The South Downs Way Relay - it's harder than running a marathon

Twelve month earlier, as a member of Stubbington Green Runners' B team we had surprisingly picked up second place. Four of the six-man team was back, knowing what to expect and preparing for the day of pain!

The South Downs Relay featured 47 teams this year. There are 18 legs on an unforgiving route over the Downs. Picturesque they may be, but the hills and some of the terrain is energy sapping. Compound that with temperatures in the 70s on Saturday, and this was a race not for wimps.

Each runner completes three separate legs, so that during the day they will run in the region of 18 miles. Some of the first teams started at 6am, the hares got off at 9am from Beachy Head.

After leaving home at 5am in two cars, the Stubbington B team were in town at 7am and Nick Crane took the relay baton for the first leg from Beachy Head to Exceat Hill six-and-a-half miles down the coast. Organisers had changed and lengthened the first two legs, a change which was to ultimate cause problems for our team and others later in the day.

It is a long day and logistically the race can be quite a headache getting between each start and finish point in time, navigating along narrow sometimes single lane rural roads. Some teams bring minibuses, but from experience a year ago, we decided to go with two cars and a well-worked plan. This meant that the cars didn't have to wait for a runner to finish and then dash to the start of the next leg, but enabled a lot of leapfrogging, and occasionally a changing of personnel between vehicles, so allowing plenty of time to get between points. Liz and Julie Simms were the two drivers. Each of the cars had six bags containing the runners' kit, along with loads of water, sports drinks and food.

My first leg was leg three starting from a point known as Bo Peep, near the village of Selmeston, taking me over the Downs to a finish point by the A26 just outside of Newhaven. This leg was most memorable for colliding with a cow! As I was running towards a gate, a herd of cows stood close by moving towards a feeding trough. All of the wise ones moved away when they saw this vision in green hurtling towards them, but for some reason this one cow kept going and I clipped his nose. We were both startled, and stupidly I said "sorry". Like the cow was going to answer back "no problem"!

This was not a bad opener, well marked along a grassland track. The leg begins with a slow and gradual climb up to Firle Beacon which stands at 711ft high and offers a fantastic view over the Downs towards the English Channel and the Sussex countryside. It's then a lumpy run, working your way through gates and stiles to Beddingham Hill and Itford Hill, before a fast and searing downward run towards Itford Farm by the main road.

When I started I had one fella on my tail but I felt him for dead pretty quickly and chased down another competitor to complete the 4.48 mile run in 31min 57sec, which I was well pleased with as I handed the baton to Eric Beck. Liz was there along with Nick and a third member of the team Jon Leigh, who was yet to run.

We headed on to Ditchling Beacon and the start of leg six, Jon's leg. Julia in the other car, had driven straight to the finish of Eric's fourth leg by the A27 along with husband Richard and Marcus Lee, the remaining two runners in the team.

The system was that as soon as one of the runners finished the team would call the other car to let them know he was on his way and with an estimated time so the Stubby on the following leg could prepare. Complicated? Well, that was how it was supposed to work. Eric had a seven-mile leg, and with an eight-minute-mile pace, we had estimated he would finish in 56 minutes. An hour passed and Julie called to say there was no sign of Eric. An hour and a quarter passed and still no sign; we were getting worried. When 90 minutes went by and still there was no sign of Eric, we were wondering what to do. Go back and look for him?

However, 96 minutes after setting out for near Newhaven, Eric limped to the finish to hand over to Marcus. With a badly bruised foot, he explained that he had fallen down a rabbit hole, and later lost his way. We were relieved Eric was okay, and he insisted he would be able to carry on. Liz, who is a nurse, later strapped up the foot, and Eric did manage to finish all three legs, which is testament to his courage because the ankle had swollen up quite a bit.

From a racing point of view, we were badly behind. Any chances of winning a medal had been blown, but to be honest that didn't matter. As a team, we were all closely matched in terms of ability - middle-pack runners capable of completing 10km between 40 minutes and 45 minutes. We were here to compete safely and enjoy the relay, without the expectation of winning anything.

My next leg began at Saddlescombe, just north of Brighton near Devil's Dyke. It was midday and the heat was searing. The climb to the top of the Dyke, another 700ft hill, is crippling. I'd had three hours' rest from my last run, and my muscles ached. You start with a climb which goes up and up and up. Progress is slow and painful before the path evens out. The delightfully named Fulking Hill, which makes you want to swear on the climb, Perching Hill and Edburton Hill follow in rapid succession before Truleigh Hill, at 216 metres or 708 feet hits you between the eyes. It is Truleigh horrible. One of my Stubbington team-mates, Richard Thomas, who was running for the A team who were to finish second, ate up the hill like his was no obstacle at all. I seemed to plod up in, swerving slowly past walkers and cyclists who hared down the hill. Truleigh Hill was the final test on leg 7, and a nice downhill finish towards a changeover point on the A283 at Upper Beeding, next to the River Adur. That was a 5.52 mile leg in 40min 23sec, which with an average of 7min 19sec per mile with those tough climbs was very satisfying.

I hopped into Liz's car and took on the map-reading role as we weaved our way around the West Sussex countryside to each of the stop off points. As a team we were running well, but losing those 40 minutes was critical and we found ourselves at the back of the pack. Some teams had total disasters. One runner had to pull out through an injury, another's vehicle broke down and they had to borrow a National Trust truck!

By the time of my final leg, leg 13, there were only a couple of teams behind us. We had no-one to chase. I was dreading the last leg, the longest and toughest of them all - and regarded as one of the hardest on the relay, though every runner would probably have a case for their respective stages.

The start is by the A286 near Cocking north of Chichester, and finishes at Harting Hill in Hampshire, just a stone's throw from Petersfield. You're tired anyway. You've been on the go for almost 12 hours, your legs are starting to seize them up and need an electric charge passed through them to get them jump started, and you are tired. The first 1.2 miles of this leg is a slow, uphill drag up a farm track. That is the appetiser. You climb to Linch Ball, Didling Hill and then Treyford Hill before flinging a sharp right by the Devil's Jumps. When I checked out this route 12 months ago, I missed the turn totally and ended up half a mile down the path by a pub. Several runners that day made the same mistake.

Because of my race schedule this year, I had not had a chance to recce any of my routes, and this was the one I was most concerned about. For the Sussex part of the South Downs Way, the tracks are well marked and the way is pretty obvious. But once you get into Hampshire, the signposting goes awry. And the Devil's Jumps crossroads, there is no marking for the South Downs Way.

I was struggling quite considerably by this time, no only through tiredness but with a severe stitch which was cramping my running. My chest was sore and I had no rhythm at all. I wanted to stop, and had this not been a team race I would have, instead I pressed on knowing the horror which awaited.

Half way into the 6.5 mile route you hit Pen Hill which is sheer and severe, and which you have to slog your way up the grassy trail. At the top, there is light relief, for the downhill, but in front lies Beacon Hill which stands at 800 feet tall. The climb is 164 feet. Only 164 feet, but the gradient is so sharp, and the path so rocky that even with a good run at the hill it is virtually impossible to run up. You have to speed walk.

At the summit, an equally sharp downhill greets you to Bramshott Bottom, followed by an assault up chalky Harting Down, and then a fifth and final energy-sapping climb towards the car park. Liz was waiting at the top with a camera cheering me on. Nearby, a couple were having a barbecue and the food smelled great. My chest hurt, my legs were screaming - this was worse than the London Marathon.

At least with the marathon you run 26 miles in one go over relatively flat terrain. Here, you are running 18 miles over more than 12 hours in very hill and testing territory. Exhausted, I finished the leg in 58min 27sec, relieved the ordeal was over.

There wasn't much time to rest, it was straight into a car to catch up with the other runners. Word reached us that the organisers were looking at a cut-off time at 7pm by leg 16 at the Sustainability Centre near Winchester. I couldn't believe the organisers would do this, even though they had said as much in the race instructions. The cut-off time was extended to 7.15pm, but by the time Marcus had reached the end of his leg, we were 10 minutes over.

Sod it, we were going to continue, and Eric set off on his four-miler to Old Winchester Hill to pass on the baton to Jon, who then had a storming leg 17 to Holding Farm. Liz and I watched Jon pass as we were stood outside a pub - well Liz had insisted on a shandy - and it was getting quite dark.

When we got to Holden Farm, we were told that the organisers were removing the marshals and we could continue at our own risk. There was no way we were going to abandon a day's running. A couple of other teams behind us had been forced to give up and call it quits.

Nick was there on the anchor leg from Holden Farm to the finish at Chilcomb, and the Hampshire County Council Sports Ground. We saw Nick across the road at Cheesefoot Head. He was going well and determined to finish. We hared on to the finish to meet up with the rest of the team. The presentations were winding up, the barbecue that had been laid on and long since been eaten, it was virtually pitch black, when at 9.45pm the dusky figure of Nick loomed from the corner of the field.

We gathered round the inflatable finish tunnel to cheer him in and other spectators did too.

We finished the South Downs Relay in a time of 14 hours 15 minutes and 45 seconds. We didn't win anything, we didn't even get a sausage from the barbecue, but we gutsed it out and we finished - and that is what running is all about.