Belvoir Challenge, Harby, Leicestershire
On Saturday March 1st, the Belvoir Challenge took place. A 15 or 26 mile run or walk around the stunning Vale of Belvoir raising funds for Harby Primary School.
The event is exceptionally well organised with a free park and ride service down to HQ at Harby Village Hall. An efficient check in and impressively, zero queue for the toilets, made for a straightforward pre race experience. It was a cold, icy but gloriously sunny morning. Temperatures very quickly rose meaning layers were being shed in the first mile or two.
The event is famous for its muddy conditions and thanks to the very wet weather of late, it lived up to its reputation. At times it was field after field of deep, thick mud and sludge. However the views were beautiful and the checkpoint nourishment almost made up for the mud and hills. On the 26 mile course there were 4 checkpoints with friendly marshals waiting to hand you every type of cake, bake, pie, savoury and sweets you could imagine. At one checkpoint a full blown cheese board complete with local stilton and an array of crackers had been immaculately laid out, which looked more like it belonged in a wine bar than on a bench in a field.
At the finish back at the hall we were greeted by a very warm welcome and treated to a Belvoir lemonade and yet more baked goods. I opted for a much needed sticky toffee pudding and custard!
I was taking on the 26 mile course, which I was aware was bold having been slowly digging myself out of the injury cave since October. As more of a road girl and without a trail running friend to hold my hand, I was nervous to say the least. I trotted along quite conservatively for the first 9 miles but found the middle part of the course tougher going and had a longer than ideal stop at checkpoint 3 to tend to some blisters 😣 A second wind at 18 miles meant I had a stronger last third. I came in with an elapsed time of 5hrs40 31st/86 females and 96th/189 overall.
I spotted Christine Howard and Lizzie Webster in the bag drop queue who have both done the event before and were taking on the 15 mile course. They finished in an impressive 2hrs28 and 14th and 15th/367 females and 46th and 47th/618 overall respectively. Super running ladies 💪
Winner of the 15 mile was Marlon Dunkley in 1hr44.
Winner of the 26 mile was James Hargreaves in 3hrs 25.
