Hardwick X-Stream (a final hurrah for cross-country season!)...
It's no secret that I have a deep and abiding love for cross country - so I'm a bit sad that the Three Counties Cross Country season is over for another year.
But, just as I thought I'd have to wait until November, the Hardwick X-Stream comes along!!
It's a local non-league cross country race open to anyone, a touch shy of 6 miles, with GUARANTEED water obstacles - "X-STREAM" - cross-stream AND extreme - I see what you did there Bearbrook Running & Triathlon Club - very clever!
Hardwick is a really pretty village near Aylesbury, and it must be a proper cross-country as the village hall stands in as the race HQ (you can keep your fancy-dan "race villages" - I like races that involve folding tables village halls and the smell of deep heat).
The race starts a couple of hundred metres away in a farmers field (where you can park too!) and is all within the same farm. It has my new favourite bag drop - at Royal Parks Half you had to queue for 30 minutes to securely store your bag in exchange for a tag - at Hardwick? You hang your bag off a fence! That's more like it :-)
The race starts at 10 on the dot, and there's a mad scramble to get up the front as there's quite a narrow gate to all squeeze through (there's something like 250 runners in the race). As soon as we got to the gate the mud started and it was like glue; I'd been pre-warned to do my dancing spikes up EXTRA tight, but not everyone had been - I heard a shout behind me as someone lost a shoe in the gloop which was instantly trod into the muck by 200 rampaging runners - ouch!
Within a few hundred metres you hit the first stream, and it's cold, so cold, SO VERY COLD!
But before too long you start to warm up, then you double back on yourself and run through THE SAME BLOODY STREAM AGAIN! But at least you get to see the look of horror of the runners going through it in the opposite direction for the first time.
The the race meanders around the farm taking in every ditch and water possible (one of which is has such a high bank that you need a rope to help yourself out!). It's not a fast race - apart from the seven - SEVEN water crossings, there are a couple of stiles, a stinking bog and a draggy hill at around 4 miles, and the surface is very rutty and full of holes.
But it is so much fun! And well organised too - the marshals were brilliant and when you finish you get a fun-sized Mars Bar and a HORSE BRASS! Which I am saving for when I own a country pub.
I can't wait until next year - apart from anything else - if there has been lots of rain the water is waist deep!
But, just as I thought I'd have to wait until November, the Hardwick X-Stream comes along!!
It's a local non-league cross country race open to anyone, a touch shy of 6 miles, with GUARANTEED water obstacles - "X-STREAM" - cross-stream AND extreme - I see what you did there Bearbrook Running & Triathlon Club - very clever!
Hardwick is a really pretty village near Aylesbury, and it must be a proper cross-country as the village hall stands in as the race HQ (you can keep your fancy-dan "race villages" - I like races that involve folding tables village halls and the smell of deep heat).
The race starts a couple of hundred metres away in a farmers field (where you can park too!) and is all within the same farm. It has my new favourite bag drop - at Royal Parks Half you had to queue for 30 minutes to securely store your bag in exchange for a tag - at Hardwick? You hang your bag off a fence! That's more like it :-)
The race starts at 10 on the dot, and there's a mad scramble to get up the front as there's quite a narrow gate to all squeeze through (there's something like 250 runners in the race). As soon as we got to the gate the mud started and it was like glue; I'd been pre-warned to do my dancing spikes up EXTRA tight, but not everyone had been - I heard a shout behind me as someone lost a shoe in the gloop which was instantly trod into the muck by 200 rampaging runners - ouch!
Within a few hundred metres you hit the first stream, and it's cold, so cold, SO VERY COLD!
But before too long you start to warm up, then you double back on yourself and run through THE SAME BLOODY STREAM AGAIN! But at least you get to see the look of horror of the runners going through it in the opposite direction for the first time.
The the race meanders around the farm taking in every ditch and water possible (one of which is has such a high bank that you need a rope to help yourself out!). It's not a fast race - apart from the seven - SEVEN water crossings, there are a couple of stiles, a stinking bog and a draggy hill at around 4 miles, and the surface is very rutty and full of holes.
But it is so much fun! And well organised too - the marshals were brilliant and when you finish you get a fun-sized Mars Bar and a HORSE BRASS! Which I am saving for when I own a country pub.
I can't wait until next year - apart from anything else - if there has been lots of rain the water is waist deep!
Comments
Post a Comment