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.

2016 blog

Saturn Running Run to Infinity and Beyond 26.75m 2020

It isn't often you get the chance to do a marathon where the start/finish is less than a mile from where you live. I think Saturn Running started running their seven hour timed runs in 2019, but this was the first one of theirs that I had attempted. Also Melanie is doing the last of her ten road marathons required for her 100 marathon club entry in April so this event, with its relatively flat profile was useful training for that event. That event has a five hour cut off, so we wanted to see if we could get close to that on this one.

The downside is that we know the area very, very well as we run the Durham parkrun every weekend we can. The organisers did an enormous amount to work to ensure that the event was not cancelled because of Storm Dennis. The river levels were very high, so I think there were two course alterations to ensure the event went ahead and we were warned that the the course might have to change in the middle of the event if any part became flooded. This was part of the original route

and here are other photos of the river that was very high.

The course that the organisers came up with was an out and back lapped route with each lap being about 3.3m long, so we needed eight laps for a marathon. For those of you who know Durham the route started from the Durham Amateur Rowing Club and went along the river to St. Cuthbert's Boat Club, then turned sharp left towards Green Lane and followed that before turning through the wood in the direction of Maiden Castle. Soon after the old railway bridge the path was flooded so we diverted across Durham City Rugby ground (which was pretty muddy) and came out the new tarmac path from St.Cuthbert's accommodation at Parson's Field. From there to Maiden Castle across Noisy Bridge, turn left and head towards the old railway bridge. Just before we got there we reached the turn around point and headed back the same way. Here is photo from near Noisy Bridge showing the water level

One of the advantages of a lapped course is you get frequent access to your gear and any specialist food and drink you might want. I didn't end up changing anything and just had my own food and drink. However, the aid station had a very good selection of goodies and lots of vegan things. They even had a vegan goody bag at the end.

There were lots of people I knew running this one and it was lovely to see them regularly, an advantage of an out and back route. Melanie ran with Sabrina, who was doing the half, and I soon found the pace too quick for me. I did catch Melanie on the final lap and we did that together. I never get tired of seeing the sculpture on the right

We passed the 26.2m mark at 4hrs 52min which felt good and we finished the 26.75m in 4hr 58min 15sec. Because we had registered a bit late we didn't get a medal from this event, but we got a choice from the left over medals from other events and a marathon pin.

A 3.3mile lapped course which is out and back sounds awful, but it turned out much better than I thought. Not sure I will do another marathon distance one again, but you never know ....

Wilmot Wander 32m 2020

This is a very friendly, low key event. They provide you with a low quality map and apart from three signs there are no other directions on the route. The other years I have done it the mud has been pretty bad but the weather has been good.

I always travel by train to this one

and stay before and after at a local Premier Inn near the start/finsh. Well it is usually near the start/finish but they are always doing things to the roads round here and one of the the latest projects is replacing the footbridge. The new bridge is there but it is not in place yet. This was going to effect the event as well so it probably added another half mile as we were sent to the next bridge.

The start is the Scout Hut in Chaddesden.

They usually set us off in groups of about four every two minutes and my start was 8.20. However, they made it a bit easier for themselves and they set us off in groups of about twelve every ten minutes. Here is a group ready to leave out of the back door.

They offer an alternative route soon after the start. I have never seen anyone take it, but I thought that just for a change I would give it a try. Needless to say everyone else took the normal shorter route and and after a short while, I realised I had not made a good choice. My route had more undulations (although some nice views),

probably more mud and some very wet ground......

When the two routes merged, my starting companions were nowhere in sight. I went though Locko Park

through some lovely woods,

muddy fields and had a nice view of the village of Stanley.

The first checkpoint was there and the organisers had promised to set aside some vegan biscuits for me (I had vegan soup at the end as well, the organisers were just great !)

More woods

before passing under the M1 and on to one of the steepest climbs before some seriously muddy fields. It was worst at stiles of gates, there was just no way round it all. On to the next checkpoint where I found another vegan runner asking for biscuits, over a river and towards the bridge over the main north/south railway line

Across a busy road and into a narrow alley before another long muddy climb.

Good views at the top

Eventually we had some downhills after I had chatted to a Hardmoors runner for a while.

Soon after this about two hours early the rain arrived. Not heavy so it could have been worse. Some more ups and downs and muddy sections

before arriving at the third checkpoint which was heaving (the walkers had started from 7.00 so we were catching them all the time at this point). I headed through quickly - we didn't have printed race numbers, this is a low key event, we just had to make sure we gave our race number to someone at each checkpoint. Past the local church

About seven or eight miles later and the hairy crossing of the A38 where traffic is travelling at 70 mph, we made it to the canal.

It is basically 4m of muddy canal towpath followed by 5.5m of cycle path to the finish. But of course I was starting to feel a little tired after 23m and the hills and mud to take much advantage of the lack of hills. I tried a new approach, run and count to 100, then walk and count to 50 and repeat. And it seemed to work. I got back to the Scout Hut in 6hr 59min (pure luck I wasn't looking at my watch) which was 16min faster than two years ago and 31min faster than four years ago and I had run a bit further as well. I hadn't seen that coming.

Here is my before picture (with my lovely Saucony KOA STs which had only done about 5m)

and here is my after picture

Overall I enjoyed it !

2018 blog