Well it must be the weekend again here we are heading up the A30, this time to Somerset for the Mendip Muddle. We arrived at Charterhouse on the top of the Mendips on a grey Sunday morning; the ground was soft but not too muddy and so began the great debate about which shoes to wear, should it be the off road or road running shoes.  After looking around at everyone else’s feet , which was no help at all, the off road pair won, had a bit of a panic when people started to walk passed wearing camel packs and belts filled with various gels, but stuck to the one gel secure in my running shorts pocket and a runaid of water.

The start was several hundred yards down the road, in the opposite direction from the finish (no wonder it’s called a muddle). We all started off at a reasonable pace and queued politely at the next few stiles until the field spread out a little more.

The run covered an undulating course with magnificent scenery, along tracks and footpaths, scree slopes, streams, and sheer drops, with names like Velvet Bottom and Rhinos Drift.  We hit the highest point on the Mendips at Beacon Batch (325M) and ran through ancient woodlands at 40M. Some of the more local runners must be related to mountain goats given the speed they managed to descend some of the scree slopes, I only lost my footing once, perhaps the shoe choice was a good one!

The finish flags were a welcome sight some two hours later, my immediate thoughts were that I would not be entering that one again, but after some excellent and reasonably priced refreshments back at the Charterhouse Centre I think that with a bit of dedicated training I might be back again next year.