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| Toonie Express Event Reviews 2008  
The Grim 2008 Shaun and Catherine in the mud. 7th Dec 2008 - Grim Challenge Aldershot, Hampshire, Multi-Terrian. Shaun denied it, as did Birthday boy Lea; the Fox was under suspicion however Catherine took the blame! Whoever was to blame for whooping up members to enter the Grim (oddly Zohan wasn’t responsible) the alarm would still go off at 4.45am ready to head south for this 8 mile off road jolly? Clearing the car windows of ice on a very cold Sunday morning in preparation for the 3 hour trip to Aldershot, Hampshire was to certainly challenge one’s enthusiasm! None-the-less eleven (Grrrrrrrrrrr) Club members Dave Tilley, Mark Sands, Mick Dakin, Chris Smith, Catherine Simpson, Lea Addlesee, Andy Davies, Shaun Louth, Angie Harvey, Paul Freemantle and Danielle La Roche set off in four cars and with them Danielle’s Australian boyfriend Luke Halvey making up the dirty dozen and talked into running this event by Danielle on his first race in England (May I suggest Luke, back in Oz Danielle swims with Great White Sharks in return!) Strangely on the journey south the temperature dropped as the Sun came up, joy! We arrived as did 2000 other hardy runners with a nice white blanket of frost covering the ground, at least the sun was out, 20 degrees I think not! Called the Grim the land is used to test Army vehicles, so expect it to be interesting was the advice! The course was described by the event organisers in their pre-race information sheet as follow. “You will reach a long hill shortly after the start before descending again eventually reaching a water filled ravine. You will run on over puddle-strewn paths before having to crawl under camouflage netting. You'll eventually reach some man-made mounds before arriving at and running through some rather large puddles. Expect to get very wet! You'll run on to the fast vehicle driving circuit where it is rocky underfoot. This brings you to some more large areas of water and the finish area”. There you have it sounds straight forward, hmmm you didn’t mention guys the 4x4 having to drive the course that morning to break the ice, the puddles in places were ponds and the mud was thicker than X Factor’s finalist Eoghan Quigg’s barnet! At the start we were briefed not to run at pace through the, ahem puddles, with advice on keeping to the sides as deep in the middle…. yeah ok wotever! Dave & Mark had a twinkle of excitement in their eyes, Toonie Chief Chris was like a coiled spring, and the rest waited for the gun to go off with a mixture of joviality and trepidation! Off we went cameras in hand and plenty of grrrrrrrrrr! Within a mile after negotiating several ankle deep puddles runners started to head through the puddles with more confidence, Andy the Fish and I went for it straight down the middle ‘wahay’ look everyone its easy, whoops, slip, splash full frontal!! (Then flashback and Star Wars 1977! “Feel the force Luke” said Obi-Wan Kenobi and “don’t run at pace through the puddles” I heard errr someone say 15 minutes earlier!) Thankfully as I fell ungracefully into the water, the Fish managed to avoid me and kept his balance, and there set the tone for the rest of the race. Danielle and Shaun tried to out do each other with the most grrrrrr poses throughout the race, Angie and Catherine ‘Kitkat’ tried to stay on their feet and keep clean, Mick who couldn’t swim, kept me running to help dry my clothes! Lea and Andy indulged in the mud, Luke looked as most Australians do, chilled and relaxed and no doubt thinking of Bondi beach and cans of Fosters! Meanwhile Mark, the Fox and Chris serenely went about the day as if just another race! The final water feature made sure everyone finished nice and wet! Times were unimportant however for the record, Mark cantered round in 56.59, as did Dave 57.14, and Chris 1.05.14… Mick & Paul 1.23.43, Danielle, Luke, Catherine, Angie, Lea and Shaun all crossed in and around 1.39.31 with Andy making a huge splash….. literally at the finish 1.46. By the time we hit the pub back in Sleaford for much needed re-hydration courtesy of Dr’s Guinness and Carlsberg our feet had almost thawed and talk was of 2009….. Bring it on grrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!
HellRunner Up North 2008  
2nd Nov - Hell up North Delamere Forest Park, Cheshire, Multi-Terrain. Let’s start at the end... This Race Is BRILLIANT, the most interesting and challenging race I have ever done and that’s from a history of over 400 races of all classes from ultra to international mountain race. Team “Toonie Express” – Chris Smith & Dave Raynes left Ancaster early for Cheshire and the Delamere Forest, this proved to be the perfect venue for a race called HellRunner. There was a busy little event village with the RAF Recruitment team, maybe they saw something in people who would do this race, as well as our old friends from Goodness Shakes and many others, it was nice to meet Alex the boss from Goodness Shakes who was also racing, although we didn’t see her at the end! There were 1,900+ entered for the race but only 1,400+ finishers so either they didn’t all turn up or didn’t all finish, probably a bit of both! The start was evil with a twisty long uphill followed by a fast downhill but we did have fireworks! What ensued is hard to put into words but it’s burnt into my mind. There was a first bog, I thought ahh that was the bog of doom (well they did fill it with horse poo), didn’t look too bad! Wrong!! more bogs later ahh these must be the bogs, waist deep, muddy, stinky... Nope we get to half a mile from the finish so all nice and tired then meet the Bogs of Doom, hundreds of yards of real muddy stinky stagnant river waist high with bits of tree now that was hard. The Hills of Hell was not so much one bit of the 12 mile route but a concept that the planner kept at the front of his mind all the time, although there were some quite spectacular ups and downs. This was not your normal race very VERY far from it (see the pictures) this was the most fun you can have in mud, water and running shoes even if you do have to throw away your socks afterwards! Thanks to Dave for driving, I hope the car smells better now. I’ll drive next year! Chris Smith 213rd 1:44:19 32nd in class Top 15% Dave Raynes 380th 1:53:21 12th in class Top 30% Not bad for a couple of old guys! 1,900+ entrants 1,446 finishers
Survival Of The Fittest 2008 Chris and Dave (Before). 11th Oct 2008 - Survival of the Fittest Nottingham, Multi-Terrain. Dave - Be warned all club members, if Chris Smith has a very good idea for a slightly different race he would like you to enter with him 'BE AFRAID, BE VERY AFRAID' 10km didn't sound too bad, even though painted across the finish line in big letters 12.5KM should have said something, along with the view of the first obstacle 4 metre high bales, and the last obstacle 3 metre high wall. The various obstacles between the first and last varied from ok. to ' I know I should not have entered'. Obstacle courses including scramble nets with hideously muddy stuff underneath, to a double soaking in the water sports centre at Holme Pierrepont. An urban jungle, scrambling through wrecked cars, over skate board ramps and trying to climb a ramp 3 meters high covered in margarine. This was certainly a survival of the fittest, we were in good company as in the first wave of 200 runners on the start line with Chris and me was Dean Macey our Olympic decathlete. I managed to finish in 1hr 15 mins about 2 minutes behind Chris, he only kept ahead because he Knew that I may have other ideas of where to shoot that arrow on the archery section. The last obstacle the 3 meter high wall may as well have been a block of flats, I was struggling somewhat, but to my amazement I was suddenly on top of the wall, having been hurled up there by two huge guys dressed as nurses. It pays to have medical insurance. Chris - My 45th race of the year was a little different from all before it! I got a phone call from Alex of Goodness Shakes telling me I had won a place in their team ! Great free racing! 4 days to train... What have I let myself in for a little research on the website and I'm scared and very interested. Thanks again to Alex and my team mate Dave (180 Marathons) Raynes also has a place so Team "Sleaford Town Runners Extreme Adventure" is born! Yea Haaaa (yes we're a bunch of cowboys) I really should have told him about the race, so I let him in on the details on the drive to Nottingham to various groans. We sign in and get the Goodness Shakes T-Shirts on followed by the Before Pictures, very clean! It's at this point that we notice the Farmer Giles's Bale Wall, Final Wall and Archery, looks fine we think. After a pre race Goodness Shake an energetic warm up and we line up for the start. Dean Macey says a few words, hang on he's in our team – great news, I make a mental note to try and catch him. 3-2-1 and off we go! Mad rush for the bale wall and the crazy camera man on it followed by a long run out past Nottingham Forest to the PK Zone, very strange and not what road runners are used to but I was there early so no problems. The next zone is the Army Assault Course complete with scramble net, crawl nets and mud – all great fun and a real change. I leave the crawl nets muddy but with a great smile. Another blast down to the Postman's Walk, hard to explain but think cold water and lots of it, no way to walk on the wire it's just a question of fall in and get cold and wet. After this is the slide into the water and swim round an island all very cold and different. Next some cross country with nasty little ups and downs, that's more normal for us runners. Next up is the Road Works Slalom with interesting Spiders Web, Slalom and Maze, the Margarine Covered Ramp with climbing ropes looks easy, it's not at all! Four goes to get up that and make a mental note to do much more upper body work, where can I get kettle bells in the next 10mins? The Urban Action Zone was very strange, climbing through cars and running up and over skateboard ramps, great fun! a real first for me and very enjoyable. The "Stocking Fillers" were interesting little extras between the main obstacles. Converting a Rugby Try and scoring a Basket (Basketball) were quite skilful and I managed both first time! The water pipe through mucky pond water was not such fun and made the car stink all the way home. A cross country run down to Nottingham Forest Football Ground for the Goodness Shakes Stadium Challenge, up and down many small flights of steps, hard but not hard enough for us hill runners but many others were suffering by this stage. Next is 1k back to the start/finish area and the Under Armour Archery Challenge and again, (with Luck), I manage to hit the target first shot. A small run then it's the final killer wall! Ahhhhh after trying once to get over un-assisted we work as a team and I give a fellow competitor a leg up, when he is up there he grabs my arm and another gives me a leg up and I'm up there! Team work rules. After dragging up a competitor I jump down and run for the finish remembering to put my arms up and pose for the camera. My team make Dave is just behind by about 2 minutes, I can't believe it! How did he do that? A real great race with a difference, it's ALL different and very special. We had such a great time we will be back next year! I have been looking for other adventure races already and will be at the HellRunner Up North, it will be good to catch up with the Goodness Shakes Team I just have to break the news to Dave that he is doing another crazy race! Oh hang on tomorrow's Half Marathon is really going to hurt as well.
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| Team Training Runs 2008
Seagrave Challenge - November This year the challenge had an added surprise for the 488 runners and walkers at the village hall start, just before the start bell, rung by the yeoman, the organiser coolly announced due to a problem with a right of way they have added an extra mile to the course which will make the race 16.8 miles. Not usually a problem on a cross country course, until you add in to the equation of much more mud and extremely slippery conditions compared with previous years. The course is through beautiful countryside, including private estates and parklands but due to the conditions, runners spent most of the time looking at the ground trying to make sure they were not going to finish in a heap in the mud. The Toonies had a good turn out for this race with Dave Tilley and Mark Sands leading the way as usual and finishing in the same time of 2hrs 3mins in 7th and 8th place respectively. Chris Smith was next in in 50th place in a time of 2hr 20mins, feeling exhausted after his son Matthew had given Chris the slip and made his Dad chase him all the way back to Seagrave with Chris 2 minutes adrift with Matthew in 44th place in a fantastic time of 2hrs 18 mins. Next of the Toonies was Dave Taylor running well to finish in 64th place in 2hrs 28mins two minutes ahead of Alex Hetherington 2hrs 30mins and 68th place. Bringing up the rear for the Toonies having passed each other several times during the race was Dave Raynes 2hrs 33mins and Mike Folland 2hrs 39mins in 82nd and 95th places, still very pleased with the times considering the wet conditions and the ques at some of the styles. Spires & Steeples 12m & 26.2m - October Sunday 19th October was the date for the first running of the Spires and Steeples challenge, the full distance being from Lincoln to Sleaford using a waymarked footpath. The event started in the grounds of Lincoln castle and gave an excellent down hill start running down the cobbles of steep hill Lincoln. From there out in to the countryside to Washingborough, following the well written desciptive map, for those that were reading it the course was easy to follow. This was not the case for everyone though, as the 15 or so runners who were in front of me suddenly appeared behind me having taken a wrong turn in Washinborough and were now trying to make up lost ground. The course wound its way through many of our wonderful Lincolnshire villages towards the half way mark at Metheringham, where the shorter course finished, and after taking on refreshments the runners for the full marathon headed on towards Scopwick. The course was dry under foot and the weather was pleasant if a little breezy, after Scopwick we headed for Rowston, Digby, Dorrington and on to Ruskington. The final stage took us out across the busy A153 to pick up the river bank and turn for the final push on to the finish at the Sleaford Leisure Centre, this was a tough section uneven under foot and head in to the now stiff beeze. It was good to be greeted at the finish after my 4hrs 15 minutes of running by fellow club members, some who had finished at the half way mark, some who had completed the full and some who hadn,t run but made the effort to turn out and see us home,many thanks to them all for there support. Special thanks to Chris Smith who cycled the full course on Saturday to add a few indication arrows to make the course easier to read on the day. Sleaford town runners had a great turn out for the half and the full marathon 16 runners in all, and this would make a great event next year to get as many members as possible to have a go at this course, with the usual gathering and debrief in the Barge and Bottle after the race. Well done to the organisors of this new event, and I hope they manage to make this an annual event for the future. Dave Raynes. Chris Smith led home the 12 mile Club finishers in 1.30, Beth Wilmot and Mick Dakin crossed together in 1.41 with Danielle La Roche next to finish in 1.46. Catherine Simpson and Fiona Robertson finished in 2.12, Holly McDonnell running well until a muscle injury forced her slow, still finished with her Dad John in 2.17, Hollies Brother Matthew also running would finish some 10 minutes ahead, with Pat Riches completing our team finishing in 2.20. Mark Sands and Dave Tilley looked relaxed as they finished in 3.32, Alex Hetherington following up her first lady finish at the Seabank Marathon in the Summer again finished first lady home in 3.44. Dave Taylor produced a solid time of 3.58 accompanied for the second half of the race by Mike Folland. Dave Raynes 4.15 and Stephen Brear completing our full distance runners finishing in 5.55. Ponton Plod - September The third running of this cross country challenge offering two courses of either 17 miles or 27 miles, from Great Ponton on the A1 near Grantham covering some excellent countryside through Buchminster, Croxton Kerial, Denton Harlaxton and finally back to Ponton. It was a wonderful day weather wise on Sunday 21st September with temperature climbing to 21 degrees in bright sunshine, and no breeze at all, this made for a tough race, but at least the ground conditions were in our favour being quite dry for the whole of the race. I manage to keep Dave Taylor in sight for almost 10 of the 27 miles, but he set him self a good pace and gradually pulled away out of sight before the first check point at Croxton Kerrial. Dave ran on well in the second half of the race maintaining his pace and finished in an excellent time of 4hrs 59 mins. I ran well enough to the last check point at Wyville but struggled to keep my pace going over the last 4 miles, but still pleased with my 5 hours 14 mins in seventh position overall, this being a bit of a landmark for me as this was my 180th full marathon. Full distance clocked by Dave Taylor on his garmin was 27.8 miles. Sherwood Pikes 10k - July Four Town Runners travelled the short distance to the Sherwood Pines 10k Trail Race deep in the Nottinghamshire countryside. This was the second running of this race and the numbers have grown to over 400 competitors. We assembled for the start in the centre of Sherwood Forest and set off on the hilly course on the beautiful well maintained trails. Chris Smith was first home in 41.47 followed by Dave Raynes in 45.28 Catherine Simpson 1.01 and Pat Riches 1.04. The weather stayed fine and we finished a very pleasant day with a picnic. Thanks also to Mari for her support on the day. | |
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