Moonlight Challenge and what a challenge it was!!!!!!!
Saturday 4th Feb saw me set off in my car for my 2nd ultra for 2012, but this drive was only a short
hop to Shannon Airport. I was heading back to where for the last 3 years has become “my away”
run, Kent. Here, a now good friend of mine, Mike Inkster runs a series of well organised and highly
recommended challenges every year in the country side of Kent, the one i was heading to was the
Moonlight challenge, 5 laps of a course giving a final total of 32.75 miles, all done in the dark.
Having left Shannon Airport and an overcast misting day i arrived in Gatwick Airport to a sunny day
but far from warm. I collected my hired car and proceeded on the 70 mile journey to the start of the
race. As i left London the gauge in the car was showing a cool 0 degrees celcius outside but little did i
know that this was the warmest i would see again until i returned home the following day.
I arrived at the race start at 14:30 with the temperature now -2 degrees and falling. Before going to
registration i did a drive on the road section of the loop only to find a lovely coating of ice on most of
it setting things up for a very interesting night. On arriving at registration i immediately bumped into
Mike and got the usual friendly welcome and banter. Mike himself is a scot and is ex army so since
day one we have really hit it off. Mike himself has completed numerous challenges and his book
online on kindle , “UNSTOPPABLE!”, is well worth a read.
With the race starting at 18:00 people gradually drove up to the registration from about 16:00
onwards and soon there was some friendly banter going on. It was great to meet up with old friends
and make some more, swapping our adventures since we met the year before. One of the main
talking points was the approaching weather though as snow was on the cards for some time
between 18:00 and the cut off time of 02:00 the following morning. Seeing that it was a 5 lap course
most people opted to layer up well from the start with the option of dropping some of the kit as we
warmed up, little did we know that not only did some of us not get rid of some of the layers we wore
we actually ended up putting on more before the finish.
We had our usual brief before the start before Mike launched a rocket into the moonlit sky which
when exploded signalled the 75 runners of all ages to head of into the darkness all aided by a
headtorch of some sort. Having watched a 6ft 2 version of Mick Rice disappear into the darkness
never to be seen again eventually winning in 4hrs 30 mins, i settled into a combination of a run /
shuffle along the icy roads. These led onto a track which was a bog last year but this year was harder
than the road, followed by a few miles of concrete farm roads, more off road before going back onto
the road at the now famous Jelly Bean Corner and back to the start. It was hard to pick out faces in
the dark and also because most people had some sort off a buff pulled up on their faces when
heading into the wind which was gradually getting that bit stronger giving a nice wind chill.
On each lap there were marshals at junctions and water stations and my hat goes off to them. They
spent the night directing us, watering us and always offering us encouragement even though they
were standing about in the freezing weather and darkness.
By lap 3 i now had more or less memorised a route that would avoid the worst of the ice or else i
was just lucky not to be landing flat out like a few more people in front of me. I even felt the pain at
one stage when a fella about 20 yards in front of me went from being about 6ft tall to 6ft horizontal
as he slid and walloped off the road. Luckily with all the layers he had on he got up unharmed except
for maybe his pride. End of lap 3 for me saw me in a small bit of bother with the cold with very early
stages of hypothermia setting in. But with a hot drink at the checkpoint a a bit extra kit i eventually
got my body motoring again on lap 4 only to be greeted half way around the lap by the promised
snow. By the end of lap 4 the snow which had started falling nearly straight down was now falling
sideways as the wind picked up to create blizzard conditions which in no length were wiping out any
tracks that other athletes were making ahead of me or else i was on the wrong track on my own.
Half way through lap 5, about 5hrs and 40 minutes in, the crew in the ever patrolling landrover came
up behind me telling me that even though it should have been an 8 hour cutoff, due to the severe
conditions once every one that was left on the course on this lap had completed it the challenge was
over for safety reasons. I was glad i had not delayed too much earlier on and that i was on my last
lap. I eventually crossed the snow covered finish line in 6hr 23 mins, a new PB for me on this course
by 90 mins. It was then back to the car as no one was hanging around with the cold, a quick change
and off i went on my 70 mile return trip to Gatwick which turned out to be the biggest challenge of
the weekend taking nearly 4 hours of slipping and sliding along the motorways weaving my way
though snow and stranded cars and trucks. A big thanks to Mike and all his crew for a very tough
challenge and will i be back. Oh yeah!!!!!!!!1