- Barry Gerhold
East Hanningfield Trail Marathon

1st marathon of the year complete. Marathon #16
8th Januray 2017
Joint 5th place
This one a little different. Not only was this off road but it was also a narrative. Having to read 6 A4 pages of directions to help us round. No maps, no GPS etc.
Picture below.
This certainly made the event more of a challenge, I found myself in a small group of fast runners. After a couple of navigational mishaps we kept mostly on track. Some of the fields were treacherous more and more mud kept clinging to the trainers and felt like I was lifting lead weights which meant these sections could not be run.
The small group that I was running with were a good bunch, having a good chat, taking it in turns to open gates and working together to follow the correct route.
Although this was probably one of the toughest marathons I have ever done it was a great experience.
With navigational errors we ended up doing 27.3 miles in a time of 4hrs 31mins
Our group all crossed the finish line together taking joint 5th place.

https://www.strava.com/activities/825278129/overview