Hundred Acres half marathon 2018

Nobody from the local running scene had heard of this event.  I wrongly thought it referred to the original AA Milne Hundred Acre Wood, but it was actually a wood (Bere Forest) near a place called Hundred Acres, near Wickham.

The lovely Mrs S ran the 5k race which started half an hour before the 10k and half.  There were a lot of large-bottomed ladies, and I had fun teasing Mrs S about whooshing past them.  But she did precisely that, and finished as second lady.  'Now your job is to be second man in your race', she told me at the finish.

At the start the race director told us that the course had been cut slightly short, because the deep mud 'would not be good for your health.  Shame.  Off we went, and it was fairly obvious within about 5 seconds that there was one fast runner who pushed steadily ahead, and second place was mine to fight for.  There were some really muddy sections (careful now)... thank goodness the wonderful Mrs S had warned me, as I would have been sliding badly in trail shoes, which the race organisers had been advocating.

Mr Speedy, then me... this was the start and finish order

Some nice hills, some sand, some gravels and some good muddy sections.  There was a missing marshal at a crucial turning, which resulted in #1 running back to me, yelling that we'd missed the turn.  He must have lost about a minute, me just a few seconds.

It was a 2-lap course, but within each lap we visited the finish area twice.  On my third time through the race director shouted for me to turn right but I knew full well I was heading left.  Mrs S was shouting conformation, and I later learned that at this point the whole race was facing disarray, as the marshals had no way of telling which way to send the runners.

The final 20 minutes were a proper chase through the mud, now nicely churned up, with the added excitement of dodging the slower runners on their first lap.  I dodged and weaved and managed to stay on my feet and only had a couple of minor collisions (sorry about that).

Back up the hill to the finish line for an easy second place.  Here are my stats.  It had been a lovely race, albeit more of a tempo run, with some excitingly chaotic moments. 

Double podium finish