Running around in the dark, with nothing but a map to guide you? Sound appealing?
Well it was just that for 8 Roadrunners on Saturday night.
Starting at Cheverton Farm, this fundraiser for The Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust was well supported. With a good choice of distances on offer there was something for everyone, (well unless you’re scared of the dark!) and a party afterwards…. what’s not to like about this event?
From the 5k, 10k, 20k and 35k on offer , Isle of Wight Road Runners had entries in the 10k (Laura Holme and Nick Stilwell), in the 20k (Sarah and Ivan Ward & Nick Carter) and in the 35k (Paul Cameron and Charlotte & Ian Williams)
Setting off at dusk, this non timed event relies on the runners self navigating to a number of designated checkpoints along the way, (what can possibly go wrong right?)
The courses cover chalky trails, farm tracks, bridleways and grassland. The routes between them take in parts of the Tennyson Trail, Limerstone, Mottistone and Brook Downs, Yarmouth Cycle path, Thorley, Wellow, Shalcombe and Brighstone Forest. The 35k in particular covering some 462m (that’s 1515 feet in old money) of elevation along the way, so they are by no means a walk in the park.
As the clock tick ticked it’s way to 7.30pm the 3 Roadrunners (in fact the only 3 runners full stop) set off for the 35k.
“It was beautiful running over to Freshwater with the sunset” Charlotte Williams tells me.
An hour later the rest of the Runners donned their head torches and set of on the 10 and 20k runs.
“That hill at Brighstone was as horrible as I remember” said Nick Stillwell afterwards. He should know that by now he’s competed in this event 3 years on the bounce.
Sarah and Ivan had an interesting night out in the darkness.
“We got lost!” They exclaim “maybe we should have paid more attention to the map, but the Marshalls sent us in the wrong direction!”
They ended up finding the finish too soon after their misdirection and only ran 11k out of the 20
“It was a laugh, and it’s still 11k more than we would’ve run on Saturday night as we only decided to rock up last minute” Sarah tells me
In the 35k Paul Cameron was smashing it. Despite having to walk one of the nastier hills toward the end of the route, he still managed to beat some of the 50k cyclists home!
Charlotte and Ian ran the entire course together, with Ian stealing all of Charlottes water
“I’m buying him his own rucksack next time” she laughs “It was really nice having all the bikes racing past us in the last 5 miles or so”
Sounds like a good time was had by all.
