Left house at 5.45 and got to Barnborough near Doncaster about 7.30. South Yorkshire accents abounded and I haven't heard them for many years and it took me back to the time I lived in Rotherham and Sheffield.
I had had some anxiety about route finding for this one (they had sent out details of the 16m route and if you wanted to do the longer route you were given the route description at the second checkpoint, so no forward planning), but I needed have worried. There was a map at the start which I attempted to memorise and mentally trace out on my Satmap (GPS). Also they said it was waymarked with tape, so that was relief :-)
Had some free tea, and talked to some of the other entrants. Then at 8.30 we gathered outside the pub which was race HQ. The organiser stood on the wall and I was expecting a few race instructions. What we got was brief and typical South Yorkshire: 'Gerr off' ;-)
I had driven down through some heavy rain and it was still drizzling fairly heavily when we set off. It continued like that for at least 6 miles. Then it was cloudy and a little breezy, then the last six miles were mainly sunny. Probably round about thirty runners and there were two courses available for the 8.30 starters 26.3m or 16m.
I haven't some many LDWA events which have been waymarked. This one was just incredible, almost every time I started to doubt I was on the right path, a piece of tape would appear on a branch or a bush. Just so well positioned as well, just after every path to the left or right which was not part of the route. There must have been hundreds. I rescued a few people who were chatting away and not watching out for the tape. I became overconfident.... At about 24m in Goldthorpe, I coudn't see any tape at a likely junction, so I carried on. No more tape. Then ahead of me I saw three people walking and one with a rucksack. At this stage I was regularly passing walkers on the shorter route, so I thought I must be right. Then as I got closer I noticed that one of those without a rucksack was carrying a handbag ! And the one with the rucksack was in heels ! So race instructions out for the first time and a check on the satmap revealed the likely junction was the correct one, so back there and of course there was tape, I had just missed it.
Terrain varied, bits of very quiet road, rolling countryside and quite a few very muddy fields which were hard to run on even when flat. Not as bad as Belvoir a few weeks ago, but getting there. Lots of lovely paths through woods and the checkpoints were serving sandwiches, scones with jam, chocolate bars and juice :-) At the end we got a free meal of vegetarian pie, peas and gravy followed by rice pudding and peaches :-) All this for eight pounds :-O
After the shorter and longer route diverged, I didn't see many runners for a while, but the waymarking kept me going. It was just a lovely route.
Got a bit tired in the last 6 miles. I thought at 19m I was on for a sub 5 finish, but getting lost, running out of energy after yesterday's 10K and some steeper and more frequent hills slowed me down a lot so I finished in 5h 17min.
It was the sort of event where time did not matter. People took their shoes off before going into the pub to say they had finished and have their time recorded. I love these events :-)
I will do this again :-)
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