Club Champs Race - The Ridgeway 40 MT (Optional)
As preparation for this tuesdays Rose Inn a few harriers decided to put in a long run on the weekend……….
Report by Colin
This Club Champ Bonus Race was run by Andy Creber, Dick Finch, Rob Brown, James Blore and Colin Prosser and yes 2 whole bonus points for each runner - who wouldnt run 40 miles for that!
4 intrepid Chepstow Harriers set out from base camp (Chepstow Leisure Centre) driven by Head Coach Dick at 6.30am, taking a circuitous route to Overton Hill at the start of the Wessex Ridgeway. One even more intrepid harrier - Andy Creber (AC) - had headed directly for Streatley Youth Hostel - to get the coach back to the start so that we wouldn’t have to all run 80 miles there and back - thanks Andy!
Around 8.30am AC arrived at Overton Hill and following a photo opportunity we all set off at 8.30am which was more a clocking in card than Ready, Steady, Go!
The gentlemen’s agreement about running as a group slid a bit in the car and disappeared at the off and to be fair you really have to do your own pace on this run.
James sprinted off into the distance, and Dick and Andy stayed about equal to about two or three miles with me following fairly closely to begin with and Rob deciding to walk the first hill - which had been the initial plan just before we set off.
So, not wanting to spoil the story we all held our places to the end - the point of this is we all ran (and all walked) 40 miles!
The race includes competitive walkers who even if stoned or tripped up persist in running and runners, such as us, who despite outrageous support from some, persist in walking and the walkers did take some shaking off.
Including the finish there were 10 check points where you recorded a section time and also had the chance to refuel on all sorts of goodies from cake through fruit to mars bars and all just for seven and a half quid. The marshalls - or feeders - or confidential advisors - were so nice and supportive - when I laughed they laughed and when I wept they laughed - no really they were fantastic and we couldn’t have done it without them.
The scenery was nice and I will shortly upload some pics of mile 32 (Garmin based) although I would argue the ability of the rest of CH competitors to swear which mile this was - got a bit samey after 10!
I think most of us agree post 26.2 was where we had to start to dig in and 29-32 was for me so very hard and after that the last two (which lasted forever) was tarmac and fairly flat but with a road junction 100yds from the finish and I got held up by the lights and bikers and only just managed to scrape 8 hours dead up the steep ramp to the checkpoint finish - dragging half a potting shed I had hooked with my back pack.
At the finish the organisers were so attentive - telling you to sit down and bringing tea, cake, squash or anything else you wanted - Anne Goulding and her team met all our expectations! 
All of us were fairly amusing to watch moving round afterwards and the Landlady at the Catherine Wheel PH where Dick and Rob got a free pint of beer (an over 60 prize) initially thought we were a bit tipsy. AC and I had forgotten our wallets and waited in the beer garden, (James having received a better offer and moved on) considered ringing Childline, but eventually our elders blinked back into the sunlight and we headed for home.
This was a two stage journey from the end of the run back to the start and on to Chepstow and the enormity of our achievement hit home when AC delivered us back at Overton Hill start some 45 minutes later for the second leg back to the LC.
So we did it and lived to tell the tale.
Would we do another ultra - I would have to say yes - no one said they wouldn’t!!!!
Some pictures and other snippets about the event can be found on the bulletin board:
http://chepstowharriers.org.uk/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=15&p=5319#p5319
This entry was posted on 12/05/2009 at 08:42 am and is filed under Championship, Races. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.
