Thinking of taking on a mountain bike marathon event? Our supported riders Jane and Peter Squires recently took part in the Yorkshire Mountain Bike Marathon, at Birdsall Estate in Malton. Here’s Jane’s report from the weekend.
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This event is held in the beautiful grounds of Birdsall House and the course uses some public right of ways and a large amount of private land, it is an event rather than a race but you get a time at the end of the day to compare yourself with others. The course is a great mix of open countryside, technical woods with A and B lines and lovely flowing single track. It is a huge effort to put on with a lot of strimming needed and a number of friendly marshals and manned feed stations.
In total, over the 4 distances (25k,40k, 65k and 80K) there were 566 entries so a really good turnout and a great mix of riders ranging from Lycra wearing racers to baggies and e-bike, with every age group represented.
We knew it was going to be a hot one, it hit over 35C on the hardest climb, so had decided beforehand to be sensible and make sure we paced ourselves accordingly, which surprisingly we managed to do with no issues of cramps or sickness for either of us. Peter did start to get goosebumps with the heat so walked instead of riding through a nice cool stream, he was very tempted to stay in the woods and watch the world go by.
The organisers arrange the day to minimise issues, there was a mass start at 9:00 for the 80k if people felt they wanted that element of the event, but if a more relaxed start was preferable you could start anytime after and be given a start time. Quite a number started at 9:00 with Peter being one of them, some people may be forgetting in the excitement that 80k was going to take a while and got a bit carried away. There were a lot of cramp sufferers and a number deciding that one 40k lap was enough, it was very tempting to not go out again as you ride through the event village to start your next lap.
As I had decided to do the 40k was due to start at 10:00 so got to the start reasonably early but not really thinking about the numbers, 273 entries for the 40k, so was a bit of a queue to start but was a painless process to get going and due to the numbers had a really good event with plenty of people to ride with as bizarrely sometimes on these events you can end up riding on your own. I do suffer with the heat so was under orders to be sensible when climbing which meant that I had good legs for the fun bits and really enjoyed the woods riding the A lines and taking advantage of the dry conditions.
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It was a really well run event that we both enjoyed, managing to meet up with friends both on and off the course with a free burger and catch up after. There was also a coffee station and beer for those that felt the need.
I managed to finish 1st FV50 and 4th Lady in the 40k in 3hrs 12 minutes and Peter was 27th Overall and 5th MV50 in the 80k in 4hrs 52 minutes.
The ’Team’ Shirts started a few conversations for both of us, being asked if I worked there on a couple of occasions with someone saying how lovely and knowledgeable the staff were with their new e-bike purchase.
Our next event is in 2 weeks on 2nd July, another mtb marathon, in Minehead, Somerset.
You can find out more about the Yorkshire Mountain Bike Marathon on the Facebook page.
Photos courtesy of Chris Kendall Photography
