Stage 2 – 33 miles.
Hi Guys,
Thanks so much for the messages. It was so lovely to read them after a hard day’s work.
Hi Jason, hope all is going well. Well done Tamsy for your first 10k, great news. Gav, the event is supposed to be unassisted. You are provided with a tent, water, breakfast and evening meal, but you have to provide the rest – so the backpack is very heavy! There are checkpoints along the way, today there were 5, with water at each station to top up your bladders/bottles. Other than that – you are on your own!
Today was tough, and I am now finding walking rather painful on the thighs. We started off more level than yesterday crossing over the River Avon to the first checkpoint. We had to stock up on water as it was a long way to the next checkpoint, as the vehicles could not get up the hills we were faced with! The hills soon came into view, with the Banbury Tower as our target point. I now know why we had the Race Doc check our lungs, as they were gasping for air as I scrambled on hands and knees to the top. The route followed around the hills, showing us the most amazing landscapes and then back down to checkpoint two. By this time Mike and I had grouped up with some fellow runners, and we tackled the next stage together. We had done the MOB Lite last year, which takes you through some of this stage. Mike declared ‘I remember this, I know where to go’ and we were immediately lost, scrambling aimlessly through grassy fields! Onto check point four, and up the penultimate hill, I was really starting to feel it now, and the midday sun was ferocious. We realised that we had all finished our water, and with the rest of the hill to climb, the next few miles to the next checkpoint got very worrying. We made it though, and the MOB van was such a gorgeous sight. The last hill was a killer, but was the last of the four highest peaks in the Cotswolds we tackled. But the navigation was easier and Mike and I managed to sprint the last bit to make sure we came in under 7 hours.
The screams from Iodine being inserted into blisters has died down, and we are now all sitting in the tent supping our tea and looking at the sunset over the Cotswolds. Fantastic.
Yesterday, I was dodging all the cowpats that covered the fields, today I was only dodging the wet ones, I dread to think what I won’t care running through at the end of the race….
Unfortunately we had a couple of people drop out today. Andy Rivett, the current leader, was unfortunately one of them, suffering from heat exhaustion. Hanno is the new leader, after coming in first today with an amazing time of 5hrs 38mins. The last person crossed the finish in 11hr 32mins. I came in after 6hr 56mins.
33 miles again tomorrow.
