British Summer Weather fails to dampen spirits of Windle Valley Runners

Wimbledon rained off!
Cricket cancelled!

A typical day in the life of a sportsman in the British summer. However the rain and the wind failed to deter a good turnout at the annual Forest Five race at the Lookout, Bracknell organised by the Bracknell Forest Runners.

WVR had a good turnout with 10 entrants. One of them, Peter Friar had jetted in from Kuala Lumpur for the occasion, having learnt about the race from our web site. The rest of us flew in from Windlesham and Camberley !

The Forest Five race is a cross country race through the hilly paths of Bracknell Forest. This year however, the majority of effort was needed to negotiate the huge puddles and mud, while trying to avoid the exposed tree roots.

The first mile seemed endless, made harder by the fact that there was little room to manoeuvre and overtake. After the second mile the field started to thin out as the hills started to take their toll. Descending the hills was akin to skiing down a mogul field, twisting and turning to find some dry land to run on. The hills at miles 3 and 4 seemed particularly hard. Your correspondent was running with Chris Peppiatt who announced that this was the last hill! Spurred on by this, I increased the pace to find that this last hill seemed a mile long in itself. Finally the terrain started to take a turn downwards, and the 4 and a half mile marker came into view. After still more downhill running, the Finish banner came into view. One last adrenaline powered surge of speed towards the end, and it was all over.

Our thanks to Bracknell Forest runners for organising what is always an excellent event. In addition their race souvenirs are always original, this year we were presented with engraved horse brasses.

Phil Morley