I did the Hartland Heartbreaker at Hartland Abbey and
Hartland Point in North Devon. As I did
not want to aggravate my Piriformis I cruised round, that seems like a wise
decision and I seem to have survived in one piece. The race offers two options
- I do the "easy" option, an 8.6 mile loop. There is a second 9 mile
loop for the more foolhardy. Towards the end of last year I had thought about
entering for the full 18 (ish) miles but injury put paid to that idea and that
turned out to be quite fortuitous as the weather was not conducive to 8 miles
of enjoyable running let alone 18.
As I travelled to the North Devon coast on a lovely Saturday
evening I was wondering if the decision just to take off road shoes was wise.
In the event, it was eminently sensible; the weather was the worst in the 5
year history of the race. It rained and then it poured, then it rained, then it
poured ... etc., and the rain did not take long to pep up the challenge.
There was more mud around than ever before, I saw several
tumbles on the greasy, muddy paths through the woods but at least the bluebells
cushioned the landings and the St John's Ambulance Brigade was not called into
action. Every Marshall we passed called out "you are nearly there, this is
the last hill"; as I have participated in this race in each of its 5 year
existence I knew they were fibbing so I just smiled wryly and cursed them
gently. On the coast path I kept my head down to give my vertigo a minimum
chance of kicking in - at least that worked. It meant that I missed lots of splendid views however (apparently). If
you stray off-piste on the coast path it could be a little tricky to get back
on course.
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