I will be there.

anyone else?

ok, I get that. Hope you find one.

The original post is "anybody doing the polaris at Innerliethen on the 5/6th July" to which i am answering and enquiring if anyone else will be there.

    Hi Tim, Fraser's right, it was just a general query. But, although I was planning to do it as a solo, if you fancy some company that'd be great, always nice to meet new riders.

    More relevant though, is whether this changes your mind, I'm fit enough (two polaris, two kimm/lmm and entered for this years, three solo cycling trips across Iceland, cycle or run pretty well every day but I'm also 55, not hugely technical, and reduced to watching in admiration as the real racers leave me in their dust.

    As regards travelling, I'm also going up on Friday (from Cheshire) but am meeting a friend (social) after the Saturday and going up to Edinburgh after the finish on Sunday so sharing a car's a non starter I'm afraid.

    Let me know if you're still interested (no offence taken if you've just put me on your spam list)

    Will you still be taking your deerstalker Fraser? I'll probably be wearing a Tilley if the suns shining after the rides

Lawrence - thanks for the reply.  No, I'm not ageist and am no spring chicken myself.  I'm still trying to get someone who can share the travelling so this'll be my first choice if it works out.  Otherwise, teaming up would be great - if that doesn't work out, I'll buy you a pint anyway.

How wet was the 'summer' Polaris!!!! hillariously muddy all weekend. Still very much enjoyed the event tho.

One slight gripe,  Those toilets were terrible! Worse than a music festival. At least at Glastonbury, the latrines get emptied periodically

    you're right Fraser, considering it was a base camp event, the toilets were absolutely s***e. However, the least of my problems. The friend I spoke about earlier came up on the Friday, I had a fabulous Saturday, good route choice, high scores (for me anyway) but got back to the tent and the smell of a days vomit. I called the doctor and as a result packed up everything and drove straight up to Edinburgh (and better toilets)

    But it's only a bike ride and there was no way I could have gone out on Sunday knowing how things were back at base. 

    I'll be doing the Autumn one in the lakes with a mate (and if he's sick he can effing well clear it up himself, I hope I ride as well as I think I did this time. Will you be there? 

Thats a shame! 

Will definitely try and do the Lakes one, Its not too far from Scotland, and should be some amazing scenery!

In fact I may sign up for it now!

Rain rain and more rain 

First Polaris for me and my team mate, so wasn't too sure what to expect.  I agree with the comments about the toilets an extra few quid could have at least had them emptied. 

First mistake made Saturday morning when unaware of a briefing (nobody mentioned at check-in) I failed to pick up a CP description sheet so did the first day trying to peer at the CP location on the map.

I would love to know what mileage the top guys were racking up on both days and where can I go to learn a few basic lessons on deciding what route to take? I think my buddy and I climbed all the worst sections and Saturdays choice of the indistinct track resulted in a wet climb.  Keen to do the Autumn event now!

Once the results go up you should be able to see the leeders routes.  The top 2 looked to be considerably up on the rest.  SteveH went past me very smoothly half way though Saturday and I thought I was going well at the time.  I stayed close to James for about 2 minutes on the Sunday but it helped that he had 3 gates to open and then he was gone...

 I don't know of any great tricks for the route choice, you need experiance and to know your own pace, even then though you can get caught out because the map dose not realy tell you whats a good quick bridleway and whats a realy hard to ride one.

 I had a good saturday felt strong had what I thought was a good route only problem was forgetting to punsh one checkpoint.  Sunday was a different story felt weak took a duff route and and the fact that I failed to get hold a new middle ring before the start became a real pain in the butt....  Complete new chainset on its way now!!

 The toilets were not that bad far better than some of the slit trenches I have swatted over at Mountain Marathons...

Ifor

Photos will probobly go up on SleepMonsters in a day or two.

 Ifor

I also missed the briefing. They dont normally have one.

Normally on the sunday, we tend to be too conservative in our route, and end up finishing early. This weekend we actually used the whole time on the sunday, and am proud to say, lost 5 points in time penalties.  Another few dozen Polaris, and we may start to have tactics.

One thing i notice that the fast people do, that we cant, is navigate while moving at speed. They seem to 'remember' the route from the map inadvance. where as we tend to have to stop at critical points and have a think. and always forget to read what the next CP is, until we are actually looking for it.

I seem to remember some tips somewhere. in fact i think they were on here. here is my thread just before my first polaris, some good advice on it best advice really is to look at the contours, and note that climbing on a proper stone/tarmac bridleway, is going to be at least twice as fast as an indistinct track over boggy hillside.

And of course rememebr its supposed to be fun.

     Thanks Fraser, not all bad news though, I got back home to find a confirmed entry for this years o.m.m. I'm definitely entering the autumn Polaris, I'll be getting my entry in over the next few days.

    Tactics Peter? I'm not sure, but here's what works for me; you need a good idea of how far you can ride in seven hours hard riding, with that in mind head off into the distance for three to four hours picking up as many good check points (high score) as possible. It's well worth making out and back trips to pick up outliers if the score warrants it but have in mind an overall linear progression. After approx four hours you get to decision time, whether to bale out and return by road or continue. Try to have some checkpoints near to base in mind in case you get back with time to spare (this worked well for me in the night session at last years 'light and dark' I tend to think it's a bit foolish to mop up all the near base ones early on because it doesn't leave you any fill in ones for spare time.

    My Saturday route was c/p 22 (out and back) 27, 23, 18, 41 (hugely exciting descent that was) 17, 16, 33, 12 (my decision point) 34, 1, and 30, all of them were high scores except the last and it allowed a quick (knackered) road ride back to base.

    Frasers dead right about the navigation part, the experts have a bloody good memory and a good awareness of the map scale, some of that's down to experience and a lot is down to fitness (you can't read a map well when your dead on your feet)

    I'd be really interested to hear about what works for others