East Farm half marathon 2018

I'm not terribly keen on laps.  I prefer something with a bit more geographic logic, a bit more purpose and direction.  Track running is the ultimate in pure running... but I prefer new landscapes and vistas over the watch-checking repetition of running in circles.

And so I wondered how I would get on with the East Farm half, a White Star event with multiple races based on laps of a 5km-ish circuit of Dorset farmland.  It was an early Saturday morning start for the lovely Mrs S and I on a bright morning.  We said hello to Paddy Connors from Itchen Spitfires, who is generally quicker than I am, but whom I managed to take out at last winter's Gutbuster.  There was the usual quirky race briefing before the marathon runners set off at 9am and the halvers started 15 minutes later.

I counted about 7 runners ahead of me, which became 5 after the first hill.  Paddy was right up at the front.  A few minutes later I caught some guy wearing tights (no way was I going to let him beat me).  In to open fields, there was a series of signs along the hedgerow:

There may be trouble ahead

But while there's moonlight and music

And love and romance

Let's face the music and dance

Hmmm... what was all this about?  Soon enough, it was clear... 3 big straw bales ram into a field gateway making a rustic hurdle that was a quite tricky to get over.  By the third lap I was sort of slithering over and jumping down which seemed to work best.

Back to the laps.  The circuit was rarely flat and never boring.  Long drags up fields of stubble into the wind, knobbly farm tracks, open fields, great views - it was all good fun.  Fairly swiftly I started catching the back of the marathon runners and from there on it was a more or less continuous overtaking job.  A few ladies were dressed up in 1920s flapper outfits, leaving occasional coloured feathers behind them.  It was all very good humoured.

From the second lap we were directed on a shorter route which involved taking a steeper hill - an interestingly hoofy stretch.  I saw #3 (Scott Mordew) ahead of me, walking.  I reckoned I could probably get up it at a run, and I got a sense of despair as I passed him.

But he didn't make it easy.  Scott stayed right behind me for the whole of the second lap.  As we started the third and approached the hill again I knew this was a good chance to open up a gap.  I didn't look back, I never saw him again, but I imagined him keeping a beady eye on me and I pressed on in to the second half of the race feeling good and really not minding the hills at all.

The hill at the start of the third lap; that's me running up the track, with Scott behind

Into the final lap, and I tried to rev things up a bit.  I was feeling good, and crossed the line in third place in 1:34:30.  Great fun - in fact the best fun I think I've ever had on a 4-lap course. Here are my stats, and here's the Flyby showing Paddy, me and Scott battling it out.  Good old White Star races - they never disappoint.

Just starting the final lap...

...and just finishing it

A nice haul of goodies