What a day!

The second of our Summer Series races was a race to remember, what with planning being impacted by rain, rain and even more rain, everyone was pleasantly surprised with the fairly dry conditions on the day!

We were based in the glorious town of Fordingbridge, just on the edge of the New Forest, where wild ponies, donkeys and horses abounded. With a chilly start, the cloud soon began to clear and brighten up as sunshine permeated the day and lifted everyone’s spirts and energies!

We had just over 320 racers signed up for the day coming out to test themselves on a course with lots to think about and strategise. Part of the run course had to be closed and the kayak stage had to be moved from its original location due to flooding. The kayak stage was to a very different stage which really challenged those attempting to do the full kayak leg within the shortened 40-minute window.

In total, six teams managed to complete the kayak leg with Campbell Walsh fastest in a time of 36:30 and Andrew Woodhouse cutting it closest by finishing under 40 seconds inside the cut-off!

Seven teams managed to complete the run leg with Tom Davies fastest in 2:27 who was also the fastest of three teams to complete the bike leg in 2:40:21.

The shortening of the run leg meant that the course became possible to clear, but just because something is possible does not make it probable and it was an absolutely terrific performance by Tom Davies to clear the whole course coming back 14 minutes early!

As ever, there were some incredible stories out on course with teams overcoming all manner of bike mechanicals and navigation errors to get back to the event base.

Full results can be found here, pictures here and Sleepmonsters race report here. Thanks to everyone who came out to join us for the start of the series, we can’t wait to do it all again in a few weeks!

A summary of the results follow:

Run-only (2 hours)

In the run-only category, Oscar Sly had a brilliant run to top the podium with 322 points ahead of Ruth Brownlee with 251 points and Felicity Hooper with 233 points.

Bike-only (2 hours)

In the bike-only category, Team A of Sam Pearson, Simon Wheeler, Simon Lambert, Nate Dinmore and Martin Piercy had a great day out to finish first with 286 points ahead of Team Mofos (Kirsty Murray and Simon Thorne with 91 points.

Duo (Run & Bike 5 hours)

In the Duo category, Team Basil (Andrew Heaney) won the day with 645 points just ahead of Montyzoomer (Mark Montgomery) with 625 points and John Armitage made up the podium finishing third with 550 points.

Trio Novice (Run, Bike & Kayak 5 hours)

In the female category, Team Cath & Karen (Karen Abell, Catherine Holt) won with a great score of 410 just ahead of Team Shallower (Emma Vidler, Steph Shallow) on 405 points and Mums on the run! (Marianne Cursons, Jacqui Tomkins) on 353 points.

In the Open Teams category, Team Impala (Andrew Wingfield, Phil Sapey, Ben Wingfield, Sam Wingfield) finished a very tight competition in first place with a score of 588 points, just ahead of Fusion Adventure Racing Team (Graeme Williams, Aidan Williams) on 571 points and Team Broken & Battered! (Andrew Lewis, Paul Wilson) on 558 points.

It was another really tight battle in the Mixed category with only 16 points separating the podium. The Flying Froggies (Delphine Polidori, Christophe Gaillac) came out on top with 576 points, just ahead of Ruby’s Rockets (Mark Lowden, Sarah Lowden) on 566 and Double Trouble (Victoria Smith, Ben Smith) on 560 points.

In the Open Solo category, Graeme Blair topped the podium with 630 points ahead of Jean-Christophe Chassard on 613 points and Ian Gowers on 455 points.

Trio Masters (Run, Bike & Kayak 6 hours)

In the female teams category less that 50 points separated the top five! The rain never bothered us anyway (Veronica Barette, Marie Vickers) came out on top with 630 points ahead of Team JPEG (Pollie Boyle, Eleanor Thackeray) with The Mad Old Tarts (Maggie Salter, Liz Jones) completing the podium with 590 points just edging out The Hairless Bikers (Rachel Raymond, Sophia Colley) and Wally’s & proud (Caroline Howe, Jodie Brinson) on 583 and 582 points respectively.

In the Open Teams category, Win or Booze (Luke Pagan, David Broad) won a very close battle with a score of 863, just 6 points ahead of Team J&J (James Lea-Cox, John Pattinson) with Phil & Ben The Power Pot Men (Phil Haycock, Ben Raggett) completing the podium with 820 points.

In the Mixed Team category Team Mongaru (Katherina Pederson & Nick Gracie) carried over their excellent form to win with 875 points with M&M’s (Mandy Hibberd, Mark Denny) finishing on 694 just three points ahead of Atlas Fitness S&J (Stephen Cox, Jenny Symons) who themselves finished three points ahead of
TongeTwisters (Jeremy Tonge, Lucy Tonge) in fourth place – another really close race!

In the Female Solo category, Bonnie van Wilgenburg had a superb first race with us to finish in first place on 830 points ahead of Helen Chapman on 815 with Julia Kingsbury making up the podium with a brilliant 750 points.

In the Open Solo category, Tom Davies put in an excellent performance to complete the course and come back 14 minutes early for an overall score of 1014 points ahead of Cambell Walsh on 985 points and Carl Silver on 943 points.

Trio Masters Vets

In the Open Category, Nick Gracie won the day with an adjusted score of 914 points just ahead of Dave Salter on 897 points with Phil haycock third on 869 points whilst in the female category, Ella Pyman led the way with 764 points ahead of Liz Jones and Maggie Salter on 714 points and Julie Banton on 688. Very close finishes in the Vets category!