2009 PUMA HellRunner: Hell Down South Here's how RW members rated this race in the past (468 votes). 2011 race reviewed by: Craigyb
 | | Overall score | | 100% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 100% | | PB potential | | 20% | | Atmosphere | | 100% | | Organisation | | 100% | | Value | | 60% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 80% |
In short: Great race, painful but fun
Date of review: February 19, 2011
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2011 race reviewed by: wolves1877
| | Overall score | | 40% | | Would you do it again? | | No | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 80% | | PB potential | | 40% | | Atmosphere | | 60% | | Organisation | | 60% | | Value | | 40% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: Very very hily
Date of review: February 18, 2011
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2011 race reviewed by: Anthony Kent
| | Overall score | | 60% | | Would you do it again? | | No | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 100% | | PB potential | | 20% | | Atmosphere | | 60% | | Organisation | | 40% | | Value | | 60% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: hard race and very muddy, extremely busy and could have been done better
In full: great race but hard, loads of hills and mud aplenty. the down sides were the numbers - it was hugely busy all the way round and there didnt appear to be any phasing of the start - it was basically a big bundle. There were a couple of really great ideas and sections such as the bog of doom !
Date of review: February 17, 2011
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2011 race reviewed by: MikeF
| | Overall score | | 100% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 80% | | PB potential | | 20% | | Atmosphere | | 100% | | Organisation | | 80% | | Value | | 60% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: Tough and hilly, but great atmosphere and sesne of achievement.
In full: My first hellrunner and I'll be back next year - I really enjoyed the challenge. I think I'm annoying people because I keep talking about it...
Date of review: February 16, 2011
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2011 race reviewed by: Hackos
| | Overall score | | 100% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 100% | | PB potential | | 20% | | Atmosphere | | 100% | | Organisation | | 80% | | Value | | 40% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 40% |
In short: Hard as nails
In full: I think the organisers heard our complaints about the 2010 Hell Up North being a little on the short side. This was comapartively much tougher. Less singletrack but nine million hills. It is designed to kill you through a combination of lactic acid inducing climbs, mud and cold water. On the up side, if you survive you will laugh lauagh laugh. Please can we have some nicer technical T-Shirts and I think I deserved a medal for that.
Date of review: February 14, 2011
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2011 race reviewed by: stubar
| | Overall score | | 100% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 80% | | PB potential | | 20% | | Atmosphere | | 80% | | Organisation | | 100% | | Value | | 80% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: My first hellrunner and hopefully not my last. Extremely tough and brutal but also extremely fun. If not up or down then we were running through bogs, sludge or water. Brilliant!! Organisation was perfect. Good work!!
Date of review: February 13, 2011
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2011 race reviewed by: Catcat
| | Overall score | | 100% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 80% | | PB potential | | 20% | | Atmosphere | | 80% | | Organisation | | 80% | | Value | | 80% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: Review for HITM - Hard as Hell, beats HDS into submission
In full: I gave hell down south and turbo X 100%, i need to give this more.
They said this was the helliest race of the 3, and i now believe them. They focused a lot on hills and you certainly went up an down a lot of them and lets just say that they weren't gentle climbs.
Really enjoyed the bogs, particularly the middle one with lots of mud and the hazy climb in the woods straight after with everyone steaming (literally) their way up the hill.
A good lot of mud, pretty much everywhere, made the terrain that slightly more difficult.
Although parking was 1k away from start, it looked well organised and no queues getting out.
Date of review: February 13, 2011
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2010 race reviewed by: senidM
| | Overall score | | 40% | | Would you do it again? | | No | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 60% | | PB potential | | 40% | | Atmosphere | | 40% | | Organisation | | 40% | | Value | | 40% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 100% |
In short: hmmm, don't think i'll bother again!
In full: My second time, but not impressed, this is a run for blokes who decide that it sounds like a laugh while in the pub, and if that sounds patronising, yup, its meant too.
Without the two water features this is a very boring trail run, and too narrow for the number of runners, i.e. you can only go at the pace of the guy walking uphill in front of you, its a hellrun, not a hellwalk!
And the water features, well they're ok, but very artificial, just spoil the run really.
So, as a club runner, the general consensus was, why bother in future? There are much better trail runs out there, or good old fashioned X-C.
Date of review: December 15, 2010
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2010 race reviewed by: Yasmin Abouda
| | Overall score | | 60% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 60% | | PB potential | | 40% | | Atmosphere | | 80% | | Organisation | | 40% | | Value | | 40% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: On a muddy slope...
In full: Ok so as this was my second year at completing this crazy race, i thought it best to review and rate it.
This year the weather was unbearably cold so the prospect of the bog of doom, along with many of the other water 'features' was not so appealing. However, the course did not disappoint and everything was as the year before - just partially frozen!
The course itself is great and different terrains are a great way of breaking the run up. However this year was a disappointment compared to 09, the organisation and administration really seemed to be lacking.
As a costly race you would expect the basics. This year there were way too few marshalls. I didn't see one medic (I did see a large number of people suffering from the cold) and they really had skimped on the fun extras. No energy drink as you come up to the start line, no hellman on stilts either at the beginning or through the race and no band at the halfway(ish) stage. These were some of the essential extras that made competing so much fun and it was ashame to see these had been cut out.
Will I do the race again? Yes and hopefully next year means Hellruner will be back on form!
Date of review: December 14, 2010
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2010 race reviewed by: Dicky M
| | Overall score | | 60% | | Would you do it again? | | No | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 80% | | PB potential | | 40% | | Atmosphere | | 60% | | Organisation | | 40% | | Value | | 40% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 80% |
In short: Cold, cold, cold !
In full: Course had lovely views but there were quite a number of bottlenecks which meant it was more of a 'fun-run' than anything else.
Unlike others on here, no real problem with the organisation of the race - I think it was made quite clear that facilities on site were sparse.
But, given the cold weather and interaction with water that every competitor had, a marquee with some form of heater should have been put in place for runners at the end.
I saw several people in trouble at the end, and some trying to get back to their cars in a bit of a state.
The Air Cadets doing the baggage get top marks from me. I think they did a great job, as did the ones handing out the water and the Army Cadets doling out the goodie bags.
Goodie bag contents were pretty good.
Didn't hang around for too long afterward to gauge 'atmosphere' - too cold !
Date of review: December 7, 2010
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