Hello again the North! |
Right, yes, sorry. Putting the camera away now. |
That's Saturday done, let's have a little sit down |
Well done to the Polaris organisers for securing Alston rugby club as the base, rather than some random isolated field or school. Alston has pubs, and arriving on a Friday night it would be rude not to. We secured a table for marking up the map, a hearty dinner and a pint. How many beers can you have without affecting performance the next day? In 2013 it's an embarrassing one, but in 2003 it was two or three, let's call it three. Four is only one more than three though; oh go on then.
Thanks to our professional discipline, the Saturday was hangover free. Having discovered that we have the potential to be alright I suppose at this lark, we in fact set about Cumbria, County Durham and North Yorkshire with an air of reasonable seriousness. This is reflected in the one single photo taken while the clock was running. The rest of the day is a blur of forest, moorland, streams, villages, cattle grids, farm tracks, uphills and downhills. Spud is chief navigator, and our finish time of 6 hours and 55 minutes says he did a very good job indeed.
Spud's super navigation continued into the Sunday. Our route plan was excitingly good (OK so you probably had to be there), with a reasonable points haul planned even before hitting the road back to Alston and the prospect of two further "just over the river and back" checkpoints. This plan just needed us to have some energy left for the final hour. No problem for Spud, but a problem for me as it turned out.
By the time we got to the Alston road my tank was empty, legs still turning but no power, no feeling left. Winching myself at a snail's pace up the hills I had time to check the map. The last two checkpoints looked easy, but you never know until you leave the road. Spud was raring to go. I estimated a minimum 15 minute detour for each, but with my legs finished we would need all our remaining time just to make the 5 hour cut-off. What if we went for just one checkpoint? With 20 points gained we could be 15 minutes late and still end up 5 points better off, but any later and the time penalties ramp up severely. To me it wasn't worth the risk; being too weak to complete the plan was bad enough, but to end up with a net loss of points would have been worse. Applying what was left of my legs to the tarmac, we crossed the line in 4 hours and 59 minutes.
Overall position: 88th / 323 teams.