Let’s start by saying this is by far my favourite race of all time, what’s not to like: hills, men in togas, alcohol, food, aeroplanes, singing and plenty of laughs.
The buzz before the race was fab, a lot of the runners had camped the night before and were awoken with the Beatles blaring out of the back of a pick up with the Race Director shouting for everyone to ‘rise and shine’. There was plenty to see, Aphrodite, Centurions, Braveheart (the race sweeper) and peculiarly a man in woollen shorts . The race was started by a centurion on horseback and we ran down the hillside while a drone was above recording the start.
The course was fabulous, running through fields of barley, woods and hardly any tarmac in sight. The course was signposted brilliantly with lots of quotes from films on the way round from The Gladiator, Life of Brian and some Latin quotes. It was very comical. There were four of us running together, enjoying the fun, pretending to be aeroplanes on the down hill and having a good old sing song when the going got tough. The checkpoints were awesome, everyone who was manning them were in fancy dress and very friendly and upbeat – the lovestations were the best though with even more food, cider and schnapps.
Crossing the finish line we received the best medal EVER, a lovely cake and a great goodie bag which included a Dorset Invader ‘Muff’, Jam (courtesy of the farm it was hosted in), crisps and cookies – an absolute bargain of a race.
This is certainly a race aimed at Massey runners as it’s fun and social. A definite winner.
Thanks – hopefully we can get a few Masseys there next time J
Race report by Lee Hill