Sunday 14 April 2019

Valleys and Views 2019

There were lots of marathon events on today - Boston (two of them), Paris, Peterborough and Durham. But we chose to do the Valleys and Views which we did five years ago (it is near Corby, Northamptonshire). We didn't remember much about it apart from it being good countryside, cheap and very laid back.

Well it has doubled in price since we last did it, it has now risen to £8 each ! That included food on the way round, but not at then end - that could be bought for £1.

One thing that hadn't changed was that you only know where you are going when you get to the start in Wilbarston Village Hall. Although we had done it before, we knew that it was a completely new route from last time. There was a map on the wall in the hall and we were all given a route description. The route description had been good last time we did it, so we were hopeful that it would be this time. And it was apart from a couple of places where it could be polished up a bit.

It was good to drive for 3 hours to an event and still meet friends from the marathon circuit - three sets who we had not expected to bump into 😀

Walkers and runners were going off at different times and we set off shortly after four runners who we soon overtook. The first mile or so was on quiet roads and then it was off into fields, over stiles and gates and it was quite undulating.


It was sunny at this stage and the wind was behind us.


Melanie was reading out the instructions and I was trying to spot which way to go and that worked well.










We always have to have a pond or a lake on our events and here was today's



After a while we came to an old railway line which we followed for about 4k into Market Harborough and the first checkpoint at 8m. They had run out of food and one of the marshalls had bought some which was nice !

We ran through Market Harborough making one minor mistake, but that was soon corrected. After a while we came to the Grand Union Canal and followed that for about 4m




to Foxton locks. Sadly we didn't get to see the lock closely and we left the canal soon after and started to head back into the wind. It got a bit cold here so we donned our waterproofs to keep a bit warmer.



Shortly after the church above, the route description was confusing. It said something like at the signpost with Welland on it turn right. However, the direction for Welland was straight on. Luckily we had an OS maps on my phone and we were able to look ahead on the route description and the OS map and go right. We heard later that several people went straight on though and added a few miles.

The last checkpoint was about 3m from the end (the checkpoint food was adequate without being plentiful) and shortly after this we came across this six way sign in the middle of nowhere.



Finally we came across this lovely sign. One quarter of a mile to go (shame it included a hill...)


and our Certificates at the end.