack at more adventure race type things (only being a Student I find the price for stuff like the Open5 a bit hard to stomach...)
The start of first Orienteering event was pretty funny - some people spent a good few minutes in the start pen trying to work out what the hell this piece of paper they had been given was! Most people were running with it rolled up (how it was given them) like a treasure map!

Morgan never seemed to have anything but a smile on his face all weekend! and Winskill was always going to be a danger - would he have won if not dosed up to the eyeballs on painkillers?!

[Copepod]

A really good weekend, I reckon - good campsite (no charge), good range of races, "mix and match" entries possible etc. As a marshal on 4 of 6 races (and driving 3 racing passengers on 47 miles round trip), I really appreciated being able to run in the score orienteering, even if I had to restrict my time to 45 mins instead of the 60 mins for real competitors, in order to change clothes before setting out for what turned out to be 4 hours out in the dark and cold. A thermos flsk and a fellow marshal's hip flask were great, as we got back too late for the bar! The food stalls had packed up before I got back from enduro cycling on Sunday, too.

[Freefall]

Took part in the two orienteering events - the first event was 10.5 km and about 400 m climb. Quite a lot for an unfit M55 but I was pleased with half way down in the results (if I had run the fell race in the morning I doubt I could have got this high a place). The night orienteering was in the daylight but I decided to go into the dark(ish) woods early. Later runners would have needed headtorches in there. Improved my position by 14 places then left them all to get on with night biking.
£14 entry for each of the two races but a nice goody bag with free Gore cap and two pairs techno socks. Also bargains on Inov-8 shoes - Flyroc 310s for £30 a pair. First time with Inov8s they killed me - these were so much better.

[lulu]

Awesome weekend! This was my first adventure race - never done anything as hard and worked out why I found it so tough when I added up the distance....Mountain Marathon length and then the biking on top
Thanks for the support nic, liking the pics of the daffodils...
Also thanks to Shane and the team for organising it all!!
Think my tactics now are to get a new bike - the old giant boulder that set me back £180 9yrs ago was a little on the heafty side. Still 5 laps was just about possible at the end..
Then practice some mountain biking skills for the next race!
I'm waiting for the crippling leg pain to arrive - quite stiff today but so far can still walk
(this is a danger as theres a trunce fell race tonight....think I'll leave the shoes at home just in case I have a minute of insanity in the registration field)

[ba-ba]

Flyroc 310s for £30 a pair. First time with Inov8s they killed me - these were so much better.

I took advantage of the cheap shoes as well with some of the Roclites - was hoping some Mudclaw 330 O's may have snuck in in my size, then I could have had BOGOF, and be ready for when my current mudclaws give up the ghost! alas it wasn't to be, but you can't complain!

[abd]

It was great, mad and very, very hard with all those races on top of each other. I don't think it would have hurt so much if we had simply carried on going for 9 hours, at least then we wouldn't have gone so hard!

Ba-Ba you should have asked them. I wanted some 330's and asked on Friday and again on Sat (my message hadnt got passed on) and they got some from the factory. They managed to find some of last season's colours and so only cost £30 - bargain!

[ba-ba]

I did get them for £30! Got home, binned my old pair of trail shoes. Damn these are comfy!