Dan
Currie from South Yorkshire's Woodseats Explorers was part
of the first winning team at the September 2002 Apex Challenge...
I first heard about the Apex Challenge around the time of the first competition back in September 2002. It sounded like it was going to be good and it was about time something like this was organised for people of our age group.
We soon got a team together. If I'm honest we didn't put in too much preparation before the day itself. All I did was carefully fill a bottle of water, grab a handful of chocolate bars, find some waterproofs and put on my walking boots. A wise man once said, "Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance"!
When we arrived at the first competition it was clear the organisers had done an awesome job setting up the main marquee with electronic wizardry that wowed us all as we got ready to start the event. Checking in, we received our map and control card. It took a few minutes to decide on our plan for the event. The way we saw it; you might as well have a vague plan to work to rather than wandering round like headless chickens.
After
working out a logical route round every checkpoint we waited
to set off and then started at a jog. We figured you have
to at least look like you're making an effort. As soon as
we got out of sight of the start though we settled into a
more sensible walk. There's no point tiring yourself out in
the first hour.
We were all pretty competent map-readers so we were confident it wouldn't be too hard to find most of the checkpoints. One tip I would give everyone is to get as many of the checkpoints as possible. Getting the activity bases alone will not win you the Apex Challenge. Some of the checkpoints may only be worth five points but it all adds up.
It was a laugh running around the moors and all the activity bases were well thought out. At the end of the six hours we were knackered and dying for a drink, but had managed to collect almost maximum points. Despite an express warning from the Apex Team not to underestimate the amount of water we would need all four of us had done exactly that.
Once
all the teams were accounted for the magic began. A projector
was set up in the marquee with a slide show of pictures taken
during the past six hours. What was really impressive was
the "post-match analysis". You got to see on the
big screen some of the maps showing where different teams
had worked their way around the area. Some of them had gone
in a logical circular route around the bases. Others did indeed
seem to have run round like headless chickens, oblivious to
the real goal of the event, trying to clock up the largest
mileage to points ratio they could.
Even if our team hadn't have won it wouldn't have been the end of the day. The event had been more than we had hoped for and we'd already had a good day wandering around the moors with our mates.
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