I would like to begin by applauding and congratulating Chris Singleton, Matt Lalor, Ian Livesey, Stephen Chew and the rest of the 'Fastrax' team, who went to the competition looking to bring home the victory and did so in some style by all accounts. Great effort guys!
It is two years ago now that Team Wesham sent two sides down to take part, and I have to say that in all honesty, to this day it remains one of the best team events that I have ever had the privilege to be a part of.
Travelling down on the Friday morning, pitching our tents and heading off into the countryside to a local pub for a group meal and drinks, the first night was an excellent way of getting to know the rest of the team a little better.
The following day, the serious stuff kicked off.
The organisers had asked teams to put their quickest runner on the opening leg, and as such the first lap turned into something of a race, even though the task is obviously one of extreme endurance. Being put on leg one, I remember trying to run sensibly, but still ran a 34 minute 10k - placing second on the leg.
Obviously the team couldn't maintain that position, but everybody ran brilliantly and it was a fantastic weekend of running.
The main memories from the weekend are:
- originally thinking that the course was set on roads, we all headed down with only our road trainers. As it turned out it was 10k set out on fields and woodland trail. With hindsight, crosscountry spikes would have been a wise option.
- on that first leg, I remember setting off in blistering sunshine and heat...it didn't last! By night time thunderstorms struck and all through the night it absolutely bombed it down.
- in total I ran either 4 or 5 legs (I'll be honest I can't remember!), the most memorable being leg 3 (or was that 4!?). On that leg, I headed off at around 3am, having had nearly no sleep for almost 48 hours already. It had been raining for a number of hours already by this point, and the thunder and lightning was still rife. The course had by now been churned up into a proper mud bath. Also, as the course had no lighting, runners had only head torches as means of making the track visible. At around half way through the lap, I tripping over a tree branch through the woods, flying headfirst into a great big oak tree and landing flat in a thick pile of mud. I remember lying there for a good while staring up at the rainy sky and thinking to myself "what the f#ck am I doing here!?". Then I scrambled around for the head torch and set off to complete the lap. It was one of the most bizarre, surreal, but definitely memorable things I have ever done.
- I also remember Sue Coulthurst and her double-leg through the worst of the weather, that was some run! It turned out to be a smart one too, as it meant longer between legs so she got a sleep in- about the only one that did!
- finally I remember Kerry and her fantastic mothering of the team, keeping us all going with plenty of food and drink. Kerry has always been an important member of team events for Wesham and we'd be lost without her.
The ThunderRun is a truly amazing competition and weekend, and hopefully I will get to take part again at some point in the future.
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