RACE 50 - THE GRIM - 4 December

Well number 50 is up! I feel I should be writing something profound at this stage but ..... instead, a bit lazy this I know, I thought I'd revisit Race 3 - The Grim - 15 January.

"One of my favourite events as I've been doing it since 2005.  Was meant to take place in December but it was postponed - not because of the condition of the course which was merely "more interesting" it was issues of actually getting there. Re-organised (which unfortunately meant I had to miss hockey) the race went ahead following a week of pretty heavy rain.  The course is on  land used to test Army vehicles and is described on the website as "interesting!" - that word again! After the mass start you reach a long hill where those who have gone off too fast or have realised that their charity costumes are incredibly heavy when wet, start to walk.  Then you descend eventually reaching a water filled ravine. Then running over exposed heath where the wind really bites as you are soaking wet and muddy; on "puddle-strewn paths" their description - but does it count as a puddle if its knee deep water that you're running through? Also they forgot to describe the slippery cattle grids and the general all round muddiness. Before having to crawl under camouflage netting over a muddy ravine - at which point I managed to drop my glasses.  With nothing clean or dry to wipe them with meant that I ran the rest of the race through a sepia type haze. It was like running through one of those old photos of a WW1 battlefield- ironic really considering the location. You eventually reach some man-made mounds (one described by an incredibly chirpy marshal as "the big dipper") before arriving at and running through some rather large puddles (a masterly understatement). they warn you to expect to get very wet! - duh! Finally you run on to the fast vehicle driving circuit (fast for vehicles maybe but this time more of a snails pace!) where it is rocky underfoot. This brings you to some more large areas of water and the finish area.  

Two things you begin to learn quickly on these type of events - the photographers are always positioned at points of maximum difficulty/pain/water/mud/discomfort ...... and the chirpier the marshal the more difficult/painful/wet/muddy/uncomfortable the next bit will be! 
No pictures of this one as they're not a pretty sight - if you're interested you can go on the website and put in race no. 4966. 

Result - 168 out of 1948 in a time of 1:11:56 (20 seconds slower than 2009 - I must be getting old!) "

Something that's instantly apparent from that race report is how mercifully brief I was back when I'd just started. So rather than repeat everything again I'll just emphasise some highlights. The race took part on the Sunday  (like Hellrunner the week before they run it twice over the weekend - yes there are the best part of 4,000 nutters that want to take part in such things!) so it meant I didn't miss hockey (a 3-0 victory against the top of the table team, leapfrogging us into second - if you're interested that is?) Picked up Pete Mac at the tube at a reasonable hour (8am) and hit the A3 out of London for probably the last time this year. Around the M25 - not the 'Road to Hell' that Chris Rea sung about - not early on a Sunday morning at any rate and down the M3 as far as Aldershot. 

Parked up at fortunately next to one of those vast pick-up trunks, so no likelihood of loosing the mini in the car parking area. No need to register as everything including the chip timer was sent through in advance. They've large marquees for bag drop off and changing ~ a bit public but at the end of the race I assure you just don't care! We availed ourselves of the "facilities" ~ one of the most impressive arrays of port-a-loos I've seen at any race, certainly no queueing necessary. They also had one of the most sensible additions to the cubicles - a full blown "port-a-urinal". It stops all the men running off into the woods at the last minute scaring the wildlife etc.  It was outside this that we bumped into the chap and his dad from Hellrunner the previous week, who when asked how he'd done, somewhat embarrassed actually admitted to have come 8th! I certainly wouldn't be using him as a pacemaker! (Looked up his name ~ John Jobey)


After a chat with John and his dad it was off to find Pete some breakfast and me a cup of tea. Suitably fed and watered, it was off to the bag drop and to warm up. I should point out at this point, it was to warm up the muscles by stretching and jogging - it certainly wasn't to 'warm up' as there was a biting wind and was very wet underfoot. Pete had sensibly packed a bin bag which you wear over your torso (having made a suitable hole for the head as the purpose is to keep the wind chill off rather than suffocate) whereas I with a years race experience had forgotten to. As we made our way to the starting area I tried to find someone larger to hide behind to keep out of the wind. 


Like many of these races, it was a judgement as to how near the front you go as although the first mile or so was on forestry tracks with nearly 2000 runners it gets very congested and you can't find your rhythm. We placed ourselves fairly near the front - in the first couple of hundred runners knowing we'd have to go off fairly fast. It's the first hill that begins to thin the competitors out a bit and then running through the first knee-deep puddle which was about 20m long and then settling into a cold and squelchy pace. That combination of hill and water means you're now running almost in single file or in small groups at most. 


Continuing through undulating coniferous woodland skirting the larger puddles and areas of mud where feasible, it was out onto the heathland. Like many of these army sites, due to the relative lack of disturbance, it is designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) as it has rare plants, insects and birds (see end of blog for more information). Maybe, just maybe I didn't appreciate the conservation angle at this point having to negotiate those slippery cattle grids. 

An  aside at this point, the MOD actually rent the site out for filming (see detail at the end) and they filmed James Bond's "Die Another Day" here. The MOD website actually have pictures of film locations including the cattle grids and the hovercraft sequence! 


All safely negotiated we re-entered the woodland at about mile four. Along very muddy tracks, the very same used as the cycle section in the Grim Duathlon, we came to the water point. Although it was cold, we'd certainly worked up a bit of a sweat so a few gulps of water were certainly welcome. At this point you started to run towards cheering crowds, which meant only one thing ~ something involving mud & water. Sure enough knee deep mud through a narrow ravine with a camo-net stretched across which we had to go under bringing us even nearer to the mud. this time I managed to retain my glasses and managed not to get my photo taken - however if you want to see images of what it was like there are some at the Grim Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/grimchallenge or Google it on YouTube. To say I got muddy would be a slight understatement and the yellow mud stuck like concrete and so far has managed to resist three washes to get the stains out of the top.

Fortunately, after 300 yards or so, we cam to the next obstacle called "the big puddle". So called because in essence it was a big puddle. Now being used to such events and knowing it was a vehicle training course, I stayed in the middle. however some ***** [insert adjective here] decided to try and overtake thereby falling into the wheel ruts. Oh dear ~ how the crowd laughed and cheered! The advantage of all this was to a) get soaked again and b) to get rid of some of the mud off your legs.


It was at about this point mile five, that my calves began to hurt. Its funny that the Grim is one of the few races that this happens year after year. I think its the combination of wet, cold and mud, ~ reoccurring very frequently that does it as races such as Hell Runner, Kamikaze, Brutal, The Hurt ...... all names to conjure with, don't seem to have such a painful effect. It was now actually a case of aiming for the puddles rather than skirting them to try and numb the legs. 


At the beginning of the race we had been told that they had shortened it slightly by cutting down the "boring bit" and adding some more obstacles and a section of moguls. We had about a mile of forestry track before coming across a vehicle obstacle course of railway lines, steps, slippery tree trunks, undulating concrete ~ all of which we had to run/scramble across.


It was then more forest interspersed  with heathland, going from sheltered to exposed which really sapped the will, before coming to the moguls. These man-made undulations were only about a two meter change in height and were probably great fun in a 4x4. However they were a real pig to run up and down as you just couldn't get any rhythm going and of course there was mud/water at the bottom of each one.   It was soon after this I passed John who was really struggling as he'd pulled a muscle at mile three but was still manfully continuing. Not a lot I could do but sympathise so I limped on to the alpine zone. Obviously its not alpine in height but it certainly was steep enough and it contained the big dipper. This was fun on the bike as you haired down hanging on for dear life hoping the momentum would get you up the other side. Slightly different in running it though as it was so muddy it was a fast-ish jog down and a considerably more laboured run back up.

It was then back into woodland and the final section towards the finish. The trails were reasonably dry, the puddles only calf deep and the cheers became ever closer which is always heartening. Running up a ravine, no mud this time as it was a stream towards the crowds, you can see the finish line but are forced to run past it. You follow the route you took at the start but double back on yourself - back towards the finish for the final obstacle. Called "the crater " it is unsurprisingly just that. A crater approximately 50m across and filled with ~ you've guessed it water. Its almost waist deep (so not as bad as previous years) and on to the finish. 


In spite of all my best endeavours to stretch and get into warm and dry clothing as soon as possible, my legs totally seized up and as was hobbling around for a few days after. Lucky as it was number 50.


I must admit to feeling a bit bereft the following weekend though as no hockey and no race. What on earth do you do at the weekend? Fortunately with Christmas to plan for there was something to do but I'll certainly be booking some more events for next year ~ though I think I'll stop short of doing 50! 

Result - 145 (3rd in 50+) out of 1945 in a time of 1:05:23

http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/AboutDefence/WhatWeDo/DefenceEstateandEnvironment/MODFilmLocations/South/AldershotLongValleyTestTrack.htm

Aldershot ~ Long Valley Test Track:

A large sandy area with different types of vehicle trails, tracks and roads. The area can be used for filming and vehicle trials and is surrounded by pine trees and heathland. 

Bourley and Long Valley SSSI 

http://www.sssi.naturalengland.org.uk/citation/citation_photo/1006761.pdf

Description and Reasons for Notification - The site comprises a diverse mosaic of heathland, woodland, mire, scrub and grassland habitats.    Such habitat  diversity supports a rich flora and fauna including nationally scarce plants, nationally rare insects and three bird species listed in Annex 1 of the EC Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds.