The weekend started off in beautiful sunshine and we arrived at our ‘medieval’ homestead in the most tranquil and beautiful places in Northumberland. Falstone. Last year was the stark polarisation, a wet and muddy camp site with noisy pub fuelled campers.
Thank goodness for a uninterupted pre-race night sleep! The morning was wet. Wet and warm. The rain swept . And the hardy Northerners ignored the attempts to dishearten spirits. I felt good.
The lake/reservoir of Kielder waters has a history. Once a valley of numerous farms and agricultural habitats,that dwindled with the coming of the modern age and it was decided it would be better suited as a LAKE. So they flooded it and grew forestry for the new found indusrty. History lesson over and on to the race.;
The swim started with only 60+ atheletes in the icy, dark (iron coloured) water. I had a great smooth swim, and made for the 2nd lap on a negative split. Second girl out of the water, I spent a while donning my gloves, pads (essential), shoes, helmet. Oh and having a little chat to bystanders and leaning on my fellow athlete for balance ( is that cheating?) You can see where this race is heading..
Onto the bike segment with a hill climb on slippy grass single track , this is where I realised my gears were slipping, uh.
Ah well just another 32km to go.
The rain then was coming down like a power shower so what? I was wet already.
The first part of the race was 17miles and mostly single track and fire roads that were flooded. Some puddles you just slid through whoosh. Then there was THE puddle, it looked like a puddle, seemed like all the rest but as you went through….it was a LAKE. I couldn’t believe my bike and I rode through such a deep water feature. That was my bath done for that day. I was laughing (to myself) as no one was around at that point.
A few miles down the way I was bombing down a descent and I saw some bikers coming back they informed me the Marshall had sent everyone the wrong way . They knew this because:
a) There were no way marks at 2 X vital junctions
b) They rode the course yesterday and turned right where they went left today.
So we retraced our steps and met a few other who promptly turned around with us. What a confusion. As we passed a rather embarrassed Marshall she said her directions on the map were wrong. WHOOPs. At least it gave us all a breathing space to have a chat to each other to break the monotony. Oh it was a RACE you say? Ah yes I know that’s why on the next descent I powered up and dashed passed the leading girl. 
So my next hurdle was to get through the part of the race that I fell on badly last year (hence the elbow pads)
I was a little disappointed when I sailed over it, heaven knows why I came off it was the tamest part of the course!!! Though after another few miles I did find the only pothole the size of a wheel to go down, hence ubruptly stopped and yep, another somersault in the air over we go and DOWN. My elbows bore the brunt but didnt feel a thing:0) BUT the knees were unprotected, cuts and bruises.Made a quick fitness call and got straight back on.
In transition I was about 5/6 mins ahead so could relax. There was a way to go tho with all the climbing and slopping thro the moors on the top of the 1400′ climb. I however did have a great pair of Adidas Kanadia fell shoes on and they got me thro the knee deep mud and heather without losing even one. The Tricky descents were tackled with a 4 wheel drive capability. I too felt strong on the run and loved it. My new love is … fell running along with night riding.
So I came in from the run with everyone huddled like sheep under the small tent which said in unassuming letters ‘Finish’ maybe it should have had a question mark.
The results were nil and void as the misdirection took everyone off -course . And some did not complete the full 32 km. Some only did the bike and not the run, some just smashed helmets down with frustration, some swore lots and got angry……me?
came in 1st girl, but who knows…
