Martin Beale’s record double

Martin Beale has taken another half hour out of the Green Man Challenge record with the aid of another Martin from Team Vasque: Martin Indge.

It was a bit of a cock-up from the Gaveller’s point of view as he had taken up a position away from the bridge to see the challengers off, based on experience of Woodwose XIII’s run. But the two Martin’s snuck past on the path from the Tailor’s Friend (the sliding rock). That meant that those of us who had turned out to see them off were left looking silly and did not feel confident enough to see them in either. More fool us!

The new record is 7 hours 19 minutes and 52 seconds.

Martin wrote:

We did nearly the same splits as last year to Hambrook and then took 10 minutes per leg off the record pace for the last three legs. Conditions were pretty much perfect – cool and that drizzle just kept us at the right temperature.

Martin [Indge] was well impressed with the route – as was I. There were a couple of excellent fields where we were running through the wildflowers – very nice.

Another version of the Somerset 3 Peaks

Here’s a proposed route for the alternative Three Peaks of Somerset by Tim Down:

 Porlock-Stoke Pero-Dunkery-Brockwell-Wootton Courtenay-Timberscombe-Slowley Farm-Druids Combe Farm-Roadwater-Nettlecombe-Monksilver-Stogumber-Rowcombe Farm-Crowcombe-MacMillan Way West-Wills Neck-Bishpool Farm-Great Holwell-Smocombe Farm-Goathurst-Chantry Cottage-Bridgwater (exit via A372)-Bower Farm-Summerway Cottage-Chedzoy-Stawell-Edington-Catcott Burtle-Westhay-Westhay Moor-Mudgley-Latcham-Rodney Stoke-West Mendip Way-Beacon Batch.

 

There is the beguiling prospect of continuing the route to Dundry and beyond to the Green Man.

 

Have taken an alternative route across the levels – am open to any suggestions but this way takes in a couple of the most remote parts of the levels, it avoids the complexities of the coastal route and also avoids the noisy intrusion of the M5.

 

What in Old English would someone be named who undertakes such a journey

Three Peaks of Somerset

On Sunday, 15th February, a group of us are having a go at the Three Peaks Route that starts in Chew Magna. I made the mistake of calling it the Three Peaks of Somerset to differentiate it form other Three Peaks challenges involving Ben Nevis etc. It was promptly pointed out that the Three Peaks of Somerset ought to be Dunkery Beacon on Exmoor, Wills Neck in the Quantocks and Beacon Batch on the Mendips.

Various point of view have been bandied about as to the best way of accomplishing such a challenge.

Originally, I though that it would be best to start at Porlock to attack Dunkery Beacon, but on reflection, it would be easier to start at Exford, in the heart of Exmoor, which has a car park, a hostel and two pubs.

From Exford, you could follow the Samaritans Way Southwest up onto Exford Common and then switch onto the Macmillan Way West to Dunkery Beacon and on to Dunster – why reinvent the wheeel? The Macmillan Way from here to Wills Neck looks very complicated, so I think it would be easier to cut down through Marsh Street to the coast and follow the coast path to Watchet. Then you could follow the road through Doniford and on up to Beacon Hill and Wills Neck.

From Wills Neck, the Samaritan’s Way provides the quickest route through Goathurst and Bridgwater to Chedzoy and the brisge over the King’s Sedgemoor Drain at Parchey

The next obstacles are the Huntspill River and the River Brue. There is rather a lot of tarmac on the next stretch, but I thik the best route goes through Stawell and Chilton Polden then across Chilton Moor to River House Farm, where there is a crossing over the Brue. Then there are roads and paths to take you through Westham and Blackford onto a bridle path that goes round West Stoughton to Ashton, Chapel Allerton and Stone Allerton, where there is a path down to Weare.

From here, the easiest option is the more easterly of the pairs of bridges over the Axe and the Cheddar Yeo. and then Stubbington Drove and Middle Moor will take you into the outsj=kirts of Cheddar. There is then a route through Barrows that leads to the bridle path round Batts Combe Quarry that leads to Warrens Hill Road and Tynings Farm – well known to all who have done the Mendip Muddle.

From Tynings Farm, there is an obvious route to Beacon Batch, from which there are several routes Down to Blagdon.

It’s about 60 miles if anybody’s interested!

Thirteen

Boxing Day, 2008 brought us our thirteenth Woodwose when Tim Down of Bad Tri and TRA completed the Green Man Challenge in 11 hours.

He was seen off by the Gaveller in Clifton beside the Suspension Bridge and was met in Dundry by Pete deBoer, who kept him company until he reached Pensford, when family commitments took him back to Dundry.

At 12-10 he texted in from Shortwood Hill, with 22.9 miles and 5hr 10mins on his Garmin. He reported: “Still some energy tho a little stiff!”

At 13-54 he reported: “Hambrook 29.5m, 6h 54m. In urgent need of zimmer frame.

At 15 04: Patchway C[ommunity] C[ollege] 8h 04mn 34.5m Think I might do it!

16: 51 He reported “Leaving Blaise now.”

The Gaveller met Tim and with Liz who met him at Blaise on Avon way and saw them back to the start .

He looked in good condition after his ordeal.

On New Year’s Eve he emailed:

Managed to pick up a cold somewhere en route but nevertheless I’d like to say how much I have gained from researching and completing the route, in spite of having lived in and around Bristol for most of my life I have learned a great deal about my own environment. I quite fancy giving it another go once the ground is firmer under foot and the days a little longer.

Now we are twelve

Yesterday, 5 new Woodwoses completed the Green Man Challenge in a group effort organised by Town and Country Harriers (TACH).

First in was Ruth Pitchers – the first female Woodwose – in 9 hours 54 mins, looking as fresh as a daisy. She certainly looks capable of knocking at least half an hour off this time, if she feels the need to try it. (She really wanted the route to be 46 miles to match her age!)

Next in was Mike Bastow in just under 10 hours, accompanied by Emma Oughton, who had guided these two in from Patchway Community School (at 32 miles). Mike had been the strong and eager up until Patchway, but Ruth was looking stronger by the time they reached Blaise car park. Emma found herself torn between guiding Ruth, who was unfamiliar with this section and supporting Mike, who was looking wobbly on his long legs “like a young colt.”

The remaining group came in an hour later. These were: George “Woodbine” Gilham, Jim Plunkett Cole (and his dog Alfie) and Rob Hicks – motto “Service before Self” – the winner of the inaugural Hogweeds Muggle – who had stayed back to help John McDonough guide George and Jim (and Alfie) home. This had become necessary when Gaveller – Chris “Travelog” Bloor had dropped out at Patchway – “I’m cold, my legs ache and I’ve done it before!”

9 of us had started in the Dovecote car Park at 7 am.

Woodwose, Mark “Gypsy” Vogan kept us company till Dundry. Sue Baic joined us from Pensford to the Lockkeeper at Keynsham. Tony “Rebore” Bishop’s legs let him down on the way up to Shortwood Hill (21 miles). Antony “Turtle” Clark was still going strong at Hambrook (27 miles), but he thought he had better drop out because he had not done the training and he had only meant to stay with us for a couple of stages (The boys a natural!).

Nobody would have been able to drop out were it not for the motorised support team, who also supplied food and isotonic drinks made to dietician Sue Baic’s recipe. These were Jason Pitchers, Woodwose Peter de Boer and children (Lisa made the flapjacks), Sue Baic, Libby Bloor (and Jana), Ruth McDonough (and Sylvie), Jan Clark (+Susannah and Catriona) and Jo Hicks.

TACH really seem to be getting the hang of organising these long distance events, which is a good thing as there is a growing body of runners (and walkers) who have unfinished business with the Green Man Challenge.

The Dawning of the Lionheart

 

Saturday 1^st of November 2008 is

Green Man Challenge Day.

TACH will meet at Dawn (7 am) near the Blaise Estate Car Park to attempt to complete the 45-mile circuit of the Community Forest Path before Dusk (4-43 pm).

It is our aim to maintain an average pace of 5 miles per hour

and support will be provided on that basis.

If you would like to run with us for the whole or part of the route – register your intention to run by contacting

The Gaveller on www.closertothecountryside.co.uk

where more details will be found.

Or contribute a comment

All quiet on the Green Man front

Everything seems to have gone quiet regarding the Green Man Challenge. It seems that it may turn into a winter phenomenon.

I have just taken part in the Cotswold Way Relay with Town and Country Harriers, which is in many ways a similar event, but this is definitely a midsummer event. It is tied to the Saturday nearest to the longest day, which is essential as the route is 110 miles long, especially if one is doing it as a solo effort. It is also helpful for a ten stage relay. Our team came 7th out of 24 in the Mixed Category, which we were very pleased with.

The Green Man Challenge is less than half as long, which makes it ideal for a winter event. Town and Country Harriers intend to have a group effort at completing the challenge in the autumn. I think that Saturday 1st November would be an ideal date. That is the nearest Saturday to Halloween, which is the modern form of Samhain, the fire festival that marked the transition between Summer and Winter in the ancient Celtic calender.

The idea is that we will invite other running clubs to join us in the event, either as idividuals trying to complete the whole challenge or as relay teams using a Garmin as a baton.

Ancestral voices

 Just before I went on the last torch-lit TACH run of the spring, before the clocks change, I came across the following passage from the War Diary of my great-uncle, Billy Bloor, who was killed in the First World War:July 30^th 1917

At midnight stopped at Opoutre about two miles from Poperinghe, which was as far as the train could go, as Poperinghe was being shelled and a train, which had run in there two hours before, had caught it nicely – with about 80 casualties. The R.T.O. at Opoutre informed me that the guide sent for me had been killed en route, but he told me my destination, and showed me the way as best he could. I had to leave my kit there and start a seven mile march without a map on a pitch black night and through rain which was falling – this after 23 hours in the train. Arrived at Ouderdom at 2-30 a.m. and spoiled Captain Sutherland’s beauty sleep (of the D.A.C). He was jolly glad to see me none the less and turned out the Adjutant, who got the men in somewhere – and jolly tired and fed up they were, too. They found me a couple of blankets and put me up on Colonel Stanley’s bed – he being on leave, and after a drink – or two – and a good long “chin-wag” I turned in about 4-30 a.m.

Obviously navigating in the dark with a drink to follow is wired in the blood!

The Grizzly – over the hill?

The awesome Grizzly used to be one of my all-time favourite races. The course, starting in Seaton on the southest coast of Devon, can be anything up to twenty miles long and winds across the shingle, along the coast path up steepsided, wooded valleys, through streams and knee-deep black mud, more hundreds of metres of shingle, up a winding path up a cliff and across the grassy cliff-top path, which offers spectacular views of the shingle beach leading to the finish on the esplanade two miles below.

The race is a community affair and all sorts of people participate in the organisation. There were pipers on the hills and bands of all kinds at strategic points, including a folk band and a folk duo and  a drum band in a barn booming out across the hills.

Out on the course, everything was as I remembered it, except my ability to cover the terrain, which rather got in the way of my appreciation of the Kantian and Taoist jokes and Buddhist shrines along the route. At the pace I started, I used to pick people off as the race progressed. But this time I had to look on as fat old men and young girls hurried past me in the later stages. In my late fifties, I am definitely over the hill, and it was silly to suppose thatI would find it easy, just because I had managed to complete the 45-mile Green Man Challenge a few weeks before. As my much younger Green Man partner, Peter DeBoer, remarked it is whole different thing – and he too suffered in the last three miles (although he was way ahead of me!)

But at over 20-years old,the Grizzly too is showing its age. In the past, the race had the use of a holiday centre with a big hall, in which the participants could meet up before the race and could congregate afterwards to exchange experiences and wait for the prize-giving.

Now all that has gone. The only group of runners that were able to pose for a pre-race team photo were the Axe Valley Runners who organise the race. Members of other clubs, who I happened to bump into at the start and on the course, had no idea whether other members with entries had actually made it to the race. In the absence of a proper gathering place afterwards it would have been impossible to find out afterwards either. 

I found the post-race experience a let-down, a definite anti-climax. It could have been better if a hail storm hadn’t driven everyone into the surrounding pubs, restaurants and cafes shortly before I finished. But this year’s perfunctory Grizzly T-shirt was definitely below the standard that had been set by earlier models and the organisers cannot possibly rely of fine weather at the beginning of March for a satisfying end to the Grizzly experience.

Woodwose 7

I have just received Martin Beale’s report of his record breaking circuit of the Community Forest Path to complete the Green Man Challenge. I have published it in the adjacent pages, so it will always come up near the top.

Hydration is obviously the big problem in an unsupported solo attempt. As Martin noted, the streams on the route can not be regarded as safe. He used the Tesco Express in Bradley Stoke, which is a little way off the route. Woodwose 1 and 2 used the White Horse at Hambrook and the Lockkeeper at Keynsham to top up their reserves. I think there is also an external tap at the White Horse. It might be worthwhile to produce a definitive list of rehydration opportunities.