Hell Down South – 26/27 November 2011 

Kim Brackley reports from the Hellrunner.

The Brooks Hellrunner series is held at Longmoor military training camp up the A3. Because of the amount of participants there were several car parks around the course and the walk from where we were parked wasn't that far to the main arena and the starting line. Both days of this race/run were sold out and there were over 1800 runners yesterday which included a Borat in a mankini (very brave), Vikings and a city gent complete with bowler hat, briefcase and umbrella. The eagerly anticipated arrival of the devil (on stilts) with smoke and fireworks walking down towards the start line was great and then we were off.

The first 5-6 miles I thought were a bit boring and not at all hellish and then it started to pick up a bit. All of the race was along tracks with a few bottlenecks on ascents and descents due to the number of runners rather than the course itself. There was a bit of scrambling up some of the hills and going downwards was quite precarious as I went flying twice and felt a bit of a wally lying there obstructing the path but fellow runners did stop and ask if I was ok which fortunately I was. There really did appear to be a real sense of comradeship amongst all those taking part.

Kim in the ‘Bog of Doom’

It was around about the 7 mile mark that it started to feel a bit more interesting with more hills and it was getting bit more muddier, and around mile 8 was the infamous ‘Bog of Doom’. We knew this was coming up as we could hear yelling from competitors and spectators alike. The bog was smelly and cold, they had fire above it (which didn't warm anyone up) and someone was thoughtfully firing a smoke gun at anyone silly enough to think they could run through it. Halfway along the bog the coldness started to numb the legs making it harder to move forwards but we were lucky it was 15° warmer than last year when they had to break the ice.

After the bog it was onwards through more woodland until we reached the pond which was easy to get in and thankfully not as deep as the bog, but not so easy to get out off as the sandy bank was wearing away and there was only room for one person at a time to go along the top before dropping back down into it again.

By then I knew we were heading towards the finish but was so not prepared to hit the sandy part of the course, obviously thrown in for good measure to really knacker the legs. Thankfully the marshal told us that there was only a mile to go after that point which was such a boost we picked up our pace and headed towards the finish which took me 1hr 47mins to reach.

The goody bag was very good, medal, t-shirt, protein drink, shakes, bars, toiletries etc. We didn't have to wait too long to get our baggage which contained the all important dry clothes, but there was no changing areas so people just made do with strategically placed towels and averted their eyes!  Unfortunately my race wear is on its fourth soaking in a bucket at home …

So far this has been the most demanding adventure race as it was the hardest one on the legs but this was mainly due to the length which was around ten miles (according to one reviews on RW). They could make it a lot more hellish though ....

Kim