Written by Richard Stillion - https://richyla.wordpress.com
Marlborough Downs Challenge 33
Or less catchy – Marlborough Downs 32.58
Even less catchy – Marlborough Downs 33+ if you get lost
15 May 2016
First Male: Andy Davies 4.17.18
First Female: Naomi Moss 5.26.57
Race Director Phil Griffiths
I haven’t run any great distances since late 2014 due to a leg injury and awaiting a surgeon’s opinion. Last month, the surgeon suggested not operating so – green light…
…and the green light was Marlborough Downs Challenge. Very reasonably priced and pretty local – a 30 minute drive away in an area of outstanding natural beauty, it would be rude not to.
This would be a different race to the ones I’m used to in that it was predominantly un-marked – I haven’t stepped up to any navigational stuff yet, so this made me a bit nervous. “Bonus miles” make my humour disappear in races, so I didn’t fancy getting lost. The MDC webpage gives you a route description and a gpx link. I don’t do technology too well and it took my mate Tariq (running the concurrent 20 mile MDC) and my 12 year old son to get the gpx sorted onto my phone. I wish I’d bought a map instead!
Training-wise, the build-up hadn’t been good as I was waiting for the aforementioned surgeon’s opinion, so I’d only managed 15 mile running weeks on average. I rode a slow White Horse Challenge sportive about a month earlier and also ran a 45 mile week two weeks before the race before contracting man-flu, so I didn’t do any exercise on the week of the MDC. Suffice to say training could have been described as “unspectacular”.
Nonetheless, race day dawned a beautiful sunrise and as it wasn’t too far to the race, which started at a very reasonable 9am, I took the dog out, then grabbed my stuff and off I went. I got to Marlborough only for the SatNav to guide me up a road which didn’t look like the right place. Following close behind were a couple of other cars who also looked like they needed to turn round. I wound down my window and asked them if they were looking for the race parking and they said yes. We all drove back and just round the corner was the parking. Not a good omen for the race if I can’t even find the car park!
Anyway: to registration in the leisure centre. I picked up my number and a bit of Kendal Mint Cake (haven’t seen that for a while) and busied myself with the usual prepping of shoving Vaseline into crevices and the like. I then reached for my roll-on sun block, opened the lid and it was empty! I managed to scoop a smidgeon of the remnants and coated the tops of my ears, but that was about it. We then got the call for us to walk down to the start (back through the car park). I put my running vest on and realised my soft flask appeared to be leaking. Annoying but not a lot I could do about it now.
Start was bang on 9am and we filtered up a narrow path and climbed uphill fairly steeply. There wasn’t room to run so I just followed everyone else to the top where we had a good view over Marlborough, I took a photo here and sadly it was my last, the phone said it was out of memory (probably loading it with gpx) and I really didn’t want to waste time faffing around deleting stuff.
We then carried on for about a mile and a half without room to overtake, but that was fine, no need to get over-excited at the start. There was a guy who was limping a bit already and I asked if he was okay and he said his back had gone a bit and he would probably cut through to the 20 mile route. The first aid station came round quickly and I was glad to get some water on already.
We then entered the West Woods which was really the only comprehensively marked part of the course. It was just a pleasant plod through a deciduous wood with bluebells aplenty and chaffinches given it their all, a very pleasant couple of miles.
I had fallen into a chat with a runner (number 26) who I’d also talked to in the car park when I’d arrived – the pace was quite slow but the track was congested with runners and I wasn’t even thinking where we were going. We came to a nice downhill bit and we were all following like sheep when 26 shouted “No, up, up!” Thank goodness he knew the route. We shouted to as many people who could hear then turned right and out of the woods. We came out onto a stunning open ridge – the hill called Golden Ball on the map – with incredible views, the sun was warm and shining and there was a cool breeze, superb running conditions. We ran along here and #26 was talking to me about the local history which I do find interesting, so all in all things were going along nicely. We dropped downhill a bit to another check point and then up towards Milk Hill. It was up here that we came upon the Wansdyke, which I confess I’d never heard of. I wonder how effective these earthworks really were, or was it just to keep the rabble busy – devil makes work for idle hands and all that. There are a number of these kind of things such as Offa’s Dyke and they must take a huge amount of work to build – this one on an extremely exposed ridge which I’m assuming doesn’t always enjoy the weather we were getting. Incredibly impressive bit of work from ages past. Anyway it was very pleasant on the ridge with flowers I sadly didn’t recognise and skylarks replacing the song of the chaffinches.
It was near here that we sidled past Tan Hill (they have a Tan Hill in Yorkshire – it has the highest pub in England apparently) and this was the split for the 20 milers – their race started an hour and a half after ours. We dropped altitude and continued along the ridge of the Wansdyke, which reminded me of Grim’s Ditch on the Ridgeway. I lost #26 along here somewhere and continued down a gravely farm track and then across into a field. I was being a sheep again and following someone I didn’t know, who I’m assuming was also following someone because we went across a ditch bridge and we couldn’t see anyone! Thankfully not far behind us was a guy who knew the route who pointed across the field towards the Kennet and Avon Canal. We reached a bridge which could swing sideways to let the barges/narrowboats through and there was a guy on a mountain bike (I think he was a roaming marshal for the race) who said we were lucky as the bridge had been open for the last ten minutes and had only just closed. So across we went and onwards towards Devizes. It was two or three miles along the canal and I found it quite tedious, but I forced myself to put a bit of effort in as I knew there would be some tough sections ahead so I may as well make the most of the flat. Besides, it would make the tedium go quicker! I had to count for the sixth bridge as there was another aid station here, but it was obvious when I got there and I left the canal behind after topping up with water and eating a biscuit or two.
That pretty much marked the turning point of the race, or certainly the most westerly point. I was now heading north-ish (navigational term), along a dusty track and up towards a hill above a town called Roundway which had the Devizes White Horse on it. Nice time for a walk and up I went. I turned around at the top to admire the view for a while to catch my breath. Plodding onwards I went through a wood called the Leipzig Plantation. When I got out of the wood I wasn’t sure which way to go. I’d been lucky so far meeting people who knew the route, but now I thought I would need to use my gpx for the first time. Enter (or exit) the man from the trees! Another guy who knew the route, so I ran with him for a while. We were talking about the route and how scenic it was and I mentioned that I’d found the canal bit tedious and thought how hard it must be to do the 145 mile Grand Union Canal Race, to which he replied he’d done it a few times! I managed to stay with him for a while as we climbed Morgan’s Hill and Calne came into view. From the top we could see another hill which we also had to climb. It was one thing seeing it but another thing finding the way. Thankfully this guy knew the route which most certainly wasn’t obvious, we came out onto a field and finally reached another aid station so I stopped here and the GUCR guy carried on.
Onwards and upwards above Cherhill to the Oldbury Hill Fort and Cherhill White Horse. I had passed this hill on my White Horse Challenge sportive and I hadn’t realised then that I’d be clambering up only a month later. Again, I had the great good fortune of meeting yet another person who knew this part of the course. I (un)imaginatively called her Bumble Bee Lady in my head as she had a yellow top and black shorts on and she very helpfully showed me the way running in parallel to the A4. The mysterious mountain biker was on this part of the route (the same guy?) and he gave words of encouragement although I was beginning to get tired now. We came across some marshals at the A4 crossing and he asked me if I was okay. I replied “no” and he said for me to go easy. The heat of the day was taking a bit of a toll and the breeze I’d felt on the ridge had disappeared as I ran along a path next to the A4. Bumble Bee Lady turned off the A4 path and down a track and I got a glimpse of some Sarsen stone which was uplifting as I knew I was getting close to Avebury and essentially the last leg of the route. What followed was a rutted track for a half mile or so which eventually led to a farmyard and the penultimate check point.
There was even tea to be had – I drank one that had been sitting there a while, it was nice just to drink something different. I then headed into Avebury, which in truth was bigger than I thought! I went passed a guy here who must have been doing the 20 miler and then I saw the village hall where I finished the Ridgeway Challenge in 2014 in absolute agony. I plodded up the road where a marshal with a foldaway chair went by me and wished me luck (I think it was the RD) and then a couple of marshals by the road asked if I knew where I was going and for once I did! I followed the long path out of Avebury admiring the stones, towards the Ridgeway and then a local van drove by quite quickly and blew up the chalky dust as it went by – not really what I needed. It seemed a very long mile or so climbing a not very steep hill. I thought, once at the top I would start to run again. Having got to the top and through the gate, I thought, I’ll just reach that bit and start running again. It just wasn’t happening. A guy caught me up and I tried to run with him a bit. He was from Hampshire and remarked on what a scenic area it was. We caught up with some more 20 milers and reached the final check point. Only 3 miles to go, but I found it quite hard to muster up the energy to move! I ran along a wide gravel road next to some gallops and I tried to keep up with Hampshire guy, but couldn’t so I settled for run-walk stuff – it was flat or downhill from now on but that was really a moot point at this stage!
There were two people at a part of the road ahead and they pointed me in the right direction away from the gravel road. I ran along another rough track and eventually I turned off onto a grassed track and I could see Marlborough in a dip. I was about to follow the track round as it veered to the right only to glance left to see a runner in a field! I ran that way, down, then up and was wondering where the finish could be. I saw a few children run out to greet a runner so I assumed it couldn’t be far. I went down a short bit of bank onto a path and asked a guy where the finish was. He pointed the other way and there were the flags “Sprint finish mate!” he said. Ah, why not?! Well, it was a sprint in my mind.
I picked up a locally made pottery mug as my finish souvenir and got a cup of tea and some pasta. I managed to see and thank Bumble Bee Lady, GUCR and Hampshire guys for their company. Number 26 – I didn’t thank you, but I thank you now as well!
My conclusion: I’m really happy to have completed my first race in a year and a half and what a stunning race, it helped with the weather – I did manage to burn part of my arms due to not having the sun block and at times it got a little bit too hot, but the views were beautiful. I was incredibly lucky not to get lost and meet people who knew the route at crucial points. If you do this race, make the effort to take a map or gpx for back up, there are open parts of the course where you can see people on the route, but at other times, people seem to disappear before your eyes. The route had it all, woods, canals, hills views and a fair bit of history as well.
I’d like to thank Tariq and Roan for sorting my gpx, all the marshals and their children for being at the checkpoints, the registration guys and food guys and anyone else who gave up their time to make this race work so smoothly and, finally, Phil Griffiths for putting on a gem of a race.
Sadly, my phone only had the memory capacity for two photos, so you’ll have to come and do this race yourself to see why this is an area of outstanding natural beauty!
I dedicate my race to Euan for his words of inspiration.