The Isle of Man Adventure race, organised and ran by Adventurous Experiences took place on Saturday.
This is the fifth year we've run the race and each year it has evolved to become the event it is today. The core disciplines of the race are Mountain biking and hill running, but with some key special stages that are only revealed to the competitors during the race with some clues given in the briefing the night before.
This year Sea
Kayaking was due to feature in the race, but due to strong North Westerly winds
on Saturday morning the course was altered and a further bike stage was
introduced instead.
One of the main features of the race is that the course is unmarked,
competitors are given maps of the route and required to navigate their way
round whilst checking in at several proof of visit checkpoints along the way.
We had a number of teams entered from the UK including the Food & Lycra girls.
Sebastian from Argentina....
and plenty of great local teams too...
A great group of people coming together to take part in the race always it makes it a highly enjoyable experience each year for both competitors and organisers!
The race this year was a 30km journey through the spectacular manx countryside, navigating to checkpoints on foot and on bike with the interesting special stages thrown in the mix....
Pairs would stick together throughout whilst the solo's raced on alone.....
The finale - Scaling a platform then traversing a rope to another platform!
In the end the overall winners were visiting team Calder Valley Adventure racers made up of husband and wife team Phil & Jackie Scarf. Regular faces on the UK adventure racing scene this was their first visit to the island and were able to beat off local competition to navigate their way round the course completing the race in a time of 2 hours, 58 minutes and 29 seconds.
Close behind them were brothers Graham and Colin Furner (2 Fast, 2 Furners) who completed the race 3 minutes later.
In third place were the Youth Scholarship team of Tom Anderson and Katia Tastagh.
Solo competitors were also welcome with Stu Brew taking 1st prize in this category with Peter Bradley a close second, and James Bettridge third.
The special paddle award for team spirit went to team Here for the Beer, local girls Sammy and Mairi....
Full results can be found on the Manx Timing Solutions website.
The next morning some of the teams took up the offer of a short sea kayak trip off Peel in fantastic flat calm conditions whilst the Adventure club weekly training session was taking place.
Thanks to the supporters of the race, the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, Sea Kayaking UK, Mylchreests Group, Green Mann Spring, Red Scaffolding, Knockaloe Beg farm and all of the marshals and coaching team at Adventurous Experiences.
Looking forward to next year!
Saturday 19th September 2015
Entries open March
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