With some very big climbs to tackle along the way, the Maverick South Downs routes were challenging but also very rewarding, with some spectacular scenery to be encountered on the way. The courses started from Queen Elizabeth Country Park before heading out onto the South Downs Way. There were four different distances on offer ranging from the Short, which was 9km, to the Ultra which was 51km.
Opting for the Middle distance race, Tom Ralph had 21.5km to tackle, so essentially just over a half marathon in distance. Tom came into it off the back of a 43:13 at the Round the Lakes 10k. He also did the West Dorset Three Peaks Challenge four days before the Maverick South Downs event. The West Dorset Three Peaks Challenge involves scaling Thorncombe Beacon at 157 metres, Golden Cap at 191 metres and Colmer’s Hill at 127 metres.
That was 15.36 miles of running for Tom and 2,930ft of elevation safely in his locker in 2 hours 42 minutes. It was all good training for his forthcoming Maverick Jurassic Long race he had pencilled in which is 54km. The Maverick South Downs ‘Middle’ distance race would also serve as good training to help in his preparations to face that daunting task.
In the Maverick South Downs ‘Medium’ race there were a fair few ups and downs along the way but it was really from the eighth mile onwards that it started to get tough. From that point on it was mostly uphill all the way to the top of the summit at 11.4 miles. Then after that it was predominantly a descent to the finish.
Completing the course in a chip time of exactly 1 hour 47 minutes, Tom finished 13th out of 244 participants and his average pace for the run was just over 8 minutes per mile. That was not bad at all considering the 2,123ft of elevation he had to tackle.
The ‘Middle’ race was won by Stuart Farmer in 1:27:11, with Kurt Wilkinson following close behind in 1:27:25. Jeremy Slater was 3rd in 1:29:35. Sandy Reid was 1st female and 10th overall in 1:46:25, with Phoebe Thomas taking 2nd female spot in 1:47:20 which put her 14th overall, just behind Tom.
For Tom’s next act he was competing in the Royal Parks Half Marathon where he would be raising money for the Evalina Children’s Hospital charity. Then the following weekend he’d be tackling the Maverick Jurassic Long which would see him face 6,000ft of elevation over the course of the 34.2 mile route.