Grizzly ‘Valley of the Bogs’  – 13 March

As hard as a marathon? Phil Whitehurst reports.

When Ian's WACer mail went out offering up Debbie Whittle's place in the Grizzly, I had to question my sanity asking Ian whether he thought I could finish the race OK, especially as I had only got as far as 12 miles in my NDVM preparations. Of course, asking Ian’s only going to come back with ‘Yes’, so I took up the mantle, Debbie kindly handing over her place. Preparation continued by putting in an extra 12 mile long run, then winning the 5k time trial the next day, then a nice easy 10 miler the week before.  A restful prep!

Getting down to the lovely town of Seaton as early as possible turned out to be vital – it was already packed at 9am!  After wandering around town aimlessly to soak up the atmosphere, I bumped into Annemarie as I returned to the car park.  All the WACer folks were at a local café in town. Chatting there it turns out my marathon time would be a good estimate of the finishing time. Rich and Laurence also turned out to be Grizzly virgins, so we had no idea what was to come…

Lining up on the start, it was packed! The town crier was saying something no one could hear, but we just about heard the starting bell, and it was off!  Pete Lemon briefly ran alongside me, his advice was take it easy at first!

This was only too true, as the course instantly descended onto a shingle beach for half a mile.  As we passed through a boat yard, then along Seaton’s main street and then up a massive hill on the way to Beer.  No time to get one there though, we were onwards and upwards again, running along the tops of the cliffs – really stunning.  My GPS said 10min/mile – brilliant, a 3:20 finish then?

That turned out to be the easy bit … 5 miles in, we were crossing a mini river on the beach, then upwards again into the Branscombe backwoods where the real fun was to get going!  Although the weather on day was beautiful, during the previous night, it had rained hard, and there was a lot of water sloshing around. Running down a farm track, it was muddy up to my ankles.  Ah! This must be the bogs, then, I thought.

Nope. They were next. According to previous race reports the bogs were “not too bad”. This had obviously been redressed for 2011, as the bogs were extensive, deep, and plentiful! As I hit the first one, I went over, getting a proper coating. 

Out of that bog, we then went up and down more serious hills than I would do in a month, past a didgeridoo player, a farm with a live band, a bagpiper and a folk band at various points on the course.

At mile 12 or 13 or so, we descended into the second bog, which was even worse than the first! (and I mean up to thigh deep!). After each of these many bogs, I was elated that my shoes were still on…

With legs sapped from the suction, we ascended a hill completely messed up but having a proper laugh about it.  ‘Just a few more miles to go!’, ‘One more hill!’, ‘Almost there!’, ‘You’re doing brilliant!’ -  These were just some of the lies bandied about by the superb marshals on the course…

As the legs tired, the pace slowed, first to 11min/mile, then 12. Coming down to Branscombe again, just 4 miles to go!  Back across the river, then along a shingle beach for a mile – sheer evil for tired legs. But not as evil as the ‘Stairway to Heaven’, a lung sapping experience at mile 17.  I still don’t know which was worse!  The reward was the superb views as the hill was crested.

Coming down into Beer from the caravan site was an elating experience, and there was Rich, a welcome WAC shirt in the midst of the runners.  He was not having such a fun experience; his legs had given way, forcing him to walk/jog.  Wishing him luck, I jogged away at my own somewhat slowed pace, up the final monster hill to look down on the beautiful sight of the finish line just over a mile away!

Once more, we had half a mile of pebbles to overcome, with screaming legs, I hauled myself over them to the fine tarmac finish line.  That pebble beach cost me a sub-four hour time, along with the real 22.2miles that the GPS was reading as the distance, but who cares?  The whole thing was superb.

Would I enter again? You bet!  The bogs were every school kid’s best day of fun. The scenery was so superb it really wasn’t mentally as difficult as a marathon, although physically it most certainly was. The support, the marshals and the overall organisation was first class, as were the t shirts and the quantity of recovery food at the finish. Ten out of ten for me!

Phil

WACers results

3:22:45  Peter Lemon
4:03:28  Phil Whitehurst
4:09:37  Rich House
4:16:51  Robin Hughes 
4:23:28  Paul Hougham 
4:23:30  Annemarie Fachiri
4:30:31  Laurence Hegan
4:40:55  Carol Howe 
4:48:00  Nicola Roe 
4:48:02  Julie Mead