Combe Gibbet, 2019

Sunday was a double bill.  The lovely Mrs S had run the Devizes Half in the morning (and an unexpected PB to boot), and we had a cracking drive through the Wiltshire and Berkshire chalk landscape to Combe Gibbet for the start of this 16-mile point-to-point race.

Combe Gibbet has a rather thrilling history, as the site of a double murder in 1676.  In contrast to the loveliness of the valleys, up (280m up) on the downs it was misty, eerie and a bit bleak.  After a while two coaches arrived and tons of runners poured out, including some familiar faces.  It was all very low-key and friendly, and soon enough we were off.

At the start - the gibbet is in the distance

I counted the runners ahead and reckoned I was in 14th place.  Over the next 20 minutes or so I overtook a few, and was comfortably in the top ten.  From this point I was very slowly gaining on a Basingstoke runner, Andy Goddard.

5 miles in, hunting down Andy

I caught up with Andy shortly before halfway.  We had a brief chat and then a bit of a mix up as I climbed over a gate just as he was trying to open it, and I didn't see him again.

That was just about the last view of any fellow runner.  Soon after this, I was down in a big valley, through an underpass beneath the A34 and then climbing a long drag of an ascent up the other side.  For a while I could just see a runner ahead.  I was feeling good and kept the pressure up.

The final leg was all down hill.  I pushed on, and suddenly recognised where I was as I came into Overton, and there was Mrs S.  I finished in 4th place in 1:44:37 (here are the results, and my stats) which was really absurdly fast for a 16-mile cross-country race (at 4:02/km, it was the same pace as last year's Chester Metric Marathon), but apart from the halfway hill, this was a downhill chase, with a net 200m descent.

 

Fantastic fun - this is a really lovely event!