Race Report – Greensands Marathon

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Total number of miles – 26.2
Total number of Meters climbed – ~1000 meters or something like that
Total Drinks – Every thing I could find, lots of cups were empty after I left the stations!
Total Food – Co-Co pops in the car on the way to the race, 1 9Bar on the way round, Haribo and crisps at aid stations

Firstly a big thanks to Trionium for a fantastic route/ race/ organisation/ post race breakfast, secondly, when I race I GET LOST REALLY EASILY – so I need fool proof arrows to follow… so I got lost twice, i’m an idiot, but in the famous words of Holly from Red Dwarf “still, you’ve gotta laugh!”

Piccies below, thankfully it was an out and back course so I only needed to take photos on the outward journey, I wasn’t feeling great and wasn’t running at mach speeds (not even 0.0117 mach as per my last training run!) was going to happen, I also started to get pretty bad cramp 15 miles in – so I was happy to put the camera away. Great results from James, Jen, Geraldine and Carla – impressive stuff.

Greensands is named as there are a few trails on the route which are Sandy and there are loads of Green trees – there maybe a more geological reason but I’ve not looked yet (turns out it’s on their website, though it is a bit weird having sand so far in land. The race starts in Dorking and takes in – Westcott – Coldharbour – Leith Hill – Somerset Hill – Holmbury Hill- Pitch Hill – Reyards Hill – Winterfold Hill (to 13.1 miles) – and then back again!

One great thing about going the wrong way was when I re-routed I bumped into Malcolm, a chap from Manchester who was a legend at the Gore-Tex Transalps last month for supporting in two different spots each day on mountains, often reaching hard to get spots, which I think I can say for everyone it was well appreciated. He’s a fast fella too so I found out! Otherwise I had the usual fun on the run meeting and chatting to some great sports.

Photos (p.s. i’ve started to reduce the size of these to save space – happy to send you originals if anyone wants them)…