Saturday morning I found myself asking why I had signed up for a race that was brand new, I had no idea what was to come, all I knew was Pippingford had a reputation. As we arrived it was clear to see why, rolling hills as far as the eye could see!
Image credit www.mybibnumber.com
After paying our £5 and parking as close as we could to the start area we headed off to find the toilets and pick up our numbers. There were plenty of toilets so not long to queue, bonus! We then headed for the registration tent, a marshal told us that 5 mile runners could line up in any of the three lines. Quick and easy, showing our email confirmation and then we had our numbers and bag tags. After a dash back to the car to get our extra layers on and pin numbers and then it was time to go!
The course was designed to include as many uphill’s as they could manage I think!
The warm up had already started when we arrived but we caught a few minutes of grabbing a stranger and shaking each others arms style warming up, always a giggle! And then it was time to go! The course was designed to include as many uphill’s as they could manage I think! We covered various degrees of hill, from the gentle jog-able hills to the hands and knees sliding back down it hill and everything in between! Many of the downhills were so muddy and slippery it was hard to build up much speed.
Image credit www.mybibnumber.com
The course wasn’t one for man-made obstacles but did have a few ‘natural’ obstacles. Not including the hills the first was a huge pond of water which varied in height under the water so depending on the route you took some people were waist deep and others nearly neck deep!
The pond also contained two hidden trees, a sign that they were there might have been nice! Other than that the water was mainly consisted of crossing streams that were no more than calf deep, although some had steep banks to make getting out that bit harder. That was until the final section of the course where we were greeted with another three water crossings, two ponds and one muddy pool.
Image credit www.mybibnumber.com
In between all the water was plenty of running over varying terrain. Thick squelchy sucking off shoes mud, wooded leaf covered ground and rocks mixed with mud, it had it all!
There weren’t many marshals on the course and the course was well sign posted enough that you could just follow the person in front of you! We did come across one marshal handing out sweets, very welcome!
Image credit www.mybibnumber.com
The final stretch of the course was an uphill section, not exactly sprint finish material although some people gave it a good try! We were greeted with a nice chunky medal, water and importantly foil blankets! The wind in the event village made it the coldest area of the course!
Overall it was a really well organised event for their first one. Challenging terrain that pushed you and attempted to break some. I’d like to see more water and waist deep mud next time! My only disappointment was many people only clocked 4.5 miles on their Garmin’s!
Image credit www.mybibnumber.com
Thanks MyBibNumer for the images, Find more images from the event here
Article written by Hayley Glenister