Race review: #33 Heart Of The Weald Marathon

Heart of Weald - Sunday 30th July

This was my second LDWA (Long Distance Walkers Association) event this year. At less than ten pounds, it was brilliant value for money and I really liked the look of the course, around some of the beautiful Kent Countryside. It's in 'The Weald' which is the name of a huge ancient woodland that covered most of Southern England, most of which was chopped down a very long time ago of course! 

The downside of these LDWA events is that they are 'self navigating'. You get a fair few pages of rather terse and indecipherable written instructions to follow. You need to know your 'slight right' to 'bear right', to 'turn right' and 'sharp right', all of which are abbreviated of course. Also plenty of vague instructions like 'cross EB, follow faint TR CB240'. It's easy for someone like me with little sense of direction to get horribly lost! Having a quick skim through this years instructions, there was talk of 'frisky bullocks'... oh dear.

Luckily my friend Rachael had already entered and there was a small group of us going round together, all of whom where much better at deciphering the instructions than me :-) But, this meant I needed to keep up with the pace of the group or end up on my own.

The event started pretty early, and there was a long drive to the start (Wadhurst in Kent) from my home in Hampshire. We had been warned that car parking was going to be a nightmare on the day (due to the Bewl Water 15 also being held at the same time) so I arrived super early. In the end I had nothing to worry about and parked pretty much opposite the hall - panic over nothing. It was a bit of a miserable morning and had been raining overnight, it was a bit chilly for a July morning. Good weather for running.

Event HQ was in the commemoration hall in pretty village of Wadhurst in Kent. A nice lady was making tea and coffee (free of course), as well as biscuits being available. Which of course had to be done. I registered with the race officials, who ticked my name off a list and gave me my event card. At each of the 5 aid stations I needed to get the card punched to prove that I had been there, and thus completed the full 26 mile distance.

LDWA had left some tables and chair out so I was able to get the weight off my feet for a bit and drink my coffee.  I was joined by my fellow runners - Rachael, plus her mates Mary-Ann, Davo, Lisa, Susie and Bryan.

I spotted that a map was on the wall with the route marked up - it did look a long way!

Before to long the organisers took all the 'walkers' out to the front for a quick briefing. A later start was planned for 'runners', but we joined the walkers as as a group we had decided we're not fast and that's the way it's going to stay! This briefing was over very quickly and we were off without any further ado. The race started walked down past the pub and straight into the trees - and of course pretty much straight up hill. 

The first few miles of the event we took it very easily and just walked at a brisk pace. There were lots of fields to cross and rickety styles which were on the verge of collapsing, to try and somehow get over whilst not looking too daft or slipping up... easier said than done!

The rain by now had cleared away and there was some fantastic views over the beautiful Kent countryside. The legs were getting a bit of a pounding, as it felt we were always going up hill, and then on the downhill avoiding slipping in mud or stumbling over rocks or tree roots. This made progress fairly slow, not to mention the workout our jaws were getting.. much banter was exchanged. For some reason Monty Python and Harry Enfield sketches were a recurring theme... losing the plot already.

Part of the course crossed a rather scary looking railway line which we had to play 'chicken' with to cross... Fortunately no sign of any trains so we carried on making our way.

This included passing a wonderful sign saying 'Quarantine Unit - KEEP OUT'. Was it safe to even pass this place? I also remember some weird looking plants which looked like giant rhubarb but clearly weren't. What are the good people of Kent growing!



We kept going, crossing further woodland and fields and some slippery bridges. We stopped for a quick group photo. 

I still felt fairly fresh as we found the first checkpoint. This had a good variety of drink (squash, water) and lots of little snacks like mini sausages and little flapjacks. On this event you had to bring your own cup, which I kept in my camelbak. This was a good idea as it saved on the plastic cup waste.  I got the first punch in my card and we thanked the marshals and carried on our way.

We were now really into the heart of the course and the woodland was getting a bit thin on the ground. The weather had really cleared up by now and it was starting to get hot, so I was glad to have my camelbak which had a litre of sports drink in it.  By now we were running a bit, which was good to stretch the legs out.

We went through a couple of farms, and met some friendly horses. One of the fields we went through had a herd of cows who had decided to sit right next to a gate we had to pass through. As we gingerly approached them they were curious and started to walk en-masse towards us (fairly quickly!), the group made a pretty sharp exit! I also enjoyed running through a field of corn.

We easily passed through three further checkpoints, each time scoffing and drinking as well as getting our cards punched. By now it was getting boiling hot, and as we went through the village of Mayfield (the only civilisation we saw really apart from the start and finish), a tactical decision was taken by Rachael to get some ice lollies and ice creams for the group! I've never enjoyed a magnum so much. Thanks Rachael for the ice cream, I owe you one.

The route now approached a Bavarian looking spire, which we skirted around but never quite seem to reach - it was elusive. Finally we crossed a field and it swung into view, a bit of a let down really but at least gave us something to aim towards! We also saw signs for 'Braylsham Castle'. A castle I thought, that will be interesting - turns out to be someones private house and not a castle at all.  I later found out this was a bit of a notorious place and had been in the papers! Read about it here.

By now we were approaching the next checkpoint, it was getting really hot so it was a good opportunity to have a good drink and I refilled the bladder of my camelbak. (That is all I have to say about bladders in this race report entry haha!)

We reluctantly scoffed the last of the cake and flapjack, one final swig of drink and we were on our way again, we'd done nearly 18 miles, not to mention that I was boiling hot.

We crossed the railway line again, once again playing chicken with the non-existent trains. The route took us past some really lovely looking houses, one of which had this old gypsy caravan in.

The course now took us on to some familiar territory. We had reached Bewl Water, where a couple of months back I had run a marathon. In the sunshine it looked really beautiful. We passed a couple of lovely looking oast houses (where they used to dry the hops) and this was just lovely. 

I really enjoyed this part of the route, especially as there was a nice shady section. We were also going in the opposite direction that I had run the Bewl Water marathon, so the course felt fresh. We could see signs now for Wadhurst which meant that the finish was getting pretty close, by now we had been on our feet for well over six hours so tiredness was setting in.

Finally the course left Bewl Water behind, we reluctantly rejoined the pavement on a road and turned right, now heading towards Wadhurst. We joined a track and went past a field of very friendly but very frisky horses (who were blindfolded? Not sure why).  The horses were left behind and we passed several fields of hops. I was certainly ready to finish now, my legs were not feeling the love and for some reason the whole of my rear was now complaining - must have been the hills. 

In the distance we could see church in Wadhurst and we ran towards it, the finish was almost in sight. The track we were on turned and we were suddenly behind the pub where we had started all those hours ago.  The hall was just next door. We handed over our punch cards and the organisers made a note of our time. At last! We were done.

Celebratory cups of tea and coffee were had all round. They also gave us a small meal, I had a great ham and cheese salad and some other had quiche. There was some left over cake and flapjacks from the aid stations, this went down a treat.

While we were busy stuffing our faces (seemed to be a common theme for the day), our finishers certificates (which recorded our official time) were given to us, along with a finishers patch. At less than a tenner, we'd had the use of the hall, 5 well stocked aid stations, and a meal at the end. As this was an LDWA challenge event, it also counts for my goal of hitting 100 marathons! What a fantastic day.

I really want to do this one again next year, it comes highly recommended - just so long as you are OK with the navigation.