As some of you know, I work for Sweatshop as an Assistant Manager at the store in Hyde, Manchester.  As well as having 35 shops across the UK, we also organise quite a few race events, most notably the Reading Half Marathon and Nottingham Marathon and Half Marathon.

The Events team have been working hard for the last few years planning an event that is very different to anything else they organise – a relay starting from Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol and finishing at Windsor Castle.  Last weekend, I was asked to travel down and take part in a test run of the event, to be known as the “Cliff to Castle Relay”.

There are quite a few bizarre features of this relay which I thought would make this blog an interesting read.  Firstly, it starts at 3:00am, which is just absolutely crazy!!  To make it even more outrageous given the time of night and the lack of daylight, the route follows the towpath from Bristol to Windsor and so headtorches were required for the opening stages!

We were staying at Bristol Youth Hostel, and after the race briefing we headed up to our room  at 9:00pm.  Setting our alarms for 2:00am just seemed ridiculous!!    Even more so when I walked from the youth hostel to my car wearing my running kit and carrying my bag, and walked past a queue for a nightclub and a large stag party in fancy dress.  I did have an urge to go and have a drink and a dance but apparently we didn’t have time.

Parkruns team was already one person down.  One of the girls on their team had been a little nervous after the briefing, had a few drinks to steady the nerves and was in such a state that she never made it out of bed. 

I was the designated driver for our team and we were given a booklet with instructions to navigate our way in the car to the next leg.  The first leg was only 3.5 miles so after seeing the headtorch wearing runners on their way, we made a quick trip across to the start of leg 2.  This was the only pairs leg of the relay, for safety reasons as it passed through a red light area and it was still very dark. 



ABOVE: Sorting out my Sat Nav

All four teams had managed to get lost so we had quite a wait, but eventually three teams returned.  The fourth had managed to run 8 miles and finish at the youth hostel.  Fortunately this wasn’t us, but Parkrun.  What a great start they had!!

I ran leg 2 with Ben Riddell from the Manchester Arndale shop.  Ben runs for Salford Harriers and lives with me.  It was difficult to work out how hard we should run given that it was 3:30am and we had three legs to run over the course of the day.  We set off and it wasn’t long before we hit the front.  We were running consistent 5:50 miles.  The surface was good on this leg, but the lack of daylight was a problem in parts.  The most bizarre event of this leg was running through a tunnel in the red light area at about 4:00am and seeing a random guy dancing around playing the flute.  I wondered if I was still asleep having one of my weird dreams.




ABOVE: Getting ready to go...at 3:30am!!

Andi Jones and Joe Bailey were running this leg for team Adidas.  They caught us at about halfway and then we all ran together for a bit, laughing about the guy playing the flute.  By the time the leg finished, we had covered 8.2 miles in 47 mins.  One down, two to go!

My second leg was at about 8:30am.  By now it was broad daylight, and Adidas were now out in front.  I watched Andi setting off and then there was a 15 minute gap before Gavin came through for us and I set off on the canal.  It was a little bit muddy but not too bad and despite this ran a faster first mile than any of the morning effort. 

Shortly after the mile, I approached a couple of swans on the canal path.  This was a narrow section of the path and the two swans were occupying the entire width of the path.  In front of them were a load of feathers and a group of ducklings, so I slowed down to a jog and proceeded with caution.  Both swans raised their wings, took a step forward and grunted at me.  The canal path was the only route and I was starting to get a little agitated.  “Right.  Are you going to move or what?”.  They didn’t seem to understand my question so I tried barking like a dog.  That didn’t work so I roared like a lion.  This didn’t work either.  For me to continue, I needed them to move, so I grabbed a branch off a tree and started waving it furiously in front of them which got them very angry.  They weren’t moving.  Shit!!

I admitted defeat and ran back towards the start.  I wasn’t sure what I would say but it was impossible to complete the leg.  I got close to the start and saw Rob Downs from the Parkrun team running towards me.  He looked a little bemused and I told him what had happened.  He said it wouldn’t be a problem and to follow him.  However, when we got back to the swans, it was obvious it was a problem!!  Rob pulled out his map, and successfully navigated us under a barbed wire fence and through a field full of horses running around in circles eventually bringing us back out onto the canal!!

So leg 2 that should have been 5.9 miles ended up being 6.9, and I will never live the swan incident down.  I’ve had a couple of prank calls since from people pretending to be the Swan Preservation Society and wanting to speak to me about my attack on the swans!  The first caller got as far as asking for my name and address to log the incident before I heard laughter and twigged it was a prank call.  I will get my revenge!!

My third leg was uneventful, I was just very tired by that stage and was glad it was only 5.2 miles.  This one was at 1:30pm and was extremely muddy and was like doing a cross country race with trainers on.  Not good!!



ABOVE: Finishing Leg 3 and looking surprisingly sprightly after 23 miles of running

BELOW: All smiles - all running done!!



The teams eventually finished at Windsor Castle at around 4:00pm and all of the teams gathered in the Rugby Club for some food and to share their own weird and wonderful stories from the day.

Everybody greatly enjoyed the event and it is hoped that the event will be launched in full for 2012.