The beautiful South Downs Way.
26.2 miles of gorgeous undulating countryside and the setting for Second Wind Running’s midnight marathon. To quote the website…
“A great way to run at night with others on a course that is simple to follow”
Did you all read that correctly… “simple to follow”
Enter into the equation, the carnage squad of Michael Coultrup, Dan Williams, Bill Goozee, Ian Russell and the late addition of marathon novice Harry Rann.
And all idea of simple went out of the window.
This “lads night out” as it was described on Facebook began on Saturday evening as the group embarked upon their journey to Petersfield.
Starting at Queen Elizabeth Country Park at 9pm, our crazy night owls had half an hour of sunlight before it dipped below the horizon and the real test started.
After the first few initial miles around the country park the course then led our fab 5 up on the the chalky climbs on the South Downs Way, nearly 4000ft of ascent before them.
Up on the ancient ridges they headed toward Buriton, Ditcham, South Harting before they turned at Cocking -the halfway point, for the return on this out and back.
Apart from those first couple of miles in the country park, there was no race signage for the rest of the course and the runners had to follow the normal, public signs for the South Downs Way. Probably easier said than done in the dark as a few of our boys got lost!
“You really had to be on the look out for the signs” said Ian “they were only marked with little reflectors. We were warned at the start it was hard to see. In hindsight I should have downloaded the map, I couldn’t find it when I needed it as there was no phone signal for over an hour”
And boy did poor Ian need it. He ran with Harry to begin with, keeping the youngster company on his first outing over the distance. But Ian turned his ankle badly at around the 6 mile mark and reduced his pace afterwards as it was sore. Harry went on ahead and Ian was fine on his own until he somehow went off course at around 23 miles.
“I’d run about 5 miles off course before it became apparent that I must have taken a wrong turn, (I would have found the finish line otherwise!), so me and another runner turned back to try to find our way. We had no google maps as we had no phone signal, so we ran another 5 miles before we realised we were actually, completely lost. We tried to knock on few doors for help, but no-one was answering. It was the middle of the night I guess! The other runner I was with finally managed to make a phone call and got us a lift back onto the course. We had run 33 miles by then and were exhausted. We found our way back onto the right route and ran in over the line! After all we had run a marathon! Just not the right marathon haha!”
Bill interestingly took the same wrong turn, but realised his mistake sooner and turned back and found his way to the finish line in a fantastic 3.47.52 and 6th overall.
Dan completed his race, drama free to finish in 12th position and 4.08.03
“I broke a rib 3 weeks ago! I felt it, but I am glad I ran. What a great lad’s night out!”
Harry, finally popped his marathon cherry, to come across the line in 4.11.45. Unbelievably he’d done no training whatsoever as he took someone else’s spot only that morning.
“It was great, I really enjoyed it. I ran the first bit with Ian, then picked the pace up. I started to struggle from mile 21 onwards, but it was great. I loved it”
Michael Coultrup was next home in 4.14.56. A good performance from the hill king considering his recent knee injuries
“I thoroughly enjoyed this run despite concern about my knees. It’s not my fastest time, but a result after the worry”
They all enjoyed a drink or two and a complementary bowl of chilli as they waited for poor Ian to return.
Finally he arrived back where he had started in 6.51.54. Relieved to be back with the boys only to be ribbed unmercifully about his “detour”
