Competed in the 4th Open 5 of the season this weekend in Bakewell. Although there was a cold wind blowing at transition, the day soon warmed up to be just the right kind of cool and sunny to be able to exert yourself and not overheat. I think most competitors left the start over dressed and were soon shedding layers.
Tim (Ashelford) and I biked first as we usually do. It wasn’t long before we realised this would be a high scoring event as we knocked off a considerable chunk of the bike course in the first 90mins. Compared to the freezing wet conditions of only 4 weeks ago it was a positive joy. We elected to drop only 1 5 point control on the bike course and returned to transition in 3:01 which I think is just about bang on.
We scored very poorly in the last Open 5 because we both had niggling injuries which meant we didn’t want to run much and were determined to do better in Bakewell. Again the course seemed quite ‘doable’ and we were sure that someone would clear both courses and score the maximum 600 points. Even knowing this we elected to drop the furthest 3 run controls because we have been late many times and didn’t want the penalties. Sadly this proved to be a mistake as we arrived back at the finish with 17 minutes left of the 5 hours and no controls left that we could get.
So we scored 545 out of a possible 600 which wasn’t bad but it was a very high scoring day. 4 people cleared the course and there were many scores of 580. In hindsight we should have gone for the 3 valley controls which would have given is 590. We ended up being 9th male pair on the day but now having 3 scores were moved into 4 place in the Male Pairs series with one event left.
I can’t recommend the Open 5 series enough to people. It’s so flexible in terms of how long you go out for, how much biking and how much running you do. Sure to be competitive it’s a bit different but to test your fitness, navigation skills , generally have some fun and ride in some new areas then it’s a great way to do it.