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Mick Lee
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My Pilgrim’s Challenge Blog
It began with a lovely fresh 0830 start-line in Sandy’s Farm, Searle, off we trotted through the North Downs Way full of enthusiasm and plenty of talking, oddly that continued for most of the run. The weather was fantastic, 9 degrees’ pretty much all day and an expectation of 9hrs as the finish time, I was carrying 6kg – without water so just under my expectation for the MDS carrying weight. I’ve decided that all Ultra-runners are complete space cadets as even when they’re in pain they smile and enjoy the challenge, I’m still not there.
Box Hill, whilst challenging was made all the harder after 20 miles of continuous walk/running, made more difficult by the race winner passing me like I was standing still, smiling, and hoping I was having a lovely day, he did that on the way back on day two. Nice guy but wanted to trip him when he passed me both times. The end of the first day was at Redhill school, a few blisters and to my horror some minor tears in my trainers. The evening was well organised with some amazing ladies talking their MdS and running experiences followed by a questionable evening on the school hall floor with what was the loudest snorer I have ever heard My coach proved his mettle with being the last man in at 12 hours and being 69 years old with no long-distance training, what a performance
Day 2 was a cold 0715 start, off we went with slightly achy bodies and feet but no less enthusiasm, watching my shoe as I stepped and questioning if it would make it, very soon we were trotting and got into our stride, the views as daylight broke were amazing so had to take a quick sunrise shot After that it was just a case of head day and push, through Reigate and Box Hill, down the steps, the knees took a battering there but on we went, through the checkpoints and we were moving well. We got to the finish line comfortably, again ahead of our expected 9 hours as it’s meant to be tougher on the way back so were happy at the finish line. My trainers were finished despite best efforts to tape them up to keep them together, they held just enough to see me through
The results:
Day 1 – 7hrs 13 minutes, Day 2 – 7hrs 40 minutes