10th August 2014
5:03:00
The seemingly endless weeks of scorching 32* sunbathing weather was to become interrupted by hurricane Bertha said weather forecasts. They was not wrong!
The rain had started in earnest on the Friday with intervals of torrential downpours. Thoughts started to move toward trail shoes for what I predicted could be quite sticky trail routes by the a Sunday.
Phil drove us across to Wiltshire while wind and rain battered the motorway, reducing visibility and making 7am on a Sunday morning seem rather a silly idea. Online forecasts suggested it would stop by 10am so we remained hopeful.
It was drizzling upon arrival. Jacket on, quick loo queue, quick number pick-up (someone had painstakingly handwritten and organised all the envelopes of for collection with runner/walker name and their number). Decided to keep the jacket as the weather looked set in and I knew I'd be walking a fair bit of the course.
Simple start with rolling clock, and away we went. Down a back-alley type Tarmac path for maybe a mile and then hit the first standstill at a gate. This stop-start was a feature of the first couple of miles as we headed up onto and across the Old Sarum with slidey singletrack, gates and stiles. Down the other side and onto some pretty standard trail footpath with long grass and nettles either side. Some paths were quite narrow and I felt sorry for the walkers who must have felt they were being trampled by the runners.
Around 4km at a steep incline I caught up with 'MarathonMan' Rob Young who had at only 6am that morning completed the NDW100. He was being congratulated by many as they passed him but looked bushed, and was mumbling/slurring I assume due to exhaustion and lack of sleep between his series of challenges. I stayed a while with him, asking him questions about his events, nutrition, feet. I had no real targets for completion time for the race so didn't mind taking a slower pace for a while. I did eventually (stop annoying and) leave him after an aid station saying "you'll probably catch me up later".
The course was well signed and easy to follow with consistent mile markers. Most of the route there were groups of runners and walkers though I did enjoy the odd moments of solo plodding through bits of forest, and then catching up with other runners and having a quick chat.
The prior and current rain had made for lots of mud on what really should have been a hard packed trail by August. I slipped a bit in several places, even in trail shoes- I might have to consider getting a pair with more aggressive tread before my winter trail races. We passed through country estates, along roads, private driveways, forests smelling of pine, fields of calves, cut straw, boggy fields and gravel tracks. A real mixture.
Aid stations were mainly water, squash and jelly babies. I really appreciated the flapjack at one station, but the one before 20miles running out of water was a real disappointment!
5:03:00
The seemingly endless weeks of scorching 32* sunbathing weather was to become interrupted by hurricane Bertha said weather forecasts. They was not wrong!
The rain had started in earnest on the Friday with intervals of torrential downpours. Thoughts started to move toward trail shoes for what I predicted could be quite sticky trail routes by the a Sunday.
Phil drove us across to Wiltshire while wind and rain battered the motorway, reducing visibility and making 7am on a Sunday morning seem rather a silly idea. Online forecasts suggested it would stop by 10am so we remained hopeful.
It was drizzling upon arrival. Jacket on, quick loo queue, quick number pick-up (someone had painstakingly handwritten and organised all the envelopes of for collection with runner/walker name and their number). Decided to keep the jacket as the weather looked set in and I knew I'd be walking a fair bit of the course.
Simple start with rolling clock, and away we went. Down a back-alley type Tarmac path for maybe a mile and then hit the first standstill at a gate. This stop-start was a feature of the first couple of miles as we headed up onto and across the Old Sarum with slidey singletrack, gates and stiles. Down the other side and onto some pretty standard trail footpath with long grass and nettles either side. Some paths were quite narrow and I felt sorry for the walkers who must have felt they were being trampled by the runners.
Around 4km at a steep incline I caught up with 'MarathonMan' Rob Young who had at only 6am that morning completed the NDW100. He was being congratulated by many as they passed him but looked bushed, and was mumbling/slurring I assume due to exhaustion and lack of sleep between his series of challenges. I stayed a while with him, asking him questions about his events, nutrition, feet. I had no real targets for completion time for the race so didn't mind taking a slower pace for a while. I did eventually (stop annoying and) leave him after an aid station saying "you'll probably catch me up later".
The course was well signed and easy to follow with consistent mile markers. Most of the route there were groups of runners and walkers though I did enjoy the odd moments of solo plodding through bits of forest, and then catching up with other runners and having a quick chat.
The prior and current rain had made for lots of mud on what really should have been a hard packed trail by August. I slipped a bit in several places, even in trail shoes- I might have to consider getting a pair with more aggressive tread before my winter trail races. We passed through country estates, along roads, private driveways, forests smelling of pine, fields of calves, cut straw, boggy fields and gravel tracks. A real mixture.
Aid stations were mainly water, squash and jelly babies. I really appreciated the flapjack at one station, but the one before 20miles running out of water was a real disappointment!
