It can be difficult opening up your horizons to new experiences. It takes a bit of courage when you first start to step up the distance and explore different avenues. It can even mean pushing the boundaries of what you’re capable of and taking your body to new limits, The Bluebell Bash represented a slight step into the unknown for Nathan Mearns as he’d never done a trail half marathon before.

Nathan does enjoy an off-road race though and has done plenty of those in his time. In fact this year he did the National Cross Country Championships at Parliament Hill and the Inter Country Championships at Wollaton Park so he certainly wasn’t afraid to throw himself in the deep end and face some tough terrain and some quality opposition.

Every time he’s done a parkrun this year it’s been Moors Valley and it was pretty much the same last year as well, underlining his favour toward a nice trail route.

It’s always difficult to pace half marathons, even when they’re on the road. When it comes to trail half marathons though it’s much more tricky as you don’t really know what sort of terrain you’ll be facing or at what point there’ll be a tough hill to contend with.

The race was staged at Manswood Bottom near Witchampton. Nathan started off quite fast with a 6:46 for his first split followed by a 6:53 for his second mile. That was despite some undulations. The third mile was mostly all uphill and he went through that in 7:40 before registering a 7:27 for his fourth mile.

The fifth mile was mostly all uphill and Nathan got through that in 7:41 before clocking a 7:27 for his sixth mile. The seventh mile was predominantly downhill and Nathan got back on pace there getting through that in exactly 7 minutes. There was then another hill for him to face on the eighth mile and for some of the ninth one.

Posting a 7:39 for his eighth mile, he then went through the ninth in 7:04, starting the long descent that would take him to 11.5 miles. Posting a 6:44 for his 10th mile, he then went on the clock a 7:04 for the eleventh mile.

That left one more hill to get through before he reached the finish making for a very testing last couple of miles. Nathan stayed strong though with a 7:36 for his 12th mile and an 8 minute mile for his thirteenth, which was all uphill. That meant he had just under half a mile to go with a downhill section into the finish.

Racing through that at 6:20 pace, Nathan then arrived at the finish in a time of 1:37:44 which was enough to put him in second place. The only man who could beat that was Robert Churchward who got round in 1:31:53 so was quite a way ahead.

It was a terrific result for the Nathan though to take second place and he’d finished ahead of quite a few club runners, including several from Poole Runners. The third placed runner reached the line 41 seconds after Nathan. Nathan was the only under 18 year old competing in the half marathon race out of the 94 who took part.

Speaking of trying new experiences and experimenting with different distances, Nathan went on compete at Endure 24 in Reading, which is a 24 hour running event. In that one, athletes run laps of a close to five mile trail route, with the idea being to complete as many laps as possibly within the 24 hour duration.

It can be done in large teams, small teams, pairs or solo. It’s really a test of stamina and endurance, rather than speed. You have to gage your effort level accordingly to ensure you have enough energy to keep going for the duration of the event.

Completing his first lap in 36:47, Nathan ran at an average pace of 7:29 for his first one. He then completed his second one in 36:32, so that was a similar sort of pace. He then ran two laps together in 1 hour 19 minutes, taking the first one very steady and then upping the speed slightly for the second lap.

The event also invariably includes running through the night as well, so some runners end up doing a lap in pitch black, with only a head torch to light the way. Nathan didn’t need to do that though as it was 8:40 the next morning when he went out for his fifth lap. Completing that in 41:36, at an average pace of 8:57, he then went on to complete one more lap before the event finished.

Getting through his final lap in 46:27, with an average pace of 9:24, Nathan had done it. He’d seen it through the end and clocked a total of six laps, so that was close to 30 miles over the duration of the event.

It was an excellent piece of running from Nathan and he’ll certainly look back on the event with pride after the large volume of effort he’d put in. He had demanded a lot of himself by running so many laps but he’d responded well and risen to the challenge.

Progressing well since joining the road runners faction and attending the Tuesday and Thursday night weekly interval sessions, it will be interesting to see where Nathan’s running journey will take him next.