Racing Qatar 2011 - Going adventure

That day after the Abu Dhabi adventure challenge something clicked in me and I got really excited about the whole concept of adventure racing. Several days of long distance racing on foot, bike or kayak through usually unknown, unexplored and wild territory. Depending only on your map and compass puts you beyond marked tracks and the whole thing become personal. I felt that this is the right sport for me. I like endurance events and I like running, mountain bike and kayaking and here I can do all. I like exploration and here I will be put exactly into a position of a scout. I like competition and this is just all about challenges J

        “So let’s give it a try” I said when I came back from Christmas holidays and I wrote down to Google search “Adventure race”. And from there came my 2011 racing plan. As the main event I chose Adidas Terrex Coast to Coast 4 day stage adventure race in England in August. “What? I have to have an English kayaking certificate for this?” I was looking surprised at the race requirements. “Hmm…what to do” I said at the end. “But I really want to do this race, so I guess I just have to get it!”. And where is the best place to go, when you cannot do it in Qatar? England of course. “But I just can’t go there only for that” I thought. “Let’s do also something else once I’m there”. And that’s how I signed up for Questars Q2, two day adventure race in Dorset on the south coast of England. “I will need a holiday anyway!” J

         So on April 14, I took my hockey bag full of sport gear and flew to the old continent. The first stop was in Bristol where I arranged with watersports coach Joe a kayaking training to get UKCC Star 2 certificate that I can ride kayaks and canoes. I was thinking that I would be paying just for that piece of paper, but during those four hours I actually learned couple of new things and was happy that Joe didn’t just take my money and gave me a stamp after seeing that I can paddle forward! So we played under unusually sunny sky with various crafts in cold and still water of a small river just outside of Bristol lined with trees and with a wye, doing capsizes, rescues and several paddle techniques. Perfect day and great fun!! After he took me to a train station and I left southwards to Dorset.

         I was lucky to “hitchhike” a taxi standing next the station to the intersection from where it was just 5k to the race base camp. 5k is nothing with small backpack, but not with 20 kilo bag on your shoulder and English drivers let me feel it hard when not picking me up hitchhiking for more than half of the way!! But at the end one nice driver took me up to the campsite, so I had enough time to put my tent, enjoy hot burger from the food stand and get decent sleep. I had some racing to be done!!

The race morning was quite typical. I got my hired bike delivered at 9am, so with trying to fit all gear onto it, breakfast, race breefing and general race packing and preparations I was running almost last to the start with no time to prepare or think about what I’m going to do there!! They gave us the map for the first 200 minutes MTB stage before, but the time for kayak stage we received after the start and also there were two additional checkpoints (which I couldn’t mark to the map because I didn’t have a pen. I had to remember!) and some additional rules announced, so all strategy from evening was worth nothing.

So I just took the bike, with bike computer fitted loose inside the map board (I didn’t have ties long enough) hanging only on two of three supports (because I didn’t have time and tools to fit it on properly) and just start riding south to the optional checkpoints. Fortunately the navigation looked quite easy, when I stopped and focused on the map because it was so shaking, so found first checkpoint and after I asked some other racers where were the optional again, I found those also. “Damn…how do I continue?” I asked myself on the second optional. I didn’t think that I wouldn’t have time to go around the mountain as the best way, because I had to be in 30 minutes at the kayak section. Simple route planning mistake. So I turned back and rode full speed to the other side of the map to the sea J I managed to collect couple more points on the way and arrived to the transition point exactly the minute my time for kayaking started. Incredible!!

Kayak was super easy on flat water and in 15 minutes I was done. I left the others on the sea struggling to keep going straight and continued biking. After some more collected checkpoints without major problems I probably relaxed my concentration a bit because suddenly I found myself on the golf Course. “Purbeck Golf Isle? There is nothing like this here” I wondered looking checking map around the spot I wanted to be. “Whaaat!!! I’m here??? Cannot be!!” and I was screwed. I kept fighting and rode as fast as I could back to find the point I wanted, but with some additional searching it took me 35 minutes instead of 10 to get there. Novice!!

What to do. I still had some time so I continued to most expensive point and was coming back riding on the top of a ridge collecting more of the expensive ones. When I got to the before last I realized  that I had really little time for getting back and not suffering penalty for late arrival. So I rode steep downhill from the ridge on stairs for people going up, joined asphalt road and was sprinting back to the camp. And again…I incredibly managed to arrive only 70 seconds late. Very strange, how can you possibly do it after 3 hours, 2km kayak and 55km bike…just strange!!

There were 2 categories in the race, Masters and Novice. When I registered I really didn’t know what to expect, how good are the guys in England, how good I’m in comparison with European competition. The criteria for being Novice was “to attend not more than 3 adventure races” which I complied with and because I don’t like competing where I have no chance, so I chose the safe side and signed up as Novice.

      And I was quite surprised when I saw results after the first stage, where I was first Novice with 443 points (out of 550) and 13 points ahead of the second. Among Masters I would be 13^th. “Even with half an hour error I came first?” I was asking myself while eating everything what was around me to get calories for next stage starting in 2 hours. “But good” I smiled. “I just keep going and maybe there is a chance J”

2.5 hour second stage was only running, my stronger discipline, because you go slower and have more time for good navigation. And exactly as I though it went. I started running in a spiral around the camp from the furthest and most expensive points around and closing in. I had strength enough so running the ridge and forest trails was quite easy and fun. I collected first activity point where you had to tie knots and also the second where I had find a secret checkpoint, which was luckily just around the way I wanted to run anyway J Just before the finish I realized “Wait, I still have 5 minutes…let’s try to find No.19” which was the closest to the camp. So I went off the trail jumped a barbed wire and was on the road where the checkpoint should have been. But which direction!! “Right or left?” I thought quickly. “Heey there it is!!” I heard somebody shouting from my right. Simple J

      I finished my around 25km stage comfortably 1.5 minutes before the clock with 376 (410) points, which was the third best score overall!! So not only that I kept my first place between novices, but I also increased my lead for another 59 points.

I was really wasted after this stage, so I went to my tent, put all my clothes, lied down in the sleeping bag shivering cold and started eating. Energy bar, energy gel, milk rice, bananas, muesli bars…just everyting what I found around!! After an hour I went for a burger to the stand and then lied down again.  There was one more stage to do.

       Stage 3 was 1 hour 20 minutes and 10 k of night running. Just before the race I bought a super powerful MTB light, which can be used for running also. So when we started I lid the forest (it really shines like a car J) and easily found all checkpoints in the best time out of all 1:01:21, also because a lot of locations I already knew from the previous stages. I didn’t do the activity, because it was something with letters and guessing a word, and I might even not have known the word, because I’m not English native speaker, so I skipped that. I was in running mode and not in thinking one anyway J But I was the second best overall anyway, I gained another 21 points of lead and I went to sleep with optimistic feeling “Man…I think I can do it!!!”

The last stage 4 hour stage (5 hours for Masters) was everything combined. “OK…let’s play it safe. Just to control the race” I ordered myself and started with running, which were sure points because I couldn’t get lost. Getting lost and losing time was the only way how I could possibly lose the race. It was not the way how to collect maximum number of points, but “What is home, counts” I ran to the furthest running points along the ridge (after the race I found out that nobody else was there that day J). But after around 2 hours and another 20km of trail run I felt I was just too tired and running too slow so I went to transition and changed to bike. I collected couple of bike points on the way to kayak transition, collected all kayak points in 30 minutes and…and I realized “OMG…I completely forgot about the activity point!!!” When I got back to the bike and the map I immediately checked where the activity point actually was. “Damned!! It’s on the other side of the map!! I was just 2km from the point during the run and it’s on the top of the ridge!! Stupid!! Novice!!” I swore and started sprinting back to the AP. 

I had 15 minutes left when I got to the top. I was not really in the mood of searching in the map for “Giant’s hall”, “Tumuli” and various ranches, so I was a bit struggling. “It’s the end of the day anyway” said the race marshal on the checkpoint. “I don’t care!!” and he helped me to find the secret location on the map and gave we extra points for completion J

“Once I here, let’s collect one more. If I come 5 minutes late it’s still worth it” I said and went down along the ridge. I came 2.5 minutes late, but it didn’t matter at all. I won the Novice stage with 454 (810) points, 94 point ahead of the second!! And then I was the winner!! “WOW!!...I made it” I cheered and opened a beer I brought for the end of the race and was carrying whole way up to here!! Then I looked at the overall standings and counted “If I had that one extra hour as Masters had, I could have collected 100 point more and I would have been 4^th overall”. “Maybe I really am quite good” I thought. “But there is still room for improvement and I can be and want to be better!!” I closed the subject and went for price giving.

It was great feeling standing there in my ENVAC racing shirt, your name said aloud, getting a certificate, winning 40 pounds of vouchers one online sport gear store (really valuable prize ;) and having the photo for official web. I don’t know if you can have enough of winning, but I definitely don’t and I’ll try next time again J

I wouldn’t mind to race the next day again, but everything has to end. So I asked Andy and Jake if they can give me a lift to the bus station and after Fish&Chips and couple of ciders and took the bus to Gatwick airport and Emirates plane back to Qatar.

       If it was worth to fly that far for 3.5 days? Hell yeah it was!! Another unforgettable memory, trophy, experience and fun. Please give me more…I’m really looking forward to coming back for Coast to Coast and go another adventure…living adventure…being myself J