This is how I was introduced to the world of Hellrunner - a trilogy of full-on trail runs with steep hills, mud, scrambling and water features including the "bog of doom". Thanks Bob - I think!
On Saturday I dutifully lined up at the start of the inaugural Hell in the Middle to "enjoy" my present and help Bob celebrate his own 40th. It's the kind of thing I would have rather have pulled a tooth out than do when I was younger - I detested cross-country running at school - but in my advancing years was really looking forward to. Strange thing this aging malarkey!
The atmosphere at the start was great with the usual stalls together with a couple of bands including a samba band who were adding some beat to the occasion. With all the competitors lined up at the start our attention was drawn to the adjoining hill where the "devil" appeared to a cloud of green smoke and then we were off.
This race was promised to be the hardest and hilliest hellrunner yet and judging by some of the forum comments it didn't disappoint! It wasn't long until the steep hills appeared and they were relentless. This GPS upload goes some way to showing that there wasn't a lot of flat on the course. It was pretty much all either up or down and the downs were often too steep to run down properly.
It was a brilliantly designed course though with a lot of variety including beautiful forest sections with light shimmering through the trees and water vapour rising from the damp floor, sections through streams, mud "walls" where nothing but scrambling would do and of course the water features. The first of these was a short bog section deep enough to come well above my waist (I'm 6'2"), which also featured submerged logs to make your footing difficult. Everyone was pulling everyone else over as they struggled to stay upright. Later in the run, there was a section where you could hear the music and see the banners in the distance, which made you feel you were coming in to the finish only to round the corner and see a sign reading "Welcome to the Bog of Doom". The final sting in the tail came with the finishing chute in sight only to find a cruel quarry that the route zig-zagged up and down taking you through the bog each time. It was a relief to finally make the finish line with my legs telling me they'd had to work very hard for a time of 1hr 48mins for the 11-mile course. This was enough to place me 269th out of 1764 finishers (top 15%).
This has to go down as one of the hardest runs I've ever done but was so much more fun than a road race. Brutal, punishing but highly recommended!
Well done Blob. Looked great fun.
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Sounds like you enjoyed it...weirdo !! Well done Bert x
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