An elite team of Musketeers – Sarah, Neil, Caroline, Dave with Mollie the dog, and Guy – tackled the Lanhydrock Half Marathon.
This is a mostly off-road trail run with plenty of hills to entertain those who like that sort of thing – don’t all shout at once!
In perfect running weather we all survived this tough race. Not al of us were actually racing, rather using it to train for the 20-mile Grizzly and London or Taunton marathons.
I think I speak for most of us in saying it is an enjoyable race due to the great scenery which includes muddy valleys, woodland and about 2 miles of road.
It is sometimes hard to concentrate on the running when you are alone in beautiful countryside with no runners nearby to focus on.
Dave experienced that with Mollie the dog taking refreshment breaks at puddles and streams whenever she felt the need on a relatively warm day.
Neil had no such excuse. He did very well to come under two hours while still suffering from a severe chest infection.
Caroline has recently survived bronchitis and made a great comeback. She did fantastically considering this was a hard race to restart her racing season.
Iron Woman Sarah is in the middle of a long slog towards the bigger goals of Grizzly, Taunton and London marathons and enjoyed the run, but said it was her slowest half marathon – hardly surprising with a multi-terrain race.
Perhaps one of the incentives keeping the females runners motivated was the frequent chance to see some fit firemen stopping the traffic with their vehicles at strategic points.
The race was organised by the fire service from the area for charity.
Maybe a few more Musketeers might consider dipping their toes into trail running next year or in some other shorter races this year. There are some at Haldon Forest and Peter Tavy.
By Guy