Man V Horse
Stan Appleton competed in the Man V Horse race on Saturday. Please find below an adaptation of Stan’s Facebook post. It’s worth pointing out that Stan is 70 years young!(Stan did say it was ok for me to mention this).
I’ve wanted to run the Man v Horse race for some time now and finally got my chance. This was the 40th anniversary of the Llanwrtyd Wells event run by the same folks as the BogSnorkelling championships. 23 miles nearly all off road with almost 4000 ft of climb using forestry, rough single track and open moorland. Although it was dry during the event torrential rain beforehand had led to the going being ‘soft’ with several significant fords. Great atmosphere too. Just what I love !
My time was nothing special in 4h37m so I could only manage 2nd in my age category, 10 mins adrift, but I was pleased to see my splits were quicker than the category winner towards the end; maybe if the event had been longer ? Nevertheless I was pleased to see I was ahead of 33 relay teams (who ran 7 miles per leg) as well as 150 or so other runners and several horses.
Overall the winning horse took 2.18.34 while leading runner (Jack Wood from Ilkley Harriers) came in 4th in 2.23.39.
Definitely one for next year if I can get an entry.
PS Sophie Raworth beat me by half an hour or so!