Organised by Salisbury's Fire Services, this manages to feel like a not-too-massive race due to
spreading runners over 5 distances with staggered start times – and adding in
walkers too. 50K, 40K, 30K, 21K, 10K.
“Perfect weather for outdoor activities” according to an app
on Louise’s phone – seemed a bit out of kilter when we were driving through rain
to Salisbury this morning. It had kind
of stopped by the time we arrived, horribly early. So early that we waved off all the distances
before ours – and still managed not to spot Tanya & Jackie who were doing the
marathon distance.
Killed time sitting on a log & trying not to look at
people using bushes instead of a loo. Weird
though as the queues for the loos were remarkably short – probably down to the
staggered start. And the sun came out –
a lovely morning that was indeed perfect for running.
Vicki saw us off as her 10K had a slightly later start
time. So did Clare L - somehow we managed to miss her! Vicki & Clare must have "loved" the first bit as
much as we did – a steep climb up to Old Sarum castle on a narrow path. After that point, the 10K route went north where
as our’s skirted the west of Salisbury with some interesting road
junctions. My knee was painful at Old
Sarum – relieved that it recovered as soon as I was off the very cambered path. Couldn’t see Lou & Marian though as I was
already way behind – and felt a bit down about this.
Cheered up when I realised I wasn’t alone at my sedentary
pace. South west from Salisbury, the
route took us into some gorgeous countryside at Clarendon Park. Killer climb up to the top of a ridge, then
down to Alderbury. Woodland, fields,
villages – and a mix of tarmac, gravel tracks and mud paths – varied views,
very multi terrain. Many of the tracks
were not rights of way and we got to see bits of the Salisbury area we wouldn’t
otherwise have seen –Longford Castle for example.
Checkpoints every couple of miles, well stocked with water
& in some cases, jelly babies & fruit.
Only criticism is that the marshals weren’t always sharing knowledge on
the route – which would have been useful as getting past loads of Cathedral visitors
& shoppers in the city centre was very confusing – and made it difficult to
spot the signs.
The final 500 metres were tough mentally. My Garmin reckoned I’d done my 21K yet I wasn’t
at the finish. The path was along the
river – lots of tourists to navigate around.
Worst was not getting a sense of where the end was! Came up from the river and it was finally in
sight – as were Louise & Marian, encouraging me to adopt a glamorous sprint
for the last few metres!
We survived! Not
fast, but we did it. Marian has some
nasty blisters & I think I’ll be shopping for a new sports bra – but we
were good. Very grateful to Louise who
happened to have enough cash on her to treat us to ice creams before heading
for home.
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