5th March 2023
The Steyning Stinger is now a well established annual institution and is my favourite race. It is a very hilly trail run with about 1,600 feet of ascent. For some reason, it is slightly longer than a half marathon at 13.68 miles and that extra .58 of a mile is hard work!
This year we stayed the night before in our camper van and were joined my nephew and his partner who have also bought a rather fine bright red camper van. I overdid the carb loading and eventually crawled into bed feeling like I had been pumped up like a balloon.
It is maybe a sign of the times that all of the races that I have competed in have been mud baths until the last two, which have been dry. This year the ground was rock hard and on some of the chalk stretches, which are littered with loose flint mini-boulders, there were a few tumbles – including Grit. Thanks to St John’s Ambulance for patching her up after the finish.
It is weird how accurately you can guess your finish time. I told everyone I thought that I would finish in 2 hr 25 min, which is exactly what I did, and for the first time, I came first in my age category!
entrants and one of them DNS!
My results over the years are as follows:
2011 2 hrs 00 minutes 29 seconds
2014 2 hrs 11 minutes 27 seconds
2016 2 hrs 11 minutes 02 seconds
2017 2 hrs 14 minutes 35 seconds
2019 2 hrs 29 minutes 12 seconds
2020 2 hrs 27 minutes 30 seconds
2022 2 hrs 25 minutes 07 seconds
2023 2 hrs 25 minutes 52 seconds
The team all did really well with some amazing finish times including Anthony with a time of 1 hr 53 min who came Category 4th, Alex who was Cat 6th, Pendebede who was Cat 10th and Grit who was Cat 4th.
Maybe we should form a team and see how we do?
A big hand to everyone involved in organising the the race including Steyning Athletic Club, the local school for their premises, St John Ambulance, and the people of Steyning and nearby for cheering us on and marshalling the course. I should also give a shout out to the excellent training from Military Outdoor Fitness who help to keep me in shape.
By the way, if there are any nutters out there, there is also a full marathon and 30 k option, but they are certainly not for me!
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