The Devil’s Punchbowl marathon was marathon number 19 for
me. Technically, it’s actually an ultra marathon at 30 miles and not the usual
26.2 miles. This was my first Long Distance Walkers Association (LDWA) event. I
had signed up last year and was all ready to do it, but bottled it the night
before the race - due to the worries about getting lost. I have no sense of
direction. This year I had persuaded John and Judith to run the entire event
with me, and with their superior navigation skills I knew I’d get round. Maybe
not in once piece, but I’d get round!
This is way too early, but still a lie-in.
The day reluctantly began at 6am with the usual breakfast of a massive bowl of granola, and too much toast & marmalade. You can never have enough. Compared to some other early starts I’ve done this positively felt like a lie-in, some marathon days have started at 4.30am.I had offered to give a lift to Judith and John, so I picked them up en route, and we then went onto Farnborough to pick Emma up at 7.30am. Despite her standing outside freezing her wotsits off in hi-viz and with bright purple hair, we were so busy trying to find her house that we missed her.
It was a short drive over the Hogsback toward Guildford then
a quick burn down the A3 and onto the start at Witley. I still managed to go
wrong twice which kind of worried me, were we in for a day of “getting lost?”.
We duly arrived in Witley around 8 o’clock, parked up on the grass verge and
walked back to the start at Chichester Hall. On the walk we met Julie and Alec
(both fellow aspiring members of the 100 marathon club), who I had invited to
join our group.
We checked in and registered, picked up our race cards and
downed the first cup of tea of the day and sneaked in a biscuit or two. To keep
costs down they don’t post anything else out before the race. This was actually
the first race I’d ever run that didn’t have a race bib, we just had a
credit-card size piece of plastic with a bar-code on. This was scanned at the
start, at each check-point and then again at the end. I thought this was a
pretty good idea and people could track your progress on the LDWA website.Off we go
We stepped outside Chichester Hall, presented our “credit cards”
for scanning, and we were on our way! The temperature was bitterly cold and so
we were all duly kitted out in multiple layers, hats, gloves, even bandanna scarves.
It must have looked like the Michelin Man running convention, as we went up
that first hill.
The first few miles from Witley were along a pleasant track
(uphill, naturally!) then through a forest before crossing over the footbridge
over the noisy and busy A3. Luckily John knew his way
so we just all clung on for dear life within his sight. Within a couple of
miles we bumped into Emine who I’d met and run with a few weeks ago at the East
Hanningfield trail marathon. She was a bit lost with the directions so gladly
joined our group, and it was lovely to see another familiar face.
The first few miles just whizzed by, Thursley common nature
reserve was beautiful. Before too much longer we were in the first village of
the day, Elstead and went past ‘The Mill’ which is a really lovely country pub.
We used to go there at lunchtimes occasionally when I worked in Guildford. "Is there a pub round here somewhere?"
Soon we had clocked up 10 miles and were at the first checkpoint
of the day at Puttenham Church of England school. It was at this point I
realised how far we’d already gone, being so close to Hogsback and Guildford. The checkpoint was fabulous and much better
than I expected. The lovely ladies plied us with hot drinks and I’ve never
known a cup of coffee go down so well. Plates of chocolate biscuits and jaffa
cakes got quickly demolished. They even thoughtfully provided some chairs to sit down on.
Judith warned us against this: "beware of the chair!”. Once you sit down you can’t
get up again. We got ourselves scanned, and then we were off again. The
rain had started up so out came all the jackets and extra layers.
Crooksbury Hill
From the school we went over Puttenham Common and through the south of Farnham through the extremely posh “The Sands”. Wall to wall mansions, golf courses and Range Rovers. We climbed up to the top of Crooksbury Hill and rested for a bit by an Ordnance Survey triangulation post. On the top of this was a plaque giving distances to nearby places, I was so surprised to see Aldershot only 2.5 miles away. I could bunked off at this point and walked home to Fleet!
There was of course, time to take plenty of pictures and get a few selfies in. The Queen of selfies Emma got one in here, with our guide John.
Tilford
The climb down from Crooksbury Hill was just wonderful, some really fabulous views across the countryside and we skirted Frensham pond. We kept going through various muddy trails and along country lanes until the next checkpoint, which was in the village hall at Tilford. We had done 17 miles by now and had broken the back of the race, we were on the countdown from this point. The LDWA had put a fab selection of goodies – sandwiches, crisps, jelly babies, bananas, rice pudding and of course even more cake. As well as copious cups of tea, which went down very well. We stuffed out faces with as much as possible and filled our pockets full of wine gums.
We were off again this time through Hankley Common Golf club
(and the amusing sign about hot air balloon recovery vehicles - what the hell?!). We had been going for 5 hours
and everyone was feeling a little jaded and worse for wear. It was at this point near Thursley
where there was just an amazing view across the valley and the surrounding
Surrey Hills. We stopped for a bit for selfies and pictures (Emma led the way
with those). We bumped into a dog walker who we had seen earlier, she had lost her black lab earlier and was now pleased to tell us she was reunited. After some banter and wagging of tails, we decided we had better get shifting again.
This was a good point to stuff my face with a Mars Bar as I was getting peckish yet again. Are you spotting that running long distance and eating seem to go hand in hand with me?
This was a good point to stuff my face with a Mars Bar as I was getting peckish yet again. Are you spotting that running long distance and eating seem to go hand in hand with me?
The Devil's Punchbowl
From there it was a bit of a slog towards the Devil’s Punchbowl, I was beginning to get really tired and cold now and it was just a case of putting one foot in front of the other and to cling on to the group for dear life. We finally made it to the punchbowl and we stopped at the vantage point that the National Trust had built. I was feeling pretty exhausted at this point and not really looking forward to the next 7 or 8 miles remaining. John produced some homemade Bara Brith cake, which is a wonderful welsh tea loaf. A slice of this was like some sort of fast-track energy bar and within minutes I had loads of energy. So not only did John lead us round the whole way he also fed us, what a true gentleman. The view from the vantage point was just awesome.
We set off again admiring the breathtaking views of the
punchbowl, running along the newly grassed area that used to the the A3 and up
towards another vantage point where we stopped for a group picture. I’ve lived
within 30 mins of this place for years, and never knew it was here. I vowed to
go back with the family and walk around the Devil's Punchbowl (when it’s warm and not
muddy!)
Selfies with cows
From there the group plodded on a variety of trails and through some quite muddy paths (although nothing like East Hanningfield) on onwards to the final checkpoint at mile 26. This was on a Little Cowdray Farm, and although no hot drinks, we stuffed out faces with biscuits and jelly babies like they were going out of fashion. As well as a quick stop to take selfies with the cows...
The legs were feeling really, reall tired now. Not just tired, but refusing to work, I-just-want-to-sit-down-and-have-a-cup-of-tea sort of tired. I knew that I had another 4 miles to go, further than I had even raced before. At this point Judith mentioned the “unexpected water feature” to come ahead. Seeing the look on her face my heart sank. Turns out most years the underpass under the A3 which we needed to pass at mile 27 usually floods every year and you are forced to wade through ankle deep rank freezing cold water. Fortunately it was bone dry …
The last few miles were really pleasant and mostly downhill –
payback for the hills at the start, allowing gravity to take it's fair share of the workload (damn you hills!) and we soon saw buildings in the distance
and we knew we were close to civilisation and the finish (back at the start, at Witley). My Garmin beeped 30 miles but we
were still going, all the zig-zagging around and walking around at checkpoints
adds on distance. We saw Chichester Hall on our left which was such a massive
relief – we had all but done it. We ran the last little bit in together and climbed the steps up to the hall (steps, at the end - seriously?!)
Finished
We crossed the line together at 8 hours and 48 minutes. My Garmin said we'd gone a total of 30.7 miles. After extracting our muddy shoes and whacking as much Surrey mud off as we could (it’s hard work when you’ve done 30.7 miles!) we got scanned again and had officially finished. An unexpected and very pleasant surprise was the offer of a hot meal and more tea and coffee and plates of biscuits. I have to say beans on toast never tasted so flipping good. We picked up our finisher certificates and I bought a LDWA Punchbowl marathon patch, as there was no medal. I have to say for £6 this was a total bargain, we had such a great time and it was extremely well organised. HIGHLY recommended.
See you next year, Devil's Punchbowl!
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