Colin has become obsessed by ultra marathons. He saw the Run Sandringham 24 event, held on the Sandringham estate, and signed up to it like some crazy fool. It involves running as many laps as you can, where a lap is five miles (~8 km), in 24 hours. The start time is noon tomorrow, and the finish time is noon on Sunday. Any laps started before 11:59:59 am on Sunday must be completed before 1 pm if they’re to count.
by Caity
Image description: a small grey two-person tent is pitched beside the track, which is marked with yellow rope strung between posts. Cars and vans are parked on the other side of the track where other people are setting up camp.
The plan was to pitch the tent as close to the course as possible for easy pit stops, then recce the route – we’d tried last weekend, but were thwarted because some of the track is on private land – and explore the event village. After that, I’d leave Colin to it to go back home and look after Mr Perkins. We were thwarted by unavailability of the cattery over the weekend, what with it being the school holidays and short notice. When Mr Perkins was fed, drugged and watered, I’d return to base camp for the night.
by Caity
Image description: a big sheet of dark plastic with the names of participants (solo and team) listed in white. The Run Sandringham logo is in the middle.
We started our recce of the route at the tent, which is very close to the start, and set off. The route rose out of the event village, and went up for quite some time, before passing a cricket pitch. It passed, but didn’t go through, the Sandringham Estate’s touristy bit with the shops and eateries and toilets, but we went and made use of the facilities anyway. Our pillows and sleeping mats may not necessarily be inflated, but the prices certainly were!
Continuing, we went through the private land – a cricket club, where there will be a match on tomorrow – and came out at the road, which would be closed to all traffic except to and from the cricket club. During our thwarted recce, the path back into the forest had been overgrown, but it has since been cut back, which is a relief because there were nettles. No one likes nettles!
I was glad we’d done the recce because there were some parts where the course seemed confusing because of arrows pointing here, there and everywhere. Having traversed the whole thing meant we understood that some of the arrows were for where the route passed itself on the way back then diverted.
by Caity
Image description: a flat field under a blue sky with fluffy white clouds, with trees on the horizon. Various stalls and trucks selling refreshments and camping supplies line the left hand side. Picnic tables are dotted about. There’s a blue arch of the kind used for finish lines is set up, but can’t be the actual finish line because the course doesn’t include it. Most puzzling. Far on the right are some green portaloos and tents.
Back at home, all was well, but I got back to camp later than intended, so I missed out on the entertainment. I was only a little disappointed; there was time for a cheeky beer (Adnams’ Ghost Ship 0.5%) before bed.
I brought a few things back with me, including normal pillows. My inflatable camping pillow had developed a leak somewhere some time between finishing Hadrian’s Wall Path and starting the South Downs Way. Colin usually used a dry bag full of clothes. Seeing as we were ‘car camping’, I thought we might as well use proper pillows.
It turned out Colin’s sleeping pad had also developed a leak at some point. Alas, I missed his message telling me this, or I might have taken him his old foam sleeping mat to lie on, rather than a beach towel.
This is the trouble with inflatables. They’re great till they leak.
by Caity
Image description: a line of silhouetted trees under a pale blue and yellow sky with grey pink-tinged clouds. The crescent moon hangs low over the trees, edged in orange-red. A cluster of glamping tents is illuminated at the base of the trees.
The big race starts tomorrow – time for bed!
