The Dunstable Downs 20 mile challenge is an off-road trail event, where you are given a route description and... basically left to your own devices. Anyone who's done the Fairlands Valley Challenge will already have an idea what this event was all about - although the scenery was better here (well, certainly on the Downs themselves) and there was more help from road markings and signs. Every 5 miles there was a checkpoint with water, sweets and chopped-up Mars bars - just the thing.
For the first few miles I ran with Tash and Mike Mello, and after a while Mike dropped behind. We started in the mist, so I probably looked stupid in my sunglasses, but after a few minutes the sun came through and it was a lovely day. The route went south from Dunstable, past Whipsnade animal park and on across lots of fields - some of them ploughed, and through a lot of woods (usually a good way to get me lost). Fortunately there was a group of a similar speed running with us, including someone from Dunstable Runners who knew the course, so it wasn't essential to do too much navigating. There were about 120 people at the start, all running together at first (of course), so I suppose if you didn't want to follow the route description you'd probably have found a way to avoid it. However, following the route was half the fun, and I always wondered what might happen if I lost them and had to find my own way, so I made sure I always knew where I was.
Towards the end we reversed our earlier steps and went across the Downs again, now dry, sunny and full of families flying kites and watching gliders. It looks like a fun place to go and visit, if only we didn't have to drive through Luton and Dunstable to get there.
Hopefully I can blame the terrain and the Mars bar stops for only managing 8-minute miling. I wasn't really bothered about the time; this was more a good way of sneaking a 20 mile training run past my brain while it was distracted with route-finding. Oh, and Tash won! Well, she was the first lady back - it wasn't as if there were any prizes.
The showers at Dunstable Town Football Club were good, and there were cups of tea, sandwiches and cake available free after the run - which will probably be the case in a few weeks when the same venue will host our first cross-country race of the season. It was still sunny after I'd eaten, so I got a folding chair out of the car, took it to the finish area and sat there reading a paper until Lindsay came back. Very pleasant, actually!
Imaginary injury watch: just for fun, it was my left leg that decided to be overly sore today, but only for the first 5 miles or so, or when going down steep hills. Otherwise it's just the marathon niggles I'm starting to get used to. With all the mist on the Downs, my shoes and socks got wet early on, and by the end I had blisters on my feet. But I'm not going to worry about blisters - at least I know how they're caused and I can see for myself how they're healing. The morning after this race, I got a new pain in my ankle - probably some stabilising muscles complaining. It wouldn't be the same if I didn't have anything to complain about.
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