This weekend I got to enjoy the pleasurable company of the Wild Trail Runners. A collective of likeminded runners formed by Maggie and some others. Saturday was running. Sunday was not running. They say when you don’t run you cheer. And Sunday was the London marathon, so cheer is exactly what we did!!

The Run

One of the group leaders, Weronica, had recce’d a run down in Tunbridge Wells area. So we met up early in London Bridge and headed down to Wadhurst where we’d run a 25km around Bewl Water Lake. The 7:40am meet was a struggle. We’d had a company event at work the night before and it was also my last day in the job. It’s fair to say I woke up with little sleep and a stonker of a hangover. But I made it. Intros done, train ridden we walked 2km to the start and met those already waiting. Bags checked and off we went.

The run was beautiful. Bewl Water is the largest lake in the East of England (apparently) and we stuck to it pretty much exactly. It was a glorious hot day and the ground was hard not muddy. We all felt the heat immediately.

The first third of the route saw us run trough some fields, past the boat house and across a man made bridge/path built through the lake. We were largely close by as a group and enjoying chatting away. As always it’s so great to share and swap stories of adventures and plans with other passionate runners.

The second third of the course so us alternate between lake side paths and some roads. The heat was starting to take effect now and as a group we were starting to tire and spread out. We stopped frequently to regroup and ensure we were all adequately hydrated! The common theme was how sorry we all felt for the marathoners who’d be going through this tomorrow!!

As we hit the last third of the route a few decided to take a shorter journey back to the meeting point (a pub of course). The rest of us carried on to what was a fairly hilly end to the route. Fair to say we were all glad to reach the end and head to the pub!

The Supporting

I made it my aim earlier in the year to spend more time supporting other runners. London marathon is such a fun event to support at. Cool Cats and Wild Trails has arranged to meet in limehouse near mile 21. I wanted to make a sign and I had the perfect inspiration from a child at Brighton. He held a sign saying “tap here for animal noises” and he delivered. So I stole his idea and made this sign up.

We arrived early and set up a space. Flagged and stickered so people knew who we were. We wanted to see the elites and had a roar when Mo ran passed looking strong and determined.

There were so many people I knew running whom I wanted to see but can be difficult in London as it’s so busy, but we had to see Daryl. He’d had a tough couple of months and probably shouldn’t have been running today. But he was determined to do it. So we thought through the crowds and made our way down to mile 14 where we saw him round the corner. Cheered and spent a moment chatting. He took a doughnut and some nuts and he was off again.

Back to mile 21 to cheer with the crowd.

Sometime later Daryl went passed again. Literally. We almost missed him and he had to weave his way back to us!

It was great to see all the runners the group knew coming by for hugs and cheers also!

Highlights have to be the various animal noises we shouted (and amazing ourselves at how few animals we could name!!) and seeing the response from the crowd.

About 6 hours later we were knackered. My throat was hurting and we decided to call an end to it. I woke the next morning with one hell of a sore throat.

What a great weekend of run related fun!