Camelot Challenge
By Paul Beales
This was the first ever Camelot Challenge, organised to raise funds for Countess Gytha Primary School in Queen Camel, Somerset, and was a circular half marathon open to runners, walkers (and dogs) starting from The Gryphon Leisure Centre in Sherborne, Dorset.
The route circled around areas of naturally beautiful scenery through the Vale of Camelot, filled with Arthurian legends, and passes through towns, country, forests and even a stream. It was mainly on public footpaths, with some of the route opened by special permission of the land-owners.
There were a number of marshalling points and water stops around the route (and even sandwiches, cakes and tea provided halfway round for anyone not in any great hurry to finish.) Toilets, showers and changing facilities and FREE FOOD AND DRINKS were available at the start and finish.
The starting corral was in a natural funnel formed by a high-hedged minor tarmac road, with the start line made up of five smiling kids (including my 7-year old son Jonty, who absolutely loved the job!)
A lot of the route was on very barefoot-friendly grass, dry soil paths and forest tracks, with some slippy, slidey, squelchy muddy bits - which were good fun. There were quite a lot of large hills to climb however!
A large amount of the route was on minor roads which were quite rough and gritty however. (The last half mile or so was on rough Tarmac that had seen much better days, but was nothing that tough barefooters like me can’t manage.)
There were a few issues with runners and walkers losing their way. I managed to overtake about 10 runners when I took a left hand loop around a figure of eight when they had taken the correct but longer right hand loop. It came as quite a surprise when they caught up with me at the halfway point! (Having realised what I had done, I did of course do the other loop on the way back.)
According to my GPS, I did a total of 13.83 miles in the end, whilst a friend of mine did 14.57 miles. Some entrants were quite annoyed by this. When I discussed this with the organisers at the end, it became apparent that a number of signs had been removed, and the organisers have said that they will make sure that there are more marker posts next year.
The well organised finish line was on the same Tarmac road that we started on. There were no fancy, schmancy electronic tags or anything. Runners’ finish times were checked on a clock and written on a little card given to the runners.
All in all it was a VERY enjoyable, sociable barefoot adventure (thanks to the incredibly friendly organisers) and I am very happy to have done it in 4hrs 26mins and raised £667.67 for Heart Research UK. (Thank you to all barefooters who donated. If anyone else would like to make a contribution, my fundraising page is still open at http://www.justgiving.com/paulbeales-hruk2
Having said all the above, this challenge might not appeal to everyone, due to it being multi-terrain and having lots of hills to climb. Some of the fields and tracks were quite rough and bumpy, so no-one is likely to break any half-marathon land-speed records on this course (the fastest time was 1hr 56mins – though he did say he got lost.)
I would have no hesitation in recommending the Camelot Challenge to anyone.
Entries are open for next year’s challenge on 20th September 2014. Details of how to enter are on their Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/CamelotChallenge
