This event has been and gone.. but will be back in 2011. We will update these pages in the Autumn of 2010.
Coast to Coast Adventure Race 28-31 August 2009
The first year of the Coast to Coast Adventure Race. We follow the founder of the C2C, Alfred Wainwright in setting off from St Bees Head and finishing in the spectacular Robin Hoods bay.
The event is for solos and mixed teams of three (with two competing at any one time) and is a supported event so you will need a friend to help you out.
Entries have now closed - if you are interested in competing please contact us, its quite possible a team / solo has dropped out and we can find an entry for you.
With Open Adventure having a reputation of getting it right first time, this is one event you really don't want to miss. We will provide locations for you to camp overnight, these will be near small towns - so if your support crew is not up for cooking, local eateries should be near by.
Support - this is a supported event so you will need someone to transport your kit to each transition (around 3 / 4 each day). Please be careful about using big camper vans as you won't be able to use many of the small roads leading to transitions, and it is a bank holiday.
Non competitive - pairs can race, likewise all male / female teams of three but there will not be any further ranking of competitors beyond [overall / solos / mixed teams]. Prizes will only be awarded to mixed teams of 3 and solos.
Sportident - The event will use the Sportident system of timing, for which you will need an SI card 6 (higher capacity and more importantly, records which day you visited a control!). We have to hire these from Sportident UK on a per day basis, as this event is four days, the hire charge will be £10 per person.
[26/8] Route book and waypoint file has been updated.. OK if you could please check back here Thursday for any last minute points. One important point we forgot is that we can not guarentee water at any of the transitions. Like for the first nights camp just outside Keswick there is no running water here so you will need to bring a jerry can of water.
Some of the routes may change slightly as each day goes partly due to the rain and sometimes due to last minute communication from landowners. Its important that you make it to the briefing on the first day and each night.
Kayaking - had about five calls today about the kayaking and the bad weather that has hit the lakes. No decision will be made about the kayaking until the morning of the event. If it is cancelled then it will be replaced by a run over to St Bees.
Oh a few of you have yet to send in kayak qualifications and i'm mindful a few of you are paddling elite boats who have not formally told us. Please don't put yourself in an awkward position. Turning up with "sorry I forgot it, didn't I email it to you, or I didn't get it back in time from the BCU" just won't wash I'm afraid. Please double check your entry now here
Have a good day and remember to arrive in good time..
[23/8] FAQ has been updated again.. few minor changes a foot will release final copy of route book on Wednesday - note we will supply an A5 booklet version of this with maps (2 sets for solos, 3 sets for teams). A significant change is the crossing of the A1, not sure why we did not pick this up before - basically unless you use a bridge you won't get across (volume of traffic / safety). Its likely we will send you north to cross at Catterick. Will clarify in the next couple of days.
[20/8] OK its getting close.. final preperations are a foot and we are getting a plethora of questions flyin our way. We are updating the FAQ every couple of days so please check here before winging us an email.
Times on the Friday - Registration 7.30am to 9.00am, Briefing 9.15am, Start 10.00am the start, registration and briefing are all in the same location THE HUB.
We are also pretty much on top of updating your profiles with which quals you have. Be great if you can check the entry list to see if you have a green tick against your entry. If not you need to get a copy of your certificate to us ideally before the day.
Likewise if you are paddling an elite boat please let us know before Wednesday next week. I think most of you know we take a pretty hard line here so we beg of you don't turn up without your certificate (if you have not sent it to us) or an elite boat you have not told us about - if in doubt contact us..
Support - couple of things here.. if you have a sat nav, lend it to your support team and ideally pop in the transitions as favourites. We are expecting a few competitors to be left stranded without support teams, hope its not you.
Could you also add details for your support to your entry if none is listed.
Vehicles - as per earlier instructions, please do not bring anything bigger than a transit van, the big campers sound great but you just won't get them along some of the roads on a busy weekend and other support teams will be most annoyed if you block the roads.
Bibs - competitors will have black bibs, solos with yellow numbers, teams with white numbers. Support teams will also have one (large so they can wear more clothing underneath) white bib each with team numbers on. If you are a team without support please wing us an email.
Leaders (solos and teams) of the event after the first day will be given yellow bibs at the evening social to wear the following day.
Bibs - at every event someone looses one, there is usually a frantic melly as they turn their vehicle upside down just before the start and then come begging for another. Please please look after them..
No doubt be back soon.. check again after the weekend.
[15/8] FAQ has been updated as well as the Route Book. We are receiving a good number of questions about rules, routes, etc. Which to be honest we are struggling to keep on top of and reply in good time. We just ask before you wing us an email could you check the FAQ.
[11/8] We have had a few emails today about the 500m rule on tarmac in the Swaledale Valley on day 3. In seems we might have snookered you a little - will look at this at post a revised route book by the end of this week.
[11/8] OK we have put up the kitlist / rules - sorry for the delay, hopefully no surprises here. If you have any questions or think something should be on the list that is not please wing us an email.
We have also updated the FAQ's and will endevour to keep on top of these in the coming weeks as more questions fly our way.
Lastly we will be changing the way teams / solos use the Sportident timing cards. In effect your team will only need to carry one card which will be attached to a loop of string. If you have paid to hire extra SI-Cards Lisa will sort out a refund in the coming weeks.
If you are paddling an elite boat, please could you wing us an email by 21st August and we will change the entry list to suit. We are altering our database to record which qualification you have so we may have to see your ticket again if you are paddling an elite boat.
The route book will be amended soon to reflect some of the changes in transition locations, none of which drastically affect the route. Have a good day.
[9/7] Anquet Maps.. Although we will providing maps at registration for this event, we know most of you will want to get your head around the event before the weekend. Anquet have put together a special package of maps for competitors. There are 3 flavours
- Basic (OS Road Map, OS 1:50K, Find Place, Height) £15.95
- Basic + 1:25K covering on-foot sections £29.95
- Basic + 1:25k + Aerial covering on-foot sections £34.95
To buy this mapping you need to have Anquet mapping V6 which can be downloaded from www.anquet.co.uk under TOOLS - MAP MANAGER - MAP STORE - (drop down box) ANQUET BUNDLES - expand OPEN ADVENTURE and select the product you want to buy.
We have finalised the overnight stay in Keswick at last (phew) and will be updating the route book in coming weeks with tweaks to transition locations.
[1/7] Entries close today, we have had a flurry of last minute enquiries. Just a little more on the tracking for the event - this will be done by Sportstrack UK, part of the reason for the early closing date is that some of these trackers will be brought in for the C2C from South Africa and there is a 6 week lead time.
A few competitors trialled the trackers at the Staveley Open5, they did a cracking job and were not onerous for Solos to carry. Our big comment was that we wanted to see the tracking move away from Microsoft Virtual Earth to Google Maps (which includes contours rather than white space). They are on the case and it should be all up and running in the coming months.
[5/6] OK you will find a copy of the Coast to Coast route book on the links at the top of this page its still a draft as you will see. We still have some transitions to finalise, however we are pretty confident the route will not change too much come the end of August. It is a 6mb file so for those of you on a dial up connection best put the kettle on.
You will also see a the Anquet waypoint file which accompanies the route book. You can find more here on the event details page.
Thanks on the event may get lost on the day hence I want to just say a big thankyou to Anthony Emmet and Helen Jackson who helped advise Open Adventure on how the event should look and gave feedback on intial ideas we were banding around.
[1/4] We hoped to have been posting some more details on Kayaking for the C2C, specifically the spec of the boats required. We are almost there and do sincerely apologise for the delay.
As a sweetner we can let on a little more info on the route - the 3 overnight stops for the event are Keswick, Kirkby Stephen and Northallerton. Once permissions have been finalised we will publish the route in good time.
[16/2] We have over the past couple of months had a few enquiries from groups looking to take on the C2C as part of a charity challenge. Great we are all up for that and if we can promote your cause on the day then give us a shout.
However we do have a few concerns when questions arise about where to hire bikes. Remember those walking Wainwright's route often take 10 days and those taking on the cycle C2C take 5 days. This event is 3 1/2 days! That is not to say with 6 months to go you can't manage it, quite the contrary but it would be wrong of us to suggest that you don't need to have a moderate level of fitness and be happy to sit on a bike for at least 5 hours.
What is of greater concern is navigation - you will be crossing serious mountainous terrain. Unless exceptional weather blesses August we won't be avoiding any high fells. You should be comfortable in navigation without the aid of a GPS in low visibility.
The above skills that you can gain before the event - the likes Joe Faulkner's training weekends are a great way to help you. Likewise have a crack at a few Open5 events before the end of August.
If you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact us.