Polaris Challenge 2009....

Just spent the last 2 days hammering round the Peak District competing in the 2009 Polaris Challenge. After deciding I needed some sort of goal to kick start my training (New Years resolutions have a lot to answer for!) I stupidly signed up earlier in the year for my first ever race. Of course it all came round far to quickly and I found myself pedalling out on the first day feeling vastly unprepared. 

I discovered (the hard way) that it's all about the route planning by making a pigs ear out of the first day by taking on far too many climbs.  After using almost all the allowed time of 7 hours I'd only managed 13 checkpoints and needed a good rest to think about where it had all gone wrong. Luckily Jo (she deserves 'wife of the year' award) ran our support area like a pro, getting me all carb'ed up ready for day 2.

Come the second day, and with a master plan devised (ok some pretty patterns drawn on the map) I set out to try and better my lack lustre 54th place (out of 87) in my age group from the previous day. After using all but 10 minutes of the 5 hour time limit I felt like things had gone a little better. It had been a pretty hot and arduous day and I was relieved to finally pedal back in and get the results from my wrist tag downloaded to see how things had gone.

When all was said and done I ended up 40th out of 87 in the men's senior category (97th out of 220 overall). A bit disappointing but not too bad for a first attempt.  Plenty of room for improvement though so I might just give it another go.......(yes I really am that stupid!)