Belvoir Challenge 26m 2020

This is my seventh time at this event. What keeps us coming back is the way they change the route every year, so this year there were sections I had never done before, other sections which I had done before but in the oppostite direction and very familiar sections. The food at the checkpoints and at the end is also amazing and they had special cake and soup for vegans.

As the event is held in late Feburary it has a reputation for mud. This year it was the muddiest I have even known it to be. Especially up until the runners on the shorter route (15.6 miles) split away (after 11 miles). There was just lots and lots of mud (thanks to Melanie for some of these photos)

The start was more crowded than the last time we ran this (2016).

It is become so popular they now operate a park and ride system for parking using an old aerodrome 2k away and two double decker buses going back and forth.

It is now chip timed and they all seemed ready to go at exactly 9.00. They counted down and we were off. Within about 15 seconds they shouted 'Stop' and we all had to back up (which took ages) because something went wrong with the timing equipment. I don't remember this every happening before, but it was good to have discovered it before the faster runners had disappeared. Melanie was nice and clean before while we waited, but this was not to last very long.....

Within about a mile we encountered

It did get slightly better for a while

The wind was in our faces at this point but it wasn't too bad until the first checkpoint when it started to hail for a while. There was lots of field crossings and stiles

As we approached the split point on the two routes, we overheard someone say 'I am so glad we chose the shorter route, I cannot imagine doing another 15 miles of this...'. We weren't looking forward to it, but very soon after the route became a lot less muddy and more runnable. There still waterlogged fields and slippery stiles but we felt like we were making progress. We came across the Branston ladder which often appears on the route

Before passing through some undulating countryside

and down to Knipton Reservoir

Soon after we went into the grounds of Belvoir Castle with its gardens apparently developed by Caperbility Brown

Then we turned west to head west towards the finish at Harby. We had the lovely views to the north

before descending to Stathern. It is then a muddy two miles across sodden fields. Sadly the hail started again which wasn't too nice, but we made it back in the slowest time I have done at this event. I blame the mud, we were covered in it and we hadn't fallen over.

and a before and after photo

It was the 30th anniversary so we received a buff at the end as well as some lovely soup followed by cake.