Fens of Fury



Fens of Fury

Today I spent the day going to Cambridge and participating in the adventure run Fens of Fury! Now as the course wasn’t quite varied enough to do a full narrative style review, i’ll just highlight the main aspects of the course and the event in general.

The first thing to mention is of course the amazing events village! For the first time in one of these types of runs, the event village was actually a pleasure to sit in. This was partially due to the perfect weather (sunny, with a slight breeze) and also because there was a pizza stall, a beer stall and a cake stall! Seriously, what else do you need in life, ever.

Fired Up pizzeria with enthusiastic staff!

A big group of people waited quite a long time for the shuttle bus (despite promising to run them until 11am, I strongly suspect they weren’t planning to come back out until a member of the group rung them). This meant when I got to the ground it was so close to my wave, and I wasn’t even changed, panic stations were setting in a bit. But they changed me over to a later wave with absolutely no hassle, which I was chuffed with!

I spent a bit of time changing and cuddling with Milly the dog (who I managed to get fully lying down and showing me her tummy in glee!), and then ran over to the start line for the beginning of my wave. Now was the start of my struggle with the safety pins! Seriously guys, they were terrible, might have done a better job with blue tack. Along the course I found myself constantly repinning my number, losing two of the pins along the way.



A brave team tackles the obstacles
 

Onto the course itself! Now the majority of the course was very gently undulating grassland, springy underfoot and very pleasant to run on. In my personal preference, it was a little too pleasant for an adventure run! There should be surrounding grunts and cries of “Are you KIDDING me??!” or it’s no fun! But they did spice up proceedings with a few obstacles. The first ones were hay bales, which were such good fun to spring up and dive down from! I really enjoyed this section, actually. A massive ditch needed to be jumped across, with ropes to help you up the other side. Although there were some brave souls just leaping, i’m afraid I sort of edged down the bank and did a little hop across. Yes, i’m still ashamed... There was a cargo net to go under. Is it worrying that I now feel weird going under a cargo net if i’m not spitting out mud? At one point the path curved round into a woody bit and we had to hop over a tree. There was a cool muddy bit with sucking mud and water, and a photographer stationed there too, so I hope they got a shot of me! They had a section of ice cubes that you had to crawl through (pretty genius!). I was fine here, but several people I spoke to had cut their knees on it, so it was probably the most hardcore obstacles of the race. Nearing the end of the race, there were a couple of big rack thingies to climb over, one metal and one wooden. After this it is just a final sprint to the finish! On the second to last obstacle I overtook a couple that had been running faster than me all race, which I felt a bit bad about, so sorry guys if you’re reading!

 

After finishing and changing, I went back out with my camera to the last obstacle and got some shots with my camera. I shared these with the Fens of fury admin, so likely these will be up with the other pictures! Then I sat and ate pizza and enjoyed the sun and atmosphere. After all the runners had finished and had had time to chow down, there was a little award ceremony, congratulating the fastest individual and team, and a round of applause for the main organiser Doug.  Also, don’t forget that it was all held for Addenbrooke Charitable Trust Dementia and Delirium Services, and over 2 and half grand was raised in aid of this! So well done all who contributed to fundraising!

I would actually say that this is a well organised race, and all the organisers and marshals were very pleasant and friendly. Food, drink, portaloos and charity ambulance services were all in place! But be aware that it is a fairly tame experience, designed for those who like gentler running conditions. I heard talk they were going to change the course if it had rained so that nobody got cold and wet! Not the mentality i’m used to at all! Usually it’s: “I don’t care if there’s a blizzard, get in the freezing trenches now!” So if these types of things appeal to you, but you want a (very) gentle introduction, then this race is the one for you.

Check out the Fens of Fury webpage here: http://www.fensoffury.com/

And the ACT webpage here: http://www.act4addenbrookes.org.uk/

 

Flatt7