This weekend was the Chiltern Wonderland 50. Starting in the beautiful village of Goring in Oxfordshire, looping through 50 miles of picturesque countryside.
The race was fantastically organised by Centurion with well stocked checkpoints and no issues with any signage on the course. Granted I did go wrong once and completed an extra hill (and back down again) but that was purely my fault.
You can also tell my prep was going well as I mapped out the course on Strava the week before, but incorrectly, as I thought the race went anti-clockwise. Imagine my surprise at the first T-Junction as I went one way the other 250 runners……didn’t!
The night before the race I booked a hotel in Reading, due to the early start time so I could get to the start all rested. There I could listen to stories of people getting up at 4:30am to make the start time. Tough start to a long day. Also a long, wet day as even though the weather forecast was looking like a sunny 21 degrees the day before, it actually rained constantly for the first 6 hours of the race.
In terms of the race itself the first 30km was relatively flat and then the poles came out for the final 50km and we undulated all the way to the finish. The course went through lots of woodland, farmland, a golf course and even 2 gardens (they were warned in advance). It was great to see local villagers come out and cheer us on and I noted a few great pubs to visit in the future.
Target was 11 hours (solely so that I could finish without using a headlight) and I finished in just under in 10 hrs 52mins placing me exactly midpoint through the field which I was pleased with as I was massively under-trained for this distance. My longest training run being just 30km the weekend before the race.
Pasta on the finish line. Then after an excruciating 15 min stretch I staggered to the car for a 25 min trip back to the hotel, carb loaded at the takeout across the road and crashed into bed.
Really enjoyed the race weekend, met some great people along the route and hope to do it again next year…with a bit more training!
Paul