Date: Friday 21st January - Sunday 23rd January 2022
Weather: Sunny then overcast and fresh
Base location: Blackadon Farm Cottages , Dartmoor, Devon
Route type: Trails
Conditions: Dry and soft
Describe camp in three words: An absolute blast
My first Winter training camp with running club! Excited, most definitely! We had a prompt 7am departure from Fleet and headed for Devon, stopping along the way at a service station for a leg stretch… the first service station not deemed good enough by coffee lovers, we made the coach driver do a three point turn and head for the next. Everyone satisfied with the greater selection of coffee, we got our caffeine fix and hit the road again.
Day One - Friday 21st January 2022
We arrived at Blackadon Farm Cottages around 11am and were greeted with homemade blueberry muffins, tea and coffee. A quick speed unpack in my gorgeous room and it was time for the first run.
Orientation Run
I had read 3/4 mile as three quarters of a mile and thought that was an odd run to start with, perhaps we were just going around the Blackadon Cottages land? Turns out it was a 3 to 4 mile run! I am so silly. We went to the top of Ugborough Beacon 375 m, admired the views and back down again, Coach Kev pointed out the landmarks to look out for in case any of us found ourselves separated from the group over the weekend and needed to find our own way back. The weather was absolutely stunning, delightful sunshine revealing all the best views.
Strava: 2.71 miles 653 ft
Time for a delicious lunch provided by Dartmoor Larder of chunky vegetable soup, the best croutons I’ve ever had, fresh baguette, sushi (fish and vegan options) and some downtime which really was spent drinking more tea, and chatting.
River Erie and Butterdon Hill trail run
We set off for our 9 mile trail run and I found myself towards the front running with marathon legend Jon Cross, I was a bit concerned I had bitten off more than I could chew what with my adventures in Wales earlier on in the week but actually my legs were good and I maintained the pace… Jon even commented that I was leading a good pace up the hill! I won’t mention that Jon fell in the bush as we drew up alongside the river, nearly plummeting down the steep embankment… we followed the path upstream, enjoying the views and the water cascades. We had a couple of river crossings including a wobbly seesaw bridge followed by a long drag of a hill on a lane.
Strava: 8.87 miles 1,581 ft
We arrived back in high spirits, more tea, time to shower, change and unpack. Dinner was a feast of cassoulet, with sausages for the meat eaters and beans for the veggies.
Day Two - Saturday 22nd January 2022
Fasted moor run
Not such an early start but were on holiday after all, we headed out around 8.30am for a pre-breakfast run around Ugborough Beacon rather than up and over, as the run was fasted, the aim of the game was to not push it and just go at a leisurely pace. However, the final mile or so, Paul Burger, Osama Baldo and myself picked the pace up as we felt it was our duty to get to breakfast ahead of the others to reduce the amount of queueing time for them.
Strava: 4.59 miles 600 ft
What a feast we were greeted with! Scrambled eggs with spinach, shaksuka, breads, cereals, overnight oats and so much more… my stomach was rumbling and the breakfast feast felt very well deserved.
Hill Intervals
Having had a bit of free time to shower and drink more tea, it was time to head out again for a hill session. We did a full 15 minutes at effort up a hill that could have done with being around 25% shorter than what it was, relaxed pace down. Once the 15 minutes was up, Coach Kev gave us some tips on running downhill faster. So this time, we walked up the hill and gradually got faster and faster as we came down. It was a joy to see Ruth Briggs and Ross Maclagan who are already accomplished downhill navigators go flying down the hill at breakneck speed. Osama who claims to only like the flat, gained confidence throughout, and it was great to see him make some really fast descents at the end. Dom Wake also suddenly got very quick and started chasing Ross’ tail, I think he may have even pipped him to the post on the final downhill. Darren Wood was a keen spectator throughout.
After this session we jogged back to Blackadon Farm and funnily enough, it was Paul, Osama and I leading the group back to lunch! Lunch was yet another delicious feast, baked potatoes, rainbow carrot tart and salad choices.
Strava: 2.87 miles 866 ft
Team Fun Skills
None of us were really sure what this was going to be so I dressed for everything, I had running clothes on, and over the top tracksuit trousers, hoody and coat, hat and gloves. Turned out I wasn’t alone in my layering choices. We’d been told the directions of how to get to the playing field… none of us listened and two phone calls to Kev later and an extra number of minutes walking we eventually found our way to the field. Kev had set up some games from junior athletics and we were split into five teams. Team captain Jon Cross had Matt Wright, Simon Rimmer and myself on the team. There were 5 games: a relay, hurdles, fast feet up and down a ladder, bean bag balance and a throw. There was much rivalry between teams, accusations of cheating left, right and centre and it was all very close - the points were as follows: the winning team had 11 points, then 12, 16, 17 and the loosing team 18. Our team came second. Last. I think the others were cheating though.
After the fun and games, Angela Austin and I went to visit the very cute miniature donkeys of Blackadon Cottages.
Head Torch run
The last run of the day was a short head torch run of around 4 miles. We went up to Butterdon Hill 366 m, across to Ugborough Beacon and then back to the accommodation. Initially, I hadn’t felt particularly enthused about going out but as soon as I got moving and warm, this was a particularly enjoyable run. Paul and I seemed to lead the way in terms of gpx navigation. It was the usual suspects picking up the pace again at the end to see who could be the first in the dinner queue.
Strava: 4.34 miles 722 ft
Dinner tonight was phenomenal, two types of curry, chicken for the meat eaters, Crown Prince squash for the veggies, popadoms (a whole basket of them) chapatis, nann and these amazing filo pastry Turkish things stuffed with spinach, cheese and potato. Lemon and poppy seed cake bars for dessert.
Guest speaker - Adharanand Finn
What a way to round off the day, Adharanand Finn joined us for dinner and then gave a great talk, giving an overview of his three books, The Way of the Runner, Running with the Kenyan’s and The Rise of the Ultra Runner, Adharanand told running stories from Japan and Kenya and answered our many questions. We sent him out to the car at the end to get a box of books so that we could buy them and get him to sign them.
Day Three
9 mile trail run with a pub finish 0.71
Everyone seems a little stiff this morning and a little less energetic at getting out the door but after a hearty breakfast and two cups of tea I set off with a decent sized group where the plan was to run the 9 mile route in reverse. Initially I had hoped to run the 15 mile route, there were no takers. Neil Bellamy had said he'd run 12 miles with me (what a star) but then we decided that would be breaking the strict rule of not sticking to one of the gpx routes.
No one was paying any attention at the beginning so the first 2 miles was spent off route but heading vaguely in the right direction. We finally picked up the official gpx route (thanks to Ross' nose) at the river crossing where I promptly face planted and half fell in, entirely Dom’s fault as he called my name as I was in mid air and it distracted me. In fact, Dom had a lot to answer for this run as prior to that, he confessed to me that he actually had the wrong gpx route on his Garmin and that’s why he was leading us all astray. When we were on the lane which thankfully this way round is downhill, he foghorned loudly, “CAAAAAR!” Sarah Cleland jumped out of her skin, nearly landing in a bush and Louise Apsey and I yelped with fear. There was no car, just Harford Bridge. We deviated off the route near the end as Ross had done extensive research the night before on all the pubs. An enjoyable pint (or half pint in my case) of real ale and then we had a short toddle of less than a mile back to base.
Strava: 8.95 miles 1,118 ft
There was just enough time to shower and pack before lunch, lunch being a delightful Shepherd’s or Shepherd-less pie, red cabbage and mixed green veg with a promise of flapjacks to take on the coach on the way home.
A phenomenal weekend, already can’t wait until next year! Well done to all and thanks for making it so fun!