Notfast Ponton Plod
On Sunday 8 September, the Notfast Ponton Plod took place just south of Grantham. There are four distances to choose from, Marathon, 17 mile, 12 mile and 10k with many checkpoints on the way, all loaded with supplies of sweets, cakes, biscuits and juice, with the larger checkpoint at Harlaxton providing sandwiches as well.
When runners arrive at the small village of Great Ponton, they are parked in field which has been previously occupied by a small army of cows. Once the cowpats have been driven over by a hundred or so vehicles, the smell is something to behold.
At the start of the race it chucked it down for about an hour before clearing up and turning into a rather warm day. All the routes lead over the A1, with the Marathon heading to the Vale of Belvoir, taking in Harlaxton, Denton and a few other small villages and hamlets. The course is run on a combination of paths and fields, with a few road sections chucked in as well. At mile 25, the sound of the A1 has never sounded so good as you know you have climbed the last hill and almost home. At the end you are greeted with a cheese roll/cob/bap (I’ll let you decide on what you want to call it), followed by crumble and custard.
There were two representatives from Matlock Athletic Club with Jon Tyson and Dan Ashcroft returning to tackle the Marathon finishing in 17th and 16th place respectively out of 74 participants.
