Mud, Sweat and Cheers - Club Cross Country

Get Your Vest on Mate!
Being in a running club like Sandhurst Joggers has loads of benefits and I am sure a lot of running clubs are like this too.  Not only do you get a load of organised club runs tailored for different abilities of runner from beginner to elite, your annual subscriptions go towards paying entry fees for club events like relay races and the winter cross country season.  Initially I joined SJ for the chance to occasionally train with other people and to get England Athletics affiliation and get £2 off race entry fees. But to really get my money's worth I realised that joining in club events was the way to go.

There are a lot of events that SJ enter teams for each year and as they are open to all members the club pays the entry fees. These include the Green Belt Relay, Bounders Relay, Runnymead Relays and the Thames Valley Cross Country League. That's at least 10 races a year that you can enter for free and all you have to give up is a finisher's medal, which is not much of a disappointment when you consider that these events are absolutely the best fun you can have with your trail shoes on.  

Thames Valley Cross Country
The Thames Valley Cross Country League is based around 7 or 8 races hosted by different teams within the league and held from October to February each year.  Each course is usually a mixture of hilly and muddy woodland trails and parkland and is about 5 miles in length. Male and female teams compete in the same race with the first 6 men and first 3 women from each club scoring points. All abilities take part and even if you don't score points for your club you can affect the result by getting ahead of scorers from other clubs. To promote club spirit, club colours have to be worn by any runner to score.

I have done only a few cross country runs in my time as an SJ member, something I really need to correct next year. Over the last two seasons I have managed to do just the Handy Cross and Bracknell Forest events as I have had Sundays filled with either other events (Portsmouth marathon, Winter Tanners ultra, son's birthday) or taking the kids to their own cross country league races.

Bracknell Forest Runners hold their round of the TVXC at Lightwater Country Park near the Bagshot junction of the M3.  The area is a mixture of pine, oak and birch woodland and open heathland.  The open high ground is sandy and gravelly paths and tracks with woodland paths covered in mushy wet composty soil and low lying paths of thick or sloppy mud.  It's a partly undulating and partly hilly course with some descents that you can really fly down, but where you have to be careful not to get caught out by technical sharp turns into very muddy sections at the bottom.  So, a good variety of all the things that make a classic cross country course.

Sandhurst Joggers set up camp near the start

This year there had been quite a lot of rain leading up to the race and in the morning it was spitting with rain and cold.  I got to the venue around 10:20 having parked outside the park. After finding the start area, the SJ club flag and signing in with Claire Hobson, our XC Secretary, there was time to chat to a load of clubmates for a few minutes before stripping off to short shorts and club vest at the last moment before the off.  I had seen a few people that I wanted to keep in sight all being well when we got going.  However, I really wasn't sure about the "all being well" bit.  Having done a 7 hour, 30 mile event the previous week I was feeling a bit sore in my left knee (patella tendonitis?), right calf/ankle (Achilles tendonitis?) and top of right foot (extensor tendonitis?) so I probably should be resting and doing more treatment/rehab.  I thought I would see how I felt after a bit of a warm up and then start near the back and pick my way through the pack if I felt OK.

I wasn't wearing any special kit for this event, but went for my Salomon Fellraisers again as they have quickly become my favourite trail shoe in muddy conditions.  I think my right foot pain at the Tanners was due to my shoes getting tighter as the day wore on and my feet swelled and I should have loosened them off a bit.  So I started this race with slightly less tight shoes which immediately relieved the discomfort and I was feeling good at the start.  

The Race

At the pointy end of the race - lots of sharp elbows in evidence

Meanwhile at the other end, a lot more smiles. I'm at
the extreme left of this shot, right at the back

The course was a bit congested just after the start and we queued into the first corner, but I was quickly aware that I was feeling good and able to run up through some of the crowd on the first rise before turning left onto a grassy muddy trail and another narrow rise where we got held up again.  Out on the wider track I got past a few more people and at 1 mile we turned on to a long steep descent.  I have been practising descending fast in hill sprint sessions to improve leg speed, so I was able to fly down this hill before just managing to slow enough to make the sharp left at the bottom on to a very muddy track.  After the muddy section another long descent through trees and then into open ground was followed by a short bit of slippy boardwalk and then a kicker of a sandy hill.  After this the route follows a long, long gradual downlsope before getting into another wooded undulating section to bring us round for the end of the first lap.

Coming up the last major climb of the race, Sandhurst's
Graham Robinson had pulled out a clear lead for 1st place

I was feeling strong and was a bit surprised to see SJ runners Alan Kirby and John Tovell just ahead near Kelvin Gower (running for Windle Valley), as I thought they would be way ahead.  This gave me a bit of a lift as I find it's always good to have some club mates and friends to pace yourself against.  As I caught Kelvin at the end of the lap I thought I could hear him running along just behind me for the next uphill mile, so this spurred me on to keep the steady pace going.  I managed to catch Alan Kirby on a long descent, but got passed back on the next uphill section and this happened again and again over several hills.  I was saving myself on the uphills, especially the steeper sections, trying to get up the steepest parts by using a fast walking stride on a couple of the biggest hills.  I found that as I got to the crest I might have lost 5 or 10 paces on other runners but I could hit the next flat or down-slope at a much faster pace and catch up to and pass several more people ahead of me.

Over 10 minutes later here I am in a battle for 167th position!

I found myself thinking about race tactics as the last lap went on.  If I put a bit of extra effort in I could get past a few people on a wider track just before turning onto narrower sections where I couldn't get overtaken. Knowing I was in the last mile I told myself the person in front of me was the next person to catch and pass, not just someone to pace myself against and I managed to pass a few more people on the twisty wooded descent round to the bottom of the course.  The last few hundred metres to the finish were a lung busting effort but I cheered on the few tail runners I passed who were on their first lap before dragging myself over the finish line.

Results

I finished in position 167 in a time of 47:36 and there were scoring male runners from other clubs who finished behind me, so I could say that my efforts counted for something in the league. Compared to last year, when I had also done the Winter Tanners 30miles a week before, I felt much better and stronger at the finish and came away with another course PB by 4 minutes. Two races and two PBs and it's still only January.  Maybe if I had started in mid-pack instead of at the back I could have avoided some snags and done even better. I should have a bit more confidence in myself next time.

As soon as I finished the race and logged my finish position with Claire, I got another race tactic spot on and joined the queue for sandwiches and cake straight away. Later on the queue was huge! 

Bracknell Forest put on another great cross country event.  Sandhurst's Graham Robinson finished in 1st place, 40secs ahead of the next runner (in my head I look just like Graham does when I'm running the cross country, but somehow I'm 14 minutes slower! He must have longer legs than me.) Keeping it in the family, so to speak, Jenny Robinson was first home for Sandhurst in 5th place.  Sandhurst came 2nd mens, 3rd ladies and 2nd for the team overall to maintain our 2nd place in the league behind Reading Road Runners.  Just below us there were some changes and Windle Valley managed to overtake Bracknell Forest Runners into 3rd place in the rankings with one more race to go.

Thanks to Jane Bradley for the taking the photos.

Ultra Trail du Leith Hill - Winter Tanners 30mile

Winter Tanners - 11 January 2015
It's the second time I have done this event - I won't call it a race as there are no prizes for coming first - and I was hoping to finish this time in better shape than last year.  Last time I had also done Portsmouth Marathon just before Christmas and had not done much else other than parkrunning in between.  This time I had managed a sub 4 time at Portsmouth, did all the parkruns I could and fitted in a couple of 9 mile recovery(!?) runs in between.  Last year at Portsmouth I felt awful at 24 miles, though that was OK as there were only 2 to the finish, but at the Tanners I felt awful at 10 miles with 20 to go! This time I think I am in much better shape in terms of overall fitness than this time last year.

However, following on from Portsmouth Marathon 2014 I have also had some injury issues with some minor ankle niggles, tight quads leading to ITB and knee aches and a hint at an Achilles problem - December was a high mileage month.  However, with a lot of attention to stretching, foam rolling and even a first go at Bikram Yoga, I managed a 9 mile run without problems.  The final decision on whether to run or not was left to Saturday afternoon after another assessment and massage session at Reform and Renew Osteopathy.  Abby and I gave my legs the green light to go. Actually that's not quite true - I gave myself the green light to go and Abby kind of laughed.

The Winter Tanners is run by the Long Distance Walkers Association (LDWA) Surrey group and is a Challenge event meaning you can walk or run and you are given detailed written instructions to follow between checkpoints, of which there are 3 on the 30 mile route.  The route changes each year so you can't learn it and the written instructions are only published 6 days before the event, so any overly competitive people have little chance of scouting the route or putting out markers. So, no course markings and very little out on the course.  At the checkpoints there are refreshments (biscuits, cake, squash and water, tea and coffee at Checkpoint Charlie).  There isn't even a mass start, so no bunch of people to just follow. People get going anywhere between 7:30am and 10am with the aim of finishing before dark, but even that is not critical - if you finish after 7pm you can phone your finish time in to the organisers.  The other amazing thing is it is really cheap - £4 (members), £20 (non-members), but membership is only £13, so you could do the Tanners and the Punchbowl marathon as well, which is another LDWA event for the price of one half marathon.

Preparation
Preparation for this event is a bit more important than a regular marathon.  You can be out on course for many hours (last year 8:30) wading through mud, up steep hills, rough ground and out in almost all weather - they only cancel the event if it looks like the marshals can't make it out to the Checkpoints because of snow.  So the kit list needs to be a bit more extensive than just skimpy shorts and a vest.  I had planned to take my generic camelback with 1.5l water, a few gels, malt loaf, chocolate and, as I'm trying out ultra running food, a scotch egg.   My kit also included my new Ronhill showerproof jacket, a base layer and t-shirt, tights and calf guards, toe socks and Salomon Fellraisers (grippy but not waterproof) with Dirty Girl lycra gaters.

You don't have to feel like you are on a road to nowhere
with preparation like this!

In the days before the event I downloaded the route instructions and marked the route on to a blown
up version of the OS 1:25000 mapping.  I like to have this as a backup to the notes to help visualise the route and in case I get lost.

Race Day
I had my kit all sorted, or so I thought.  I was due to get a lift to the start with friends Hannah and Paige and I got to Hannah's house by motorbike at 6:45, to unload and sort myself out. I then managed to set aside my phone and wallet and left them on Hannah's kitchen table and to top things off, I also realised that I had forgotten to put on my Garmin watch. Oh well, I was just going to have to run this one naked!

After parking and getting race kit on we walked down to the start hut to register, this year using chipped cards to scan in at the checkpoints instead of just race numbers.  Hannah and Paige were going to do the 20mile course walking and I thought I should start as soon as possible to give myself a chance of getting through the 30 miles close to their time.  Just outside the hut I bumped into Martin Bushell, former event director at Alice Holt parkrun and now also an ultra runner.  We decided to run together which turned out to be a great stroke of luck for both of us.

Weather leading up to the day was mixed, very windy and with heavy rain, but the day itself was calm and fine, cold but with little frost on the ground.  We set off following a combination of Martin reading out the route notes and me filling in details of the lie of the land and distances to the next feature off the map.  We matched pace jogging along on the downhills, flats and gentle rises and walking up anything steep or very muddy.  We quietly sorted out a pace that suited both of us; what I'd call trotting, as we were mostly on bridleways.

At Checkpoint 1, Chadhurst Farm and the first of the
well stocked aid stations

The route this year started off roughly due south and into the low winter sun past Fetcham Downs and on to part of the North Downs Way to the east of Ranmore Common and the Denbies Wine Estate where the Bacchus marathon is run, then crossing the Pilgrim's Way passing Westcott to the first checkpoint at Chadhurst Farm at about 8 miles.

 From here the next mile was low lying and like all the low lying areas on the route, was really muddy. an apparently pleasant grassy field was pock marked with hoof marks filled with icy water followed by trails of slurry mud or sticky chalky clay great for adding pound to your feet.

Leith Hill Tower

However, this first muddy section soon gave way to the first big climb of the day and the approach to Leith Hill.  Here the trails headed up on sandy paths through deciduous and pine forests occasionally breaking out into the open with views across the wooded valleys.  It's here you really have to appreciate why you are slogging up a great big hill, stop just focussing on putting one foot in front of the other and take a moment to enjoy the countryside around you. Allow yourself a few seconds to take all this in, give yourself a little mental boost, another little reason to tell yourself "It's worth it" and carry on.

The woodland trail finally took a right turn and kicked up for the last push up to the top of Leith Hill, at 294m above sea level is the second highest point in south-east England.

From Leith Hill.  The stats may not be that spectacular, but the views were amazing. 

The route then headed west from Leith Hill dropping over 200m on to more low lying muddy trails before heading north just beyond the half way point and the on to the long, long climb up to Pitch Hill (257m) and the Hurt Wood.  The route gets within 500m of checkpoint 2 and then takes a cruel turn to climb and incredibly steep path, surely made by mountain goats with a sick sense of humour.  with lungs and legs crying in pain we came out to another spectacular view on Pitch Hill at the LDWA Founders' Memorial Toposcope

View east from the top of Pitch Hill

Checkpoint 2 at the Friends of Hurt Wood car park,
manned by keen ultra runners 

From the top it was a short few hundred metres to Checkpoint 2 at 17 miles which seemed to be manned not by LDWA members but ultra runners, as they spotted my Dirty Girl gaiters from a distance and had me and Martin down as fellow ultra runners in need of handfuls of fig rolls and jaffa cakes.

From the car park, another short climb had us at the top of a long gentle trot down through Hurt Wood and north to Peaslake and then up to Abinger Hammer just beyond 21miles.

On the walk up out of the village I went through a mental checklist of how my feet and joints were doing.  Feet were damp, but not sore, ankles OK, right Achilles OK also, left knee was a worry at the start and had been sore on some of the descents, but now was feeling good too.  Possibly this was due to my hips and pelvis being very sore and taking my mind off all the other aches.  Hip flexors and lower abs seem to be the bane of my life on long runs and today was no exception.  All other pains paled beside this constant ache that I had been suffering from about 15 miles.  However, the constant pain didn't change, didn't get worse and it was therefore easy to just tell myself this was something I could manage and just get on with it.  A steady "ultra jog" at about 10 to 11 minute miles was still possible with walking up hills.

We had a nice long jog along good gravel covered trails for a couple of miles and I felt like we made good progress on this section, before we headed north to re-cross the railway and get back up to the North Downs Way on a steeply climbing wooded path.  We were now within a mile of Checkpoint 3 and as we climbed up the valley side I could see the winding concrete track that was the approach to CP3 last year.  I thought of how bad I was feeling at this point last year compared to now, how much of the hill we had already climbed and how much I was looking forward to a hot cup of coffee at the checkpoint, and I was soon feeling good enough to jog along to the bottom of Steer's Field and the last little climb to the checkpoint.

Checkpoint 3: Restoring ultra runners to human form for 37 years!  

Checkpoint 3 can be an emotional place with people so buoyed up by the restorative powers of hot tea and coffee, biscuits and fruit that it soon lifts their spirits.  The marshals are rightly praised for standing out in the cold for us all day and the mood among the runners and walkers is very positive with the realisation that the last of the big hills is behind us and there are less than 5 miles to the finish.

Tanner's hatch - it's where your Ultra journey really starts

Here I managed to get a call in to Hannah and Paige, who were about a mile away from CP3, before we set off to turn down into Ranmore Common and the jog down to Tanner's Hatch.

This is a significant point on the route as it is both the place where the founder members of the LDWA first met to set up the association and the point where a mere marathon runner turns into an ultra runner.

Beyond Tanner's Hatch another mile and a half of narrow trail and muddy field brought us back on to the gravel track we came out on and the last mile back to the finish, this time done at a steady if aching trot in glorious daylight, rather than last year's agonised limping walk in the dark.

Back at the hut by Leatherhead leisure centre, we checked in and awaited out finish certificates. Checking Martin's GPS watch, he told me that he had forgotten to start it until we were half a mile into the run.  We had finished in a time of just over 7 hours 20 minutes.

Martin checking out the quality of my mapping at CP1.
The field behind him was where the mud really started.

This was almost confirmed by the time keepers who rather generously took an additional hour off my time - they were trying to do a lot of mental arithmetic under pressure!  Still, I'll guess at an official time of 7:25 which I am very pleased with as it takes 65 minutes off the time I did last year.  I think it was just as muddy and there were even more hills this time.

Hannah and Paige came in about 1:30 behind me, just over 8:30 for walking the 20 mile route including stopping for lunch.

Thanks to Martin Bushell for the company along the way and to the LDWA organisers and marshals for making this such a great event.