Hellstone Marathon

Yesterday I headed East to Dorset to partake in The Hellstone Marathon. This was a bit of a last minute entry for me, ideally I wanted to do the half but this was sadly sold out so I thought what the Hell and submitted my £1 per mile entry fee and entered the marathon- although now I’m slightly worried that they will want an extra £1 from me seeing as the route was 27.2 miles!

The morning did not start off so well, stomach issues, followed by having to scrape the frost off the car in 2 degree temperature and more issues on arrival in the port-a-loo! I was concerned that this would be like the Ex to Axe run a couple of years ago and in an attempt to stop that occurring again I ate a peanut butter wrap and hoped for the best.

I knew it was going to be a tough event but really wondered if I had bitten off more than I could chew when I saw the start……

it wasn’t long before we were off, and shortly after the walking commenced up that Mountain!

Despite the cool morning, the sky was clear and soon warmed up and I regretted wearing my long sleeve. Now you will know I love off road running and I was really looking forward to running in a different county, as far as I was concerned this was a day out in the countryside and it did not disappoint. There was some cute animals

a variety of terrain, rocky paths, long lush grass, narrow sheep tracks, road, forest paths oh and some incredible scenery…

and some glimpses of the sea

of course there was a small matter of 3000 feet of elevation, but I love hills, right?

On one hand this was a day out exploring the countryside but on the other hand I wanted to do this in under 5 hours, hard not to be gutted to finish in 5:00:51 but in my defence there was the extra mile I haven’t paid for! Overall I was pleased with how it went and how I coped and especially pleased with the  last mile completed at a 8 minute mile pace due to that lush down hill!

Recovery going well-just as well really with the next Long Marathon (28 miles) in two weeks!