Geoff Newton up on the Downs in the first of three fell races he had to face over that weekend
“As you age not only do you get slower, your powers of recovery also diminish. As evidence, when I was in my late 20’s I could run sub 55 minutes for 10 miles and do a 20-25 miles training run the next day. Now aged 80 if I were to run 10 on the road I would be about half an hour slower and be unable to train at all for 2-3 days.
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The SEAA Fell Champs present a real problem for old people as they are held over one weekend, with the short and medium length races held on the Saturday and the long race on the Sunday! The championships are decided by the sum of your positions in all three races!
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I ran them regularly and enjoyed them up until my early 70’s but then took a break with other activities taking precedence. As far as I was aware no 80 year old had ever managed to run all three in the 31 years history of the event, so it presented an interesting, unique challenge.
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Ventnor is an attractive seaside resort clinging to the slopes of the island’s highest hills which rise up to around 700ft in hight and the event has a social side to it with many people coming back year after year. As I expected, there were no other M80’s this year, but there were three M70’s there, Dick Kearn, Bob Pentland and Peter Wright who I knew from previous years who might provide some interesting competition.
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Race 1, the short St Boniface Fell Race (3.9 Km, 235m ascent) starts on the promenade at 11am, goes up through the steepest streets to the edge of the Downs, up a flight of steps, through a gate onto the steepest part of the course. Nobody runs the steepest bit on the way up and coming back down is scary to say the least.
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Geoff completed the 3.8km St Boniface Fell race in 31:49
Eventually the gradient eases enough to run on the grassy downland up to the “summit” where you do a loop and then its back down the way you came up. It’s important to get up the steps before the leaders come back down.
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Peter and Bob were soon out of sight but Dick was not far ahead. As we got onto the open downs we were briefly hit by high winds and rain. I managed to catch Dick and Bob as we hit the summit level, with Peter still ahead. Everything changed on the steep scary downhill section. By the time we got back on the roads the order was Bob, Dick, me and Peter and that’s how it stayed until the finish.
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To put things into perspective the winner Joe Dale of Victoria Park Harriers & Tower Hamlets AC did 18:11.5, I was 93rd of 102 in 31:49.1.
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Race 2 the Ventnor Horseshoe (12km, 443m ascent) starts on the promenade at 3 pm and goes up the same way as the first race until you are through the gate onto the downs. The course then crosses a little valley and climbs its way up diagonally up a steep spur and eventually onto the summit.
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Geoff (left) makes his way down the steep in Race 2
From the summit there is a downhill run, passing through a small copse, then continuing down to Wroxall Farm, then a steady climb up to the St Martin’s Down ridge. Then steadily down, eventually to a short level section of the abandoned railway track. This soon leads to a gentle climb to a long, long steep flight of steps up a cliff, then more climbing up onto the top of Shanklin Down. A long, nearly level run along the top of the ridge leads eventually to the same way down from the summit taken by the first race.
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Geoff (left) makes his way down the steep in Race 2
Peter again started faster than Bob, Dick and me. I caught Bob on the diagonal climb. Four times on the climb up to St Martins Down I heard chasing footsteps, which I thought might be Bob, only to find younger faster runners overtaking me. (More on this later). I passed Dick on the descent to the railway track.
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Back at the finish I was surprised to find that Peter was not back. He had gone wrong on the exit from the little copse, as had the four younger runners who overtook me when I had expected they already would be way out in front. I was 91st of 99 finishers in 1:41:13 in a race won by Joe Dale in 57:29.
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Race 3 the half marathon Wroxall Round (21.1km, 487m ascent) started at 10am the next day. The previous two races deplete the glycogen in your muscles and load them with lactic acid and other nasties, and with little time for recovery, the third race is a challenge for everyone who ran the first two.
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Geoff battling through his third race of the weekend
I had three targets. One to finish, two – not to be last and three – stay clear of injury. Sadly, the three M70’s decided not to run. (Peter had a sore throat, Dick had a bad knee and Bob, a problem with a slightly defective heart valve)
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The plan was to walk the uphill, jog the flat and run the downhill. From my past experience, I knew that it was important not to reach the top of last (and toughest) climb completely spent, so that it is possible to run the relatively level track along the ridge to the usual steep descent to the finish, without being overtaken.
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The race starts from the promenade and instead of immediately running uphill like the previous two races, it meanders west along the cliffs. Eventually it drops back to sea level before moving inland and moving steadily uphill to the climb up to the top of Stenbury Down.
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Geoff in a small group at the back of the field in the Wroxall Round
Initially my legs had difficulty with even the slightest uphill and I was content to stay with the sweeper – a new experience for me. He was accompanied by two youngish runners from Dark Star Running who had not run the previous day and were clearly treating it as a training run, chatting away to the sweeper.
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I started off wearing a thermal top under my vest, in the light of the rain and high winds the previous day. This was a big mistake, and I was soon too hot. I was happy to accept the offer of the sweeper to carry the thermal, which I removed after a couple of miles. Our little group caught up with two members of the Ryde Harriers women’s team on the climb up to Stenbury Down.
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From Stenbury Down we dropped back down to Whitwell Road. From here one of the Ryde women, Nat Jones, broke clear of the rest and I followed cautiously a bit behind but clear of the rest of the group. The course meanders up and down along the slopes of Appuldurcombe Down.
.Geoff was the first M80 ever to complete all three races in the SEAA Fell Running Championships
Eventually the drinks station is reached at about 8 or 9 miles. A mile after that and we rejoin the Ventnor Horseshoe course in time to hit the toughest uphill section. I passed Nat at the top of the climb and had enough left to run all the way to the finish without being overtaken. Job done.
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I finished 82nd of 86 in 2:41:21. I reckon I could have been 20 minutes faster if I had not run twice the previous day. Joe Dale did not win the third race, beaten by unattached Ben Windsor in 1:24:28, who had not run the previous day. The previous two races take something out of even the best.
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As understood, I am the first M80 to have run and finished all three races in the 31 year history of the event and hence the first ever SEAA M80 Champion. For what it’s worth. I qualify for this even though BAC are not affiliated for fell running, as I am an individual member of FRA. To put it into perspective, Dr Johnson once said of a dog walking on its hind legs “it was remarkable not because it was well done, but remarkable because it happened at all”. Perhaps that comment applies here too.”
By Geoff Newton