A Date with the Devil – Hellrider 2012
Hellrider is described as an off-road team duathlon of devilish proportions. I can’t argue with that! It was however a cracking event.
Andrew, Dom and I made up a Bigfoot team of three for the 8 hour race based down in West Wycombe. The format is simple: one person runs a lap, the next bikes, the next runs and so on until the 8 hour clock has chimed. Unlike Bikefest, if you can get someone out onto the course just before the time runs out, that lap counts.
The event is held in the National Trust’s West Wycombe Park which provides a great backdrop to the pain suffered for the day. The weather started off drizzly and cold (very English) before warming up with some glimpses of sun later in the day.
Before we started, Andrew had done some calculations to work out how we could squeeze in about 20 laps. It soon became apparent that those times may be a little ambitious. So, 10am arrived and an 8 foot tall Satan kicked off the proceedings before making his way to the Devil’s Disco to keep the music pumping all day. Andrew was first up for the initial running lap of 5km. With the first half a mile taking in a 250 foot climb, it was just the rude awakening you want! Luckily, the running lap finishes with two thigh deep stream crossings – very refreshing!
I was next up for the bike lap. An 8km loop with a mixture of tarmac, bridle tracks, gravel path and single track. Nothing too technical on the lap but a couple of nasty low gear climbs. A good chance though for the Bigfooters to make up places.
Dom was third to go and back on the run. And so it continued all day.
For me, having not been able to get much running training in recently due to injury, having to run a 5km hilly lap was much fun! By the time it came to my third running lap I have to admit I wasn’t looking forward to it. However, by then we were at the 7 hour mark so I knew it was my last lap of the day, plus I wanted to give Dom as much chance of getting round his bike lap before the 8 hour cut off so we could send Andrew out for one final lap!
So, when Andrew returned from an impressive fourth running lap, we’d chalked up 19 laps in all. The official results aren’t out yet but the winning team of three did 21 laps, so we weren’t that far off.
I think the most impressive thing of the day was the soloists that managed 18 laps on their own! Another level of fitness there.
Definitely a great event. Good free technical t-shirt and loads of freebies from Clif bars, For Goodness Shakes etc through the day. I think Andrew may have covered his entry fee in For Goodness Shakes alone!
Andrew here – found some more pics of us:
Great result guys. Well done. Looks like a great event (though not sure I’d like the run!).
Yes echo Matts thoughts, well done. Looking forward to seeing the results when they are posted up
Results are finally in! Looks like we were 16th (14th in the Male team of 3) out of somewhere in the region of 110 teams! Just checking with the organisers though as the rules say teams with same number of laps are ranked according to the time of last lap. Could push us to 7th!!
I think we can be very happy with 16th – excellent team effort all round, especially for a trio of ‘old gits’! Interestingly both Mike and Dom managed to pick up the pace when they found out there was a good chance of sending me out for another lap of running punishment
The course was tough with 400ft of climbing on the 3.2mile run and 500ft of up on the 4.2mile bike course. How on earth the solo’s managed it I’ve no idea, it was all up and down with no flat for a rest…
All of us struggled with cramp though which we put down to the unique on/off nature of the event, at least stretching and a bit of a rub managed to keep things under control. The course seemed to even out the home advantage between the teams of ‘runners’ and ‘bikers’ too. I enjoyed showing a bit of Bigfoot singletrack schooling to one of the ‘Nectar’ sponsored riders – before he powered away up the next climb like he was on a motorbike
Nice relaxed atmos and pretty good organisation, apart from them running out of goodie bags at the end (like they didn’t know how many people were going to turn up)! Made up for by the fact that the For Goodness Shakes stand was left unattended for most of the day (ahem)
It was a great 8 hours, tough but great…my legs are still smarting a bit! Just amazes me how such short loops can sting so bad! I looked in awe at the soloists standing on the podium…incredible!