Race report from Cheddar Gorge (various distances).
I competed in the half marathon and Hilary the 5k on Sunday 16 August 2015. Hilary had planned to enter the 10k but she was hung over from wedding reception on Saturday evening.
I had competed in this event last year, I think I almost died but Hilary persuaded me to go again, against my better judgement. I should point out I had only one pint at the wedding reception and moaned quite a lot that it was getting late.
We arrived at Cheddar Gorge on Sunday morning in good time and proceeded to the start at the top of the Gorge probably vertical for 2k. We were cream crackered before the start, but we registered hooked up for a chat with Katie Brooks and Richard Dodge for a chat and some photos. At this point Hilary disappeared to the loo, for the first time, it was shortly after this visit that Hilary asked for the water bottle and said " I think I'll do the 5k, not the 10k, perhaps I'll not bother at all and just have a sit down and wait until you finish".
The race kicked off, and I started off nice and steady up hill for a while but not too bad. The terrain got marginally better, a gentle downhill section a into a muddy steep downhill section, I was pretty twitchy and careful as a man behind me slipped over. I looked round and smacked my head into a low tree branch, a little bit of blood and a quick look at my barnet by the marshal at the next point and I was on my way again. All went reasonably well for the rest of the race (apart from all the hills, hells steps, etc) until about three hundred metres from the end when I tripped over, but no big issues just a bit of mud and a bit of pride but hey ho. I got it done, cheered home by Hilary who told me she had been asleep for a while and felt much better after keeping Katie company for 5k.
Hilary finished 2nd in her category, she asked me not to mention the time. I finished first in my category I think there was only three over sixties running but I wasn't disappointed with a time of 2 hours 10 minutes. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to do this event next year.
Yours in running Jim Beech