The Tough Ten Challenge

This race is described as...

"The 10 mile course uses sections of (closed) tarmac road along the seafront and coast, a section of the Promenade, woodland paths and trails within Worlebury Woods, and a little of the beach. In parts is it flat and fast; in others there are short climbs and long down hill sections."

The race was bigger than I had at first thought with 1250 entrants. I travelled down with a friend, Martin, and we met a few others that I knew whilst at the race. This included a friend Simon and his wife Sarah. Simon and I used to be very close surf buddies. There wasn't many a Sunday that went by without us heading down to the Devon/Cornwall coastline come what may surf-wise. It was great to see Simon at the race - Do all land-locked surfers turn to recreational running?

The race itself went pretty well. Despite feeling pretty fatigued from training going in to the race, I felt quite strong throughout the 10 miles.

I mostly walked the big hill up into the woods, and this tactic seemed to work well versus those who attempted to run the whole way. They made a bit on me on the ascent, but I very quickly caught-up and overtook once at the top.

The descent down the hill was a chance to let go, only in semi-control:


I finished in a time of 69 minutes which put me 97th out of 1070 who completed the course.

My average pace was 7:05/mile (8.45mph) which was OK.

Here's a picture towards the finish:


Back to the serious stuff now - plenty of training miles!