We listened carefully to the brief and then went outside to line up at the start. The start line was at the foot of the town and the route set off up through the town to the towers. The route was lit by flaming torches and the sight of this initial climb was most spectacular.
The gun went off and I started easily. My race plan was to take it very steadily over the start of the race and not to tire myself on the climbs. I would then see how I felt and take it from there later on. The first climb was very steep and the roads through the town were slippy from the drizzle that had been falling during the afternoon. The streets were cobbled which didn't help at all. At the top we ran past the towers and then down the steps back through the town before heading out on another road that was a long drag back out of the valley.
Having taken it easy to begin with, but having managed to avoid the bottlenecks too, I now began to pick up places as we ran along the road. The road then became a muddy path and visibility even with the headlamps was poor. The sight of hundreds of headlamps bobbing along through the night was very pretty and the whole atmosphere was quite special. I settled into a comfortable pace and was still picking up places regularly, catching runners who had set off too fast and were now paying the price. The terrain was varied from flat to steep downhills followed by steep uphills, all of which took a heavy toll on the legs.
By 5 km, I reckoned I was in the top 15 places and was chasing down a small group of 4 in front of me. It was here that disaster struck. We hit a sharp incline and I pushed the pace to catch them on the hill, by the top I was just behind but then we hit a road at the top and the way wasn't clear. We asked a marshal whcih way to go and if we were on the right route for the 18 km race. She replied in a positive manner and we followed the road down the hill. It was now apparent that this wasn't the route and we had a further 50 runners who had followed us making the same mistake.
We carried on back into town and around to the track where we had begun the race. We had run over 8 km by now and it was obvious that the race was finished for us. There was some discussion as to what to do and I set off back on the 10 km loop with some other runners just as a training run. We quickly caught the walkers on the 10km loop as they had set off 15 minutes after us. I pushed the pace and left the rest of the group behind with just 1 runner following me closely. We then began to catch the tailenders of the 10 km race and the fun began. They were really enthusiastic about the obstacles, shouting "Careful mud!" or "Watch the barrier", "Hole" etc. We overtook them and I had an amazing impression of speed as we flew past on narrow paths in the middle of the night.
The rest of the run was very good, with some great paths through the forest in the middle of the night. I completed the 10 km course in 1:18:10 having completed 16.36km. There was some discussion with the organisers as to the marshal who had left his position causing us to miss the turn on the hill, but there was nothing to be done. Very frustrating but unfortunate.
Laurence and Anne finished the course in 2:02; Laurence having lost her shoe at some point in the process causing Anne to light up the mud bath while Laurence went fishing !
We'll be back next year to do the race again properly and I might have a shout at achieving a podium if I find the route around next time.
Picture of the route with the marker showing where I ran straight on instead of turning right.
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