The inaugural Howies Battle on the Beach

Here's the skinny on it:
A race that take in a portion of beautiful Pembrey beach before heading into a Pembrey Country Park for 9km of gravel, water, singletrack and sand.

Open to all forms of off road bike including cyclocross and a thing called a 'Fat Bike'

Race was roughly 35km which took me about 2 hours to complete.

Results:

Category position	First Name	Last Name	Overall time	Lap 1	Lap 2	Lap 3	Fat Bike?	Overall Position
1	Karen	Brouwer	01:43:35	00:31:27	00:35:16	00:36:51		15
2	Melanie	Alexander	01:49:07	00:34:47	00:36:31	00:37:48		30
3	Claire	Beaumont	01:59:03	00:36:28	00:40:45	00:41:48		63

I finished third, after the first lap my upper body was screaming. Although I was nice an aero and cutting through the flat windy sand with ease through the lumpy singletrack wood sections of the National Park I really had to pump, push and pull the handlebars to keep momentum while riders on their carbon MTB let the suspension do that for them.

The stingy sharp ascents play in my favour but after a while the mountain bikers really started to catch me and it took alot for me to stay with some of the riders. I think if there was a long steady climb I would have carried more speed but ultimately it was a course that (by a whisper) suited the hardtail mountain bikers.

Great idea and great race and great course.
I'm glad that two months on from CX season with a bit of lack lustre training I managed to get round. It was great for building a base fitness and I hope there are more, maybe Camber Sands in Essex.

I really enjoyed the course even the 'water trap' which due to my size had me carrying my bike over my head through the deepest part.