After a long week of travelling ‘up North’ with work, I dropped by Nick’s on the way back through London, borrowed his car and drove to Carl’s and then back to mine. A quick pizza, unpacking the week’s bag and hastily packing a bag for the run (including ripping the zip off my Salomon pack) and it was straight to bed ready for an early wake up.
We left home just before 6am to get to Queen Elizabeth Country Park for 7am, a whole hour before the race was due to start. To our frustration we were told the car parking was already full and we needed to use the public parking a few hundred metres away. When we got there that too was full and we had to drive further along and park near Gravel Hill. It was a whole 30 mins later by the time we got back to register. I was a little frustrated by the situation. The race organisers did email and mention parking could overflow and that we’d need to use the public parking. But to have both car parks already full an hour before the start wasn’t expected. Clearly they haven’t secured enough for the size of the event.
Anyway… moaning aside, onwards. Registration was brief and we now only had to wait a short while in the ice cold morning before the race started. It was a small group of runners in the 50km, as it was the 50mile race that started 30 mins before us. We started right at the back of the group as we ran through the start arch and back down towards where the car was parked. Here in QECP we went up into the forests near the main visitor centre before crossing over to and up Gravel Hill and the first of many many climbs of the day.
As we ran through QECP the trails were mostly gravel and hard packed. As we left the park we had a number of long road sections connecting between short trails. We both started to regret our choice of aggressive footwear expecting more mud and softer ground conditions.
It was a nice start though and whilst cold, the short sharp hills helped us warm up quickly as we made our way slowly through the pack. Time moved quite quickly in the cold, grey misty mornings as we talked away and caught up on the months of life changes since we last saw each other. After about 10km we passed the first (last) 50 mile runner who was walking slowly with the sweepers a few paces behind him. We assumed he was injured and pushing on to the next aid station as he was moving so slowly. The course had 4 aid stations and the first was 11 miles or so in. I liked this. It’s always nice to get a good chunk of the race done before the first stop!. We left the trails and out into the village of Rowlands Castle. In a small hall the aid station gave us warmth, albeit little else. The event emails talked fondly of the quality and quantity of food options that would be available at aid stations. This one certainly didn’t reflect that. A solitary portion of cake, small paper cups (think sauce portions at a fast food chain size) of two or three crisps, a few skittles and singular wrapped ‘celebration’ chocolates (why these were separated into paper cups I do not know!). It was a poor show. I assume the 50 mile runners had feasted well before us. Thankfully we didn’t have long, just 4 miles, to the next one. We ate a few snacks, refilled waters and headed off.
The stop cooled us down so the gloves were on and we moved with purpose again to warm up as we traced back through the village. We passed Jamie, who I’d met on several other events too. He was braving the elements for the 50miler. My memory of the course soon becomes as blurry as the race conditions. I recall the route becoming much more trail and less road and our aggressive footwear came in more favourably. We passed many runners who were moving more slowly with the muddy, slippery conditions. The next aid station came so quickly and was much better with many savoury options and was better stocked than the previous. We took a few moments and chatted with the volunteers before moving on as it was outside and cold.
The next section was 7 miles long and we made it longer with a bit of a navigation mishap. We’d been running through a big open space passing many 50 miler runners and were discussing how we hadn’t reached the course split yet. We talked about the extra 30km loop they had to make and whether we were glad we weren’t doing that course. Shortly after the fields, on a single track we came to a trail cross road and the path opened up. We followed runners straight and up the hill ahead. I remember looking at walker with their dogs to our right as we crossed the trails. We were deep in conversation. Further along as the hill levelled out we caught the attention of the runner ahead who missed the turn and helped him back on track. At this point we realised we were ourselves off track. He confirmed that there was a turn a while back for the 50km. Doh. Damnit. We back tracked, passing loads of runners we’d passed before walking up the hill in the opposite direction. And there it was, a little over half a km back, at the damn cross Road in the trails where the dog walker was. We’d missed two very big and clear direction signs for the course split. Back on track we laughed at our mistake and carried on down the trail on a lovely descent. We caught back up with many of the 50k runners we’d passed previously. One even comment how we kept overtaking her. Our explanation made her laugh.
The next aid station at Compton came about and once again we were indoors and had a chance to warm up. Here there were all the promised goods and various sandwiches too which were very much needed. We ate a few then headed back out in the now very wet day. The misty rain had been getting progressively heavier throughout the day and soon we had to make the decision to cover our wet bodies with a waterproof coat. Whilst we wouldn’t be dry, we did start to get warmer finally. Here the course took us up higher onto the South Downs and visibility was piss poor. It was hard to spot the trail markers so we followed our gps instead and were soon running down a very wet, slippery steep hill. There were loads of slid marks from runners who’d clearly slipped their way down. Our great grippy trainers kept us upright though. We were on the last stretch now and the final 10 miles ticked off quickly as we continued chatting non stop all day. The undulating terrain forced us to a run walk approach which I was most grateful for. For hours we hadn’t caught up with any other runners but knew we had a group not far behind us.
We kept a pretty decent pace and passed through the final aid station at South Harting, after winding our way through the village streets, quite quickly, keen to get finished and make our way home. A few km later we passed through the lovely little village of Buriton and began a long climb back into forests and realised we’d made our way back to QECP. Before we knew it we were tracing our steps from earlier in the day.
The last few kms were longer than we’d remembered. We came down near Grave Hill, passed the parked car and onward to the finish where we came into the event space to cheers from a few volunteers, we took our medals and headed straight into the tent to get warm. A warm soup with bread and zero % beer perked us up before we had the cold 10 min walk back to the car. With freezing hands we got changed outside before driving home with the heating on.
It was a great day out with Carl. The conditions and weather made for a tough day and it took longer than I thought. It was a decent event and whilst well organised I thought a few things could have been improved (the parking situation annoyed me and the course markings could have been better for a ‘fully signposted’ course). That was the first race of the year and I’m excited now for the planned adventures that await!
Run With Dai 