I had such a lovely time at this event over on Horsell Common near Woking this morning. Organised by the local Lions, the route took in fields and boardwalks around a local Wetland Centre but mostly the wonderful pine woods and sandy paths of the Common itself (immortalised in 'War of the Worlds' by HG Wells as the place the Martians landed - hence the name of the race!).
Parking permits were provided on signing up and then we walked the 15/20 minutes (yep!) around the outside of Fairoaks airfield to get to the event village at McLaren Park - such a beautiful setting! Plenty of time for registration, toilets and bag drop, especially as there was a fifteen minute delay for the start while the race director made a mercy dash for more safety pins!! Hilarious really, in what was otherwise a very well organised event, that they managed to run out of safety pins!!😂😂 Anyway, nobody seemed too bothered and before we knew it we were off across the fields of swaying grass, heading for the woodland - 5, 10, and 21k runners together. There was a little bit of polite jostling for position for the first couple of k, especially on some of the narrower paths but things settled down as we all found our pace and after about 3.5k the 5k runners headed off on a different route. The 10k route was a single circuit of beautiful common and woodland, bridleways and narrow tracks winding in and out of trees - someone had really put a lot of thought into creating a really interesting running route! We ran through the famous sandpits where the martians landed (if they were ever there, no signs today!👽). Water was provided in paper cups (no single use plastic here🙂👍). The weather was perfect - light cloud and a cool breeze - quite the opposite of yesterday. Close to the finish was a small and (thankfully) not very challenging hill which meant we had a wonderful sweep of a run back into McLaren Park and round to the finish line. The cherry on the cake was hearing my name called out as I came in! Not my greatest performance (1:04:19) but it really didn't matter as everything else was perfect! Martian-themed medals 🏅hung around your neck at the finish line and lots of lovely helpers handing out water, Mars Bars, bananas and easy peelers! 😀👍 I will definitely be back next year!😀👏👽🏃🏽♀️
xx
Nettlestone Road & Trail run
Bournemouth Bay Run 10K TICK!
