Shillington Shuffle

This oddly named marathon was another low-key event organised by the Long Distance Walker’s Association.  Distances on offer were 12, 17 and 26.5 miles.  As is the way with these events, there was no mass start.  We could start anytime between 8am and 9.45am.  It wasn’t in the interest of faster runners to set off too early as it would have been quite possible to reach the first checkpoint before it opened.  With this in mind I went out to the pub the night before with a few friends and allowed myself to indulge in the sinful act of drinking two pints of beer.  What a relaxed approach I have to marathons these days.

Sunday morning came round and I was up at 7am and out of the house 45 minutes later.  The drive to the starting village of Barton-le-Clay took about an hour.  The car park was a short walk from the official starting point at the village hall.  After stripping down to my running gear, making my way to the start and checking in, it was 9:05 when I eventually got going.  I had no idea of how many people were before me, but over the first few miles there were plenty of walkers and runners for me to chase down and follow.  Despite this, I still managed to miss two turns early on going a short way off course.  This was my fault for not paying close attention to the race instructions, which we had to run with.

After less than 2 miles we had our first gruelling climb to contend with.  Just south of Barton-le-Clay is a ridge of hills that suddenly jump up out of the ground and seem almost man-made in the context of the surrounding gently undulating landscape.  Our route would take us up a steep gulley to the top of the ridgeline.  I ran past a few walkers on the lower slopes of the hill, but soon gave up on my exertions and walked along with everyone else.  From the top of the hill we had fantastic views of the surrounding countryside in the early morning mist.

First steep climb of the day

Most of the run then continued on footpaths, bridleways and farm tracks.  There were several sections were the organisers had secured landowner permission for us to run along the edges of ploughed fields.  However, as there is no official right of way, the running on these sections was tough and on some occasions almost impossible, you had to tiptoe your way through clods of ploughed earth.  It also seemed to me that if there was the opportunity to run up a steep hill then the race director didn’t want us to miss it.  For example, we ran up and over a hill with a trig point, which I mention as an illustration of how high it must have been.  I can now see on the map that there is an alternative path that goes around the hill that wouldn’t have made the route any longer or shorter overall.

Just after the second checkpoint of the day in Pirton, the route passed through the village church ground and past the very pretty little church.  I reached this point as a memorial service was taking place and just at the point that the congregation were having a minute’s silence.  I respectfully stopped to a walk and continued through the church ground in complete silence.

Pirton Church

Just over half-way through the run I was brought to a complete standstill and left scratching my head as the directions seemed unfeasible.  I reached a way marker post where the instructions told me to turn right and head towards a farm building.  The only problem was that turning right meant running through a field of cabbages with no sign whatsoever of a footpath.  There were very clear paths going ahead and left.  Where the instructions wrong?  I could see another runner approaching so I decided to wait until he reached me so we could decide on a course of action.  To my good fortune the runner behind me was the race organiser. What were the chances of that?  He confirmed that the instructions were correct and that there was a right of way through the cabbages.  He also told me that he had recently met with the farmer who had assured him the footpath would be reinstated before the event went ahead.  Naughty farmer didn’t keep his word.  The two of us ran through the cabbages, trampling on several and getting very wet feet in the process.  I only hoped that we were making enough damage so that other runners would be able to follow our footsteps.

By the time I reached the final checkpoint in Shillington itself I was feeling completely knackered.  I was very slow over the previous section as on many occasions I had to stop to read the directions and then check them again to make sense of them before proceeding.  I think that I was getting so tired that simple instructions weren’t making sense.  Fortunately for me, just after the final checkpoint, and whilst I was scratching my head once again, another runner caught up with me.  It turned out to be someone I’d run with on my third marathon of the year.  The two of us then continued together to the finish, chatting all the way.  He was able to make much better sense of the instructions than I was, so I left him to it and just followed. 

When we reached the finish we were informed that only one other person had completed the full marathon course ahead of us.  My partner had actually started 4 minutes ahead of me, so at this stage I was actually second.  However, it’s quite possible that there were runners who started later than me and completed the course in a quicker time.  Time keeping on the course wasn’t exactly accurate so I can’t really claim a second place finish with confidence, and there won’t be any published results at all.  The best I can say is that it’s another marathon completed this year and I now only have two to go.