Saffron Trail Ultra 2014

So Where do I start?…….

In Short it was tough race for runners and volunteers in some testing conditions.
35 Entrants
26 Starters
14 Finishers
12 DNFs
Lots of epic performances.

Longer version……..

So about a year ago I heard of a Trail called the Saffron Trail which ran from Southend to Saffron Walden and was just over 70 miles long through some nice historic bits of Essex. I went and ran the whole thing over a few weeks and decided to see if I could make this into a race to add to my Challenge Running Calendar. It is not the easiest route to follow and a bit overgrown in parts but looked like it could be a real challenge worthy of the effort. So nearly a year later and all the planning is done and we are a few weeks away from the event.
I have all the volunteers booked and logistics planned with just a bit of laminating and printing to do and final foods to be bought.
From then till the end of the race it seemed things tried to conspire to defeat me and the race planning but more of that in the race report proper.

So at 3:30 on the Saturday afternoon I rock up at the pick up point in Saffron Walden for those who are leaving a car at the finish area and are being transported to the start point, there is no real long term parking in Southend and Saffron Walden has no train station so leaving a car there seems more sensible. Just before half past I call one of the runners Fiona who has just facebooked that she is here and wander around the car park picking up runners and taking them back to the pick up point by the coach drop off. I have all the runners although one of them runs off to get change to pay for the car park and gets back just after 3:30 the official leaving time. The Minibus I have hired is here waiting. I am actually missing the Sweepers who are supposed to be here but I make the decision to leave about 15:45 as I need to get to the start to set up. Luckily they are spotted by my Medic as we leave and picked up in her car and we are on our way.  Some rather quick driving later with a 1.5 ton trailer on the back of my 4×4 and I am at the start and we are registering people on Southend sea front. It is sunny and everything is good, everyone has their kit and I do a race briefing at 17:45 as planned.

Runners at registration waiting at the start.

 Very soon it was 1800 and my daughter Laura sounded the hooter and off they went.

 The weather was forecast for humid temperatures and thunderstorms and showers so it looked like it was going to be a testing race. There were some good runners in the group and lots with very good ultra experience and a few who were doing this as a first Ultra which was brave as it is not an easy route, with it being all overnight with navigation to worry about.
The navigation was my biggest concern at the start of the race as I know its a tricky route to follow and especially so at night, that’s why the gpx files and maps and route descriptions were all up on the website before the race to give ppl a chance to recce some of the route.
I then went to the 1st checkpoint to meet the crews and deliver kit and set it up. It was great to watch the first runners come through. Ian and Rob came in together running strong and grab a couple of bit before heading off. Karen and Bruce did a great job there with all runners getting through that CP with no problems.
At CP2 I met Kate and dropped of Abbi to run that CP at the Battlesbridge Mills and just as we got the gazebo up the heavens opened and it chucked it down with proper thunder and lightning. the two leaders came in together again still looking good although wet and went off in good spirits.
Off again I went to CP3 outside Danbry where Liz and Lee were running that CP despite both having run at the Ranscombe event that day already. Big thanks guys.
All runners went through there safely apart from a incident with a householder confronting some runners with a shotgun and having a discussion with him to calm him down and explaining to him it was a race and they were not a threat. They did the right thing and gave him my number which meant I had a discussion on the phone trying to reassure him they were not a threat or danger to him and they are using the footpath by his land in a planed event. He took a bot of calming down and was quite irate and then his wife came on the phone and sounded even angrier with an interesting choice of unladylike words! Eventually after many minutes of apologising for any nuisance caused they hung up on me. they did not bother any other runners.
CP4 was even more fun. It was planned to be on a lane well away from the nearest farm house with runners coming off the footpath on to the lane and then back onto the trail. we parked up and started to set up the CP when a mini bus arrived on the lane full of people from the big farm house up the road. as they had been drinking they were not the easiest to deal with, they were extremely abusive and claimed that section of the lane was private property and we needed to move. I tried to explain our purpose and apologise if we were on a private bit and negotiate us staying there for the CP but they were very aggressive with threatening behaviour and we moved the CP to the end of that lane.
The map did not show clearly it was not a normal lane and there were no obvious signs so it was a simple mistake on my part which unfortunately led to the altercation. I tried to discuss again with the guy and explain that runners would be using the lane to get to the CP and not to harass them but all he did was go get his dogs and start walking the lane with them! I then took the decision to move the CP 500m further down the route where it crossed a track that we could get down to. This meant I had to put a smaller CP in 500m before this house to give new instructions to runners to get to the new CP location as I did not want to have runners getting lost around that property looking for a non existing CP. We got this up and running very quickly but it meant my medic and only spare volunteer were now manning this extra CP. The only people this really affected apart from my team of volunteers was the two frontrunners who made it past the main CP before we could get a guide up and running on the track. A phone call later to explain and apologise to Ian and Rob and it was fixed. The runners probably did not notice a big problem but it gave me a headache at the time!
Along with the weather nearly missing the sweepers at pick up and 3 volunteers having to cancel their availability in the last week or so I was trying to keep it all organised and juggle people and kit to keep it all on track. I was late at CP 5 to set up but all my volunteers were there and it was set up in no time at all. I then quickly headed off to set up the last CP when I get a call to say that my Sweepers are Dropping! one has hurt an ankle and the other is unwell and has been throwing up and they are sitting by a pub (closed) in Danbury needing pick up. I advise them that it will take at least an hour for me to get help to them and they should use their warm kit and space blanket to wrap up in the cold and wet. I rush off to set the last CP and move some people around again as I cant hang around at that one for a bit as intended. I then set off on the 1hr50 min drive back to pick up the sweepers and then head back to the finish area to drop them off to their car. I then set up the finish area at Saffron Walden Fire Station. Things calm down a bit now as earlier CPs are closing and I am getting helpers back as spares with my medic back on availability in case of issues.
We have a few drop outs during this time and most runners are getting very close to the cut offs with runners spread over about 35 miles now!
I take the decision to extend the cut offs by 30minutes at all CPs and the finish and a discretionary 15 minutes extra if the runner is looking ok and is prepared to push it harder to the next CP to catch up time. this is due to the weather, diversions and CP changes that may have slowed the runners down. I unfortunately have to time out 3 runners at CP 5 as they were just slowing down too much with really made me feel bad as two of them are friends and one of them is my coaching client Nicki.
Really felt bad but I had given them as much time as I could.
I was shattered now and tried to chill and wait for the first runners coming in.
At 7:10 we had our two winners Ian Berry and Rob Wooley who had run together all the way and in an impressive time.

A fantastic run from those guys. and well deserved of their medals and one trophy between two!
(I will get another made up and send to you Rob)
At 08:51 our second runner came in in another great time given the conditions. Eric van Caster put in a great run on his own without company.

It was over two hours before we saw the next finisher for third place Mark Burnell came in looking good at 11:14.

 I was starting to get worried now that we would have very few finishers from the 26 that started with only a few hours till cut off at 14:30 we still had 11 runners out on the course and none of them had reached the final checkpoint 5 miles away yet!
Then in came Baz Taylor who at one point had been 4 mins outside the cut off and was almost written off as he was feeling really unwell to pick it up again and come flying in over the second half of the course overtaking 7 ppl on the way! Great run mate.

 Then came the rest of the pack over the next hour most just minutes inside the original cut off.

Colin, Nigel, Peter and David

Graeme, Marc and our international USA runner Tre’

That just left two out on the course, Debbie who was our last lady left in the race and Darren who had stayed with Debbie when she had been struggling and her feet were causing her some difficulties. Well done Darren she would not have finished without you and that is what Ultra’s are about and the type of people who run them. They were getting close to cut off and only went through the last CP with seconds to spare. I let Debbie’s Husband and friend Kate run out to meet them and help push them along as I had no sweepers to tell to do that anymore.
Darren came in first then Debbie with 14 minutes left inside the cut off. Great run Guys.

Darren

Debbie 1st female.

 Runners showered and got changed and slowly drifted off for the uphill walk to the car park, some still swearing at me for putting on such a hard race but mostly smiling and feeling like they earned that big chunk of metal around their necks.

Me and my team packed up the finish and all headed back home to crash out as I had not slept for 36 hours and was feeling it a bit.

My overall conclusions and hopes are that the runners experience of the race was a positive one and although the race was tough hopefully it gave its rewards at the end by way of feeling of achievement and adventure. I wish more could have finished but the weather conditions, terrain and navigation all meant it was always going to be a challenge.

From a race directors point of view it was a big challenge to set up and manage the event, at times it felt that it was all conspiring against me or that I had stuffed up some of the organisation. Most problems I managed to fix on the fly but have learnt a few things for next years event.
I will have to move a couple of CP locations to avoid and confrontations with locals and I will extend the overall cut off time by an hour or two to make it a little bit more achievable. I want it to be hard and I based the cut off on 3.5 mph If I add 2 hours that will reduce that to 3.2mph and should allow a few more to finish although the three that were timed out would still have been outside that cut off at that same point and it would not have made a difference to them.

If you ran please feel free to give me feedback positive or negative so I can make this event a regular one on my calendar and as good as it can be.

Lindley Chambers
Challenge Running