Salisbury 54321 Trail Marathon

5 rivers, 4 hills, 3 country estates, 2 castles and 1 cathedral is what we were promised, 1 rather long training run was what we came for. Tigger's mate Roo persuaded me to run this one with her as a slow alternative to the usual weekend long run. As long as we kept it really slow then we'd be fine using it for training. It promised to be quite a picturesque run so well worth the effort.

The race HQ and start was Salisbury Fire Station:


We were off at a leisurely pace following the river, and then climbed up to the ancient fort of Old Sarum:


It was then on to the Clarendon Way, through the grounds of Clarendon House, and on to the beautiful Longford Castle:


There was a surprising amount of road, but lots of trails, paths, and open fields:


We were supplied with maps, but the route was well way-marked and we rarely needed the map. There were regular checkpoints where our numbers were taken to ensure we all got round safely, and no one took shortcuts. Some of the checkpoints were in beautiful locations, such as this one on the edge of the 'enchanted forest':


The enchanted forest was beautiful with all the yew trees, but it made Susie go all blurry and shoot rays of pure blue thought from her head:

(The path was marked by a rather long piece of blue string)

On we trekked through the villages neighbouring Salisbury, and on through the meadows, looking for our first view of the cathedral. We ran past 'Constable Close' - clearly a police station nearby - and eventually got our first view of the cathedral:

It's big!:


A jog through the centre of Salisbury, through the at times bemused, and at times oblivious, tourists, and we were soon back at the fire station. "Where's the finish line?" This was a fairly relaxed event - there was no line, but a 'finishing desk' where we registered for our medals. Equally relaxed was the distance - my GPS registered 28 miles. I'm not sure if we get official results - this is an event to be savoured not raced.

A moment of excitement at the end was when the siren went off in the fire station and the crew scrambled out to their truck parked outside in the yard. It might seem obvious but firemen really do slide down a fireman's pole! They weren't all men either - good to see a firewoman in the crew.

Some free food might have been nice at the end - maybe I didn't look hard enough. I did purchase the world's largest Belgian bun for a pound though. It took two of us to devour it. Teamwork by me and Tigger's mate Roo right to the end!:


28 miles in 4:52. Training objective achieved.