With a limited number of events left to complete before I considered which event I wanted to complete for each letter. While I have limited options for some of them, there are some very lumpy ones I want to do amongst them - Wendover Woods, Queen Elizabeth, and Tring being the big three! These three presented a real challenge though, and so I wanted to spread them out so I had chance to recover properly between each. I could also use the less common letters to spread the lumpy runs out too - two uncommon letters, one lumpy course, rinse and repeat until we're done!
This week I wanted to test the plan out, and so Tring it was!
The area
Positioned amongst the Chiltern Hills, Tring is a market town whose lineage can be traced back to prehistoric times. Many of the towns streets are very narrow by modern standards, which reinforces the historic nature of the area.
Tring Park is located to the south of the town itself. The park was previously part of the Tring Park Mansion estate, which was the residence of members of the Rothschild family. The mansion is now home to a school, while the wider grounds are now an open space.
The course
I had heard that the course has changed a few times in the recent past, but the course today was a simple out and back (someone mentioned this is the winter course). The start is in open fields and from there, runners head towards the base of the hill, before some zig zags, and a long straight to the top of the hill. At the top of the hill, runners turn around and run the same route in reverse all the way back to the finish funnel, which is just passed the start line.
On-street parking is available a short walk from the start, as is a paid car park. Runners and volunteers are welcome at the near-by pub for after-run refreshments, and a nearby Tesco is the nearest point to access toilets before the run.
The run
Today was wet. Very wet. Even walking to the start area was a muddy experience, and the start to the foot of the hill was just as muddy. The rain did subside just as we were getting ready for the run briefing however.
It was a muddy start, but as the woodland had obviously shielded the hill path from a lot of the rain (or it had already flowed away), as the footing up the hill was all stable. The hill itself was the real challenge I was anticipating, and I had to resort to power-hiking up part of the zig zags as it was so steep.
The views from the top of the hill over the town of Tring itself were very picturesque, and the out-and-back nature of the course meant that there was lots of opportunities for high-fives and cheering other runners on. There was more than one person buggy-running, which on a good weather day would have been admirable, but in the rainy muddy conditions today was awesome to witness.
The good thing about an uphill out and back is that what goes up must come down, and running down the hill at top speed was very, very fun!
Extra special thanks to the event team this week, this weather was crazy!
Links: Run report | Results | Strava