In theory we were going sailing this weekend but a close study of the grib weather files was not encouraging. As I was still in a positioon to shunt my holiday by a week I decided it would be a good idea to let the deep depression pass and hope (naively maybe) for better weather the following week. That meant there was a weekend free. Something had to be done to fill it up. I thought a little run would be fun and a quick browse on Runners World website came up with –
THE DADDY BEAST!
£36 later Grit and I had signed up for a 14 mile trail race which needs little explanation. The Daddy Beast is the big nasty race which takes place as part of a series of races from The Scout Centre in Cranham. We, stupidly, did not realise that we could camp there and ended up camping about 15 miles away (in Folly Farm).
Next time we will definately camp at the Scout Centre which looked about perfect.
We arrived at 8.30 to book in because I had messed up the online booking as I normally do. The club racers were there with their matching singlets and logos. They looked pretty hardcore. I suppose there were only about thirty entrants so there wasn’t anywhere to hide. At the race breifing we were asked if we had any comments and a big clap of thunder roared above. We started, and the rain started too. What an amazing trail it was. Situated on the edge of the hilly Cotswolds we were running down muddy washed away paths, through corn fields, across meadows, in dark woods and just about every terrain you could imagine. There were steep and long 100m climbs and wonderful views. The trail was well marked, although it was still possible to run past a turning if you lost attention. Grit and I ran together at the back of the fleet but certainly not completely last. After three hours and about 16 minutes we finished to a lovely welcome with medals, goody bag and an ice cream. Highly enjoyable and I would love to do it again next year. Our time was pretty slow but it was longer than a half marathon, rumoured to be 14 miles looking down but a lot longer with the hills. A pretty tough race. I was happy with the result. No injuries.
The results have been released and we didn’t do too bad!
http://iamoutdoors.co.uk/events/cranhambeast/cranham-beast-2012-results/
Leave a Reply