As you'll know from my previous post, I completed 14 running events last year. So this is part 2 of my write up of all the various events - check out Part 1 here.
What this one lacked in mud, it made up for in hills! And yes, the 9k route did take us up to and along the ridge line in the picture below!
Official time = 1:08:20
Dorset Maverick - 8/4/17
If you've read the previous installment to my 2017 reviews, you'll know that I did the Hampshire Maverick in March. Well it was such fun and so well organised, me and a friend decided to do the Dorset one too!What this one lacked in mud, it made up for in hills! And yes, the 9k route did take us up to and along the ridge line in the picture below!
As they say, what goes up must come down! So the second half of the run was much quicker as we made the most of gravity pulling us down - a little too much for my friend who took a tumble and to this day tells everyone I tripped him (I didn't!) Luckily he was fine, apart from a bruised ego!
As we came "flying" into the penultimate field we stopped, much to the marshal's confusion who was trying to encourage us to keep going as we were nearly at the finish! What she didn't realize is that we'd spotted a "mule" (it was actually a donkey) next to the fence and wanted a picture - for reference, our circuits is called Mad Mule and so we couldn't miss the opportunity!
Official time = 1:08:20
www.maverick-race.com
If you look at the picture above you will probably not understand my next comment - my issue with this course is that it wasn't nearly muddy enough! (Honestly the bit pictured above was the only really muddy bit!)
It was still so much fun and I impressed myself by successfully completing the monkey bars for the second time! (You'll hear about my third attempt in a future post!) However, I was annoyed that I chickened out on Kong (think Hang Tough from Gladiators if you're old enough to remember that!) So yet more unfinished business!
www.toughmudder.co.uk
Midnight Mountain
Marathon Half 24/6/17
This is what a lot of my running had been building up to - my first half marathon, up a mountain, at night, organised by a company called Brutal Events! Yep, I'm that stupid!
There were 10 of us from circuits, with two of them doing the marathon but the rest opting for the half! As always, the majority o f us didn't take this too seriously with no specific finish times in mind, although a couple of kilometers in we did split into different groups of more equally matched pace.
The first half was all up (well what else did I expect?!) but the thought of the aid station was getting me through - sweets, cake, chocolate... but when we got there, the mozzies had moved in! So no one was hanging around long and the poor marshal had a bee-keepers hat on to keep them off his face!
Not long after this point, my hips decided that they didn't like me very much so it was tough going, but running with someone definitely kept me going!
Again gravity (and I think the excitement of being nearly at the end) got too much for the friend I was running with, who also took a tumble! However, she was straight back up despite the cuts and ripped leggings determined to reach the finish line! I felt extremely well looked after at the finish as they had hot drinks, soup, sandwiches, biscuits etc! (This will probably more for the full marathoners but I made the most of it!)
Being the true athletes that we are, we then went to the pub to wait for the marathoners to get in before going back to our tents where we had about 4 different types of rum! You know that saying "I thought you said rum, not run!" - that pretty much summed us up!
Tip: Do not recommend camping after your first half marathon unless you like walking like John Wayne the next day!
www.brutalevents.co.uk
If anyone has any recommendations for some nice running events, please feel free to pop a comment below!
Tough Mudder (London West) 7/5/17
I had unfinished business with Tough Mudder (find out why in About Me), so went back to do it again! This time I was much fitter, didn't struggle at every hill and just generally enjoyed it a lot more! Having underestimated the running aspect last time, particularly the hills, this time I upped my distances and number of hills included in my training - it also helped that I had my first half marathon the following month so was training for that too.
www.toughmudder.co.uk
Midnight Mountain
Marathon Half 24/6/17
This is what a lot of my running had been building up to - my first half marathon, up a mountain, at night, organised by a company called Brutal Events! Yep, I'm that stupid! There were 10 of us from circuits, with two of them doing the marathon but the rest opting for the half! As always, the majority o f us didn't take this too seriously with no specific finish times in mind, although a couple of kilometers in we did split into different groups of more equally matched pace.
Not long after this point, my hips decided that they didn't like me very much so it was tough going, but running with someone definitely kept me going!
Again gravity (and I think the excitement of being nearly at the end) got too much for the friend I was running with, who also took a tumble! However, she was straight back up despite the cuts and ripped leggings determined to reach the finish line! I felt extremely well looked after at the finish as they had hot drinks, soup, sandwiches, biscuits etc! (This will probably more for the full marathoners but I made the most of it!)
Being the true athletes that we are, we then went to the pub to wait for the marathoners to get in before going back to our tents where we had about 4 different types of rum! You know that saying "I thought you said rum, not run!" - that pretty much summed us up!
Tip: Do not recommend camping after your first half marathon unless you like walking like John Wayne the next day!
www.brutalevents.co.uk
If anyone has any recommendations for some nice running events, please feel free to pop a comment below!
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