Braintree Boggle

5 February 2017 - By Brigid Wallen

October 2016 – Marc said “I quite fancy the Braintree Boggle, it runs along a footpath by the side of my garden”

Brigid replied “I’ve always wanted to do that, it starts and finishes in Black Notley. Shall we enter it?”

Fast forward to January 2017

Brigid – “did you know the route has changed, it no longer runs near your garden but it does run around Black Notley! Will you still do it?”

And so it was, the Braintree Boggle kicked off from Black Notley village hall at 9am. The atmosphere before the start is laid back to say the least. Some runners turned up just before 9 but that was ok, they got themselves ready and joined in 10 minutes later…

Given the rain that has fallen this week, the Boggle lived up to expectations. Very muddy in places and with that came the energy-sapping ploughed fields. We both found some new trails which is great for future summer runs. Every so often Marc was greeted with “Oh I know where we are”

Both of us were experimenting with a new nutritional product called Tailwind and while we both agreed there were down times, probably due to lack of training, neither of us suffered fatigue or required the inevitable ‘pit-stop!’ though so thank you Tailwind.

On the subject of thank you, it was great to have support out on the run.
Our first cheer of the day came from Terry and Charlotte as we ran through White Notley. Charlotte was in the front garden but we reckon Terry was still in his pj’s as he was waving from the bedroom window…😃

Tony was there to cheer us on back at Black Notley village hall at the 11 mile mark then again at mile 17 at Rayne scout hut. Marc’s spirits were lifted when he saw Sam, Thomas, Holly and Daphne shouting out for him and waving on the station platform.

Back there again at mile 22 Tony was waiting for us, this time accompanied by Martyn, Penny and a very excitable Albert. This was our last checkpoint before the finish with just 4.3 miles to go.

Up the final hill in Black Notley back to the village hall and there was Tony waiting for us; he had been out all day and think he was just as pleased as we were to finish.

In the village hall the organisers laid on filled jacket potatoes and scrummy rice pudding. If you’ve never tried a trail marathon then it’s worth it just for the buffet afterwards.

We were both pleased with our finish time of 4.42

See you all on Tuesday

Marc and Brigid