Finally, they arrived and the whole crew hit the town of Watchet to find a pub with food and a large screen TV for the Rugby World Cup Final.  The first few pints went down well and soon rumours that Rory had run last years race after an 8 – pint Saturday night, started to do the rounds.  It seemed a few were up for breaking this record!  The only plus point coming out of England losing the Rugby was that it seemed to dampen the record attempt!

All eight runners therefore turned up at Minehead on Sunday morning with clear-ish heads.  Donna was there and was doing the shorter ‘Stumble’ which was 6 miles as opposed to the 15+ miles of the ‘Stagger’.

The race started at 11am and the first 3 miles were almost all uphill to the top of Grabbist Ridge.  The two races split and the ‘Stagger’ runners headed out over Exmoor bound for Dunkery Beacon.
Kev and Carol were heading for this spot in the car to get some photos and to cheer us on.  They must have been using the ‘Hodge-Hodge’ Sat Nav system as they only just made it out there in time to see Barrie (pictured below) go past the summit.

Glyn was the leading Carnie and fell on his back a couple of times on the rough ground and expected to have Hodgey trample him into the mud at any moment.
He managed to keep his nose just in front of Hodgey who, as normal, was less than happy with the hills!

Barrie pulled away from George.  Just behind, Rory and Chris were taking it in turns to lead up the long climb to the Beacon.  Coming off the top, Rory pulled away into the distance.

Emma (above) was only a few minutes behind with Helen a bit further back.

Meanwhile back in Minehead, Donna was crossing the finish line to win the Ladies race in the ‘Stumble’.

The ‘Stagger’ course was relentless and the terrain was beginning to tell as leg muscles were taking one hell of a beating.  This was intensified as the runners reached the long, near vertical climb back to the ridge.  Chris had caught Rory on the lower slopes and took the lead again as Rory capitulated on the climb and was reduced to stopping and almost dropped onto all-fours as Chris strode past.

At the top there was a drink station which wasn’t good news as that meant there must still be a good few miles left to go.

Everyone was well and truly into ‘Stagger’ mode as they covered the last few miles with calves set to turn to stone at any moment.

Job done and dusted

One by one we all made it home and spent the rest of the day hobbling around on painful and ‘wooden’ legs.

Emma was 1st in the FV40 age group but didn't get her trophy at the presentation due to the organisers having her down as FV35.

We’d all took a battering and we knew it.  The course had been truly awesome but all the Carnies had come through.

Glyn Davis   2:12:05                   Chris Harper  2:32:39
Chris Hodge  2:13:48                 Rory O’Carroll 2:37:45
Barrie Cardew  2:21:39              Emma Lyons  2:42:36
George Williams 2:27:10            Helen Thomas  3:12:31

Full Results on the Minehead Running Club website.