![\"\"](\"http:\/\/isleofwightroadrunners.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/3D41FB46-FDD5-4FD6-BAF5-FC811E051BE4.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nStarting at Queen Elizabeth Country Park, this out and back follows the South Downs Way. The runners had to follow the existing public signs for the ancient trail, easy to do in daylight, but tricky in darkness.<\/p>\n
The 9pm start gave the troublesome triplets half an hour of daylight 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 tenacious trio on to the the chalky climbs on the South Downs Way, nearly 4000ft of ascent before them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe conditions were perfect\u201d Michael tells me \u201cIt really set us up for a good run\u201d<\/p>\n They all started off well, making the most of the flatter section before beginning the ascent on to the ancient ridges.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI took a gamble and pushed on from the start\u201d said Dan\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n He found himself up in 3rd place where he stayed for the majority of the race.<\/p>\n Heading toward Buriton, Ditcham and South Harting, they reached the halfway turning point at Cocking for the return on this out and back. It was here that Michael took a tumble. But he dusted himself off and continued on his way.<\/p>\n He wasn\u2019t the only one to lose his footing as Dan also managed to fall at around the 18 mile mark tweaking his hip. But that turned out to be the last of his worries as an attack of runners belly struck\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI came over all hot and queezy\u201d Dan tells me \u201cI couldn\u2019t regain my pace after that\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n He finished a cracking 9th overall in 3.54.51, giving him 3rd V40. Michael was next across the finish line in 4.11.26 and 21st place and 3rd V50<\/p>\n \u201cI ran without my watch\u201d said Mick \u201cI wanted to run to feel which made for a really pleasant night. The company of my 2 fellow marathon goons made for a brilliant vibe\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Not far behind him was Ian in 4.18.59 and 33rd overall.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI still had Snowdon in my legs which slowed me down near the end, but I didn\u2019t get lost this time so I\u2019m happy\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The triumphant three did so well they managed to bag the second place team position.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Unfinished business was the order of the day as Ian Russell returned to the Queen Elizabeth Park in Petersfield for the Midnight Marathon. Who could forget last year\u2019s memorable outing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/isleofwightroadrunners.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4275"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/isleofwightroadrunners.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/isleofwightroadrunners.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isleofwightroadrunners.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isleofwightroadrunners.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4275"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/isleofwightroadrunners.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4282,"href":"https:\/\/isleofwightroadrunners.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4275\/revisions\/4282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/isleofwightroadrunners.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isleofwightroadrunners.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isleofwightroadrunners.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"