It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time

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BY: Louise Robinson

Published: 29th September, 2013

Are you a Sufferlandrian? Will you beat your ass today to kick mine tomorrow? Or have you not got the faintest idea what I am talking about?

After having to blow out my usual Thursday night club ride due to a mechanical failure in my car, I was on training catch up on Saturday without any extra time to do it in. What to do? A Sufferfest training session on the turbo trainer was the quickest way to bury myself, and with a new release just out I strapped myself in for two hours of "It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time". A 2 hour hill climb special which my heart rate monitor suggested was on par with an XC race.

Two hours at about lactate acid threshold - Do you know how much money you should have to pay for that much pain!

More suffering at http://www.thesufferfest.com 

So it was rather heavy legs that I dragged myself out of bed on Sunday morning for the Gorrick Trail Trax ride. For those of you not familiar with the format, these are bike orientering races.  There is a 2hr and 3 hr category and when you sign in you are handed a map with check points marked on it, a clipper tag (to punch at each checkpoint you reach) and a descitpion list for each check point to pin point the positon of the clipper. Now for those of you who know me, and know I can get lost in the car park at Sainsburys, this may not seem like the best event for me. But with a mixed pairs category I was able to ride with Jason (my long suffering mechanic, photographer and husband) safe in the knowledge that if I did get lost, at least I would be getting lost with good company.

So whats this thing...sure I have seen one before...couldn't tell you what to do with it though!

It was a lovely autumn day and the trails were fairly dry. The terrain was rolling hills and we managed to complete just under 30 miles in 2 hours 45 minutes.  We collected 1830 points (out of 2010 max)  without getting too lost. We did lose time on two occasions looking for check points that were not where we thought they were and merrily sailed past a couple of turnings (always a pain when you have to go back up the hill you have just come down) but generally it was a passable performance. Given my navigation prowess, I wasnt allowed the map. I was allowed the checkpoint descriptions however, so I became in charge of finding the clippers once we reached the checkpoint. This was actually loads of fun and I quite got into it after "getting my eye in" on the first couple (because the boys at Gorrick would hate for it to be too easy so all the clippers are well hidden).

It was actually in really pretty countryside - shame the only photo I got was the run in to the finish

The atmosphere at these events is totally different to XC races. With a flexible start between 9 and 10am it just makes life a lot easier for anyone like me, where merely leaving the house is a logistical operation that would rival the D day landings. It doesn't matter if its kids, dogs or elderley relatives, things always go wrong on a Sunday morning. What should be  a relaxed journey to the race start ends up being a frantic dash after refereeing world war 3, clearing up dog sick from the carpet, or retreiving nan from the other end of the village because she had just poped out for her ration stamps. The flexible start really helps. Without the bunch start you also ride at your own pace from the beginning and everyone is really friendly. The old competive spirit did kick in however, and we ended up riding much harder than we would have done if we had just been out for a Sunday morning ride. By the end my legs were really feeling the burn and I was very glad of my compression tights and a nice recovery Big Mac on the way home.

Every bike event should start and finish at a pub

Another well run event from Gorrick, completely different to their XC races but well worth a go - and if you (like me) can't tell one end of map from another, phone a friend and enter as a pair.

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