Mount Edgecumbe 10 Miles – 27/01/2013
Plymouth Musketeers aquitted themselves well in this year’s Mount Edgecumbe ten-mile race in SE Cornwall.
Running for their queen, county and club were Guy B who finished in 1.19 (4th veteran male) 12th overall. Lucy S – 1h 51, 15th senior female and 66th overall, Sarah H – 1h 51 8th vet female and 67th overall, Pip D – 2h 51, 13th vet female and 81st overall, Kath WG – 2h 51, 22nd senior female and 80th overall.
This was a gritty show by the Musketeers on a tough multi-terrain course and shows we are more than road-running club and are not afraid to get our shoes dirty.
Those Musketeers who ran the first of these Devon V Cornwall ten-mile races knew what they were letting themselves in for. This was the second year of the two-race series of the inter-country duel. And this year the extra rain made the going even tougher. But you know who gets going when the going gets tough…
In true Muskie tradition Sarah and Lucy supported each other round and Kathy and Pip the same.
This is a mainly trail race which are normally fairly easy to run on, but the added rain created slippery and quite treacherous conditions, especially when the paths dissolved into true rural tracks.
The weather was perfect and the route challenging, but rewarding, taking you headlong down the steep grassy slope from Edgecumbe House (a prize awarded for the first to the bottom) and along the coast (with fantastic views across the Sound and beyond) to Cawsand, via
Maker Church heights and down again through the deer park of Edgecumbe and returning up the steep bank to Edgecumbe House.
Along the way are well trodden muddy steps, narrow paths, muddy field edges with sheer drops on one side and later in the race the relief of country roads and village streets and forest trail.
There is little time to gather breath except one straight road section, it is undulating with two long uphill sections.
If you run for Devon you wear a green race number and white if for Cornwall – Devon won this time round with the Muskies doing their bit for this victory.
With diminishing entry numbers it is hoped this fantastic event will continue as there are few multi-terrain races so close to Plymouth, from where the biggest entry originated.
The only negative aspect was the route signage which was ambiguous, not helped by too few marshals. And the prizes are nothing to boast about. But that is not why we put ourselves through these challenges.
By Guy Boswell