I love running round Ripon. I had never been there until I started running. My first race in that area was Kirby Malzeard 10K. It was hilly and tough, but I loved it. I have been back in that area for the Fountains 10K, the Ripon 10m, the Jolly Holly Jog 10k, the Burn Valley Half marathon, the Melmerby 10k, the Yorkshire 10K and the Muddy Boots 10k.
I wasn't very well prepared for today's race which was the first running of this event. I haven't done much running since Kielder at the beginning of the month.
There were about forty starters and we started by running from Studley Roger, a beautiful village and one of many lovely ones that we went through today and headed towards Ripon. We took a slightly convoluted route through the town and we were ushered through by the runners from the Ripon Runners club who started slowly to ensure none of us got lost in this section.
There was no marking on this course, just a map book with the route marked with a thick red line. It was a bit too thick and it was a bit difficult to see what was underneath. There were four well stocked checkpoints.
Before I got to the first checkpoint I was following three runners and they were looking at their map booklet so I just relied on them. This was a bit silly and we ended up in a quarry quite a bit off the route!
The first seven and a bit miles (well a bit more for some of us) to the first checkpoint were fairly easy going. After that we were pretty close to the river and then entered woods (but not before two more unplanned diversions ). Here it became much more difficult, muddy, slippy, lots of tree roots, it was slow progress. Those ahead of me paused to decide which route to take (we were following the Ripon Rowell path for most of race, but the waymarkers were often hidden, non existent or one occasion wrong !). I decided that it was time to get out my Satmap GPS. Whenever I bring it to races I find I don't need it, but it was clearly time to use it now - I should have used it from the start. It made route finding much easier from then on. I did make one further mistake, but because I followed an incorrect waymarker and didn't check the GPS until a quarter of mile later - dumb!
Lots of people got lost. I started at the back and overtook a few, then people who were clearly faster than me appeared and overtook me ! I didn't meet anyone who didn't get lost, some of them much more seriously than me.
There was three sections across the moors. I found these quite difficult to find the way, the paths weren't clear at all. There was also some sections on quiet roads. Other bits were very marshy, across muddy fields, but the second half had lots of hills.
There was nine miles between checkpoint 3 and 4 and that was pretty tough considering the terrain.
All the runners and marshalls were very chatty and friendly so overall it was a lovely, but tough event.
It finished by running down the road through the Deer Park (and the deer were very near the road today). I have run up that road many times, but never down - it was so much easier !
I finished in 7hr 57min. At one stage I was expecting eight and half hours so I was very pleased. Anna finished a few minutes ahead of me after also going off route. Will I be back ? Probably, it should be easier if the route is the same !
