Dark Ox 10k

I seem to be pretty good at making plans without fully thinking them through first. This weekend I would be running two 10k races 6 days after my first marathon. I guess it seemed like a good idea to me at the time! Fortunately my recovery this week has gone well, the start of the week I was a mess, shuffling around in a fashion not unlike E.T. but by Wednesday I was starting to feel human again. I gave myself a complete rest from running to allow my muscles to repair and my energy stores to recharge and Friday night I did a little restorative yoga to loosen up. Although the yoga was not so restorative for Paul who somehow managed to break a toe, it could only happen to him!

The first race of the weekend was on Saturday evening, the Dark Ox 10k. This was our second White Star Running (WSR) event, the first being the Larmer Tree half marathon back in March. We had absolutely loved the Larmer Tree event and soon after started looking at the other races that WSR organise. When Paul came across the details of the Dark Ox it didn't take a lot of persuasion before we'd parted with our money and signed up. Chris had run the Larmer Tree with us so we asked if he'd like to join us. We decided to make the 325 mile round trip in a day, setting off from Essex late afternoon and aiming to get back in the small hours of the morning.

The journey was kind to us and we made it to the Rushmore Estate with a couple of hours to spare. We even managed to find it without getting lost, unlike when we travelled to the Larmer Tree and missed a ninja sign. We followed the long driveway through to the gates occasionally stopping to allow a rogue sheep to cross the road or for me to coo over a lamb doing something ordinary like licking its leg!

We went straight to race HQ to collect our race numbers before having a little wander to stretch our legs and take in the fabulous views of the rolling Wiltshire countryside. It looked like it had been a glorious day in Wiltshire and we were able to enjoy the last of the late afternoon sun. The campsite was in full swing and the evening had a fantastic buzz about it. I have to admit for a moment I was actually quite envious of those who were camping and running the half/marathon/ultra Ox the following day, not to mention not having 162 miles to travel before getting into bed!

We couldn't find the flag of Congo...

Killing time before the race we made the most of the portaloos (on more than one occasion of course) and ate some pre-race snacks out of the picnic we'd packed. We had a hot meal at lunchtime as we knew that we were not going to get dinner before we ran. I had made some chia seed flapjacks to fuel the weekends running exploits. Having scoured the internet for a recipe I stumbled across one from the Ultra Plodder (follow link for recipe) who had used the flapjack for the NDW50. It was really simple to make and was super tasty with no less than 3 different types of sugar! We also had the opportunity to chat to a few people, including Kev (or 'Badger Man' as he's known to me) who had been one of the highlights of my Larmer Tree half marathon and were introduced to some other runners from the Nuclear Races team as mad as us to travel down from Essex for the day. We even adopted an honorary member of Team Um Bongo!

With our honorary member of Team Um Bongo

We gathered for the race briefing by the race HQ only to discover that we were in the wrong location and the briefing was taking place by the start/finish line, this should have been an indication for what was to come. Andy the WSR Event Director handed out some luminous face paint before the start. I opted for some standard stripes on my face and Chris suggested we write 'Um Bongo' on our arms. I got a far as writing 'Um' before I realised it was going to look a splodgy luminous mess and gave up! We knew that the race was going to be tough given our experience of the Larmer Tree HM, Chris was running another two races that weekend, Paul's training plan asked for an 'easy' recovery run and I was nursing some injuries left over from the marathon a week earlier so we decided we'd run together and enjoy the race. A drone was there to film some of the race for a WSR new promo video and shortly after 8:30 pm the inaugural Dark Ox 10k was under way and 139 runners headed into the woods.

Head torches and luminous face paint at the ready

From the field we went through a gate into Chase Woods and the pack turned left so everyone followed. At the end of the lane some spectators were shouting that we'd gone the wrong way. What followed was several minutes of chaos as we turned around and the race leaders tried to make their way through the pack back to the front. This section of the race was along a fairly narrow footpath so the pack was quite bunched and periodically stopped when a bottle neck was reached. Added to this was several runners tripping and falling on the uneven terrain and exposed tree roots. I heard one runner liken the situation to the stampede scene from the Lion King movie which was a pretty accurate metaphor! It was at this point we lost Paul, he was finding it difficult to stick with Chris and I and became separated.

Much of my recollection of the race was sketchy, I don't think I have ever run with such concentration. At the start of the race there was still adequate daylight and the head torches seemed to be a little redundant but once it got to dusk the head torches became essential in seeing what was underfoot. Hills seem to be a feature of all WSR events so I expected the Dark Ox to be no different, there will be hills, lots of lovely hills and it was only a matter of time until we encountered the first mountain. The first climb came at around 2 km and Chris and I tackled it with some ease. I had seen from one of the earlier WSR videos that there would be some wild garlic on the course through the woodland. It was quite a distinctive smell that you could hardly miss and given that it had been several hours since my last proper meal the smell of garlic was making me hungry! Chris suggested that we try and find a curry house somewhere after the race and this only made me more ravenous. There was very little flat on the course, it was either up or down. Following on from the first climb came a rapid descent. Chris flew down, however I was conscious that I did not want my legs overtaking my body and took a more controlled route to the bottom. As if by coincidence there was an ambulance strategically positioned at the bottom of the hill! This must have been what had been advertised as the free corpse retrieval service!

The vast majority of the race was on a woodland trail with the odd interchange between wood and golf course. The course was very well marked out with arrows and flashing lights. When we were not running up or down a hill our focus was very much on our feet and concentrating on not tripping over. Every so often we'd call out to the runners behind us to watch their footing, however I am not sure my call of "watch out for the thing" was particularly helpful and by the time I had blurted it out the hazard had long passed! One runner behind me suggested simply calling out "root!" which seemed far more effective.

The final 4 km of the race was an uphill climb. My legs were beginning to feel heavy at this point and my runners knee has well and truly flared up burning with every step. The more challenging hills we chose to walk up to try and conserve some energy although Chris' walking stride was not dissimilar to my running stride so I had to run a little every so often to keep up. With about 1 km to go all I could do was think about finishing, however the little detour at start and knowing the course was 10 km-ish left me unsure of just how much further there was to go. We seemed to be heading out of the woods and I began to hear distant cheering which told me there could not be much further to go. Lifted by the realisation that we were close to the finish I put my knee pain out of my head and focussed on the finish. Soon after we emerged from the woods into the field we'd started in and the lights of the finish line were is sight. Chris ditched me (although he was very apologetic) for a sprint finish, I tried to keep up but he had the edge on me, we finished with a second separating us. My official time was 1:12:55.

The finish lit up like a landing strip

We were greeted at the finish line by Paul who had finished 8th with a time of 52:09. Quite incredible considering he did not push himself, had been nursing a broken toe and also had a fall during the race. We were given our medal and finisher t-shirt both of which were first class. WSR events have some of the best medals around. The medal is truly unique, each of the Ox races (dark, half marathon, marathon and ultra) had a different medal design. The Dark Ox was a rather mean looking ox head with the eyes highlighted in glow in the dark purple colouring, a dog tag with the year and a chain, yes a chain not a ribbon! I can honestly say I have nothing else quite like it in my collection!

Mr T medal and awesome race t-shirt

We decided that we would head home straight after the race and look for something to eat on the way back. Strangely enough the smell of garlic had put me off of going for a curry! We stopped at the Fleet services on the M3 about half way home. By this point it was gone midnight, the choice was between McDonalds and Burger King. Burger King was my preferred choice as I like their veggie burger but a motorway bridge stood between me and their Veggie Bean Burger so McDonalds won. We walked into the services wearing our finishers t-shirts complete with medal bling around our necks. I was feeling only ever so slightly self conscious but then I noticed that we were not alone and another two girls who had also completed the race were sitting in McDonalds still in face paint. We ordered a Veggie Spicy Deli sandwich complete with a side of fries and a Sprite. It was dirty, filthy food but it was probably what was needed to get us through the last leg of our journey.

We eventually crawled into bed at 3am after having a shower. Some might think we were mad to travel all that way in a day to do a 10k race. It wasn't any race though, it was probably one of my favourite of that distance so far. WSR had delivered the goods once again. Besides it sure beat spending the evening watching what some call Saturday night entertainment on TV! I was mortified that I had missed Eurovision... NOT!