Race Type: Adventure Running
Distance: 11 miles
Location: Longmoor Barracks, hampshire
www.trailplus.com/hellrunner_race.cfm
As I pulled my tired self up yet another sandy hill, a sudden vision of myself a few months earlier popped into my mind - sitting at my desk - booking myself into the 2005 Saab Salomon Hellrunner. What a great idea I'd thought - I should of guessed what I was letting myself in for when I couldn't persuade my team mates Keith and Gary to enter!
This was the first time I'd attempted to run this far. Previously, I'd run in some 10 km races, and our adventure races (being easier because of their stop start - where the hell are we aspect) had never seemed to be any further. The course was fairly familiar, as we had taken part in a Sweatshop Series AR the previous year. The first half was on fairly gently undulating terrain - the biggest obstacle being the other 1049 runners around me (as I am sure I was to them).
At around 45 minutes, I was starting to wonder whether I should have worn a camleback after all - I was starting to get seriously thirsty, and we'd started to hit some of the many short sharp hills. I just hauled myself to the top of one of those, when, like a mirage in a dessert - the drinks station magically appeared. A couple of glugs of energy drink, and I was feeling reinvigorated.
Fairly soon after this we came to the more interesting sections of the course. First up - "The Wetlands". Now, I'm no stranger to puddles, but the first so called puddle in this was actually a bog. After ten meters it was less running and more trying not to get sucked to a muddy death at the bottom. Here was my first encounter with my crowd - well, Darren from work who was here to watch his wife race. I was just about to raise two fingers and shout some abuse back when I spotted his daughter and thought better of it!
After this came the "Hills of Hell". Most of the spectators were gathered here to watch us run endlessly up and down these short but sharp lumps of sand. Very soon I was through the final puddle, so I knew I just had a few hundred meters to go. Just then, from the corner of my eye, I spotted to Red shirts putting a sprint on against me on the line - one final burst of energy to see them of and I was finished. Final position was 263rd out of 1050, with a time of 1.30.49. The winner came in at 1.04.25
Steve Butler