Cornwall v Devon

Sunday 30th October, Mount Edgcumbe. Claire Longman stood at the top of a hill ready for battle. It was a 10k battle she couldn’t win: she was the only TRC soldier on the front line and just one of the depleted Cornish troops…

The chase begins!

Trelawney’s Army didn’t turn up!

Whilst a few Club members were heading off to Redruth for the Great Flat Lode on Sunday, my husband and I had been unable to resist a call to the Border to take on those neighbours of ours from Devon!

A company called Shred Events, who normally run mountain biking races, had put up the challenge of a 10k trail race this October and a 10-mile re-match at the end of January, both based around the grounds of Mount Edgcumbe House right on the Cornwall/Devon border.

Dave and I left the children with my parents the night before so it meant we did benefit from the extra hour’s sleep but we did have to set off before 9am to make it there for the 11am start – it is quite a trek. However, it was worth it because the setting for the race was just gorgeous and reminded me of the race I did at Lanhydrock in the summer (it was a little chillier last Sunday thankfully!).

At registration we picked up our ‘county vest(!)’ which consisted of a cotton t-shirt (not ideal!) in either Green for Devon and, for some reason, Orange for Cornwall! Why Orange for Cornwall I really don’t know and it is still bugging me, Yellow would have been better and, I’m sure, just as easy to order. This was the first thing that alerted us to the fact that this company is based in Devon (that and the race organiser’s encouraging cheers for the Devonian runners!)!! There were a lot more Green t-shirts so we knew we were up against it from the start! Everyone who made it in under 1hr10 scored points for their County.

The first thing we had to do was climb a big hill to the start line up by the house and then the race organiser told us there would be a spot prize for the first person down the hill. Cue all the men moving forward and most of the ladies moving to the back! Off went the gun and Dave went off like a bullet, some Devonian bloke did a comedy roll on the way down, but it was a Devonian who won that race and Dave said his heart-rate never recovered!! It took me nearly a mile to catch him up though!

The first part of the race was downhill and flat along trails and through about 6 kissing gates (no-one offered to kiss me though!) and over a few stiles. At about 3k there was a horrendous climb back up through the woods and everyone around me was walking but after that there was more flat along fields of sheep and a lovely fast downhill stretch. That was the pattern of the race really, some really steep climbs and some steep downhills (one evil one down some wide steps) but 99% of it on trails.

It was good to have the different coloured t-shirts because you could identify the opposition but very frustrating too as I could see the girl in front who was in a Green t-shirt but I couldn’t catch her. When I crossed the finishing line they shouted out that I was 4th Senior Lady (double annoying that I couldn’t catch the Green t-shirt – she beat me by less than a minute!).

Also, it proved to be the pattern for the overall results too because Devon well and truly whipped our Cornish backsides!! See the results! Now here is my plea. The re-match is at the end of January, the weekend after Storm Force so we’ll be nicely trained up for a 10-miler. It’s a gorgeous course and I imagine more of the same for the slightly longer course but I really think we need to take more troops next time to give Cornwall a fighting chance. Anyone up for it?

Claire

Results

Devon-V-Cornwall-10K 2011

Gallery