Intro

Welcome to your Dirty Weekend! For 2008, the ACE 2 Day has undergone a transformation and has already been proven and acclaimed from our Scottish Borders adventure event in July. In many respects, it is the same great event that many of you have enjoyed for years. You can still do so, in the 2 day format, with some enhanced features such as a rope-work challenge and some re-vamped night time activity. But to all intensive purposes, the format remains at its core, the 2 day adventure racing event of the past.

However, there are now options too. If you are a 1 day ACE racer, or indeed a racer from other adventure events and you are keen to make a foray into something a bit bigger and longer, then we are offering the opportunity to come to the ACE Race Dirty Weekend and JUST DO THE SATURDAY of the event. This will give you biking, running, kayaking, navigation and rope-work options. And it will be longer than what you are used to in the ACE 1 day format. It will take place in a rugged place (the Lake District) and will be rubbing shoulders with other adventure challenges too, allowing you to make the most out of a very special weekend of multi-sport.

For those of you who are seasoned ACE racers and fancy a challenge that is a step beyond the regular 2 day ACE Race, then we also have an offering for you. The ELITE class event will feature action on the 2 day course, plus longer night sections and faster-paced adventure racing throughout the weekend. 

Ace Race Dirty Weekend, explained

The ACE Race Dirty Weekend is a new take on the traditional 2-day ACE Race adventure event, but if you enjoy the current 2-day ACE Race format just as it is, don’t worry – you can enjoy this adventure race just as it always has been. If you are a 1 day aficionado and you are still thinking the 2-day is a little out of your grasp, then we have a slimmed down version for you WITHIN the Dirty Weekend; you can just take part in the adventure race on Saturday; although it’s a long Saturday. If you are a racing whippet and consider yourself elite, or aspire to adventure race at an elite level, then you can do so in our new ELITE class within the DIRTY WEEKEND adventure format. Here’s how those 3 options look, at a glance:

• 2 Day ACE Race: Complete the 2-day adventure event – just as you always have done: It comprises a Saturday full of adventure racing activities followed by a short night navigation stage, then enjoy the night under canvas on the Saturday night and go forth again on Sunday. Activities include running, biking, kayaking and ropework, all connected by your own navigational talents. This event is open to solos, pairs and teams of 4 in the categories Mixed, Male and Female.

• Saturday ACE Race: Or, pitch up on the Saturday and have a long day out with us on that days' activities. The lion's share of the adventure action will be in daylight but if you do choose to do the day race, there's the traditional ACE night stage for you too. Except we have spruced this up a bit. Expect some unexpected activities as we take you out on the hills and into the forest at night. With the one-day option, you will be back well before midnight and we will have beer to round off your evening. Solos, Pairs and teams of 4 with categories as above.

• 2 Day ACE Race Elite: For the ELITE, you’ll do the first day of racing, just like everyone else. You’ll do the night stage and then you will KEEP GOING into the night. So you get more night and more adventure action at night. It’ll be rugged. It’ll be tiring. You’ll get back to the village in the early hours and then you will rest up for the remainder of the wee small hours before tackling the second day of adventure racing, where you will do as much as you can within the allotted timeframe, score format style. Categories as above.

Score based navigation will be the significant format for all adventure classes, and will enable you to bite off just as much as you want to achieve from the course.

Rope-work

One major change (or upgrade) is that you will ALL experience some exhilarating rope-work within the event. This will be straightforward, but exciting. And this is in direct response to the overwhelming verdict shown by you the racers, in our recent survey. You said you wanted it as part of your adventure race, so here you go! The ropes will be fun but will not require an overt climbing or abseiling skill level. We insist that you have BEEN on a rope and you are familiar with a climbing harness. And if you are still unsure, our instructors will be able to lend a hand on the Friday night when you arrive with a refresher tutorial for those who want it. Please contact us should you require this.

So what’s this Dirty Weekend all about?

Rubbing shoulders with you on this epic weekend of adventure racing will be riders taking part in the Polaris Challenge, the famous MTB navigation event. You will also meet runners taking part in the Dirty Dozen, an off road 12km run that will run from the same event site. All combined, these 3 events will comprise the Dirty Weekend, supported by Cumbria Tourism. It's a weekend of Adventure Racing, Adventure Sport, Multi-Sport, Social and Sport Action.

ELITE class prizes

There will be product prizes and vouchers offered for all adventure class podium places, and these prizes will be presented by our adventure racing sponsors, which in 2008 will include oodles of great outdoor gear from Ellis Brigham.

Autumn 2008 venue and event info

The Dirty Weekend is being held at Grizedale Forest Park with our base at the Grizedale Visitor Centre in the Lake District National Park on 4/5th October 2008. It’s a superb location for adventure racing and very rugged with dominant mountain, water and forest environments. The idea is very much to create a large community feel about the event village with your adventure radiating out into the surrounding forests and hills. As you approach the Dirty Weekend village, imagine food simmering, beer settling, the bands rehearsing and the numerous outdoor gear concessions setting out their wares around the central arena. You’ll be able to get your bikes checked over by our mechanics pre-event, buy last minute adventure race gear, hear the commentary from our MC and grab some delicious food from the caterers. There will even be some workshop style refreshers for those that want them, notably on navigation and mountain bike skills. When you return from the race, enjoy the soothing hands of our masseurs, a pint in the beer tent and browse our late opening concession stands too. If you have kids, there are kids facilities and there will be fun and games for them too. All this will be adjacent to our giant camping village, free of charge to all of you participating adventure racers.

Smile, you’re on TV

The ACE Race Dirty Weekend will be filmed for distribution to Channel 4 TV on Transworld Sport. We’ll upload the footage to the website after the event but in the meantime, get your best one-liners ready for the film crew for that point when you KNOW they will inevitably jump out from behind a tree and catch you digging-in somewhere on the course!

Sponsors and Partners

We are privileged to be working with some top brands and public sector partners for this year’s event. Confirmed so far are Ellis Brigham, who will be there on site with their awesome gear shack, selling bargains galore. We also have support from Sea to Summit and Adventure Medical Kits, as well as Buff and Sigg too. Sleepmonsters will be on hand taking pictures and generating race reports, alongside favourite caterers, serving up quality rustic fare to racers and their supporters weekend-long.

We are also pleased to announce that this event is being wholeheartedly supported by Cumbria Tourism. TO find out more about these organizations, visit our partners page.

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