Monday, March 04, 2013
Event Report; The Belvoir Challenge
It's amazing how fast this year's going already! I couldn't believe it was already time for the Belvoir Challenge...
This is a local event for me, and as I noticed that there would be less parking available than usual I decided to leave the house to drive to Harby quite early to get there in plenty of time. This turned out to be a good decision, and I was able to park in a pub car park that was being used for the event, but by the time I had changed my shoes, hoisted my pack on my back, secured the car and left the car park the race marshals had already put up a 'car park full' sign and were turning people away.
Registration is at the Village Hall, and was quite manic as this is an extremely popular event- as well as the 26 mile route there is a 15 mile option which attracts the majority of people. As the event is run to raise funds for the village primary school, quite a few school kids were attempting the shorter route.
I grabbed a coffee, wandered around a bit and then joined what must have been the longest ever toilet queue for the line of porta loos in the car park. It was only after I reached the head of the queue that I heard someone say that the loos in the school were open and there were no queues at all... d'oh!
It was almost time to start- there are no route instructions as the route changes each year and is marked by signs and red and white tape. The two routes were to follow each other for around 5 miles and I hoped that we would not encounter many stiles...
Suddenly we were off to the strains of The Proclaimers 'I would walk 500 miles' (I hoped that this was a slight exaggeration of the day's challenges!) and heading towards our first muddy track. Last year saw the driest Belvoir Challenge I have ever known but I wasn't holding out hopes that this would be repeated this year...
We set off!
After walking along a track away from the village, we turned off it, across fields and heading towards the ridge of the Harby hills. We came up against a couple of stiles here- and inevitable queues- I followed a break away group who appeared to know where they were going and found a gate further down.
After a fairly steep climb we were on top of the ridge and walking along a fairly flat track to the point where the routes would split. As usual, most of the people around me were doing the 15 mile route and only a very few people were actually going my way!
After passing through Goadby Marwood we joined the Jubilee Way across fields to the first checkpoint at Scalford. Mercifully it wasn't too muddy, although it was freezing cold and grey, with the odd snow flurry- it was to stay like this all day.
I timed it just right reaching the checkpoint as someone was opening a huge tub of cheese sandwiches, so I accepted a coffee and lingered for a little while, before forcing my gloves back on and mentally shoving myself back out into the cold.
The route climbed through more fields and skirted the hamlet of Chadwell, with a great view of the Waltham Mast, one of the main radio transmitters for the East Midlands, set within rolling English countryside.
Ponds at Chadwell
The Waltham Mast
Waltham is a lovely village but we didn't have time to stop today... just passing through with a quick photo of an old converted windmill...
Then we were heading into horse racing country, walking across a huge wide green field alongside the gallops (no horses today though). Now the next part is the bane of my life when it comes to challenge walks in this area and I should have known when I saw that the half way point was to be at Croxton Kerrial... every challenge walk worth its salt seems to like to approach the village by way of a horrid track, filled with really deep ruts no doubt courtesy of motorcycle riders, completely filled with water or the most slippery mud!
THAT track!!!
Once the track has been negotiated with a lot of slipping and sliding, there is a long march around fields to the village- which you can see in the distance and which never seems to actually get any closer!
Croxton Kerrial, when I eventually reached it, was a peaceful haven... more so because I was the only walker there, and as I heard one of the helpers tell her son that they were starting to clear up now that it was 'near the end' I had a sudden panic that I wouldn't get back in time... for some reason I looked at the clock and although I had taken about four and a quarter hours to reach this point my befuddled brain told me I would run out of time...
I forced a cup of coffee and a couple of cheese and pickle sandwiches which had by now gone rather dry and curly and route marched through the village. I knew the next part of the route to Harston as it's part of the Ponton Plod so I have done it many times, so forced myself into a little jog, encouraged by the sight of people ahead.
After Harston I was rather dismayed by a long track full of slippery mud, and managed to convince myself I was feeling ill. As I slipped and slided, feeling increasingly sorry for myself, it started to snow harder and it was the lowest point of the walk for me.
It was such a relief to descend steeply into Woolsthorpe and the next checkpoint at 18 miles, I must say it was a most civilised affair as there were crackers and stilton on offer- only the best! My mood was boosted even further by the prospect of actually overtaking a couple of people.
Belvoir Castle
The next part of the route was last year's in reverse- a slow climb up towards the castle before reaching the road and picking up a track. Only this year we followed the track right to the woods. This is really open country and you can see for miles- you can see why they decided to build a fortification here!
There was a steepish climb up to the woods, well it felt steep to my legs, which by now were grumbling pretty loudly. I expected the woods to be muddy, but was quite pleased to see that quantities of pink stone had been tipped onto the track and levelled to make a dry surface.
My elation was slightly short lived though when this new surface ran out. Obviously they are intending to resurface the whole track, but until they get around to it they had dumped huge piles of stone all the way along the rest- which made for interesting walking!
I was quite surprised to see the next checkpoint, in a lay-by at Woodlane (22 miles). They were brewing coffee so I rested a while with a cup and relieved them of more delicious cake- wouldn't want them to end up with too much at the end!!
After a cheery goodbye and bolstered along with cries of 'only 4 more miles to go!' I entered the woods again- this time on a stone free but sadly not slippery mud free track. I was quite eager to get out of the woods before dark, and so slithered on as quickly as I could. The ground dropped steeply away to my right and I could see across the whole of the Vale of Belvoir, as well as what I fervently hoped was Harby.
The Woods
After lots of sliding and slithering, plus ten minutes of panic when I realised I hadn't seen any route markers for a while, I finally found my feet on the metalled road into Stathern. Now Stathern is a lovely village really but I don't really give it the appreciation it deserves as I am usually passing through in various stages of hurt and discomfort. And today was no exception.
I thought I was almost home, but there was one more sting in the tail yet... my heart sank as I found a piece of ribbon jauntily tied to a footpath sign and realised that I would have to go straight through a deep pool of glutinous, wet mud...
There was no way around it so I just had to suck it up and get on with it- I marched through, saying through clenched teeth 'you cruel b*stards!!'
Yeurgh!!
I think they took pity on us after this instead of following the usual muddy tracks into Harby the route mercifully skirted the village through comparatively dry fields. It was a relief to see the village and sink down into a chair with a coffee and bread and butter pudding... my only criticism here is that the puddings and custard are put out on a table ready for folks to help themselves, but they have often been sitting out for a while and are cold.
They were packing away as I left, and one lady begged me to take some sandwiches from a huge tub she had left. Frankly they were past their best and the edges resembled court jesters' shoes, but I dutifully took one to help her out. 'Have more' she beseeched, 'go on- take some home with you!'
My time was a fairly respectable 8 hours 31 minutes and 57 seconds, which meant that I just about had a negative split for about the first time ever. It took me nearly that long to clean my shoes the next day... As usual the cakes were superb, and I probably consumed more calories than I burnt!
This is a local event for me, and as I noticed that there would be less parking available than usual I decided to leave the house to drive to Harby quite early to get there in plenty of time. This turned out to be a good decision, and I was able to park in a pub car park that was being used for the event, but by the time I had changed my shoes, hoisted my pack on my back, secured the car and left the car park the race marshals had already put up a 'car park full' sign and were turning people away.
Registration is at the Village Hall, and was quite manic as this is an extremely popular event- as well as the 26 mile route there is a 15 mile option which attracts the majority of people. As the event is run to raise funds for the village primary school, quite a few school kids were attempting the shorter route.
I grabbed a coffee, wandered around a bit and then joined what must have been the longest ever toilet queue for the line of porta loos in the car park. It was only after I reached the head of the queue that I heard someone say that the loos in the school were open and there were no queues at all... d'oh!
It was almost time to start- there are no route instructions as the route changes each year and is marked by signs and red and white tape. The two routes were to follow each other for around 5 miles and I hoped that we would not encounter many stiles...
Suddenly we were off to the strains of The Proclaimers 'I would walk 500 miles' (I hoped that this was a slight exaggeration of the day's challenges!) and heading towards our first muddy track. Last year saw the driest Belvoir Challenge I have ever known but I wasn't holding out hopes that this would be repeated this year...
After walking along a track away from the village, we turned off it, across fields and heading towards the ridge of the Harby hills. We came up against a couple of stiles here- and inevitable queues- I followed a break away group who appeared to know where they were going and found a gate further down.
After a fairly steep climb we were on top of the ridge and walking along a fairly flat track to the point where the routes would split. As usual, most of the people around me were doing the 15 mile route and only a very few people were actually going my way!
After passing through Goadby Marwood we joined the Jubilee Way across fields to the first checkpoint at Scalford. Mercifully it wasn't too muddy, although it was freezing cold and grey, with the odd snow flurry- it was to stay like this all day.
I timed it just right reaching the checkpoint as someone was opening a huge tub of cheese sandwiches, so I accepted a coffee and lingered for a little while, before forcing my gloves back on and mentally shoving myself back out into the cold.
The route climbed through more fields and skirted the hamlet of Chadwell, with a great view of the Waltham Mast, one of the main radio transmitters for the East Midlands, set within rolling English countryside.
Waltham is a lovely village but we didn't have time to stop today... just passing through with a quick photo of an old converted windmill...
Once the track has been negotiated with a lot of slipping and sliding, there is a long march around fields to the village- which you can see in the distance and which never seems to actually get any closer!
Croxton Kerrial, when I eventually reached it, was a peaceful haven... more so because I was the only walker there, and as I heard one of the helpers tell her son that they were starting to clear up now that it was 'near the end' I had a sudden panic that I wouldn't get back in time... for some reason I looked at the clock and although I had taken about four and a quarter hours to reach this point my befuddled brain told me I would run out of time...
I forced a cup of coffee and a couple of cheese and pickle sandwiches which had by now gone rather dry and curly and route marched through the village. I knew the next part of the route to Harston as it's part of the Ponton Plod so I have done it many times, so forced myself into a little jog, encouraged by the sight of people ahead.
After Harston I was rather dismayed by a long track full of slippery mud, and managed to convince myself I was feeling ill. As I slipped and slided, feeling increasingly sorry for myself, it started to snow harder and it was the lowest point of the walk for me.
It was such a relief to descend steeply into Woolsthorpe and the next checkpoint at 18 miles, I must say it was a most civilised affair as there were crackers and stilton on offer- only the best! My mood was boosted even further by the prospect of actually overtaking a couple of people.
The next part of the route was last year's in reverse- a slow climb up towards the castle before reaching the road and picking up a track. Only this year we followed the track right to the woods. This is really open country and you can see for miles- you can see why they decided to build a fortification here!
There was a steepish climb up to the woods, well it felt steep to my legs, which by now were grumbling pretty loudly. I expected the woods to be muddy, but was quite pleased to see that quantities of pink stone had been tipped onto the track and levelled to make a dry surface.
My elation was slightly short lived though when this new surface ran out. Obviously they are intending to resurface the whole track, but until they get around to it they had dumped huge piles of stone all the way along the rest- which made for interesting walking!
I was quite surprised to see the next checkpoint, in a lay-by at Woodlane (22 miles). They were brewing coffee so I rested a while with a cup and relieved them of more delicious cake- wouldn't want them to end up with too much at the end!!
After a cheery goodbye and bolstered along with cries of 'only 4 more miles to go!' I entered the woods again- this time on a stone free but sadly not slippery mud free track. I was quite eager to get out of the woods before dark, and so slithered on as quickly as I could. The ground dropped steeply away to my right and I could see across the whole of the Vale of Belvoir, as well as what I fervently hoped was Harby.
After lots of sliding and slithering, plus ten minutes of panic when I realised I hadn't seen any route markers for a while, I finally found my feet on the metalled road into Stathern. Now Stathern is a lovely village really but I don't really give it the appreciation it deserves as I am usually passing through in various stages of hurt and discomfort. And today was no exception.
I thought I was almost home, but there was one more sting in the tail yet... my heart sank as I found a piece of ribbon jauntily tied to a footpath sign and realised that I would have to go straight through a deep pool of glutinous, wet mud...
I think they took pity on us after this instead of following the usual muddy tracks into Harby the route mercifully skirted the village through comparatively dry fields. It was a relief to see the village and sink down into a chair with a coffee and bread and butter pudding... my only criticism here is that the puddings and custard are put out on a table ready for folks to help themselves, but they have often been sitting out for a while and are cold.
They were packing away as I left, and one lady begged me to take some sandwiches from a huge tub she had left. Frankly they were past their best and the edges resembled court jesters' shoes, but I dutifully took one to help her out. 'Have more' she beseeched, 'go on- take some home with you!'
My time was a fairly respectable 8 hours 31 minutes and 57 seconds, which meant that I just about had a negative split for about the first time ever. It took me nearly that long to clean my shoes the next day... As usual the cakes were superb, and I probably consumed more calories than I burnt!
