35th Surrey Hills Challenge

The Surrey Hills Challenge is a 30k (16k and 10k versions also available) self navigating race taking in 12 checkpoints through the surrey hills- high points (both literal and metaphorical) include Leith Hill, Holmbury Hill and Pitch Hill.

Its a cross between orienteering and a normal trail race.  There's a mass start but after that it's your choice what route you take between each of the check points.  When you get to each check point there's a little device you 'dib' your 'dibber' in to which records that you made it there and it what time.  Even better once you've finished and hand your dibber back you get instant results and splits.

The past few weeks have involved training in all kinds of cold and wet weather yet this weekend saw 26 degrees.  At 10:30 as we lined up at the start it was already really hot.  The start was frantic as everyone surged up the first hill and down different paths on the other side.  After checkpoint 2 I settled into a good rhythm up to checkpoint 3, 4 and then 5 to the top of Leith Hill in 43:21 .  Having reccied the route I wasn't too bothered about keeping people in my sights but being a touch competitive when I got caught by two runners at the bottom of Leith Hill I tried to stick with them and managed this as far as the steep ascent to Holmbury Hill where I was told I was in 13th place.  They dropped me but I managed to pass another runner in the process of keeping pace with them.

From there to Pitch Hill and the turn around to start the homeward section of loop I managed to keep up a reasonable effort with a few stops to check the map.  It was however getting really hot and over the next few checkpoints I could feel myself slowing down bit by bit. 

For the rest of the course, me and two other runners over took each other and were passed by each other continuously as we individually found some strength or a good route.  Just as I thought I'd never see them again I'd turn a corner and over take one of them and then just as when I thought I'd dropped one of them I'd drop to a walk on a steep hill and get passed again!

The final two checkpoints follow a similar route to the end of both the Leith Hill half and Greensands Marathon in that there's the final bastard of a climb up to the Nower.  It gets no easier over time- those bloody steps at the end of a race are never easy. That out of the way, the final few hundred metres to the finish involved, on the advice of someone I was chatting to before the race, cutting your way down a really steep section of woods.  It was a bit like a scree slope but with foliage rather than rocks.  I managed to just about stay upright; got to the final dibber and recorded my final time of 2:50:49 and a very pleasing 13th place.

Whilst the weather made it really hard work I had a really good time out on the course.  The trails around Leith Hill, as I have said on the Blog at length before, are excellent and the route choice aspect of the race made things even more interesting.  I felt like a put a solid effort all things told even if I was cursing the temperature.  Let's just hope for some cooler weather come June 23rd and Trail Marathon Wales...

Sutton 10k

It was a rare sunny day as several hundred runners gathered in Beddington park for the Sutton Runners 10k.  It's 3 laps on a road and tarmaced path and it's flat as a pancake so PB territory for sure. 

Despite recent improvements in my pacing I set off way too fast.  I hit the 5k mark in 19:00.  If the fact this is around my best time for 5k didn't tell me I'd set off to fast the stitch and general feeling of sickness really made the point!  However I realised if I could run 4 min kilometres for the rest of the race I'd get an acceptable time and knock 30 seconds off my best time for the distance.  So that's what I did, just settled in and took each kilometre marker as it came, and I just about did it. I crossed the line in 39:04.  I wouldn't say I enjoyed my self, but I kept going at got the time I was after- so in retrospect at least, I'm a happy runner.

Great organisation by Sutton runners, maybe not the worlds most exciting course but if you want fast and flat you can't go too wrong at the Sutton Runners 10k.

Nonsuch 5k and Surrey Hills reccie part 2

 
On Thursday I headed down to Nonsuch Park in Cheam for the 15th Dave Clarke 5k.  The course is two small laps and one longer out and back section.  Maybe not the most exciting course in the world but it's flat and certainly fast.  The only thing to slow you down were a couple of tight corners that were a bit grimy after the somewhat inclement weather we've been having.

The pace at the start was quite brisk with a good number of runners bunched up together through the first lap.  However come the second lap many were feeling the affects of the initial pace and dropped back.  For once I was not one of those who set off too fast and lived to regret it.  As I passed halfway and started the final out and back section I was tenth and that is how it remained until I crossed the line in a new personal best of 19 minutes flat.  I think the recent increased in training and long hill runs must be paying dividends across all my running as I knocked about 30 seconds off my 5k time.  This said some people with Garmins were muttering that the course was a bit short so maybe my increase in pace is not so real.  Either way it was a nice race for a Thursday evening and I was pleased to cross the line ahead of a few faces I recognised from the cross country season who were quicker than me at the beginning of the year.

Saturday saw a slightly longer, muddier and less flat outing.  I got the train down to Dorking again to reccie the Surrey Hills Trail Challenge course.  This time I set out to cover the full course plus an extra 3.5 miles to take from the station to the start and back.  Navigation this time went a lot better aided by last months trip to the course.  The route was certainly damp; there were bogs, paths that had turned into streams, flooded fields; the lot.  Made it round the course in around 3 hours 10 which I was happy with as there were a few navigational pauses and wrong turns which hopefully won't happen on race day.  I'm really looking forward to the race now, the running around Leith Hill is as excellent as the hills are relentless.