Saturday dawned bright and sunny, and proceeded to get hot and humid as per the forecast. Not good news for us forty somethings. Took the morning as easily as I could, reheated some of last nights stir-fry for lunch. Figured the carbs would be good for me.
Fun run kicked off at 2.30pm so watched them come past from the balcony. 
Challenge started at 3.00pm. Started off at the back, did 5m 23s for the first flat km, then 8m 33s for the km up Stonebarrow Lane. Already feeling hot and hard to maintain pace as most people around me were already walking. But by slow jogging I was only just faster than most of them.
Once at the top of the lane we were out of the shade and into full sun. Kept to planned pace with 6m 11 and 6m 06s along the ridge to Chardown, then 5m 17s on the downhill section to the welcome shade of St Gabriels Wood. Had to queue up to get over a couple of stiles bit didn’t lose too much time. Once out of the wood the climb up to Golden Cap starts. Normally I can jog 80% of the way up this hill before I start walking, but yesterday by the time I’d got 10% of the way up I was exhausted, just drained and so hot. It didn’t help that the others were walking again so I did the same. I was a bit disappointed in having to walk so soon, but knew there was a long way to go and also that my walking and slow jogging pace aren’t that much different. Walked and jogged the rest of the way to the top, passed a few people, got past by a few.
Reached the trig point on Golden Cap in about 48 minutes which was exactly on target. Legs feeling very rubbery. Managed to walk and jog again back to Stonebarrow, getting hotter and hotter, and walking up the steep bits and jogging the rest until finally reached the top. Blessed relief know that it was all downhill from here. Got passed by a couple more on the run down the hill, and by one in the last hundred yards. Great to see so many people clapping and cheering us on as we staggered to the finish. As usual the fire brigade were there to help us cool down.
Charmouth Fire Brigade to the rescue
Not surprisingly I felt pretty wobbly at the finish, took a good ten minutes before I felt human again. No medals, but you can get a commemorative mug with as many free tea refills as you can drink. Had a burger to help replace the calories, but not as good as the home-made ones after the Jurassic 10k.
My target had always been 1 hour 30 minutes. I always thought I could do that, but recently had been doubting it because of the leg muscle problems. However, I am pleased to announce that my official finishing time was 1 hour, 29 minutes, 54 seconds, placing me a very creditable 181st out of 232 finishers. As Anne pointed out, there were a lot of running club runners in fancy shirts behind me.
My supporters
So that’s it for the 2010 Charmouth Challenge. In summary, very hot, very humid, very very hard work. But it’s a great course, extremely well organised, has absolutely stunning views from the top of Golden Cap and Stonebarrow (must look out some old photos), and it raises large amounts of money for the local school. Will I do it next year? I hope to, but I’m going to take three weeks off running now to see if this leg will heal. Really need to see a sports physio, but can’t afford it at the moment. Maybe some of you guys should come down and have a go, probably be July 2nd next year, it would make a good bookend to Juneathon!
Finally, here’s the link to Garmin Connect where you can relive the race through the data. Just click on the pic.
2010 Charmouth Challenge as run by Pete
