On Sunday I ran in the 40th anniversary of the North Downs Run. It was a lovely, well organised event, with very helpful, supportive marshals. We had perfect weather conditions and it was a great day out. Obviously, a popular race as it was sold out prior to race day,.
The course followed country lanes and well established tracks on the North Downs Way and Weald Way, plus numerous fields across local farmland. It ascended from a low of 20m at Lower Bush up to about 180m at Holly Hill – so quite hilly. 90% of the course was off-road and there were many stiles and kissing gates to negotiate. It was a really scenic route and the ground was rock hard after all the recent dry weather. Unfortunately, I fell running down a steep descent at around 22km which caused my leg to cramp badly, but other than that I had a great run.
The event was also the British Masters Athletics Federation 30km Multi-terrain running championships. I won both my age category in the race and the gold BMAF medal for said category in a time of 2:35:08.
The respective male and female winners were:
Daniel Radcliffe 1:55:39
Andrea Clement 2:00:54