The Hellrunner
takes place at Longmoor army camp, Bordon in Hampshire and is a day not
easily forgotten. Friday and Saturday saw strong winds and torrential
driving rain, a mud lover’s course…
Rendezvous 10:30hrs sharp at the main camp gate, the chance
to splatter Gordon Ramsay with F*!*# mud was a good enough excuse to be
there early. The first 5-6 miles cut across muddy puddles up to your
knees, crossing streams, across logs and over clay based hills. This was
just the warm-up, the fun begins as you enter the ‘Bog of Doom’ a 2
metre drop then 50-70 metres of mud, water and God knows what else… you
surface looking and smelling like you’ve spent the night in the nearby
cow shed. Mr Ramsey emerged minus his show biz make-up heavily caked in
mud. A few miles further and onto the finish, a large communal bath
awaited, well a large lake. Everyone climbed down into it wading across
up to your chest with cold, green algae a welcome relief.
The final few miles for home, the’ Hills of Hell’ were hard
going, saturated with water, muddy and although small were really tough
after the previous exertions. I was pleased with my time of 1hr 33mins,
time is important but the race is surely a definite for all off-road
trail runners to simply experience, a must do. Check out the details on
the web site, they even had a second race in the afternoon…and no I
didn’t do it.
Mark White
