Blog by Alan Rae
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Alan Rae, Course Director,
on a stage recce
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With the BG Energy Challenge just a few weeks away, your training should be increasing as well as your fundraising. If it is, you’re well on your way to success and if it isn’t, there is just enough time for you to catch up before 7th July!
You should now have received and read your Team Manual and fully understand what is required by you and your team mates. If not, please carefully take the time to do so over the coming weeks to ensure you arrive at the event fully prepared; you can find it here on the Team Login pages on this site.
Over recent months, Ellie Pettit (Operations Manager) and I have been in South Wales busy designing the course and whilst I cannot divulge any specific information, I am not giving anything away by saying there will be quite a few hills (shock horror!). We’ve run, biked and paddled every inch of the course and hope it will prove both challenging and fun!
As a previous participant, I believe what excites and bamboozles in equal measures can make this an amazing experience so I am aiming to ensure you enjoy every aspect of this year’s event. And that brings me nicely onto this month’s top tips:
Stage Analysis:
Captains will have 5 minutes to read one set of Mission Notes and then have a short Q&A before briefing team members on the stage and its complexities. When reading Mission Notes always keep your teams strengths and weaknesses at the forefront of your mind. Think carefully about the nature of each stage - running, biking, canoeing - and how long it will be.
- Check the stage metrics on Mission Notes and if a stage is especially strategic then think about who should strategise. This may influence team selection on a preceding stage as your best strategists will need time to analyse Mission Notes and plan.
- Read the General Summary and quickly identify which points are compulsory, which are not and if there are any time windows. Try to fully understand the sequence of dipping on each stage and ensure everyone on your team understands it too. This is critical to success.
- Carefully analyse your Mission Notes and identify all possibilities to earn Bonus Time. Some bonus minutes can be easily picked up either by visiting just one specific point or by completing a series of small challenges. Teams need not cover huge areas of ground to earn bonus time and identifying this is part of the Challenge.
Monthly brain teaser
This month’s brain teaser can be viewed by clicking here. I highly recommend looking at this as well as others as they form an integral part of each stage.
Well, that’s more than enough inside information for now – don’t forget to check back here for more next month.
Happy training..!
Alan Rae
Course Director