Ill Concieved Plans Poorly executed

The Microsoft Challenge

Just when I thought my adventure racing days were over the opportunity to compete as part of a team in the Microsoft Challenge came my way. It was too good to miss, 4 days of fun and frolics in South Yorkshire competing against other company teams and generally having a good time. The blurb had a load of words about team building along side physical and metal challenges but to all intents and purposes it was and adventure race.

It all kicked off with a bit of night time navigation for the team. The aim was to visit various checkpoints ether by foot or by bike. The order in which they were visited determined how much time would be taken off the finish time to give the final time (that sounds more complicated than it actually is). Considering that the team of four had not really trained together we did really well. When we looked at the results sheet we could find our names at first, none of us really believed we would come in the top 20.

The next stage was a five hour orienteering stage. The scenario was based on snooker; Points were designated as either a red ball or a colour ball. The aim of the exercise was to visit the points in sequence, red followed by a colour. As in snooker once a red was potted it was no longer available. Once all the reds where potted the team could then start on the sequence of colours. It all seemed quite simple until be looked at the map. We worked out a simple plan; we would try to get all the reds potted and meet up at various points to ensure we stayed in sequence. This stage was a real test of our map reading skills and to be quite frank one of the team was a little lacking in that department. He was a point a to point b by the shortest route regardless of the lie of the land, obstacles and other trivia that landscapes tend to throw up to make going in a straight line the worst choice of route. After we calculated that he probably ended up running twice as far as he needed to owing to all the doubling back that was required. At the end of the stage we decided that he must never, ever hold a map in his hands again.

Weary from the running we were herded into a stadium and given a pile of wood to construct a crane, the wood came in 2 meter lengths and the task was to move a weight a distance of over 2 meters and up a height of a meter. None of us are really engineers. That became very apparent, very quickly. Our construction looked fairly robust and after a brief test we concluded that it would work. However once we attempted the challenge the minor design flew became obvious. The arm was not long enough. As the crane operator I tried to push the design limits I little bit further only to find the next design flaw, it was made out of wood. Our wonderful contraption splintered into a heap of matchwood. Team moral plummeted.

That evening we learnt that only 30 of the 122 teams had managed to complete the challenge. Team moral was raised with the aid of a few cold drinks. At least tonight we could get some sleep ready for the next day's exertions.

Following a relaxed start and a fraught drive, due in part to the wrong person reading the map, we arrived in a muddy field for the next stage. It had been raining over night and the conditions could be described a sodden. This time it was a bit of orienteering on mountain bikes, unfortunately they were hire bikes of the "one size fits no one" variety. The object of the game was to visit various points either as a pair or a team and to collect letters. We then had to make word out of the letters and bonuses were awarded for the number of words made. The twist was that we had to estimate at the beginning of the stage how many words we would make. Penalties would be applied for the number of words short of this total. We though we gave ourselves a modest goal and had a reasonable plan. Unfortunately the plan didn't take into account the gear mechanisms from two of the bikes being sheared off and the brakes failing on another. To say we fell short of our estimated total would be an understatement. We arrived back at base covered head to foot in mud accumulated from an hour and a half of wallowing in the woods. Luckily the next stage was based around kayaking on a reservoir giving us plenty of opportunities to unintentionally wash ourselves off.

By the evening the team was ready for a shower and some sleep, but no, we had a quiz and some sudoku to do before any thought of sleep could enter our addled brains.

At breakfast the next day we learnt that we where still inside the top 50, quite an achievement of what was for all intents and purposes a novice team. We really wanted to say up there as well. From starting out with a have a go attitude and hoping we would break into the top 100 we had turned quite competitive. Just having a go was not enough, maintaining and improving our position was what counted. We hadn't come this far to fail now.

The team brief and strategy session in the van on the way to the stage was quite intense. Our plan would ensure we would maintain our position. It was conservative, do the bear minimum to ensure as few penalties as possible. That was probably our downfall. Things didn't go as planned, and the wrong team members came up with an impossible contingency plans which lead to us gaining massive penalties and dropping twenty places in the process. This was the low point; the team was split between the competitive types who were incredibly annoyed at the teams effort and the "chin up it can only get better types" who tried to gloss over the whole thing. I fell firmly in the first camp.

We had one more stage to try and make up lost ground. I doubt it was possible to get back up where we wanted to belong but at least we could make a good fist of it. Yet again we found ourselves running to check points, first in pairs and then as teams to collect time bonuses. Our strategy was simple, don't foul it up. We ran, we canoed we visited check points and generally tried to get as many bonuses as our tired bodies would allow before charging over the finishing line and gulping down some well deserved champagne.

When all the scores were tallied up we came seventy first, not bad for a first effort but as school teachers frequently write: could do better. There is talk of entering a team next year; I'm on the list…