Jurassic Day 3 - More hills

So there we were at the start of the third and final day of this year's Jurassic Challenge. It's called a Challenge because it's not a race. (Yeah right! Try telling that to the guys - and girls - at the front). We were back at Lulworth Cove for this start, and here I am raring to go. The start took us down to the beach for about 200m, then up this little hill as a warm up. You can see the path running down the centre of the picture. This was the first set of steps for the day. I hate running down steps!

After Lulworth Cove was a series of big hills. Now I have been known to run a flat Half Marathon in 1Hr 40mins, but after some punishing hills for 13 miles, my watch showed over 3 hours.

However during this stretch, we passed some of the Oners. The Oners were a group of 61 starters who were taking on the Jurassic Challenge as a single day race. So they started at 18.00 on Saturday and hoped to finish by 18.00 on Sunday. I have to say that when we passed these runners, they were hanging, having covered 60 or so miles in 18 hours. How they made it through that first day mud overnight, I don't know.

Here's another hill...beautiful scenery, but after 50 plus miles, one likes a bit less undulation.

We were running through military ranges now. So you can see a group of tanks just to the right of the road in the centre of the picture. Guess what? We'd just come down that hill and were going up the other side.

We again had our fair share of mud. This shot shows the ridge up the centre of a muddy path that I referred to yesterday. There was just no way of avoiding it.

Somewhere after the halfway point, a kind walker agreed to take a picture of me. I'm really not sure about this picture. While it shows that I was sort of enjoying the run, I think my arms look longer than my legs! The waist strap from the rucksack also makes it look like I have a paunch. I'm certain I got rid of that. However, you can clearly see my support for St Peter's on the shirt.

I should add that we have so far raised close to £7,000 for St Peter's, a great total, but still a long way to go. (Please click on the Just Giving link at the side of this blog to donate!)

Swanage provided a change of scenery. No hills, although the concrete was very slippery on the seashore. We had just passed the last checkpoint meaning about 10km to go. A nice easy one hour run normally. But normally I wouldn't have run 72 miles getting there, and we still had one big climb to go. I had been running the last few miles with Carole, Samantha and Liam. Carole was the leading Female Vet (but it's not a race!).

We made it over the last hill and down the other side to Studland Bay, a beautiful sandy beach. Sam and Liam had pulled ahead of Carole and me on the descent through some woods, but when we got onto the beach Sam and Liam were nowhere in sight. We could however see the finish about two miles away. We couldn't figure out where they could have gone.

Here's Carole leaving me standing on the final 'sprint' to the finish.

The last 500m was up through the soft sand. Not good on weary legs, which were screaming for the finish to come into sight. Note no sign of Carole now!

Then some massive puddles across the path, which meant we could wash our muddy shoes!

..and into the final finishing stretch.

Mike finished with a great smile at the finish and ran with his walking poles that definitely helped in the mud.

We all received a finish medal of a glass trophy that we will savour for many years. My time on the final day was 5Hr 50mins, which I was delighted to achieve on such a gruelling course.

And what of Sam and Liam? They appeared about 10 minutes later, crossing the finish line in the wrong direction and having run an extra couple of miles. They got lost on the last descent. These races can be cruel!

Overall, a fantastic training event for the TransAlp. Superb scenery along a beautiful coastline to keep the mind off the pain of the hills and the mud. I should also add that I thought the event was logistically very well organised by the VO2 team. Carting everyone around to the starts and back from the finish each day and providing loads of food and drink at the checkpoints takes some organisation and they did it with a smile and good cheer, even if the runners were too knackered to say thanks.

Roll on the next marathon.