The Langport double

Within a mile or two of Day 1 of the Langport double, we had reached a section that reminded me precisely why I prefer road: thigh high grass concealing a surface that pitched and rolled like a ship in the southern seas. Since we were the only runners and therefore some of the first people to go through (the walkers had set off a bit earlier) Paul and Colin were doing a grand job of trailblazing while I desperately tried to hang on to the back of them. Saturday’s marathon happily had some good long stretches of tarmac but there was a lot of this very difficult deep grass to wade through. The high stepping running style you have to adopt is pretty exhausting. 

What was even more unpleasant was being nettled half to death, the paths were totally overgrown and you just had to grit your teeth and get stuck in. My legs tingled all Saturday afternoon and evening and, even though it had eased off by the morning, they’re just as bad again. I’m very glad no one went into anaphylactic shock, I’m not sure it’s possible from nettles but I reckon it gave the wasps a run for their money.

There are always some pretty hamlets and views to reward your efforts in LDWA style races. Sadly, these events lacked the usual checkpoints with tables groaning from the weight of sandwiches, sausage rolls, cakes and rice pudding. Squash and a tin of sweets had to do. I was a bit caught out by the promise of “food” and definitely found that being on my feet for 5-6 hours on a few chocolate mini eggs isn’t ideal, I was very low on energy on both days. Overall though, they were well organised races with friendly marshals and even some tape marking the route.

My times weren’t too bad for a route-finding off-road double, 5’16 and 5’58. We had some lengthy pauses at checkpoints and especially at CP3 today where we all got a bit lost. They do seem like obstacle courses with numerous electric wires to duck under (I discovered not many were live) all the gates to open and close, particularly the Bristol gates with a good 12 inch clearance, and dozens of stiles. They honestly do get taller and taller the more miles you do until they turn into mountains. I lost count of the number of times I was grateful not to have short legs, it’s a minor advantage but one I was very grateful for.

Sunday was much the same though a different route so we didn’t have the benefit of Rima dragging her tyre and clearing the trail for us. I was tired today and struggled from early on, having managed to hang on to Paul and Colin for most of yesterday, I lost them fairly early on and then 100 club Danny and 2 ladies who ran today after about 30k. It was good timing, virtually all the rest of it was along the mightily tedious River Parrett and while my mood could barely cope with it by myself, it was unlikely it could have maintained enough good humour for company. I was glad to see the finish.

It wasn’t a bad pair of races, but they were purely for the numbers. That makes Mauritius next weekend a reward for the off road, and number 75. And then a rest.

Paul, Colin and me after Day 1