SocialUltra

Whether the weather be fine,

Or whether the weather be not,

Whether the weather be cold,

Or whether the weather be hot,

We'll weather the weather,

Whatever the weather,

Whether we like it or not.

 

Three guesses what was mainly in play for the first Social Ultra? 19 brave runners gathered at the playing fields in Weston, Bath to run (and slide around on) an impressively muddy Cotswold Way.

 

Ambling off up the first hill in admirable “walk the steep stuff” style, we set off up to Lansdown Hill to enjoy the views over the Severn Valley to Wales. Apart from a brief few minutes of rain the weather was excellent and this part of the trail only had a few patches of mud.

 

Coming back down off Lansdown and a tricky right turn I glanced back at a style to see Chris dashing down the wrong path with Charlie his collie so I chased after him while the main group went on ahead. He was easy to spot as he was wearing a Musketeer costume (as was I). No particular reason, just thought it might be a fun thing to do.

 

As we headed back up the hill we met another two runners who had also missed the turn, so we bunched together and headed back on track.

 

Chris and I were running together by now and apart from a LOT of mud, some road sections and a fair few extra miles due to wrong turns, things were pretty uneventful. We did keep surprising Philippa by passing her every few miles after our bonus miles as she a) knew the route and b) didn’t keep dashing off the wrong way. We may have been better following Charlie.

 

As we progressed towards the turnaround at Old Sodbury and the Nici / Nikki popup checkpoint, it was clear that Chris was suffering as he didn’t seem to have any pace and was coughing quite a bit (onset of a cold). The great thing about this being a Social was that we didn’t have a ‘race’ plan so could just take it easy. You don’t feel you’re wasting the entry fee when it’s free.

 

Once we made the half-way point and received the obligatory hugs we refuelled with excellent homemade flapjack, then set off on the return leg with Nici in her costume – the 3^rd Mudcateer.

 

We smiled, laughed at each other sliding through the mud, Nici giggled at sideways sleet and we generally acted like 4-year-olds with new wellies in a big puddle. A good time was had by all. The icing on the mudpie was Nici's seamless forward then reverse slide on the same slope, scoring 10 from both judges.

 

By now darkness had encroached and the weather on the exposed edge was pretty brutal with driving sleet and strong winds. Between the mud, weather and general fatigue we tacitly agreed to walk to Pennsylvania where Nici’s friend was waiting and get a lift to the finish.

 

As we grabbed a much-needed coffee at the service station I had a great conversation with the girl at the counter who was wondering why 3 muddy runners wearing Muskateer costumes and headtorches were running the CW in atrocious weather. “Because it’s fun” was all I could come up with. And it really was.

 

For the inaugural Social Ultra List event, I couldn’t have hoped for better.

Thanks to Tim, Dave, Nikki, Tim, Emily, Ian, Kat, Heather, David, Zoe, Richard (happy birthday), Keith, Pat, Barry, Andrew, Phillippa, Nici, Chris and Charlie for a grand day out.

 

Rich.