Corfe Beast

On Sunday morning we headed down to Corfe Castle for one of our favourite races of the year – the Corfe Beast, run over a tough 12 mile plus multi terrain course with outstanding scenery and views, should you risk breaking your neck by taking time to glance at them.

Last year this race fell a fortnight before the Berlin marathon and this year it was a month before Loch Ness so it was always going to be a judge of how our training is going. Added to which last year, much to my surprise, I was the first lady home, so I had a title to defend – no pressure then!

In addition to Martin and myself, Dave Webb, and Richard and Lesley were also on the start line so Maiden Newton Runners were well represented. As usual our warm-up consisted of the half mile or so up onto the common to where the race starts and as usual we spent most of that half mile complaining about how tired we felt and how heavy our legs were and how we were just going to take it easy................
At 10.30am therefore we were at the front of the 500 or so assembled runners, eyeing up potential rivals and raring to go! I found myself hurtling down the hill at a ridiculous pace, but even so two female runners overtook me and I had to restrain myself from chasing after them at such an early stage in the race. After about half a mile Martin passed me which indicates just how unrealistic my starting pace was!

The first hill up to the top of the common brought everyone to their senses and slowed the pace to something appropriate for what lay ahead of us. After about a mile and a half I found myself overtaking the two ladies who had started off at such a scarily speedy pace, I could still see Martin just ahead of me and I felt fairly comfortable.

The route heads east to begin with and then turns towards the coast at the bottom of the first serious hill - a narrow and rough track up through the woods where progress is made by single file. Emerging from the trees into bright sunlight there are still a few uphill fields before the first road crossing is reached. At this point I clocked Martin exactly 20 seconds ahead of me. Did he know I was so close behind? What sort of run was he having? Could I possibly catch him? Resisting the urge to look back and check if there were any female runners behind me I concentrated on the gap between us and maintaining as fast a pace as I could.

On reaching the coast the path turns sharply right and seeing Martin glance back I waved at him - now at least he knew I was on his heels!  Shortly afterwards we reached the first steep descent where a choice presents itself – hurtle down the slippery grass risking life and limb or join the queue skipping down the steps. And of course, what goes down must go back up so all too soon we were labouring up the seemingly endless line of steps up the other side.

Our exertions were rewarded with a flat and downhill section as the route turned inland for a while and passed another drink station before heading back to the coast and the second set of steps. I always mean to count the steps on both ascents and I always forget or lose count half way up. I really struggled up the second set and on finally reaching the top I was grateful for the strong tail wind which pushed me back into a shambling run. Only three miles or so to go now and as I turned inland back towards Corfe I could still see Martin up ahead but he had gained a lot of ground and any foolish hopes I had of catching him rapidly subsided.

At this point all the hard work is behind you and you have the long descent across the fields with many annoying little stiles and gates to negotiate and the tantalising view of the castle up ahead like a mirage – never seeming to get any closer no matter how hard you run towards it! One last sharp climb up onto the common, a real test of how much strength is left in your legs (not much!) and then along the road passing the starting line and the welcome sounds of other runners finishing. The final sprint for the line and at last the blessed relief of being able to stop running. I hadn’t looked at my watch all the way round but a quick glance now and I could not believe my eyes – 1.37.43 – over 5 minutes faster than last year and a Corfe PB beating even my pre broken hip best time of 2003!!

Martin has also run a PB finishing in 1.35.42 and Dave finished soon after me in 1.39.48. Richard crossed the line in 1.46.51 and joined us for a team (minus Lesley) photograph. Unfortunately the lunch demands of the official photographer’s offspring (Jackie Webb) meant that Lesley was missing from the photo as she finished just after the Webbs sensibly headed off to refuel. The rest of us waited in the rain which had held off for the race but not for the presentation and Maiden Newton Runners were twice in the prizes as Lesley picked up the first V55 bottle of bubbly. I was just grateful that Martin had decided to polish the cup before we returned it so we took a nice shiny trophy home with us!.