Quest Wales Race Day

As I lay in bed at 4:30am listening to ‘storm Miguel’ hammering heavy rain against my bedroom window, strangely, I struggled to find the motivation the get up, load the bikes into my car and drive two hours to Wales to take on the Quest Wales adventure race. As it turns out, not even storm Miguel could dampen the spirits once we got to Betws-y-Coed.

Before I get into details on the race itself, I just want to mention the organisation of the whole event, from registration to the marshals managing the course to the free soup after, the event was organised and ran brilliantly.

We entered the challenge race as we’ve not done anything like this before so thought the 23km route would be best to cut our teeth on. This was definitely challenging enough for our first time out (especially considering we were in the 0.5% who didn’t have road bikes).

The event was split into bike 6km – kayak 1km – run 7km – bike 9km

Stage 1 – Bike 6km

I have only one word to describe this section… FILTH. In fact, two words… ABSOLUTE FILTH. What was described on the route information as ‘steep fast downhill cycling’ turned out to be a 4km quad burning climb that just when you think you can’t take any more rewards you with the previously mentioned ‘steep fast downhill cycling’. To whoever designed the course, your punishment to reward ratio on this stage was borderline sadistic.

Stage 2 – Kayak 1km

This was pure fun, the only downside to this is that I wish it was three times as long so I could get more of the blood out of my swollen quads into my arms ready for the run.

Stage 3 – Run 7km

This was the bit I was looking forward to… I shouldn’t have been so foolish. Starting off on a nice gradient free surface we passed a couple of people in front of us and I was confident on making up a few more places, then the hills happened. The next few kilometres were an uphill grind that kept the heart rate elevated and legs heavy. This is where me and my race partner split up and we went into solo race mode as he is much better runner than me.

Having passed a couple of runners at the start I stayed in the same place for the rest of the run. Not knowing how to pace a race like this I set myself the goal of maintaining the 200m gap with the woman in front of me (who turned to be an absolute machine) whoever the woman in the illuminous orange top was, thank you, you dragged me through the run.

Stage 4 – Bike 9km

Back on the bikes and 9km from home I started to feel good, after a quick banana stop in the changeover, I set off for the finish line. As with most of the race so far, as soon as I started feeling good somebody through a hill climb at me. Once this final climb was done it was a nice fast flat/downhill run back to town that seemed to take no time at all. I lost a couple of places on the final bike, but even that couldn’t wipe the smile off my face as I flew around the twisting lanes and onto the main road home.

The Finish Line at Quest Wales

After dumping the bike, it was a 200m sprint to the finish line and I got so caught up in the final sprint I ran passed the final check point and forgot to dib in. This cost me a couple of places but it was my own fault as I was going for the big Hollywood finish in front of the cameras (in my head).

Overall, I came in 10^th place in the men’s race and my race partner came in 4^th which is a great achievement for his first multievent race.

From start to finish Quest Wales was a great event. The atmosphere pre and post-race was great, the organisation was faultless, and the course design was beautifully evil.

I’ll 100% be back next year armed with a PB to smash.

Thinking about signing up? Check out the 2019 event video below for what to expect!