Revenge of the Ooser

Whilst 60 of you headed into Yeovil on Mothers Day for the Immortal Sport Half Marathon,  a small but perfectly formed detachment of the BHAM’ily headed a bit further south, into Dorset for the 2nd Dorset Ooser Trail Marathon & Half Marathon organised by Badger Trail Events.

After completing the Ooser last year, Rob and I knew what to expect, plenty of hills, gorgeous views and a fair bit of mud and water – but this is trail running at it’s finest, with only about 230 competitors in the Half Marathon, Kev and Denise have created a fun, friendly and rewarding event.

I knew my fitness was way down on last year, but Rob decided to stick with me for the first 11k of the race, and we wound our way up and down the Dorset Countryside together, over stiles, through ancient woodlands, chatting to people we knew and making new friends  on the way. A few nutters were doing the event with their dogs and some went hurtling past us at break neck speed including club member Nichola, who finished 6th in the dragged along by a dog class, it seems like a great idea, not sure if my Jack Russell’s will be much help though!!

After 11k and the road crossing, I finally persuade Rob to go and enjoy his run rather than stop start waiting for me, and away he want down the wooded track to enjoy the rest of his race at a more graceful speed!

The rest of my run, was then spent run/walking what I could to keep my feet moving, and my time from not slipping away to far from last year, the route being much dryer than last year really helped, the infamous water meadow was just a squishy puddle, and the only real mud came in the last couple of kilometre, with a tough, angle deep climb up to the top of the hill near where we start and finish, I’m pretty sure someone had watered that specially!!

After finally crossing the line and only 7 minutes slower than last year, receiving our fab medal and supping tea from proper mugs and some of the tastiest cake in the county, we were done! As always a great route, great atmosphere, hard work but always more fun than a road run!!

2nd Claimers Steve Small and Mike Norton ran the full marathon on their ever growing 100 marathons tally journey, and Mike especially had a cracking run of under 5 hours.

I’ll  be back in Dorset for Badger Trails new race the Hellstone Half & Marathon, along with a few other members of the BHAM’ily, so really looking forward to that!

All photos courtesy of DorsetBays

Results – HM, HM Canicross & Marathon