Horseplay - A different sort of Race!

I have just got back from Horseplay. Tired. Muddy. Aching. Satisfied!

The Horseplay 10k is a different sort of race. For Pete and I this was our second year, so we had some idea of what the evening would hold, but the clues are there for Horseplay virgins.  Suspicions should be raised when the website says it is "10k (and the rest!)", and as this is part of the Rat Race Notorious Night Run Series you know that it is also going to be in the dark. But what is the equestrian theme all about?

All is clear by the time you have slogged your way round the 12k course, starting at dusk and running into the night, partly over an equestrian cross country course.


The event is held in Hambledon in Buckinghamshire, just north of Henley on Thames. When you arrive it looks at first like any other event. Car parking, event village, registration tent, runners and families milling around. But look around and you notice unusual obstacles. Huge tree trunks laid across tracks. A pond. A 6 foot high mound with ditches on either side. And wooded hills all around. You start to get the feel for the race.  By start time you notice that half the runners milling around are in horse related fancy dress, ranging from simple horse tails through to runners in jodhpurs and hacking jackets. Everyone has a head torch as they listen to unusual safety warnings for a race "...trip over roots..."  "...branches in your eyes..." "... if you help someone over an obstacle mind where you put your hands..."

The course stars with a circuit of the grassy arena area, and the first taste of obstacles - those 4 foot high tree trunks to clamber or bound over - and then down into the pond, round a sharp bend and up and over the big mound.  The course then veers into the woods and follows a wide track to more obstacles before starting up a long gentle uphill path through the trees.  Just as we are getting used to the undulating route, the tape markers lead sharp left and up a very steep hill through the open woods. No path. Just the occasional bit of tape to show you are going the right way.  The slope eases as we crest the hill and some welcome respite before plunging down the other side.  Some flat running for a few hundred yards and then another punishing hill threading up through the trees.

This pattern repeats.  Undulating and flat woodland paths interspersed with chest aching climbs and steep drops.  Pete is doing much better than me on the climbs, but waits for me and encourages me. As we near the half way point, we are rewarded with a long grassy descent, almost too steep to stay in control. The light is fading now and all headtorches are on as we career down the hill to the welcome water station. Then on again up a long hill to the highest point of the route.

The worst of the steep climbs are over now, but the ones that remain feel hard on tired legs. Pitch black now, we run through open woods, bushy undergrowth and woodland paths, the headtorches of other runners sometimes glinting across the valley.  But the race still has a few surprises.  Cresting a steep slope you are faced by the Bomb Crater, a thigh deep muddy pond with steep sides.  I slip climbing out, arms and legs covered in smelly mud, Once out, we are straight into negotiating a very steep muddy descent, sliding and slipping and holding onto trees and routes to keep control.  More paths and another, longer, shallower pond, and we are on the home run, with just a half dozen obstacles remaining, but no more real hills.  I get a bit of a second wind and we speed up, overtaking a few more people.

Down big stepped obstacles, through water jumps, ducking under a bar a foot above the water and we can see the lights of the event village glinting through the forest. Nearly there. We break out of the woods and are cheered on as we run through out last pond, crawl under a net, over the big bank for the second time and jog (not sprint!) up to the finishing line.  Pete finishes well ahead of me, as he deserves.  He'd have knocked another few minutes off if I hadn't held him back.

Rewarded with a medal, a bottle of water and a Snickers bar, we slump into chairs and watch the other runners come in, headtorches showing the groups as they clamber over the mound and hit the finishing line.

We'd come in in 1h 21m. Not fast for 12k, but this is no ordinary 12k! And a full 6 minutes faster than out time last  year. 130th and 132nd out of 495 runners. Not bad for a pair of silly old buggers. A good evening's sport!

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495 runners.
14 in our class "Old Stallions"
Pete: 1:21:15, 130th overall. 3rd in class
Jell: 1:21:33, 132nd overall, 5th in class.