Day 2 - Sunday 7.15am Start
By Galloway standards, the weather was kind - not that cold and no rain!
We had the earliest of the Day 2 Starts and were soon away, covering the area we had 'spotted' during our overnight planning.
Unhelpfully, the Start location was mismarked on the map and it took a little while to get our route out fixed.
Daniel has really developed as a strategist on these events and he largely planned our route, taking a sweep of the fells around The Minnigaff Hills. My experience told me that an excursion to an outlying control would be just that much too far - we agreed to get to a decision point and then decide!
Morning wake-up to the haunting sounds of the reeds
Dan fills his water bottle with energy powder - 6.45am
Everyone getting ready for Day 2 - 6.50am
The Start - Day 2 - we're off at 7.10am
Early morning stillness across Loch Trool
First big climb of the day - up through rough fell and felled pine brashings
The views are stunning!
Dan's ahead (!) and sets the route across the fell
A photo of a Photographer taking a film of us!
Apparently to be shown on the Adventure Series
Big open spaces! I'm in front this time heading on a contour route around the fell
We circumnavigate above the forest line
The last section was on forest tracks - faster progress and a good deal of running to get back within our 5 hour time limit!
[Still time for a photo though!]
Arriving back! Relieved (my dodgy knee held up) and very tired - at least I was!
Proud Father and Son finishers in the Medium Score Event!
We managed a fantastic 49th place on Day 2 - which just about made up for our disappointing mistakes and placing yesterday.
Covering 12 miles and 3000ft of climb over rough open fell country, we were very pleased with this second day.
Walking up to the Event Centre Tent
When we got through Control Download, we got 'selected' for a kit check!
Daniel was happy about this - I was exhausted and just got my whistle out!
Overall result over the 2 Days - 21.5 miles and 5824ft of climb in 10hr 38min
69th out of 154 starters and 146 finishers
30th out of the 31 Vet Teams finishing
Overall, in retrospect, we are very pleased with this result. We recovered well on Day 1 to get some points and showed our potential on Day 2.
We had a great time up on the fells together - there is something special about doing it together - and we know there is more to come given being injury free and good navigation!!
Til next year?!
