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Accelerace Mid Wales Ultra 2007
Report by Nigel Whinsper (support driver for the event for Steve Haywood, Edgar Ettie and Julian Crabtree)
Firstly congratulations to Steve & Eddie on finishing such an arduous event. So first the swim 4 miles with Steve out the water in about 1hr 24mins with Julian & Eddie not far behind.
While they're swimming, the support team consisting of Russ Adi (Julian's support) Lucy & Nigel (Steve & Eddie's support) cooked up bacon sarnies with a cup of tea for all entrants.
The support teams agreed to divide the stops up into short segments mostly on or near the turn points/major intersections leapfrogging using the 3 vehicles.
The funniest incident for us to witness was another entrant who threw a tantrum at mile 20 while climbing a long 16% gradient. He got to a junction that flattened out slightly but on being informed that he would need to turn right and up another climb that steepened again he dismounted throwing his bike, helmet & bum bag into a ditch cursing the hills of Wales. He did eventually remount to continue the event but not for much longer, I think he pulled out at approximately 40 miles.
The climbing for this event in the first 60 miles was just relentless and cruel 200 miles is hard enough on the flat, but with these climbs it's in another league - it's got to feel more like 300.
Julian was starting to suffer with his back at about 40 miles, and after 50 after much thought decided to retire after all he has much bigger things in 8 weeks time.
So we were down to 2 cyclists 2 crew 2 vans, we now stopped both vans at the same time giving them what they wanted at the various junctions.
Steve had a craving for Jelly babies at one point on the bike but we couldn’t find the bags we had already bought, one quick stop at a shop & 6 bags were obtained. Steve was now a happy little baby cause by now it was like looking after 2 little babies.
The climbs were as I stated before relentless and they just kept coming, but with darkness now descending it was going to be a worrying few hours. The support strategy now was for Lucy to stay with them for safety & me to keep leapfrogging the group to make sure they turned at the correct junctions.
Having reached the last summit above Llanberis it was now time to descend with Lucy in front of Steve & Eddie with me behind. Llanberis T2 1.30am the event organisers informed us of Jules having to be pulled from the event at Peny Pass, 3 entrants left now for the hardest part 17 hours from the start approximately 3 hours of running in the darkness before sun up. Lucy & I now used just Eddie’s van for support packing the bikes into my van.
2 runners 2 crew 1 van. The feed strategy now was to stop every couple of miles to allow the scavengers devour whatever was left in the rear of the van while Lucy brewed the tea and made Steve & Eddie Hot cross buns with banana fillings.
The problem with this was whenever we stopped they always seemed to catch up with us too quickly , we never seemed ready for them. We revised the plan to stop about every 4 miles.
At about 30 miles we had to leave Steve & Eddie because they were to run over Snowdon along a track for 2 miles, we were to meet them on the other side.
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6 miles to go.... |
It was a long wait for Lucy & me on the other side they seemed to be taking ages, Lucy’s concern deepened the longer they were. Lucy decided to try and meet up with them on Snowdon.
Eventually they made it to the van for more snacks only about 4 miles to go for the finish line , we waited for them on the main road into Llanberis where Eddie told us he thought it was 9 o’clock, it was 11. We then headed to the finish where 2 other entrants waited for Steve & Eddie to finish at approx 27 hours.
Now off to Pete’s Eats for a slap up meal.
Regards
Nigel Winsper
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