Imperial take on Europe at biggest student relay in Europe - and come 15th out of 320 - part two

Continued from last week’s issue

Morning Stages 12, 13 – Lina Forsman

After having been woken up by bright lights and house music at three o’clock in the morning, it’s safe to say that I was barely awake when me, Siân, Will and Sophie got into Sophie’s car at 05.45 to get to the first restart point where we were scheduled to pick up Duncan and drop of Siân and Will. Because of this, I am not entirely sure of the order of events around getting to Stage 12; I dozed off. What I can remember though is that we made a u-turn (more than once), Sophie and Duncan asked for directions from the volunteers (also more than once) and eventually they reached the conclusion that we were at the wrong stage and the one we had previously been at was in fact the right one.

I started running after getting the bib from Siân who finished her race with a fast sprint. The track was quite flat (on nice solid ground) and the weather was ideal; sunny but not too warm; which along with the nice country side made everything seem idyllic.

After passing the bib to Sophie, it took me a while to catch her up (I would like to point out that, although comfortable, the bike was hard to manoeuver...), who was running at a steady fast pace the whole way and also found, from her Garmin, that her distance was 5 kilometres rather than 5.3...

Morning Stages 14, 15 – Will Jones

Driving a small hatchback on Dutch country roads is far easier than driving a large minibus and it wasn’t long before we were at our destination. We made our way over the start, but with the crowds already built up it was difficult to see the incoming runners. Sophie and Lina had both put in top fast times in the women’s legs, pushing our team place up even higher and we had little time to get ready before they arrived at the changeover. Missing Lina cycling past, I only saw Sophie in the nick of time and had to jump over a barbed wire fence to get across to the changeover. After swapping my jacket for the running bib I set off on legs already sore from running a previous stage; Duncan promising to catch up with me shortly. The stage consisted of dead straight, paved country lanes and I could pick off one competitor at a time and steadily advance my way up the field.

After a chaotic and crowded changeover Duncan set off as I was almost knocked off the bike by another runner, doing it some minor aesthetic damage in the process (don’t worry, it clips back on…). A brief brisk cycle to catch up and we settled into a steady pace. Duncan, tired both physically and mentally after a night of running was struggling for energy but kept going, and with some support by yours truly we steadily overtook another couple of teams. The leg was a long 9.5k, and made no easier by a lengthy muddy section in the middle but we kept pushing through. A pair of teams from our wave caught us up but we stuck with them, overtaking one as they tired and staying with the others until the end. After a sprint to the finish a very tired Duncan threw his bib at Milan and I handed to bike over to Lina to chase down Milan’s terrific pace. Once again they both put in great times and set the team up in a great position for the afternoon.

After a brief drive over to the end of leg 17 and the end of the morning session we were finally able to get a tiny bit of sleep, crawling into our sleeping bags in the back of the minibus as we waited for the afternoon restart and the coming of the Al-Matt quadrathlon…

Morning Stages 16-17 – Lina Forsman

So the idyllic picture from before.... Yeah, about that! At this point it was raining as if the sky was open! Luckily most of Milan’s stage was in the forest so the trees protected against the wind. Milan ran his Stage at a really good pace, but as his distance also was shorter in reality it came to an abrupt finish, followed by a really slow handover (that one is on me). The track was quite flat, (not as solid) but finished off with a really long straight finish which allowed you to see a few hundred metres ahead of you – and also gave you the motivation to sprint faster! ;)

Afternoon Stages 18 – 21, The Quadrathlon

By Alwyn Elliott

Despite both having driven the previous day from London, slept for a few hours, driven all morning, Matt Douthwaite and Alwyn Elliott decided to pile the pressure and complete their legs in the form of a mini Quadrathlon. Alwyn set off from Stage 18’s restart with Matt in close bike support. Chaos ensued as bikes narrowly avoided one another as all the bikes hurtled after the runners. However, within the first kilometre the dynamic duo were separated as Alwyn switched from the smooth tarmac to muddy uphill forest trail despite everyone telling him the Netherlands was completely flat. As Alwyn worked his way through the woods, Matt cycled ahead to begin the agonising wait to be reunited with his team mate at the stage’s half way marker.

Meanwhile Alwyn was proving the age old saying that “whatever goes up, must come down again” by running down the other side of the wooded hill he’d just run up. At the bottom of the hill, the 3.5 km run through the hilly woods ended and the pace quickened as Matt and Team ICXC’s fairy light pimped bike came into view. A shout from Matt and a quick nod from Alwyn and the duo were reunited for the second half of the leg.

Through more Dutch countryside, with the wind and rain against them, Matt kept calling out the pace, pushing Alwyn onwards. A lorry driver honked his horn in support, a group of rafters under a bridge yelled and cheered, and even someone’s Gran came to her window to wave the boys past. Nearing the end of their first leg together, Matt cycled ahead to get ready for a speedy change over leaving Alwyn to dig deep and chase down the runners ahead of him to finish the 9.5 km in 40 minutes and 58 seconds.

At the checkpoint, Matt took off as if the Four Horse Men of the Apocalypse were chasing him, leaving Alwyn to cycle through the sea of runners Matt had overtaken. The route continued on switching between tarmac and a dirt track, but nothing seemed effect Matt as he raced past team after team.

Alwyn focused the bike mounted Go Pro camera on to Matt and his opponents who could only register surprise to see someone hurtling passed them at such high velocity in such miserable conditions.

Matt kept up his blistering pace and caught up with a team who’d left much earlier but were racing with a giant log across their shoulder. There was a bit of friendly banter and a wish of good luck as Matt ploughed passed with the end of his leg coming into sight.

If anyone ever is being a support bike for Matt in the future, you need head off more than 500m before the end of his leg. Alwyn had time to just hop off the bike and look around before hearing Matt yelling as he came into the checkpoint even faster for the second switchover and completing his 7.2 km stage in a staggering 25 minutes and 40 seconds, leaving him as the 8th fastest runner for his stage.

Not bothering to stop and put the runner’s race bib on, Alwyn took off again on his second running leg, however cramping muscles from the rain and wind made Alwyn’s second leg much tougher. Matt kept up the encouragement, used his body and the bike as a wind breaker, and fed Alwyn his secret racing weapon, Jelly Babies ensuring that he made it to the end without stopping despite the pain.

Matt’s second and longer leg (8.8 km) then began with him hurtling off for the second time at an incredible pace of 16.03 km/hour. Once again he left runners for dead as tore through the course with Alwyn calling out which runners to aim to beat by the next corner.

As the last kilometre came into sight, Alwyn decided to race ahead and let Siân Morgan and Jonathan Mason know that Matt was hurtling towards them. He quickly found Siân but in a post-race daze had to be told twice to give Siân the cyclist bib before he went and grabbed Jonathan returning from his warm up.

Just as Jonathan made it to the checkpoint, Matt came hurtling in, practically threw the runner’s racing bib at Jonathan before dazedly walking over to join Alwyn to celebrate the end of their extremely wet Quadrathlon. Even though it was his second leg Matt still managed a time of 33 minutes and 20 seconds, placing him 6th fastest overall for his second leg!

The extremely wet, tired, and hungry duo then headed to the minibus where Antoinette (the angel) Hardijzer offered to drive instead of them to the final restart, whilst they gorged themselves on a mixture of cereal bars, brownies, flapjacks, fruit, crisps, and more jelly babies!

Afternoon Stages 22 to 25!

By Siân Morgan

As the quadrathlon finished, it was the turn of Siân Morgan and Jonathan Mason to take over for the last legs before the final re-start. The first challenge of this leg involved trying to get the bike bib (and the bike for that matter) off Alwyn, who announced: ‘Matt’s coming fast’ and then looked dazed at Siân with clear signs of utter exhaustion. Once the bike bib had been handed over and Jonathan retrieved from his warm up, Matt arrived to thrust the bib over. They were off, in some lovely wet weather!

Jonathan’s long legs made the great pace he was running seem annoyingly easy, with the encouragement involving decisions as to which runner would next be overtaken. Even though it was a day run, comments were still made about the amazing fairy lights and the GoPro caused quite a stir too, with one girl telling her runner ‘you must run fast now as you are on a GoPro! Along the way we heard a steam engine/ train and concluded that even in the rain it was absolutely beautiful. Next came a lovely muddy sandy churned up section where Siân positively struggled to keep up with Jonathan, not just due to the terrain but also as a result of the bike seat being raised for Matt Douthwaite’s long legs in the quadrathlon. It was also discovered that garmins can be very helpful, but when the distance you believe you are running is incorrect there is nothing you can do. This resulted in Siân cycling rather a long way ahead of Jonathan before the switch over, but hey ho.

Now it was Siân’s turn! Despite a very painful knee (which in hindsight should probably not have been run on…!), Siân was determined to make it to the end of the afternoon section of the race. The end of the run saw Jonathan (now on the bike) disappear into an underground cavern for bike storage, while Siân ran round to meet the crowds. When she arrived the music was blasting, the crowds humming and the rain pouring. There were no team IC members to be seen, even Jonathan was busy sorting out the bike ticketing system. This resulted in someone announcing that he both liked Siân trainers and also that he thought she spoke very good English.

When Matt and Sophie arrived Siân and Jonathan were soaked and getting rather chilly. Warmth was found along with some great hot chocolate in a bar, while the four sat and waited for the final re-start of Sophie and Jonathan.

Sophie made it onto the front line of the final restart (looking utterly pro I might add), while Matt went photo crazy, but managed to miss Sophie at the start, clear due to her epic speed. Once the girls were set off, Jonathan was left to start alone, a decision made by Siân and Matt in the hope that they might see both finish.

Before reaching the finish to spectate however the bike needed to be retrieved from its underground cavern. The fairly lights came out on top once more and made the bike easy to spot, but whilst trying to unlock it Matt managed to cause a slight bike avalanche, knocking over one bike, which knocked over the next… you get the idea. Siân then attempted, but unfortunately failed, to race the car to the finish where she got completely lost, to find Sophie, who was also lost.

The atmosphere at the finish was electric with thousands of students cheering on their teams.

Once re-united every attempt was made to ensure we were all not separated again!

What came after running - Anne Hardijzer

Utterly exhausted, and feeling pretty rancid from lack of shower post (multiple) runs and bike, the team collected at the finish to cheer on- with foam fingers! - the final runners Sophie and Jonathan. In all the excitement I decided to cheer them on in Dutch – surely that must have helped. Both looked stellar and came back at the top of the pack proudly embellished in IC colours and multiple British flags.

Imperial College’s overall cumulative time was 12:26:01 (for 178k) placing us 15th (!!!) out of the 325 teams that finished the race! An amazing feat considering our lack of numbers. At the finish fancy dress seemed to be the theme, with many onesies, bathing suits etc. though we were most impressed with the team that carried around a 10kg log.

Finally the time came for the heavenly shower after which British flags were reapplied generously. The night kicked off with a prime example of IndoneSiân cuisine, Nasi Goreng – though all the Brits just assumed it was some type of curry… The atmosphere at the after party resembled that of an open air festival with 2 massive party tents and an open air DJ booth just outside of the campsite (who needs sleep?). There were 13000 students attending and the music options were trashy Dutch carnival music, Eurotech and house. The drink of choice was divine Dutch lager with the signature two fingers of foam – this went massively unappreciated as it took up half the volume in the cup… The fun night ensured that the drivers woke up fresh and fruity ready to tackle the 10 hour drive back to London. We spotted another British team on the way back, allowing us to shout one more time: Follow that minibus!!! Sleep deprivation made sure even that was hilarious, as were teletubies and camper van overtaking. Miraculously both vehicles returned almost unscathed - who needs wing mirrors anyway? All that’s left to be said is that we cannot wait to repeat this mental adventure next year!

Round up – Duncan Ingram

The juxtaposition of fear and fun really made this experience unique, and definitely helped create one of the most unforgettable challenges we’ve ever faced; I’m sure none of us would hesitate to do it all again. So if anyone gets the chance to run or cycle at stupid o’ clock, don’t pass up the opportunity! Unless you’re trespassing or something…

Up for more unique and crazy events that’ll take you to amazing locations whilst challenging you and producing some amazing stories? Join Imperial Cross Country and Athletics, we’d love to have a full team of 25 next year!