45 Miles in 11 hours! – How 1st Finch won the Three Towers Classic Hike in 2010
By Ian Montandon
I got gradually more and more involved in Scouts into since my son, Robert joined 1st Finchampstead as a member of
Greenfinch Scout Troop a couple of years ago. Now I help run the Friday evening troop and help out at things like the
annual summer camp. This is not particularly hard since I enjoy most of the outdoors activities the Scouts do like
camping, mountain biking, hiking, kayaking etc. One other thing our troop does every year is to enter teams in a race
called the Three Towers hike. This is a 45 mile, timed, mainly off-road walk starting by the river Thames and taking in
many ancient rights of way in Berkshire and Oxfordshire, finishing quite near the starting point in the town of Reading.
Obviously it’s quite a challenge – in 2009 my team came second but the constant pounding on the unseasonably
hard ground meant that by the end we all had such painful blisters that driving or walking were extremely difficult
activities for several days…
This race is for teams of 3 individuals. All team members have to finish the race to win. There are shorter courses for
the younger age groups – my 13 year old son’s event was is 15 miles long. All teams have to take basic food, drink
and safety equipment with them in case of problems which must include waterproofs, survival bag, first aid kit and a
sleeping bag.
So this time we thought we would do it differently - better footwear, lighter packs, more training and a meaner
attitude… except that we were all too busy to do much actual training and a last-minute substitution of a team
member caused by injury meant that Simon Halser and myself were to be joined by a novice 3rd man, Gordon
Halliday-Vargas, another Greenfinch Leader…
Each team sets off at 3 minute intervals and you have to have your personal cards punched at each of the 14
checkpoints along the route. Cruelly, there are comfortable chairs at each stop – so if you sit down it’s incredibly
difficult to motivate yourself to get up and get going again! Best just to re-fill water bottles etc and go. A total of 28
teams were entered, we started as team # 20, calling ourselves “Finch Wanders”. 1st Finch also entered two other
Classic teams for the 45mile event, a Scout Plus team (25 miles for older Scouts) and five Scout teams (15 miles).
The Finch Wanders team strategy was very simple: Run/ jog the first few miles to overtake as many of the teams
ahead of us as possible, to try to demoralize the them as well as the 8 teams behind us. As long as we stayed in front
of the teams we had overtaken, we should be ok, but we would need to watch out carefully for teams which might
have started after us and catching us up…
Despite one of our team getting painful leg cramps every few miles, by the halfway stage we had overtaken all 19
teams ahead of us and although we had very sore feet already, were feeling pretty pleased with ourselves! But in one
very long, straight gentle climb up a hill another team caught us up! This was pretty serious – we could not go any
faster due to the leg cramps problem reoccurring whenever time we tried to run or jog again. The other team turned
out to be team #26, which therefore started 18 minutes behind us... This team consisted of the 3 young and fit-looking
Godding brothers aged 17 to 23; they were flying. We walked alongside each other for a mile or so before they pulled
ahead of us. Apparently they had all been involved in the event since childhood as their father was one of the
organizers and they had always dreamed of winning the adult event as a family unit. In previous attempts one or
other of them had had to retire before the end, but this they felt was to be their year!
We were demoralized - how could we not only overtake these fit, young guys but get ahead of them by at least 18
minutes, with less than half of the distance remaining? Our legs were hurting, our heads were dropping with fatigue.
But then we noticed that they were just staying a few hundred yards ahead of us and not gaining any further distance.
In fact we started to catch them up again - it seemed that the youngest brother was hurting more than us, and slowing
his whole team down, muttering about wanting to retire (of course we did not try to change his mind). We overtook
the now slower team 26 and carried on our way!
This photo, taken at around the 25 mile point, shows our team of three in front, with team 26 behind us – the guy in
the black t shirt 6th from the front retired a few miles later leaving the way open for us to win.
By this time I felt that (despite regular sock changes) I definitely had developed some blisters, but there was no point
in stopping to find out, just had to walk through the pain… The problem I think is more related to the pace rather than
the total distance walked – when you walk fast or jog, the impact on the feet is much worse than if you are walking
slowly. It’s this constant pounding plus the sweat that produces blisters I believe. In fact it turned out that the footwear
changes I made (lightweight trail shoes instead of heavy walking boots, custom-moulded insoles and extra gel
padding) prevented the rubbing that causes most blisters but could not stop the bruising of the soles of the feet that
made walking so painful the next days!
By the 35th mile, things were going ok, although relatively slowly due to painful feet. We were averaging less than 4
mph now. Then panic struck - we heard that one of the teams we had overtaken (team 18,, i.e. starting 6 minutes
before us) had obviously paced themselves better and was catching us up. In our panic we missed a turn and ended
up having to go around three sides of a large field instead of just the one – we arrived at the third from last check
point only a few seconds ahead of the rival team, meaning they were only 6 minutes behind us on adjusted time!
The last few miles were pure hell – we could see team 18 never more than a couple of minutes behind us, but not
able to catch and overtake us… Eventually we made it – in 11 hrs and 22 minutes, finishing only 9 minutes ahead of
team 18 overall. On the drive home we discussed how we could improve our time next year, before concluding: - quit
whilst you are winning…. NEVER AGAIN!
I have done a couple of half marathons and used to row and play rugby competitively, but I have never done an event
as tough as this one. Only 12 teams out of the 28 starters actually finished as complete teams… Next year I will
thoroughly enjoy just helping our other Scout teams train and supporting them during the event instead!