Round Up to week ending 15th 16th May

Whilst the Government Roadmap 3 date had not arrived by this weekend, the race scene is clearly back in force judging by the number of Tuffs out at events. The large number of Tuffs at Arundel Tri justified a separate article, but it still left plenty of races to report on from the past two weeks, with another expected:-

GORING GAP ULTRA 50KM

First up is a report from Olly Sampson from his adventure in Berkshire:-

Goring Gap Ultra 50km (No this wasn’t in Sussex!) 🙂 No this wasn’t one of Jason McCardle’s runs round and round Goring Gap till you drop kinda thing! 🙂
Set in the beautiful grounds of Mapledurham House just outside Reading right on the Thames river, this had to be one of the most picturesque settings I’ve seen for a run outside the South Downs.
This was my first attempt at an Ultra and after a serious 20 week training block, 13 of them with wingman Wardy I felt safe in the knowledge I’d prepared. Wardy was unfortunately injured 7 weeks before but kindly came along on the road trip to support, mentor and marshal a little bit with a cheeky run thrown in whilst waiting for me to waddle around! His support was especially appreciated and that of other Tuffs along this journey. We camped the night before in the field not 50m from the start so dream location and free camping. The Ultra was billed as a “flat” 50km but was actually 52Km in the end as a last minute add on occurred and not that flat.
It takes in the run back into Reading along one side of the river then over the bridge and back up through Pangbourne, Goring and Wallingford before coming back down the other side of the river. Truly amazing views of the countryside and river but tough going at points under foot and my poor choice of shoe made life slippery as Reading tarmac gave way to proper trails around 70% of the course. As is the usual in these times we were set off in groups of 5 and then mingled with the marathon that started later and the half marathon later still.
The first 30km went really well and steady but then the course became boggy and demanding as the legs started to tire, drinking enough fluid wasn’t a problem but for some reason eating was and although the feed stations (every 5 miles) were probably the best stocked I’ve ever seen, nothing appealed or went down well. By 42Km I was having serious dark thoughts and we had reached the final feed station back at Goring with 10km to go, to top it all it started raining, why today? After weeks of dry weather of course it was today!
At this point I met another runner having the same thoughts and we agreed to stick together and plough on through for the final bit, in the back of my mind I thought, “there’s no bling if you don’t finish”. Having never run further than a marathon before let alone a trail ultra I have to say the last 10km was super tough and I raise my hat to all those 100 milers etc.. just amazing!
The winning time that day was a staggering 3hrs 58mins by a senior vet! I landed middle of the pack in 6hrs 23mins, I had set a goal of under 6 hours but the rain and shoes saw to that. Regardless I had a fab day, met some amazing runners along the way and the event I couldn’t recommend enough, next year they are making a weekend of it if you fancy a weekend trip out.

Olly

MAVERICK ORIGINAL SURREY

Maverick Off-road events have a good following amongst Tuffs and it was the turn of the Surrey Race with a choice of three routes – 22km, 12km and 6km. The route was through Winterfold and Blackheath Forest at Chilworth above Guildford. The race was one of many deferred from last year meaning the large field of 600 runners received their 2020 medal. Debbie Boxall took on the Canicross race for the 12km with Obi, with the combo returning a good time. Meanwhile Marc Rice had entered the 6km running run with debbie’s sister. Debbie reported:-

“Even though Mother Nature wasn’t playing the game Mavericks didn’t disappoint. Great atmosphere, great course and even better goodies and medal! What a first Off road run for Marc to start on 🙂 “

Debbie

PB5K RACE SERIES

Held on a Wednesday evening at Ardingly, the PB5k race comprised two laps of the Showground. There were two separate waves ranging from 14minutes to 17:59 predicted run times, and the second from 18 to 25 minutes. Clearly one for the quicker runners then, but no problem for Juliette Reader who arrived on the start line flying the Tuff banner. It was a great result, particularly when the lapped course had several turns. A finish time of 21:35; which was a superb time Juliette; congratulations.

JIGSAW 10K DUNSFOLD

This was another deferred race from 2020 a two lap race around Dunsfold aerodrome at Cranleigh, more popularly known as the Top Gear test track. The airfield is often used as a film set with the Jumbo jet from Casino Royale stationed here and the pandemic has seen two further 747’s arrive for filming/trainer duties having been retired from service.

Over 300 runners took park for this 10k with half off at 9am with the remainder at 11. In amongst these were Trevor and Clive Harvey. Runners had the first 2 km out directly into the wind, which was repeated for a second lap but at least the heavy rain from Saturday was almost avoided with some rain at the back of the airfield . A nice low key event with a silicon medal. Taking in a portion of the Top Gear test track, wasn’t at ‘Stig Speed’ but they both reported it was nice to be faced with competitive conditions again.

CHICHESTER LAKE SWIMS

Chichester Lake (alongside the A27), has just reopened for the season and thanks to James Brock, for letting everyone know as follows:-

“A nice social start time for my second cold dip of the year. 10am! The first ‘swim’ was New Year’s day when I got just above the crown jewels and ran back to the warmth of my DryRobe”.

“I’ve been following fellow tuffs who have braved the open water throughout winter, especially Andy Tester and Miss Gatland. Now it was my turn. I picked up two teammates; the lovely Sue Neilson and James ‘The Beast Togneri on arrival another Tuff Phil Scales rounded up the four Tuffs waving the blue and white flag (aka trisuit)”

“I tentatively got in the water, my wetsuit rapidly filling up with biting cold water, sure enough my adrenaline levels rose with excitement as I kicked off and started to swim as graciously as Drew Gowland on his maiden appearance on Aquaman….”

“Who am I kidding? The water was ice cold, I screamed a little and pushed out a mix of breaststroke and front crawl whilst inhaling/ gulping sharp intakes of breath. I arrived at the first buoy with my face and head still bone dry. I told myself…. Jimbo, you have not paid a tenner and driven all this way to do breaststroke!”

“The familiar murkiness of the water beneath me was in some way a strange comfort as I heroically submerged my head into the……. CRICKEY that’s cold as I resumed my newly found swimming stroke!! Soon enough I did manage to settle in and by the time I completed the first 300m loop I managed to find my stride and became very comfortable swimming (face down)” 

“Out of the three sports open water swimming will always be my favourite. There is something majestic and totally grounding about being at one with nature. Its so far removed from the chaos of work and stresses. Its hard to think of anything else when you are swimming. I cant put in to words what it is I love so much about swimming in the outdoors. All I can say is that I need to find more time to do it. If you want to give it a try, please feel free to message me as I am very happy to again and again and again

Peace & Love

Jimbo

INFLATABLE 5K

Good to see Tim McGrath back in action as he undertook the inflatable 5k held at Goodwood Racecourse. Staged by UK Running Events so this meant the usual goodies of socks, buff and medal. However, particularly as Tim is a quick runner, he reports there was disappointment as there was little opportunity to run between the obstacles, so not one he will rush back to. Nevertheless, great to see Tim back in action.