Gut Buster 2012

My last achievement of 2012 was completing the 10 mile Gut Buster multi terrain event hosted by My Sporting Times. The event was held at Butlers Lands Farm in Mortimer, Berkshire, and in my opinion was brilliantly organised. It was only £20 to enter which I thought was excellent value for money.

The site was pretty easy to find with ample parking (although inventive at times) and I only worried that I might not be able to get the car out of the mud at the end but all was well. The number of entrants was relatively small (maybe around 400 total) but around 70 didn’t turn up on the day! There were quite a few loos but the queue was so long five minutes from start time that the organisers very kindly started letting some of the ladies use the toilets in the organisers building which was a huge relief. The proper coffee van on site (fully working espresso machine – thank you!) was a nice touch. The atmosphere was cheery and the briefing very jolly.

As well as the 10 mile there was also a 10k route, both of which started at 9am and followed the same route for about the first 4 miles. The distance markers for the 10 mile route were in miles and for the 10k route were in kms. The route split was really well marked and there were loads of marshals (all in excellent spirit and with a good sense of humour) and marker tape so I never suspected I was going the wrong way. Because I was towards the back there were plenty of points where I couldn’t see anyone behind or in front so this was a big plus. The course itself was mostly off-road, across fields and farmland with a ford at 1.5 miles (we were encouraged NOT to run through it) and only around 2.5 miles on roads. Undulating is probably the right word as I didn’t encounter more than one hill I felt compelled to walk but due to all the rain we’d had in the area the ground was especially wet and muddy and therefore so slippery in places that It didn’t feel safe to run, being at the back of the pack as I was. There were two water stations on each route and some very welcome mulled wine and mince pies at the finish (free to competitors). We didn’t get goody bags or t-shirts but did get a really great personalised medal. You could opt to have your time engraved for an additional charge but I decided only to have my name added (which was free).

I “ran” in 2:02, was 152^nd out of 164 who completed the 10 mile course, and 51^st lady. I wasn’t aiming for any particular time, and my training plan had this down as a slow run anyway so I was happy to finish. It gave me a real sense of satisfaction for the rest of the day, knowing I’d done something active over Christmas.

Entries for 2013 are already open so do sign up if this has whetted your appetite.