On Saturday 20th August, Liz and Richard Bennett, of Newport & District Running Club, took part in an event new to them: the Chillington Hall Back Yard Ultra (BYU). Afterwards, Richard kindly sent us this report:
The format of BYU events is that you start on the hour and have to complete a just-over four mile loop within an hour to get back, recover, refuel, and then set off again at the start of the next hour. If you don’t set off on the hour, or do not arrive back within the hour, then you are out. Some of these events are last-person-standing, but the Chillington version was limited to “just” 12 laps, a total of around 50 miles or 80km. For any runners left by lap 12 it was a race round the loop to claim the winner’s trophy. You could run the distance solo, as a pair, or as a trio. The pairs and trios took it in turns to run a lap, but if one of them didn’t make it round they were all out.
Chillington Hall is a privately owned stately home near Brewood, and was a great venue. On arrival we set up a base camp with a small tent and chairs in a stable yard with the other runners. There were large groups from Cannock Chase Runners and Penkridge Runners. Since the course was a loop and we kept coming back to our camp, we did not have to run carrying the water, food and spare clothes we’d need to get through the day with us, which made it slightly easier.
The loop was roughly in four sections – a mile over a field, a mile along a gravel track next to a canal, then a mile out and mile back along what in the past would have been the drive to the house. The course was mostly flat, with a dip part way along the drive, and a slight climb to the house and the finish. The weather was warm and dry, and the ground hard, not unpleasant conditions for running.
The race started at 9am. The first lap I established a pattern of where to run and where to walk – I found that I had plenty of time to walk all the hills, run the rest and make it round in about 45 minutes. The times on the first 11 laps did not matter – it was all about getting to the last lap. I found that 15 minutes to sit, have a drink and eat was right for me, so I repeated my run/walk pattern, using markers on the course as triggers, for each lap. We found that we just had to keep plodding away on each lap. I had a bit of a dip at around lap 8, but got through that with some food and water and by the time we were on lap 10 I was determined to finish.
The number of people lining up to start the next lap started to dwindle towards the end. Starting with over 70 runners, there were around 20 left on the last lap that started at 8pm as it started to get dark. There were some who had saved themselves, somehow, for the last lap, and shot off, we just had to make it round one more time…
We both finished with plenty of time to spare and as a souvenir received a wooden coaster with the Chillington Hall coat of arms on it, and a couple of pairs of sports socks. Liz was third solo lady, won a woolly hat and got to stand on the winner’s podium.
The Chillington Hall Back Yard Ultra was a well organised event in a very picturesque setting, with a challenging distance and a different format, and we would recommend it. I just don’t want to see that drive going away into the distance in front of me for quite some time…
Newport & District Running Club 