irunoffroad

Today was a 10 mile taper run ready for the Arun River marathon next Saturday. Rod Nairn was fresh from completing the 3 Forts marathon last week and joined myself and Paul Coates for a largely steady run. We parked at the Sustainability centre and followed the South Downs Way country lanes across to Butser Hill, were we met Paula & Darryl, who were also adding extra miles before the 9am QE Park run. Darryl had run the 3 Forts marathon the week earlier too !!

I persuaded our growing band of runners to pose for a quick video blog, so as to take in the view from Butser, (the highest point on the South Downs). The wind was blowing at the top of the hill but by the time we reached the park run start line it had calmed down. More Crusaders gathered at the start so Jim, Paul & Gary are in the photo below. The 5K park run was very well organised so thanks and hats off to them. It’s a “scenic” course which is estate agent “speek” for hilly. Great to see Emma Beattie too, who was running with her dog, (4 legs must be an advantage up hills).

Our return back to the car meant 3.5 miles with “only” Butser Hill left as the  main obstacle. The second part of my video shows the “Hell”- evation that awaited us. We all gritted our teeth and gave it most of what we had left 🙂 The light rain that greeted us towards the summit was quite refreshing along with the satisfaction of not walking. All in all a perfect way to prepare for the upcoming marathon, running hills with friends 🙂