Saturday July 28th, 2018

Debbie Montague

Gravel Hill 5, is a 5 mile trail run (yes I did a trail run lol) in the Gravel Hill and War Down areas of Queen Elizabeth Country Park, just outside Horndean, Hampshire and is on the South Downs Way route. The park contains 1,400 acres (6 km²) of open access woodland and downland within the East Hampshire Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, including Butser Hill (886 ft), the highest point on the South Downs, and War Down (801ft). The woodland was mostly planted in the 1930s. Several Long-distance footpaths run through the park including Staunton WayHangers Way and the South Downs Way bridleway. On a clear day the Isle of Wight can be seen from the top of Butser Hill. The park is a great place to visit regardless of doing the run as has plenty of facilities; shop, café, childrens play areas, BBQ areas, Cycling/Running/Walking routes and even a dog agility course.

 

Anyway, back to the race. The course is rather challenging, with the first mile and a bit being uphill, well over 300ft uphill to be precise. Most people ended up walking through bits if not all of this first part as it was quite challenging. Once over this section it is mostly downhill. I say mostly as there are a couple more smaller ups to contend with but nothing compared to the first mile or so. The race itself is chipped timed and has no cut-off time. Unusually as well it seems to attract more women than men (about 60/40) and from talking to a lot of the other runners, many had planned to walk it. They did recommend light trail shoes, but I don’t have any so did it in normal trainers and seemed to cope. Having said that I think if the ground had been wet through I might have struggled more with the downhill sections.

 

The start is based on a grass area round the back of the visitor centre and café. Although the flat grass area is quickly replaced by the wooded uphill section. This had a mixture of dirt track, wood chip and stony foot path. One section is that steep that there is a handrail and you zig zag up it. In a couple of places it was a little frustrating as it was quite narrow and you ended up single file.

 

Once over that first mile and bit, the downhill section starts and is based on gravel/mud track, but you did have to watch your footing as there were a few flints sticking up and someone did take a rather nasty tumble the year before. At around the half way point was a refreshment stand with not only water but; sweets, cake, fruit and Pimms. Last year apparently it was Prosecco. Not that I stopped but a lot of the slower runners/walkers did. There were a couple of more uphill bits to contend with but none of them where anything like the first hill, but seemed hard work on already tired legs. The last bit was particularly loose underfoot and steep taking you back down to the grass area and into the finish where you not only pick up your medal, but there is also a rather large table full of cakes waiting for you, yum yum!!

 

The medal is pretty chunky and was a great design this year. There are t-shirts as well, but you have to pay extra for those but it was only £5. After checking the results I came in 3rd in my age category which I was really chuffed with, just a shame that they only gave out 1 prize for the vet categories. First male came in at 29:31, first female at 38:21 and last person over the line came in at 1hour 41 minutes.

 

After the race had finished, there was also a night marathon going on and some of the people doing the 5 miler where then coming back later for it…mad so and so’s if you ask me.

Good Points

Not so good Points

 

As you can probably tell from the lack of ‘not so good points’ I really enjoyed this race, even though my legs were still a bit wobbly a week later. It was bloomin hard work but for me it was something so different from what I normally do and I really enjoyed it. In fact they have a 5k, aptly named the skull & bone shaker in September that I am very tempted to take part in.

Course Route

 

Course Elevation

Medal/T-shirt