Magnificent Eastnor Castle 7 Race Report: Myself and Honesty representing Embrace The Outdoors running club. I've not done a Race Report before, so bear with me.
Where: Eastnor Castle. A beautiful National Trust property, and well worth a visit on its own.
How long: 7 miles across and about 300m upwards.
Weather: Bizarrely, dry with sunny spells! Preceded by torrential rain for about 6 months, which stopped about an hour before the run. Kudos to the organisers for sorting that out.
Pre-race nutrition: I had some Earl Grey Tea, and a cookie. Honesty had a coffee, but saved her brownie for afterwards.
Warm-up: A bit of light jogging, some leg swings, A-walks, B-walks, chasing pigeons (figuratively), and then a short video to demonstrate to our run leader that we didn't just sit in the sun and eat cake (this time).
Time tracking: Some kind of odd chip on an ankle-strap, as if we were in danger of breaching an ASBO. Easier to use and wear than many alternatives, though.
The course:
Starting from the deer park, with did a quick loop of what (in less marshy years) is normally the car park. Then the brutal introductory gravel slope up to the ridge. This slope is universally referred to by all runners as "Oh no", where "no" is substituted for a variety of words.
"You're on the flat bit now!" the marshal at the top cheerfully lied, as we began the slow grind up the gravelly ridge to the side of Millennium Hill.
Aside from the odd puddle, generally the Ridgeway was comparably dry. However, the next section had a new collection of deep puddles covering the entire gravel path in many places. Approaches vary, with many runners daintily making their way around the puddles, but generally we (myself and Honesty) prefer the "blindly charging through the middle" approach.
Once suitably drenched and with the majority of the ascent out of the way, we moved on to the Undulating Slippery Mudfest of Doom (unofficial name). Here, the options were squelching through puddles of unknown depth, with even deeper mud at the bottom, or slippery slopes on the sides of the path. Occasionally broken up with the luxury of a stream running down the path, so you splash along with a decent rocky footing.
The Mudfest of Doom suddenly ended with a beautiful view of Eastnor Castle itself, and over the deer park. I stopped for a quick photo, and spotted that Honesty was hot on my heels. We began the last big ascent to the Monument, as the wind died down and the sun began blazing.
The cheery marshals were joined by encouraging bystanders as we finally reached the monument. I had made some ground on Honesty, and as I passed the Monument I realised it would make a great photo. I stopped beside the path, took a quick few photos as Honesty passed, and rejoined her as we headed to the woods. She greeted me with "Ha, you're having too much fun." which I think was code for something much ruder.
Karma almost caught me when I slipped but managed to catch my balance, as we approached what I like to think of as The Woods of "Haha, you thought you were finished".
We set a good pace through the woods. The track was considerably narrower, with no room to pass other runners. Through deep mud and puddles, across makeshift bridges over streams, and out onto the actual final ascent.
After the final climb and a few internal shouts of "Shut up legs!" we began the fiercely steep descent back down to the finish, on thankfully much firmer ground.
Having been at my heels for most of the run, Honesty was off. With a final sprint across a soggy field, she crossed the finish line with me close behind.
Post-run nutrition: A flat white, as well as some marmite sandwiches Honesty shared with myself and very nearly with a very keen (but uninvited) canicross particiant; until his owner discouraged him.
Stu Pegg.
Comentarios