Catching up with Barry it turned out that Liam had had another day of mechanical woes and with Bruce (in 2nd) already home his deadline was rapidly approaching. As the minutes ticked by Bruce was looking more and more hopeful and we were more and more pensive.
As the ten minute mark slid by things were looking unpleasantly tense and as if a sprint to the line would decide it. When I'd finished there was a marshall on the track pointing out the arrow to the turn, but I noticed they weren't there any more; a missed turn could be fatal. I headed down to the track and started wandering up to intercept him and point him to the turn.
Almost straight away Liam careered into view, I shouted out the turn and that he had three minutes (it was 7, but didn't want him taking a break ;-) ).
He made the turn in a squeal of brakes and flying gravel and raced to the line, stopping the clock with 6 minutes to spare - perfectly judged with no wasted effort :-)
Much chatting followed, prizes were given out and we wandered down to Robin Hood Bay to dip our toes (or go for a swim) in the sea.
A major packing exercise ensued as Liam and I were both travelling back in our car. This meant cramming all our bags, two kayaks and two bikes onto and into the car. We all squashed in and were soon on the way home.
About halfway home there was a minor panic as a bang came from the back of the car and we all visions of bikes tumbling off the car. Stopping on the hard shoulder we discovered it was actually a tyre on my bike exploding as it was hanging too close to the exhaust; a pest, but not an immediate problem and once we were moving the burning rubber smell was blown away.
There was then the task of getting everything cleaned, packed away and returned to its rightful owner and the race was consigned to memories and the forlorn race bib hanging in the garage.
It was a truly brilliant race across some marvellous terrain. Getting to the end was a real achievement and Liam winning it was just great. Hopefully plans will stay in place and James will run it again in 2011 (there are apparently other plans for 2010). I will definitely be back to race it again; there are plenty of challenges left in it and it's worth doing just for the journey through some of England's finest areas.
All that's left is to sell on the kayak as I won't use it enough to justify keeping it, so if anyone wants an almost-new Prijon seayak and all associated kit, drop me a line.
That's all folks - hopefully I'll be back in just short of two years in the run up to the next one.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device
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