Terry Arrives Early In The Deep River Trail
Early in the morning on Saturday the 23rd of March, SRC Chair Terry Bewes, set off to run the 10k Deep River Trail Race in Fingle Woods, near Castle Drogo.
On arrival, at the registration, there was no sign of any other runner. So, thinking he had missed the start, he made enquiries. This confirmed that he was in fact one and a half hours early! Luckily the café was open at Castle Drogo so he had enough time for a coffee and breakfast.
The race is one of a series organised by Pure Trail Running. It roughly follows the route of the Drogo 10k, from the top of the hill down to the river, across the iron bridge and down to Fingle Bridge. The route then sends you back up the other side of the river to the Iron Bridge, then up the hill the same way you came down to the finish. It is a very stony run under foot with many rocks waiting to trip you. The race information sheet advises, that on the way back up the river there are a couple of technical sections, they were not joking! In one there was a steep rise and a scramble over rocks. This led the runners to believe that they had at least started the accent to the finish, but no! Once at the top of the climb, it then dropped steeply down to the river. There was a total of 784 feet of elevation gain which was basically the final climb from the river to the finish.
It was a very well organised event with 141 finishers in the 10k and 152 in the Half Marathon. Terry came 107th in 1h14m18s and came second in his age group.