Craig Dixon reports on this Jurassic madness.
The Dorset Doddle is
classed as a challenge event and is organised by the Long Distance
Walkers Association. It is 32 miles along the South West Coastal Path
from Weymouth to Swanage and has the ascent and descent equivalent to
both Snowdon and Ben Nevis. I ran/walked this for the first time last
year when I was a little naïve as to the severity of the hills and
terrain. A year on and I was back and probably more nervous as I knew
exactly what I was letting myself in for. I had trained less this year
but had included more hills in my sessions including a long run making
the most of the Wessex Ridgeway route which I hoped would stand me in
good stead.
Entered to run the route
was Ian, Annie and myself as well as Nigel and Jill who were planning to
walk the route. We were all a bit apprehensive but at 9am in near
perfect weather conditions we set off.
I intentionally set off
slowly knowing that the first 1.5 miles along the seafront was going to
be the easiest bit of running all day. The first checkpoint was at
Osmington Mills where I was met by Claire and a bag of jelly babies. I
ran for a while with a little group that included Pete from Poole
Runners, Matt from Dorset Doddlers and coincidently a lady from Canada
who was getting married on the same day as me and Claire!!
The group soon split up
and as the weather became worse I managed to drift off onto a range walk
path that took me slightly inland and away from Kimmeridge. I had told
others before the race that it was impossible to get lost and to just
keep the sea on your right, however, as the mist descended the
visibility became poor and I lost sight of the coast line. After
realising I was on the wrong track I stopped when I reached a footpath
map and made a slight detour back onto the correct path and to the
checkpoint at Kimmeridge. I estimate this added an extra mile onto
route.
The rain was starting to
come down harder now and as the paths got muddier it became harder to
run on the flats and near impossible to get up and down the hills. I was
regretting wearing road shoes. I counted that I fell six times in the
race and coming down some of the steep hills in mud covered trainers was
bordering on dangerous.
I struggled on through the
checkpoints knowing that once I got passed Chapman’s Pool there were no
major hills to go. I counted over 200 steps on the ascent which I
tackled in blocks of 50 with a small rest in between.
|
‘Beast’ runners,
imagine how stiff a challenge
these steps represent as they come more
than 20 miles into the Doddle’s course |
At the final checkpoint I
finally saw some other runners after being alone for quite a while. I
grabbed a quick drink and tagged along with a group of three that
included Pete from Poole Runners who had overtaken me when I got lost
earlier. As we headed into Swanage and onto the seafront my legs were
feeling better than they did last year and the final couple of miles
seemed to be at a relatively decent pace. I finished in 6 hours 40
which was 7 minutes quicker than last year.
Not far behind was Annie
who was also quicker than last year and Ian next behind in a similar
time to last year.
We all grabbed our pasta
lunch and cups of tea which were included in the race entry and headed
home. It was only afterwards that we found out that due to poor
conditions that the organisers closed some of the checkpoints which
meant that some of the late walkers were effectively pulled out of the
race. Fortunately this did not include Nigel and Jill who were past
this point and finished in good times.
The results show that only
182 of the 250 entered actually started the race and only 146 actually
finished which will be down to the poor conditions on the steep terrain.
|
Entry |
Name |
|
Start |
CP2 |
CP3 |
Finish |
Time |
|
75 |
Craig |
Dixon |
9:00 |
11:07 |
12:30 |
15:40 |
6:40 |
|
77 |
Annie |
Dougall |
9:00 |
11:13 |
12:38 |
16:08 |
7:08 |
|
134 |
Ian |
Kennedy |
9:00 |
11:19 |
12:52 |
16:45 |
7:45 |
|
113 |
Jill |
Harsent |
9:00 |
11:41 |
13:30 |
17:41 |
8:41 |
|
79 |
Nigel |
Eldred |
9:00 |
11:42 |
13:41 |
18:02 |
9:02 |
|
|
182 started, 146 finished. |
Fastest time 5hr 19 min |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Median time 9 hr 45 min |
|
|
http://www.btinternet.com/~hardy.annual/doddle.htm
