First things first: we survived. This was the minimum benchmark we set several months ago when we signed up to take part in an adventure race to raise money for Learn Burma. Secondly, we are well on the way to meeting our fundraising target of £1000, so thank you to those who have donated, and a gentle reminder to those who haven’t yet!
The idea to enter an adventure race struck us a few months ago when we decided we wanted to help our good friend Ben Hammond with his newly founded charity, Learn Burma. Lacking in the time and expertise to get involved directly, we decided the most efficient way to make a contribution was to help with the fundraising efforts.
Our initial inclination was to sign up for a 10k run over the summer, but we wanted to try something a bit more interesting and challenging. We stumbled upon the idea of an adventure race by accident, and immediately loved the idea of combining several different activities alongside the navigation and strategic elements. Knowing the best motivation was to define a goal and commit to it immediately we signed up right away and began our fundraising, without taking time to consider the task ahead.
At this stage I had not owned a bike since I was in primary school,had never kayaked, hadn’t looked at a non-Google map since GCSE geography class, and had never run without a football to chase. Nizam was pretty much in the same boat. There was clearly much work to be done before the event.
Training was generally haphazard and disorganised, and due to our busy schedules we only had a couple of occasions where we were able to run together. We both managed to improve our general fitness and lost a lot of weight, but as we approached the event it occurred to us that we were not entirely well prepared for the task at hand.
The real adventure started the day before the event. Having unfortunately missed the short window of opportunity to hire a bike from the suggested hire company in the Cotswolds, we were left bike-less the day before the race. Having found a bike hire company in London, Nizam managed to pick his up in the afternoon, and I had left work early with plenty of time to get there and pick up my own. Or so I thought. I had not reckoned on the unreliability of the Jubilee line, and soon found myself running to catch the DLR and catapulting myself into the carriage in a rather uncivilised manner. Getting to Waterloo station 8 minutes before the hire shop was closing, and of course not quite knowing where it was located, I started a light jog in the wrong direction. I eventually got my bearings and managed to arrive just at closing time, grabbed a bike, almost forget a helmet, and then started the ordeal of cycling back to East London.
Seeing as this was the first time pre-event I had actually cycled out on the open road, I was unprepared for the standard bike riding symptoms: for example the soreness between my lower back and hamstrings. The next challenge involved getting the bikes to the Cotswolds. Unfortunately “The Beast” (my Citroen C2) would not quite fit two mountain bikes, so I had to borrow an estate car to get us to the event safely. Driving a car bigger than a go kart was a new experience for me, so this was another challenge to get to grips with. By the time I had picked up the car and gotten it back home to East London, via a nutritionally suicidal pre-race trip to McDonalds, it was almost midnight and time to crash.
Getting up at 6am on the morning of the event, I was not quite feeling at peak physical condition. The first challenge of the day was fitting my bike in the back of the car, and not knowing how to detach the wheels this was not as easy as it sounds. Thanks to some struggles getting out of the car park, I was running about 45 minutes late to pick up Nizam.
The next challenge was fitting a second mountain bike into the car, a challenge we eventually met, and then we were on our way. The late start, allied with some comfortingly bad traffic getting out of London, meant we were running very late and were starting to become a little concerned. Despite our sat-nav telling us we would be half an hour late, we eventually arrived just as the briefing was taking place, feeling slightly out of place in our jeans and t-shirts as we looked out on a hall full of people kitted out in their running and cycling gear. After picking up our race packs we had to run back to the car to get changed and set up our bikes at the transition station. In the rush to get to the starting point we didn’t properly pack our running bag – something that would come back to haunt us during the race.
Starting the race late, we had to run to the kayak point right away, and because we missed the beginning of our time slot we only had about 40 minutes out on the water. We also hadn’t noted the exact end of our time slot, so we were left guessing as to when we needed to be back and out of the water to avoid a points penalty. Having not kayaked properly before, we spent the first few minutes splashing around and weaving from side to side, but eventually hit some kind of rhythm and by the end of our session we were going very strong.
As we exited the water we decided against returning to the start/finish point where our gear was and continued straight on with the trail running session. Our first real strategic decision was to decide on which direction to set off in, and without taking too much time to consider our options we picked a direction and started off on a gentle run. All was going well as we reached our first running check point, but the next location we reached was a ‘dummy’ so did not earn us any points. At this stage our lack of map reading experience began to go against us. We also started to wonder if shorts and ankle socks were a good combination as we were cut to pieces by an assortment of nettles and brambles.
We then made the classic error of assuming someone else knew where they were going better than we did, and ended up taking a wrong turning and completely missing out on 3 of our planned checkpoints and a large number of points in the process. Once we realised the error of our ways we began to turn back, but eventually decided it would be better to press on and focus on a new route rather than retracing our steps.
As we continued on our run we decided to take a slightly ambitious route, going for a few high value further-off check points. It looked like a mistake when we realised we had not packed any water and we really began to struggle about an hour in, despite having an energy boost from our selection of bananas and jelly babies. Fortunately we persevered, and once we had reached the furthest check-point on our planned route it gave us a real boost as we planned to arc back towards the start/finish point. Physically though we were really struggling, and it was only when we passed a pub and had the genius idea of slipping in to ask for some tap water that we felt able to push on. From here on we managed to get back to a decent pace as we picked up more points, only getting lost once before we made it back to the transition station.
Unfortunately our over-optimistic running route, coupled with our lack of water slowing us down, had left us with a short time slot for the mountain biking session. We downed as much water as we could, hastily jumped on our bikes, and set off towards the nearest check point. We were making good progress on our bikes, but a few stops were required to re-attach chains that seemed eager to detach themselves from our bikes. We then got to the point where we needed to decide whether to rush back and finish within our 5 hours time period, or to push ourselves and try and get another couple of check points. We chose the latter, in hindsight unwisely, but with the intention of pushing ourselves physically as much as possible. Our next challenge came when I collapsed with severe cramp in both calves, Nizam having to step up as physiotherapist by mimicking the standard football treatment, lifting my feet into the air like a true pro. Once we got going again we really picked up the pace, and were finally pushing on to the last checkpoint and the final stretch. A mammoth hill was all that stood between us and this check point, or so we thought. In actual fact we had missed the check point and only realised after we finished climbing the hill and stopped to check the map. We then had to decide whether to just head back or if we could face turning around and having to climb the hill for a second time. Again we took the hard decision to go for the check point despite the impact of losing 2 points for every minute late we would finish. Having to climb that hill for a second time was the toughest part of the day, but eventually we reached the top and practically glided back to the finish line.
As we ended our race the adrenaline was pumping, and we actually felt as good as we had done for most of the race. In this state of post-race euphoria, we both made the commitment that we would definitely be entering another adventure race at the next opportunity. It was only after we had sat down and tried to stand up that we realised just how physically exhausted we were.
The adventure didn’t quite finish until we had made it back home to London, and after dropping my borrowed car back and getting home it was midnight. I think we both slept as well as we have done in a long time.
A few lessons were definitely learned from this experience which will make us more competitive when we make another attempt in the future. First of all, make sure we hire bikes in the local area so we don’t have to transport them across the country. Secondly, turn up on time. Thirdly, make sure that we take the time to strategise effectively before we start running. Finally, make sure we have the right supplies and don’t run out of fluid at a key part of the race.
In conclusion, we had a brilliant time, and we are genuinely hoping to enter another similar event next season. Our main frustration is that we were not as competitive as we had hoped, mainly down to a few big strategic errors we made before and during the race, which I think we can put down to inexperience. On the plus side we are very close to our fundraising target, which was of course the reason we had embarked on this event in the first place. So finally a thank you to everyone who supported us and who donated – we really would have struggled without knowing so many people were rooting for us.
Mazdak and Nizam (photos to come I have a functioning internet connection)
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Original message:
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One day Nizam and Mazdak were brought together by divine forces. They sat down in a chicken shop and discussed the teachings of a little known Indo-Persian philosopher named Nizdak Mazzam. Incidentally, it goes without saying that plenty of chicken was consumed.
Many years later they decided to raise money for LearnBurma.
LearnBurma is an educational charity spreading awareness of the situation in Burma and equipping young people to get involved and make a difference. The charity is currently working hard to fundraise and lay the groundwork before kicking off their educational work in January 2012.
LearnBurma is a great cause, founded by the wonderful Ben Hammond (any man who dances an entire marathon deserves respect) so please donate!
We were planning on running a 10k, but instead decided to do something a bit different - hence the idea of an 'adventure race'. This is a mixture of trail running, mountain biking, kayaking, and navigation over 5 hours. Distance covered in that time will be around 4-5km Kayaking, 10-14km running, and 16-30km biking. Obviously being the finely tuned athletes that we are this should be no problem and if anything we will cover more ground.
We will keep this page updated with stories, photos, and videos of our training, so keep checking back every now and then, and please spread the word!!!!!!
ps. We are covering all entries/fees/etc. ourselves so every penny goes to the charity. Also, make sure you include Gift Aid! (if eligible, of course)
Wish us luck...
