I’m all behind like the donkey’s tail with my report, sorry about that, and sorry you have another to read about the New Forest Marathon…. and it is a bit of a saga!!
I visited the New Forest as a small child and was excited to be returning to this magical place with its ponies, deer and beautiful trees. I was tempted by Sandie1961 to go camping for the weekend and Mr Shakes agreed to us hiring a campervan (far too old for tents!!). So Friday teatime we were parking up on the field next to Sandie’s pitch and trying to work out how to put up an awning. Later, a lovely 2 mile walk through trees and open common, past cattle and ponies, brought us to the village and a fish and chip supper.
Saturday morning and the weather was overcast but bikes had been brought and a 8k route plotted to get us to the Brockenhurst Parkrun. It was mostly trails and a bit of a hill but we arrived on time for the start. Sandie was running but, given we had 8k to ride back, I opted to join Mr S and Mr Shake walking the route. The forest was as beautiful as I remembered with magical scenery. Back at the campsite Mr S. made the most delicious bacon and egg rolls, yummy! Rain was forecast so we opted for a bit of sightseeing at an interesting museum at Lyndhurst, where I learned more about forest life past and present. Very excited to find local connections to Alice in Wonderland and Sherlock Holmes. The rain arrived in bucket loads so we swapped plans for another walk to supper for a taxi ride. Supper was shared with more VRBs, Dexy5 , UpTheStanley , cheekychipmunks and David_G .
There was more heavy rain in the night (not that I noticed as I was fast asleep, but it kept others awake and leaked into the van to dampen the corner of our bedding). Over in the event village there was much activity as things were getting underway. We were due to meet up with more VRBs, but at the allotted time the heavens opened and Sandie and I retreated to the cover of Motor homes and awnings. After about 15 mins it eased to a steady downpour. We grabbed waterproof jackets and headed over. We met most the gang from the previous evening (David was warming up for his HM) and the lovely Mudita11 and aliboo70 and managed a quick soggy-looking pre-race photo. Soon we had discarded jackets and were doing star jumps in our warm up. This was not a good time to notice I was missing my knee supports but I had recently wondered if I could run without them so it looked as though I was about to find out. I started with Sandie, but I soon realised it was a bit optimistic as she disappeared into the crowd. The first ten minutes was super-scary. I was caught up in a crush of bodies as they jumped across me from left, from right or stopped dead as they tried to negotiate the huge puddles on the course. It was pointless, our feet were already soaked, I just went straight on. I was much relieved as things started to thin out and I eventually found space. At 3k I was heartened by the Blues Brothers (Jake and Elwood) in full costume singing their heart out. Signs were funny, ‘watch out for bears’, ‘do not feed the marshals’. I ran the first 5k, then walked a short uphill section to a tarmac road. Well, you have to run on tarmac don’t you? My next walk break was at 7k and another at 8.5k. I was starting to tire just before the 9k sign when Dexy came past me, then I passed her on her walk break. The show ground was in sight but I was spent, I was struggling when Dexy came past again ‘come on, you’ve got this!’ She called and I found a little more. I could not match her sprint to the line but I got there. (1hr 21 mins, given the conditions and my current training level, I was happy). Knees were fine.
Collecting bling, T-shirt and goodies and eating a banana I started to feel better. Seeing the VRBs again and having post run photos was just wonderful. The sun came out and I danced to the music in the event village (Adrenalin was obviously kicking in)!! Back on the camp site, a lovely hot shower, a bar-B-Q with friends and beautiful blue skies ended a perfect (well apart from the rain) weekend.
