Gut Buster 2017

This race is celebrated for its muddiness, and it's been pouring with rain on and off ever since Christmas.  As we drove up to the park & ride outside Reading, we passed countless sodden fields under dark grey skies. This was going to  be muddy, for sure.

The double-decker shuttle bus took us to a farm right out in the sticks, somewhere between Basingstoke and Reading.  The farmyard was a friendly, well-organised but slightly chaotic scene, with a crush of hundreds of excited people.  We met Matt Pillinger from OS - it was his first time at this race too.

With Matt at the farmyard

The Lovely Mrs S was supporting, still in knee recovery mode.  The three of us ambled over to the start line, where we ended up having a 15-minute wait (we missed the race briefing) until the hordes joined us for a slightly late start.

The start

I didn't much enjoy the first couple of miles.  Over the last few days I've felt like I've been fighting a bug, and I didn't hae much oomph at the off.  But over time I felt myself relaxing into the pace and my enregy levels were OK.

It was, naturally, really wet, muddy and slippy.  The roads (about a third of the course) had lots of splashy puddles, while the tracks and field margins were squelchy and often waterlogged.  Picking the optimum path was vital.  I spent much of the first half tussling with Patrick Connors from Itchen Spitfires, who went for the shortest route outside the Roman walls at Silchester and took a hilarious tumble on a camber. 

Most of the roads were like this.  Patrick Connors is right on my tail.

In the second half we were much more spread out.  I was feeling good, and enjoyed all the splashing about.  Twice we caught up with the 10k runners, which meant switching from relatively pristine mud to well-trodden morass.

And this is what the finish was all about.  I could hear the noise from the farm as we circled around and for the last time joined in with the 10k-ers.  A couple of soggy field margins and then the final hurrah - two ploughed fields, thoroughly churned; a real heaving effort to run over, with the added challenge of dodging and overtaking the groups of slower runners ahead. I gave it everything.

All the fun of the field

I finished in 1:11:41, which I think put me in 9th place.  The timing chip had come loose from my show in the final stages.  I didn't feel it was my best performance, but this was a friendly and well-organised event on fabulously raw countryside, and a terrific way to conclude the racing year.

Muddy, guts busted, but still smiling