Race review: #34 Ranscombe Summer Challenge

Saturday, 8 July 2017. Ranscombe Farm Country Park, Cuxton, Kent.

I'd wanted to enter a "Saxons, Vikings and Normans" (SVN) events for quite a while. This event was held in the lovely Ranscombe Farm Park, a stones throw from the village of Cuxton in Kent, which very close to Rochester.  I'd spent the the early 1990s living and working in the Medway towns (when I wasn't studying), so going back here for a run had to be done!

This event wasn't a marathon as such, but rather a 'challenge' event. The course is a lap of around 4.4 miles. You can do one lap, or carry on and do as many laps as you want. We had 8 hours in total, with the last lap starting no later than 7 hours after the start time. My intention was to get round 6 laps, and complete the full 26.2 mile marathon distance. I thought that 8 hours was a very generous cut off time, and meant that an entrant could actually walk the entire marathon distance in time, if they wanted to. This took the pressure off.

The run was an early start - the event itself started at 8am sharp. As it wasn't chipped timed, it was no good turning up late. This meant getting up at 5am (a good hour before I normally get up in the week!) and leaving the house at 6am for the drive over to Kent. No such thing as a lie-in when you're a long distance runner with a goal! haha.

As I arrived at Ranscombe Farm Country park, I drove up a narrow but fairly steep hill towards the car park area - this was a sign of things to come! A friendly lady directed me into a field which was being used for parking. Traviss, the race director, had warned us in advance parking could be a bit tight so I was glad to arrive nice and early.  I had no issue and spotted a few people I knew getting out of there cars.  I continued to walk up the hill and made my way over the race HQ. I was given my race number and piece of card with numbers printed up to 10.  On each lap they would punch a hole through the cardboard, so they knew how many laps I'd run.

I saw my running buddy Rachael and also bumped into Kat (who I'd met at the midnight marathon) and Jo (who I'd met at Top Run), and I also was introduced to fellow runner Garry. After a quick catch up a selfie had to be done!

The organisers had provided 3 portaloos. This was more than adequate as it was only a small number of runners - perhaps there was about 80 of us in total. There was also a tarp put down for us to leave bags etc, although it wasn't covered so had it been raining it would have probably got wet. I didn't bother with that as my stuff was just in the car, but would be useful for leaving drinks etc. which you might want mid-run.

A few minutes before the start the race director (Traviss) gathered us all up for a quick race briefing. We were celebrating a fellow runner achieving his 100 marathon today, and there were also a few awards to give out for SVN runs achieved and a volunteer award. This was a really nice touch.  He explained that this was 'the mausoleum route' and went through the route to us.  This had been picked due to the heat forecast, as it was supposedly slightly less hilly than the normal shorter route. Oh dear what have I let myself in for, I thought. 

Almost right away, he counted down '3, 2, 1, GO!' and we were off!

Race briefing

The first part of the course was a pretty short section on tarmac, heading towards a couple of houses in the distance. On our right was a wood and on the left a large field covered in wild grass and beautiful poppies. It was a really beautiful day, the sun was out and it was a pleasant temperature. I had a good feeling about the day, but was a bit worried about the temperature going up. I was well prepared though, I had my camelbak with a litre of sports drink in it.

After just a few hundred yards we took a sharp left, onto a trail. There was no more tarmac on the entire route, apart from going back on the same track later. It was a nice firm surface and started as a gentle incline, all the while gradually getting increasingly steep, but not crazy steep. I knew from experience that this sort of a hill can cause later problems if you overcook it, as it feels deceptively easy to run up when you're fresh but you end up burning up valuable energy too quickly. So I took it easy, even though this meant I was being overtaken quite a bit.

At the top of the first rather gentle hill there was an amazing view of the beautiful Kent countryside. In the distance I could just make out a train line. I had to stop for a moment just to take it in, and of course take a few pictures for this blog. It's this sort of a view which keeps you going in a multi-lap course. 

To give the legs a bit of a break, there was a right turn and a nice flat section, followed by a downhill stretch, where it was possible to get a bit of speed going. Even so, I was taking it pretty easy.  Little did I know what awaited me! 
At the bottom of the downhill section, we started climbing almost immediately again. This time the hill was getting fairly steep, and at the top it was so steep it turned into a series of lengthy steps.  Hmmm, that's going to hurt later on, I thought. 

The route briefly followed the North Downs Way before we took another right turn. There was another hill to climb, again with a wonderful view on the left.  This climb was well rewarded though, as I went through a gate there was a stunning field of wild flowers, and a lovely view.

Once again we had another turn, through another gate and another downhill into a field followed by a climb. This was now the sharpest climb of the course - which must have gone on for nearly half a mile, and was pretty tough even on that first lap. In later laps it was agony!

There was no issue navigating on this course. There were a number of wooden posts, and the owners of the farm had let SVN put some little green arrows showing the direction of the route. Traviss had put some tape out where the route wasn't 100% clear - this was really helpful as the last thing you want to do is get lost when you're running 26.2 miles!

The mausoleum building

Finally I got to the top of this final climb. We now had to turn left and do a lap around a mausoleum building (part of the National Trust, so the sign told me). This was an ominous looking building. 
I liked this part of the course though, as fellow runners were coming the other way and we were able to exchanged banter and encouragement. For the first few laps it got a little congested though, as we had a narrow path to negotiate and a gate to get through.

HS1

Now was my favourite part of the route - a lengthy downhill section, that was a gentle descent. This meant gravity could do it's fair share of the work (after all that effort climbing!).  The path kept going until we hit a fence, the other side of which was the channel tunnel rail link, also known as high speed 1 (HS1).  Us runners turned right and followed a narrow path, once again downhill. This was a little awkward for the first couple of laps, as faster runners were trying to overtake and I had to keep jumping out of the way. Everyone was good natured though and it wasn't a problem. On our left I could the Eurostar train rattling past every few minutes, and in the distance I could see the M2 roaring past and the bridge over the river Medway.

At the bottom of this hill we crossed a trail and entered some woods. This was the same woods we had run past at the beginning. A short uphill, and I emerged (blinking in the sunlight!)! I turned left, ran back towards the race HQ and I had done one lap.  A couple of marshals punched my first number out, and I headed over to the aid station. This was very well stocked with sweets, cake, crisps, peanuts as well as squash and water. They had even thoughtfully provided some a Vegan option. Don't get that at your average race!

Even after my first lap I was starting to get hot so I made sure I had a good drink and got plenty of salts on board. It was good though that a lot of the course was through woods or trees, so there was quite a bit of a shade which prevented me from getting too hot. I was grateful for this as it was so hilly, it was easy to get too hot - I remember my experience from the Hampshire Hoppit where it was 32C and hilly but hardly any shade!

I had done one lap with 4.4 miles bagged. Only 5 more to go, ha!
Each lap got increasingly hard. I chatted to lots of fellow runners, including on my first lap with Alec who'd I run Brighton with (dressed as a Crayola Crayon...) I enjoyed the conversation and banter and the miles soon racked up.

On my third lap there was a bit of a incident around the mausoleum loop. A lady runner had taken a tumble and injured her leg, pretty badly. Traviss was there administering first aid and had a team to whisk her back to HQ. Lots of fellow runners had stopped to make sure she was OK. I thought it was brilliant that my fellow runners had stopped and weren't worried about their own time, this was just the right attitude. I later found out she had to go to hospital and was quite badly injured.

I had finally finished my third lap, and got my card punched for the third time. "Well done, half marathon done now mate", the marshal congratulated me. Only 3 more to go! Bloody hell. I got the bladder on my camelbak refilled with a litre of squash, this was really helpful and I really needed the fluid on such a hot day.

Bloody steps! Agony!

By now it was getting really very hot and I had to slow down quite a bit. I was walking up all the hills, and run/walking the flat parts. I was able to run downhill though without having to take any walk breaks. As each lap was perhaps a third climb, a third flat and a third downhill, I was still able to get round a lap in a reasonable time and shape. I really liked this course - it was challenging enough to make it interesting but without being silly, and the constant change of scenery kept me motivated to keep going.

The beautiful park and views really helped me dig in and get on with it. At last I had started my sixth lap and was getting really tired now. That tough climb before the flat part of the mausoleum was really tough, I had to really dig in and keep the legs moving as fast as I could. I just wanted to stop and have a big cup of tea. No kettle or teabags around though, so the only alternative was to keep moving! By now I was overtaking quite a few people who looked a bit done in - no doubt so did I! LOL. But we all kept going.

I looked at my watch - I had just finished the downhill section by HS1 and entered the woods for the final time but was getting really close to 6 hours now. I decided to go for it and managed to really up my pace, a sub 6 hour finish was possible and I wanted to achieve it. As I came into the finish for the last time, I had a big cheer from spectators and runners who had already finished and a round of applause from the marshals. I had finally finished in 5 hours and 57 minutes!

To finish I had to ring an old school style bell. Rachel and Traviss noted down my finish time and gave me my finishers medal, after inspecting my card to see which distance I had completed. Traviss shook my hand and congratulated me. The medal was huge - very heavy - and really very nice. It's one of a series of four - you can do this challenge every season. The medals all interlock together to make a circle. This gives me the incentive to back and collect all of them!

Traviss gave me my finishers goody bag. This had loads of chocolate, crisps, a bottle of water and also a can of cider (which I duly handed over to my wife when I got home!)

At the end I chatted for quite a while with my fellow runners, and we compared our experiences of the day. Everyone was very friendly and welcoming - turns out the SVN bunch are great.

This was a fantastic run, I enjoyed it so much. I had to face a fair old drive home around the M25, but it was worth it. Some of the runners were back the next day to do a double. As much as I enjoyed it, I was glad I didn't have to!