Bicton Blister 10

I got another off road race in yesterday, called the Bicton Blister.  It's 10.25 mile multi-terrain race on Woodbury Common in East Devon, starting and finishing at Bicton College.  The start and finish are short road sections, with the remainder of the race being on sandy, stony and muddy paths across the Commons of East Devon.  There is also "The Bicton Lite" which is the Bicton Blister's little Brother and is 4.5 miles with the same start and finish but less distance on the Commons.

After The Drogo last week, I searched around for another off road race and this came up as recommended.  I have heard of the race before, but usually don't even look at it as it's off road.  Due to this, I had missed the online entry cutoff so had to enter on the day, which is what I did.

There were 431 people who the 10 miler and 78 who did the "lite" version, so again it's a relatively big event.  I got around in 1:31:51 which I was quite pleased with really, although I did struggle on a couple of the hills.  I covered the last mile, which was on road, in about 7:30 so I was pleased I finished strong.  I got caked in mud though!

A massive highlight for me was when we were winding down through some woods at around 5 miles on a tricky section and in the distance I heard what sounded like bagpipes.  I thought my mind was playing tricks on me as I couldn't see anyone playing, and I had just about convinced myself that it must be someone with a good sound system of some sort.  However, the music got louder and I turned a corner and suddenly these 2 bagpipe players came into view.  It was a great thing for such a local race in the middle of nowhere and really put a spring in my step for the next mile or so!

The profile of the race is below and is quite challenging, I think.

I know I've only done 2 of these and they're not 'A races' for me but I find I'm enjoying them even though I wasn't quite in the right frame of mind for it yesterday for some reason.  For example, I find I turn up and don't have any nerves on the start.  Usually for halfs or marathons I'm quite nervous on the start line so I'm hoping this new mindset will transfer into my 'A races'.

Compared to what I'm used to, they seem more like adventure courses than a 'race' as such.  For example I splashed through some obstacles that can really only be described as bogs, scrambled up and down some very rocky trails and tried picking the quickest route through some thick woods. Great stuff.  Don't get me wrong; I know many people do race them and some are stupidly quick!!

I think because one off-roader can't really be compared to another it's more a case of me just doing my best on the day rather than rigidly trying to stick to a specific pace.  There's certainly no time to relax on these courses and although I'm relatively slow I'm hoping it'll help with my road running in terns of strength, but we'll see.  I am hoping that when I run a flat half marathon, it will seem much easier compared to these off road races.  That's the plan, anyway!