Everything about the MdS is getting very real now, of course its always been real but I now have my flight details and am starting to panic about gaiters, sleeping bag, food... Strangely the one thing I'm not panicking about is my fitness. Those of you that read this blog regularly really should get out more. You will also know my training runs rarely go to plan. However it doesn't matter because I accumulate the miles, usually more than I intended, and the results are really showing. I'm not fast, but that was never the plan, I can run for hours at a time, day after day and keep going, which is really what the MdS is all about, for me at least.
So why was my usual nervous self sat on a train to Farnham for the Pilgrims' Challenge? Well in my defence I wasn't as nervous as I was before the Druids' Challenge. I am now an ultra runner, I and I felt had every right to be on the start line for the Pilgrims' Challenge. I simply have a healthy respect for the unknown, and in the case of the Pilgrims' Challenge plenty of respect for the known. What I knew was that it hadn't stopped raining in any meaningful way since my last blog about two weeks ago, so mud was a certainty, and that the route profile would surely mean ropes and a harness would be compulsory kit. XNRG helpfully confirmed the mud and warned that a waterproof and warm extra layer may be required equipment. There was no mention in the email of climbing gear but then there was no mention of a snorkel and wetsuit either...
As it didn't appear feasible to get to Farnham early enough for a 9 'o' clock start I booked myself into a very nice and reasonably priced bed and breakfast. Should you wish to stay in Farnham at any time I can thoroughly recommend 1 Park Row if you are looking for a freindly value for money place to stay, just don't stay there on the Friday before the 2015 Pilgrims' Challenge in case I decide to run again next year. I'm sure Farnham is a lovely place but pouring rain and the Friday rush hour meant I didn't see it at its best, nor did I linger to appreciate its charms.
Many people like the thought of meeting new people at their accommodation, I'm afraid I'm just normally hoping they won't be noisy. However shortly after checking in and going to my room I heard some other guests arrive. The words 'run tomorrow' in the hall outside my room caused me to nosily stick my head out of the door where I was told 'I recognise you from Druids!'. Alison, Wendy and Steve had all run the Druids' Challenge and after a bit of thought I remembered seeing them too. This was good in a number of ways, first they kindly invited me to eat with them so I wouldn't be Billy No-mates in the local Italian Restaurant. Secondly they offered me a lift to the start so no hike back to the station for me and of course thirdly they would be going to bed early.
Saturday morning dawned and the big shock was... it had stopped raining! We set off to the start of the race and collected our numbers. I met up with a couple of my tent mates, Max and Tom, and we went outside to listen to the pre-race briefing and welcome from Neil. A dry day was forecast and so the only compulsory kit was the usual mobile phone, switched on, not on silent. We were also told that we were on no account to cross the A24 but to use the underpass. Anyone caught crossing the dual carriageway would be disqualified. We were also warned about fallen trees and mud, there was a lot of mud we were told.
Right from the start the rain had caused problems for the organisers. The first mile or so of the route was flooded so we had to detour along the road and pick up the North Downs Way further on. At least at this point I was going the right way and, once we had left the start, there was no mud. Mud arrived first, closely followed by the days first magical mystery tour just over 5 miles into the run. In my defence about 20 of us went the wrong way, including someone who had run the event 5 times before. One of the fallen trees caused us to miss a fork in the path and lead us to a point alongside the A3 instead of the underpass we were expecting.
When we got to Guildford I found the bridge over the River Wey didn't exactly reach right over it any more and so had a little paddle to complete the crossing. I managed to run in the right direction for almost 15 miles before getting it wrong again, fortunately it was only a short detour and I quickly righted myself.
Did I mention the mud? I think I did, so I suppose should mention my attempt at giving myself an impromptu full body mud pack. Not only were there a lot of fallen trees, there were, not surprisingly, a lot of fallen branches too. Some of these branches were submerged in thick mud. If you step on one end the other end pops up and catches your foot...
After that everything went swimmingly until the A24, where the only way to get through the underpass was to go swimmingly... The river Mole had burst its banks, flooded the underpass and cut off access to the North Downs Way. As usual XNRG had everything under control, marshals were at the dual carriageway to help us cross safely and then to point us to the detour. The next part of the route was the infamous Box Hill, which was used as part of the 2012 Olympic road cycle race course. If anything the detour was steeper and higher than the North Downs Way so no one felt in any way cheated.
I rejoined the North Downs Way on the other side of Box Hill and ran fairly directly to the days final checkpoint. By now I had run 31 miles and was flagging a bit which lead to my final navigational error. I used the time spent retracing my steps wisely and ate a couple of bars to rebuild my energy levels and finally found the golf course that lead into Merstham.
I had no idea where I was going in Merstham but was just following the signs. I realised that despite all the incidences of geographical challenge a time of under 7 hours might be possible. I used my final burst of energy to run faster and faster until I was virtually sprinting up the school driveway to finish in 6 hours, 59 minutes and 22 seconds - oh yes!
And so I completed Day One, wet footed, mud coated but very satisfied to have still made a reasonable pace and in a reasonable condition for day Two. The evening of Day One and a complete description of the events of Day Two (those that I can remember, I'm fairly sure there will be mud - and more water) will form my next blog entry...
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