"Each step forward has a sacred meaning of its own" Sri Chinmoy
Bewl 15 - July 2022 - Wadhurst
With a vague intention of maybe possibly thinking about entering a marathon in August (I don't like to build my hopes up) I scoured the race listings for something half-marathon distance or longer that I could combine with a visit to my family in Surrey. The race at Bewl caught my eye and I duly signed up and received my racepack so I could arrive on the day ready to run. That meant heading out from home well before seven but on such a beautiful morning that was no drama and the route to the susses/kent border was pretty clear at that time of day. Memories of my hop-picking incarnation came flooding back as I passed signs to Goudhurst and Paddock Wood - I knew this area well in the late 80s but that's all a bit of a blur now.
The race is a bit of a blur too in some ways, as I decided to run with minimal kit and not carry my phone for any start/finish photos. Based on previous races being well photographed I assumed there would be a race gallery afterwards but it seems I was wrong. I did manage the track down a couple of shots of the race though to give an idea of the lovely weather and the idyllic scenery - this is an amazingly scenic race.
There were between four and five hundred runners on the day and parking was in a field about half a mile from the start. I went for a very easy 15 mins or so warmup on hilly lanes nearby then got myself into the bunch at what I thought was the right place in the order. It's a narrow start and I had 8-minute miles as my target pace so I was not going to mix with the faster runners up the front. Equally I didn't want to have to walk the first half mile so I didn't want to hang back. As things worked out I guessed about right and got myself in a slot where I could run pretty much from the off and not feel impostor syndrome with lots of faster runners streaming past me once the course opened out.
One thing I was carrying on me was a pair of energy gels, though I'd opted not to cart around any drink. I made that mistake on a recent hill/trail race where runners were encouraged to carry their own water rather than rely on the water stations, only to find that pretty much everyone else was running unencumbered and drinking from the tables. There was no problem getting hydrated at Bewl, in fact there were around 5 drink stations.
The course is all a bit of a blur (you see a theme developing here) as although it was this incredibly scenic course, I was very focussed on running a steady effort and doing the best I could without completely flattening myself (after all this was a stepping stone to a maybe/possibly marathon not a target race for me). I remember the course starting on hard, smooth trails in the sunshine then darting into woods for numerous up and downs under the trees, with roots all over the place and sunlight filtering down through the leaves. I had one eye on my garmin to stay at no more than 90% HR and one eye on the tree roots and my peripheral vision soaking up the beauty of everything around me. The reservoir would come into view around a corner, its placid and expansive waters a feast for the eyes, then it would hide from us again as the course climbed into the woodland, following one of the many creek-like inlets that make up the spikey outline of the lake. Here and there we joined lanes, bridleways and narrow trails - or crossed open fields of tall, pale, summer grass. I stayed at a pretty steady position among the runners I'd started with but now and again moved up a place or two or got passed by a fast runner who had hung back at the start.
At around half way I eased up a gear and ran at around 92-93% then in the last few miles I upped that to a ceiling of 95% and in the last mile it was go-for-broke. There were more hills in the second half, but the gels went down well at 9 and 12 miles and I think I paced this as well as I could. I felt satisfied at the finish, enjoying the novel post-covid sensations of a public race with all the group energy of the runners making us as a whole much greater than the sum of the individuals. It was a collective work of art, the combination of effort, achievement, beauty, exertion, transcendence.
Looking through the results I was 71st out of I think around 460 - in the 50+ I was 11th out of 49. So being in the top quarter at a distance that's out of my comfort zone right now was a good result for me. This year I had covid in Jan/Feb, then build up to the 7-Hour Walk in April that went really well, then got hit by a chest infection that floored me for 3 weeks in May - all in all it was a relief to be racing again and the finishing position was a bonus.
I'm really not sure right now (July 10th) if the August marathon will happen for me, but at least I know I am race-fit again and can get out there and take part. My injured knee from last year didn't play up at all so the weight/squat rehab program from UWE Physio seems to have worked really well. After all the usual aches and pains subsided the only lingering one was a tight right calf so I have booked myself in for a massage to try and give that muscle group a factory reset. Then I might start looking for some evening races, as the weekends are pretty full.
My verdict on the Bewl 15? Definitely a superb race - trails so smooth you can do them in road shoes, scenery you'll want to take home and keep. A beautiful experience.
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