On Sunday 15th I took part in the Fairlands Valley Challenge 50k as a way of doing a long run but making it a bit more interesting than just running on my own on the roads or local trails.
Its a 50 k route on bridleways and footpaths around the Stevenage area in Hertfordshire and requires you to follow a narrative route description whilst you run. The narrative was 5 ½ pages of A4 and there was also a single page map for reference too. It looked like fairly complicated route. There were to be checkpoints about every 4 miles or so.
I got there about 8am with the 50k runners due to go off at 8:45, there were several distances available and walker and runner times for all routes so that the checkpoints could be open for the least amount of time. I chatted to a few people that I knew as I changed for the start and registered, a couple of fetchies and some other ultra runners who I knew from other events I have taken part in.
I chatted with Peter Johnson and Cliff Cavanan-King in particular about Spartathlon and how their training was going, Cliff did not sound so positive and with several DNFs recently on long races due to injuries he may not be able to participate.
At the start line I met up with David Mould (Fenland Runner on Fetcheveryone) and chatted to him for a bit before we started. My goal for the day was to simply run/walk around the route in a respectable time as a long training run and not to kill myself as I have a 50mile race the following Sunday where I want to do a PB attempt so once we got started I took it easy from the off. I had chosen to wear my trail Hoka one one’s the Stinson Evo’s and they were fine for most of it but with all the recent rain we have had there was quite a bit of mud and standing water around and getting wet and muddy was impossible to avoid.
Pretty soon after the start myself and David found ourselves running together and chatting or more than likely me talking bollox at him as usual but we chatted and the time and miles ticked by nicely, I could have gone a little faster but know David is only a tiny bit slower than me usually I decided early on to stay around his pace. This would make the run more interesting having good company but also easier to navigate as David had brought his GPS and plotted the whole route onto the device to follow so we did not really need the Map and Narrative as long as the batteries held out.
We soon got to the first CP and I helped myself to some cake and biscuits and water, I was also running with my bumbag with some supplies and just a bottle and waterproof jacket in it as back up but thankfully the rain held off for the day and the weather was really kind to us. I was really enjoying the easy run with not time pressures even though I anticipated a 5:30ish time based on what I though I was capable of doing as an easy run without pushing. After the first CP we chatted with a couple of Serpie runners about Jennifer Bradley’s Run across America that she is doing and other stuff such as James Adams and others. Generally chit chatting to various people as we ran along really made the time pass and before long we were nearly half way into the run.
We caught up with Anna Finn who is an awesome runner but has been a bit ill in recent months and was walking the Marathon route, it was really nice to see her again as I had not bumped into her since the Cambridge Boundary run earlier in the year. She was looking nice and strong and happy as always and it was really great to bump into her again.
It was a really nice day as we plodded along past 20+miles, at this point David became a little tired and grumpy and slowed a bit but that was fine with me as I was not out to break any records. David then remembered that he had not taken his caffeine shot that he normally takes at 20miles into a run and he necked this whilst cursing at the hills and bumpy bits and inclines and anything really!
Within a mile or two the caffeine shot had really done the trick and he was back to a good pace and running really well and much less grumpy.
We were down to the last few miles now and David’s GPS ran out of battery and we were back to the map and narrative, so I took over the navigation and we ran in the last few miles in the sunshine.
Sue and Becky (my daughter) were waiting about 800m from the finish which was nice, and I spoke to them briefly then ran the last bit in to the finish, I saw a few ppl in front of me including Sarah Thorne and had a bit of a sprint to pass them before the finish.
My time was 5:53 and I came 35thoverall out of 160 or so entrants, so not too bad. All in all a good training run completed. Thanks to David too for nice company on the way round.