Thunder Run – A summary of events

A band of wise men and women from the East travelled to Derbyshire, elite runners and hardened endurance athletes one and all. This was unfortunate, for another band of men and women from Wright Vigar were also travelling to Derbyshire to compete in the Thunder Run, a 24 hour relay race across a 10km off-road course with more ups, downs and twists than a cheap soap opera.

The WV runners were one of the few teams not to have a running club banner beside their campsite, but nonetheless, they were all deeply involved in their pre-race preparations:

Nathan switched to low-tar cigarettes, Bridget flourished a plethora of camping equipment that would have made Baden-Powell blush, Jo kept disappearing into her Mr Benn tent to re-emerge in a different outfit every hour, Jack mostly played with his new stove that doubled as a cafetiere and Josh looked like he was on a modelling shoot for sports-wear.

Ever prepared, the WV team had sent out scouts to recce the 10km course. As this seems liked hard work, wasting vital energy required for the race, they figured the first 3km were representative of the remaining 7km and so returned to base with the observation “Some of those first kilometres are really long!”

Mid-day loomed – the start of the race. 2,600 competitors were prepared and ready to go. Josh took up the mantle of first out on the course. It was sunny, humid and hot but Josh surprised us all when he came in surprisingly fast, 10 minutes quicker than his expected time. Mild panic and general chaos ensued whilst we tried to work out the baton handover, but sure enough we had enough practice over the next 23 hours to work it out…apart from the time that Nathan turned up behind us in torrential rain in the dark having got round much quicker than expected, too.

Having given everyone the chance to run in sapping humidity, the race then began to live up to its name as July’s rainfall decided to come in one night. Try to imagine what happens when 2″ of rain falls on a muddy path and then up to 10,000 pairs of feet trample through it. At least the lightning lit the way for a few hours…

The team was intense. Actually Jack and Nathan were sleeping in their cars…

The team persevered until just after 3:00a.m. when common sense prevailed and we decided to suspend running until daylight as the course was becoming treacherous. Nathan woke up Josh and Jack to tell them to go to sleep.

The rain eventually stopped sometime between 3 and 5, and so the running continued, although the mud stuck it out to the end.

WV Runners managed to clock up 190km in just under 22hours running and substantially less sleep. We are just waiting to find out where we came. By the time the results were announced, most of us were asleep in lay-bys!

So far the WV Runners have raised £345 for Alzheimer’s Research UK. Donations are still being accepted up to 28 August so if you would like to show your support you can donate using the link below.

A band of wise men and women from the East travelled to Derbyshire, elite runners and hardened endurance athletes one and all. This was unfortunate, for another band of men and women from Wright Vigar were also travelling to Derbyshire to compete in the Thunder Run, a 24 hour relay race across a 10km off-road course with more ups, downs and twists than a cheap soap opera.

The WV runners were one of the few teams not to have a running club banner beside their campsite, but nonetheless, they were all deeply involved in their pre-race preparations:

Nathan switched to low-tar cigarettes, Bridget flourished a plethora of camping equipment that would have made Baden-Powell blush, Jo kept disappearing into her Mr Benn tent to re-emerge in a different outfit every hour, Jack mostly played with his new stove that doubled as a cafetiere and Josh looked like he was on a modelling shoot for sports-wear.

Ever prepared, the WV team had sent out scouts to recce the 10km course. As this seems liked hard work, wasting vital energy required for the race, they figured the first 3km were representative of the remaining 7km and so returned to base with the observation “Some of those first kilometres are really long!”

Mid-day loomed – the start of the race. 2,600 competitors were prepared and ready to go. Josh took up the mantle of first out on the course. It was sunny, humid and hot but Josh surprised us all when he came in surprisingly fast, 10 minutes quicker than his expected time. Mild panic and general chaos ensued whilst we tried to work out the baton handover, but sure enough we had enough practice over the next 23 hours to work it out…apart from the time that Nathan turned up behind us in torrential rain in the dark having got round much quicker than expected, too.

Having given everyone the chance to run in sapping humidity, the race then began to live up to its name as July’s rainfall decided to come in one night. Try to imagine what happens when 2″ of rain falls on a muddy path and then up to 10,000 pairs of feet trample through it. At least the lightning lit the way for a few hours…

The team was intense. Actually Jack and Nathan were sleeping in their cars…

The team persevered until just after 3:00a.m. when common sense prevailed and we decided to suspend running until daylight as the course was becoming treacherous. Nathan woke up Josh and Jack to tell them to go to sleep.

The rain eventually stopped sometime between 3 and 5, and so the running continued, although the mud stuck it out to the end.

WV Runners managed to clock up 190km in just under 22hours running and substantially less sleep. This put the team 40th out of a total of 71. By the time the results were announced, most of us were asleep in lay-bys!

The WV Runners have raised £728.75 (including Giftaid) so far for Alzheimer’s Research UK. Donations will be accepted up until 28 August so if you would like to show your support you can donate using the link below.

https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/wvtr24