The end of year Doyen

Marathon T

What can you say about the 30 mile trail run that is the end of year session for the ‘extreme running’ organisation? It is hard work, that’s a good start.

The weather leading up to the December 2009 running of the ‘Doyen of the Downs’ trail race can only be described as wet, in fact very wet is closer, if you wanted to go mad then ‘monsoon season’ would be closer still. The flooding across this part of the country was extensive and meant that for us a course alteration was required on the day to avoid a very large body of water that in normal years would have been a nice flat field to jog across.

As always with ‘ultra’ races the day began very early in a deserted car park in a very sleepy town, in this case Arundel, West Sussex. I had checked out of the hotel around the corner, before reception was occupied, and dumped all of my non-running gear in the hire car. The plan was to run the race then head straight up to Gatwick in my gear to pick up my girlfriend from her flight and spend a few days in the UK. The timing of this meant I had a maximum of five and a half hours to complete the 30 mile trail run across the South Downs in order to arrive in time for her plane landing.

After checking in I changed, dumped my ‘drop’ bag at the football club hall, and strolled outside to the car park for a bit of last minute stretching and warming up. While I chatted with another couple of mad runners I had a check around and noticed I was the only one in the assembled throng who had decided on just shorts for the day, everyone else seemed to have gone for the much more sensible precaution of winter tights (knee or full-length). They clearly knew something I didn’t and when the icy rain started lashing down about 15 mins before the start I got a brief taste of what it might be.

As we were called forward for the start I decided to hang back towards the rear as my training had not been exhaustive and I felt a bit undercooked for the challenge and knew where the pace I had to set myself to make my cut-off would put me in the large group of experienced looking runners.

We were off at 0830 and immediately into a queue to get around the first few twisty corners – worse was to come 5 mins later as the crush of runners got to the first stile. Clearly those with some experience of this particular race had situated themselves at the front to avoid this 5 min delay and stop-start of the first mile (I also waited a couple of minutes at a foot crossing for a train to pass). As the run continued and the rain lashed down the going underfoot got progressively worse. The Doyen turned into a real cross-country challenge with even well placed feet disappearing into ankle deep mud with almost every step. As I approached the first checkpoint I had already managed to plaster mud up to me knees and the brief respite of tarmac allowed me to divest myself of a good few pounds of sticky Sussex mud from each shoe.

The next 10 or so miles passed with more rain, some very wet/muddy trail conditions and absolutely stunning scenery – as we crested the hill at 12-13 miles (after a 3 mile uphill slog) the views across the Downs more than made up for the exertions thus far. A very treacherous descent followed (I almost, dangerously, lost my footing twice as I squirmed down the steepest parts of the hill) and we continued on to the halfway point at Storrington.

It is fair to say that up to 18 miles I felt good as I rumbled through the mud – I passed halfway in around 2hrs 30mins, much quicker than I had expected. So as I approached 20 miles I knew the final stretch was going to be very challenging. I had seen the course profile so knew there was a significant hill waiting for us between 20 – 22 miles but as I got to the bottom of it and stared upwards I hadn’t realise how far it would go on for.

I really struggled up the hill – was passed by a number of people – and took (as always) to thinking why I ever decided to participate in this bl**dy ‘sport’. Over the hill (as I felt at the time) and down the other side I picked up the pace and eventually got myself to the final checkpoint before the finish.

As we turned towards Arundel the organisers had a final twist in store for us as they took us on a loop along the river Arun with the finish at the castle no more than a mile away (by the most direct route – which we obviously were not taking) for the final 3 miles. The coup de grace came as we had to slip down an embankment and over a small fence to enter the finishing area and then wade across the sodden ground to finish under the banner and finally have a rest (after picking up the obligatory t-shirt and memento – an embossed shot glass - which was a bit of a novelty).

I finished in 5hrs and 18 mins – which was perfect timing but my original plan to pull on a pair of track pants and jump in the hire car had to be immediately rethought due to the amount of mud which had, by the finish, coated my claves in clumps up to my knees and distributed a fair smattering right up to the top of my thighs. So, grabbing my small sports towel I sought out the football club showers for a refreshing hosing off, then had the awful prospect of walking back to the car in clean track pants and event t-shirt plus my sodden and squelching trail shoes.

170 runners finished the Doyen of the Downs 2009 under the official cut-off time of 7 hours. The winner finished in 3hrs 36mins (which is my Marathon PB!), although the first couple of runners did follow an incorrect sign near the finish and cut a mile or so from the route the rest of us mortals struggled through (that is my excuse for finishing a mere 1hr 42mins behind)!

All-in-all a fantastic finish to the year, and definitely a race to repeat in years to come, although I’m not sure you would ever be able to compare different years over the same course given the impact of the conditions – but then maybe that is half the fun (certainly I misplaced half the fun somewhere around the route).

So, the running year of 2009 has ended for this Mofo – scores on the doors were - two half-marathons, two marathons, a 30 mile trail run & a 58 mile cross-country completed. Not a bad year – but plenty to improve on in 2010.

Cheers all,

Marathon T