Along with 2500 other runners, I competed in the Hellrunner race last Sunday at Longmoor Army Training Camp in Hampshire. The weather has been pretty dry recently so I think the course was probably alot more managable than it could have been. It was however still 10-12 miles (they won't tell you long far you have to run, part of the charm of the race or something) of trail running with lots of steep sandy slopes, muddy banks, huge muddy puddles, the odd rock, The Bog of Doom, the ravine bog and an extra bog for luck. Wading through freezing cold stinking black sludge past your waist, lovely! Paul and I ran as a team, which really just meant he had to keep waiting for me every now and again to catch up.....he did beat me across the line by 1 second...but to be fair I think his victory was somewhat unintentional. (Paul 1.55.47, Chantal 1.55.48)
Meanwhile Chris spent the weekend doing hardcore Ironman training, an 88 mile bike followed by an hour's run on Saturday and a 1 hour bike followed by a 3 hour 10 minute run on Sunday. Quite sensibly, he had refused to take part in Hellrunner due to the high injury risk, and judging by the state of some of the competitors in the first aid area, this was a wise decision.
That's the final race for me in 2007 and Chris is now only 3 weeks away from his Ironman in Western Australia....
