Wadenhoe Race 2

High flood waters KO Kayak!!

Well, a wet start to the 2008 race season with plenty of rain. It seems the plague of flood waters from the 2007 race season is not going to let go without a fight. Unfortunately the high water levels in the River Nene meant that we had to cancel the kayak stage and therefore the Quad race, for safety reasons. When we arrived on the Saturday we were wading through thigh high water while setting up the run course. Luckily the water levels dropped over night but there was still a large amount of flood water around the lower swamp area.

On the start line 34 brave souls started the first of the initial 2 run laps. All was plain sailing until reaching the infamous swamp section and the edge of the river. Today the swamp certainly was going to live up to its reputation. The flood water of the Nene made the going extremely tough work. Running [I mean wading] through deep water is hard work. The competitors were not to be deterred by a little water and all emerged from the swamp with a smile on their faces, well for the first lap anyway.

In our previous race we had our youngest ever competitor, Ryan, and in this race the clocks of time turned back a few years and we probably had our oldest recorded competitor in the form of 75-year old Tom Wildman. Age was no barrier for Tom as he sprinted around the course as well as his spritely 75 years would allow. I hope that I am half as fit at his age, a fantastic effort. It only goes to show all this government hype about obesity and lazy kids is not always true, perhaps they should come and have a look at our Wadenhoe races.

Back to the race, after the first two run laps all the athletes seemed quite pleased to get out of the muddy waters and climb onto their MTB’s. The wet conditions soon took their toll as the bikes started to slip and slide their way around the bike leg. The steep downhill section took a good number of competitors down a peg or too. It was frills and spills all over the place. I believe one lady came off six times during the bike section! Was she bothered? No, I think she was the first lady home. I believe that the uphill in this race was UNconquered, I did not see anyone make it to the top.

After the eight laps on the bike it was back to a further two laps of the dreaded run course. The first person across the line was Ryan Henry in a time of 0:58:34, with second place going to Steve Giles in a time of 1:02:15. The first lady to finish was Emily Boldy in a time of 1:13:12, she was storming round the course.

I would like to thank everyone who braved the floods and made the hard work of setting up the course worthwhile. Thanks also to the Quadrac team and Paddy for sparing time to run the event for you.