Golden Fleece 27m 2020

Melanie and I went into this event quite differently. Melanie was concerned about some niggles that she had from last week's mud fest at Belvoir. I felt fine and Melanie said she might be slow.

I do like this event, it is low key, friendly, there is lovely wolds scenery, lots of food at the checkpoints and lovely vegetable stew at the end. We thought that there might be as much mud as there was at Belvoir, but we could not have been more wrong, the paths and field edges were on the whole very firm. There was a bit of a breeze in our faces in the last quarter but nothing very strong. The sun even came out for a while.

The start was in South Cave as usual a

and this event usually starts on time at 8.30. There was just one announcement at the start, please don't run on the daffodils at the first corner and that was it, we were off. The first seven miles are pretty flat and we went though a number of pretty villages such as North Cave

and into the Park next to Hotham Hall where we came across this sign

and into Hotham itself

This followed by farm tracks before some woods

and then on to the 7m checkpoint where the short and long routes part. There is always lots of food at this one and they even have vegan food set aside

This is where the wolds properly start and there are plenty of climbs and descents

Shortly before the next checkpoint we were overtaken by a two groups, one of four and one of three. They were still at the checkpoint when we left and the group of three soon caught us up again. It became clear that they had no idea where they were or where they were going - there were no runners in sight in front. They did have a route description but seemed not to have much confidence in it. This event has no markings at all. The group of four were the same and we found they were waiting for us at junctions to check they were going the right way. This continued all the way the the next checkpoint.

Again we were the first to leave and the next bit through Walkington is complicated so they followed us closely and when some one else who knew the route overtook them they tagged along. They then disappeared into the distance, but we heard later they made a few mistakes and had to backtrack. It seemed a bit strange to us to just rely on other runners.

Once we got to Skidby at about twenty miles, my legs felt that they had nothing left. Melanie was managing her niggles very well and was definitely in a better place than me. She could have gone on, but sadly we had not put the route on our watches because I was very familiar with the route and Melanie was expected to be the one who struggled - Melanie hasn't done the route as many times as me and was less confident she knew where to go.

We went on to the lovely Brantingham

The last few miles are quite up and down, but there are some good views

before we got a view of South Cave and finish

We ran through a plantation of some crop which we could not figure out what it was

before passing the grand looking hotel near the finish

I enjoyed it, but less than Melanie who was surprised she felt as good as she did. Will we be back again next year ? Probably 😀