The morning of the 666 Trail Run on 17th November, I woke up to perfect conditions; cool, bright skies and – following a week of very little rain – very firm trails under foot. The race, organised by Ashford Tri Club, was set to start at 10am but having heard that parking near the start line was limited, I set off early and arrived just before 9am and was able to squeeze my little car in right opposite the toilet block – further perfection! Only it wasn’t, because a moment later, I realised that my trail shoes were still at home by the front door. S**t!
I frantically calculated that I could just about make it to Canterbury and back in time for the start of the race, but by the time I did with 10 minutes to spare, my adrenaline was through the roof! All I felt like doing was sitting down with a cup of tea and a biscuit.
Except, of course, that wasn’t an option. So at 10am, I set off with 180 other runners onto the 6.66 mile course. I’d been warned that the start was a mighty bottleneck and that the first half was a cruisy downhill compared to the second, but I totally underestimated both of these. I resisted the urge to push ahead on the narrow trails and kept up a steady pace up until the first climb. Well, I thought, this isn’t too bad! But then the next hill came, and the next and the next, and I started to realise why this course was described as ‘devilish’. There were some hills so steep it made more sense to walk up them, and they even had sections where you could pull yourself up with a rope.
But what comes up must come down – and downhills are fun! There was also some fantastic marshal support along the way and with the autumn sunshine streaming through the trees, you couldn’t have asked for better conditions.
I felt very dizzy and as though I was running in slow motion by the end, but having only just overtaken a fellow female runner in the last few kilometres, the thought of her hot on my tail spurred me on. When I finally did finish in 13th place (1st in the women’s race), I was very pleased to see they had orange squash and enough cake to feed an army across the line.
Other than a bit more mud, what more could you want from a day out in the woods?
This was a post by guest author Emily Collins.
