Nicky’s 100 kilometre Race to the Stones

Congratulations to HBSC member Nicky Biddall who recently completed the 100km Race to the Stones, just over a year after she took up running. She is raising money for the Mission Aviation Fellowship:  www.virginmoneygiving.com/NickyBiddall 
 
Here is her report of the event:
​On Friday after work I drove to High Wycombe and stopped at the Travel Lodge overnight in order to get to Lewknor, Oxfordshire to register at 6:30am for an 8am start on Saturday 16th July. There were 2000 people running and walking the course. Some just doing one day, some completing all 100km in one go and others like me taking two days to do the 100 km.
There were eight of us taking part on behalf of MAF, two of us running, one walking all 100km in one go overnight and the others walking it over two days. I must admit that I walked the tough uphill sections and ran the downhills and flat sections but managed to do 51.8 km on Saturday in 8 hours 58 minutes, excluding the four pit stops and 9 hours 13 minutes for 50.2km on Sunday, excluding the pit stops.
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The scenery was fantastic from beech woods to fields of golden barley, the open vistas across the downs and the flat banks of the Thames at Goring, where the Goring and Streatley Regatta was taking place. You can see the whole route on the Race to the Stones website or ask me for the map. I met some fascinating people and everyone was full of encouragement for each other.

The organisation was extremely efficient with food, water, a restful seat, medics and a positive sense of ‘you can do it’ at each pit stop. By breaking up the route into roughly 10km sections the day passed quickly and before you knew it base camp appeared over the horizon and I found my one man tent already pitched, had a lovely hot shower, chicken curry, apple crumble and custard and a piece of cake. The highlight of the evening was a free 10 minute sports massage which really helped to release the knots in the legs and stopped any overnight pain. Early cooked breakfast at 5:30am Sunday and off at 6 for the last 50k.

 The final section passed through Barberry Castle and then down to Avebury to the stone circle then 2 km back up the road to the finish. I came across the finish line at 5:36pm and became the proud owner of my first ever running race medal. I came 435 out of 638 people who took the two days to complete 100km. 201 out of 329 female runners and 30 out of 52 females in the veterans over 50 years of age category.

It took an hour and a half for the coach to drive us back to our cars at the start which puts the mileage into perspective! I then drove back to High Wycombe for another soak, this time in a cold bath and was able to make it into work on Monday morning before lunchtime.

Thank you so much for all your support, interest and sponsorship and so far it looks like I have raised £1000 for Mission Aviation Fellowship. I am even considering what I might run next year! Now I have another topic for a talk. Any takers?

(How long does it take 2000 people to get through 1 kissing gate? - about 2 hours!)

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