North Downs 30k by Jim
Beckenham somehow managed by happy accident to muster up 3 men to make a team for Sunday’s North Downs 30k. Sadly not enough to win the team prize as Serpentine got 3 in the first ten including a new course record but we still managed to bring home some loot. More of that later, but as for the race, this is 30km off road and very hilly in places with climbs overall over 600m but an absolutely beautfiul race, lots of running through wheat and poppy fields. woods, chocolate box villages etc and i for one had practically zero traffic to deal with. And despite recent rain only 1 mile was slippy.
And as usual it was brilliantly organised. Seeing how much shorter off-road races struggle with way markers and with marshalling this was faultless, even Craig couldn’t get lost on this one. And you get treated very well indeed, water, isotonic drinks and gels were on offer (i ate my own gel at 10k only to turn a corner and find them on offer), you get a great technical T-shirt worth the entry fee in itself and lots of free cake at the end along with a band and a free swim for you and yours in the leisure centre.
Pete Basksh (41st), Ken Fancett (32nd) and myself all did the club credit coming in under 2hr 30m and in the top 50. Ken won the v60 prize and i got 4th place prize, nice crystal goblets which is a welcome variation on the usual prizes. This race first ran in 1984 and is still going strong, record turnout this year i understand so can certainly recommend it for next year. With the t-shirt and cake it’s worth it even if you treat it as a long Sunday training run. Just hope there’s something left in those legs for the next grand prix, Dulwich 5k on Wednesday.
