A Spaniard in the Warks

Apologies to John Lennon for stealing and adapting his pun for my title, I checked whether it would be okay and he was happy to let it be.  Another one of Broadmeadow's self-navigated gems was on the agenda for Good Friday and it really was a fantastic day for enjoying the scenery out on the Cotswolds.  Having been out and about before dawn in order to provide a taxi service for the first stage of my son's holiday travel I opted for the earliest start time of 8am.  There were about 20 others at the start line with me and so with route descriptions clutched in our hands and Chris Seeney's usual booming Shakespearean speech ringing in our ears we happy few, we band of brothers (and sisters) trotted off for our magical mystery tour of the local hills.

This was a bright, sunny day but reasonably cool, ideal for my planned relaxed training run.  One of the joys of these events is the social element if you're not bothered about pace, and with the cross country, uneven nature of the course, the countless gates and stiles to negotiate, the sometimes confusing route descriptions, why would you be?  The groups of runners tend to stretch out on the runnable sections but naturally compress at the stiles or where directions are unclear, so you gather together, discuss possibilities, see if we can work it out and then run on until the next meeting becomes necessary.

Loop one was completed in this relaxed style, the later starters were encountered on their way out as we returned, increasing the social aspect of the event, greetings, handshakes and hugs were dispensed, words of encouragement and jokes exchanged, photos taken and all with the backdrop of the Cotswold Hills on this gorgeous spring morning.  Marathon running doesn't get much more enjoyable than this, I would be happy to be out there eight days a week rather than just a day tripper.

As we set out on the second and final loop I was part of a group of about eight other runners in the familiar stretch out, regroup, stretch out again routine, some of the directions on this section were really quite tricky to follow and it was within a mile that another competitor zipped past us with a rangy stride that just ate up the trail, I reckon he was easily at sub three hour pace which was phenomenal on the terrain.  Within a  couple of minutes or so we caught him at a particularly confusing intersection of trails.  He was talking angrily in Spanish with his arms outstretched in a gesture of hopelessness, clearly in need of help.  Even with the benefit of a careful reading through of the directions we English speakers struggled to deduce the correct route, eventually deciding it was a somewhat counter-intuitive double-back around the end of a hedge.  We conveyed this to him and he sprinted off down the long and winding trail at an impressive pace.

We followed on at a gentler effort level but it wasn't too long before we spotted him tearing back towards us.  He was really quite agitated this time.  Strangely, although we were all quite happy with the route at this point, his confusion started to affect us and we began questioning ourselves, but continued on and were able to get his attention as he again sped off and gesture him in the correct direction, 'I've got a feeling', one of our number opined, 'it won't be long before we see him again'.  His prediction proved accurate.

Within half an hour we were with him again in the middle of a field and he just wanted to give up, he'd had enough.  I did feel sorry for him, he was clearly a very talented runner and I guess had entered the race expecting a normal marathon with a clear route but had instead found himself running around the Warwickshire countryside with no directions and increasing despair.  After seeing the poor man here, there and everywhere for an hour or so we didn't encounter him again so I imagine he just tried to retrace his steps back to race HQ, I hope he was able to get back.  

In the latter stages of the final loop I found myself in a mini-group of four, the other three were all going faster than I wanted and so I was on my own a fair bit, which was no problem, I just wanted to keep visual contact so that I didn't have to concern myself with navigation.  The points at which I caught up became less frequent but this was a nice little mental challenge, forcing myself to maintain a slightly faster pace than was completely comfortable as the heat of the day started to increase.  I had one weird experience when running along a narrow path through the middle of a field of rapeseed, the brilliant yellow flowers reflecting the sunlight into my vision peripherally made me feel a bit like I was floating, although my feet were being pitched about by the rutted earth, and this soon started me feeling a bit sick.  I had to slow down to stop the nausea which then meant I then had to dash through the next field to keep the others in sight.

And that was it really, a successful training run, albeit with pace ranging from 9-14 minutes per mile due to the nature of the course, another marathon in the bag, beautiful scenery, friends and great running weather - good day sunshine!

18th April 2014  Broadmeadow Good Friday marathon  4:43:39  #32