RACE THE TRAIN (or A Wet Weekend in Wales)

Someone ( probably Me) way back in August 2005 said brightly “let’s all do the “Race the Train” next year and so 18th August 2006 saw “ We Three”(Jackie Rickett Jean Bayley and yours truly Jean Skitt) down in Tywyn –Mid Wales.

The weather deteriorated within an hour of Jean and I arriving and we went to register for the Race downtown in torrential rain and thunder and lightening – the Registration marquee could hardly cope with the weight of rainwater on its roof and the field which would form the finish area and food, bar and play areas the next day was rapidly becoming a swamp. Not that we were downhearted – in fact we could see the funny side of this and anyway we kept saying that the rain could not last all night and the morrow would be ok. How wrong we were to be!!!!!

All through the night ( cue for a song – well we were in Wales!!) the rain lashed down, thunder rolled and the wind howled ( luckily our tents withstood all this) and at 10.00 a.m. we joined hundreds of other happy? runners on the little trains of Wales which were to transport us to the start and which we were supposed to beat on the way back to Tywyn. The races were divided into childrens’ fun runs and the nominal 10k race( turned out to be more like 11and half k) the longer race of 22k was to be in the afternoon.

We clambered down from the train and scrambled down the embankment and along a muddy track into the start field( the women and men had separate starts) Toilet facilities i.e Portaloos were adequate and the camaraderie amongst the women had to be seen to be believed as all of us – standing in flimsy vests, soaked to the skin, laughed and joked as if the sun was shining.

The train whistle blew .. and we were off, slipping and sliding on the grass, joining the men about 200 metres away on the first of many muddy paths which climbed upwards, over the railway line. From then on it was sheer madness – but great fun – Running along narrow paths through bracken as high as your neck, across streams , up slippy stone steps down which the rainwater flowed like a river,while the little trains( I don’t know which one we raced)tooted at us from below and the passengers inside warm and dry that they were, shouted “encouragement??” to us as we turned to try and run up an almost vertical slope and then across fields sidewards across the slope almost impossible to run on, which threatened to pitch us downwards over fifty feet or more onto the railtrack. Through all this the many marshals kept on smiling and giving us encouragement and as we ran through farmyards, there were water stations a plenty. I think even the sheep were laughing at us but eventually the ground levelled and we ran along a muddy path turned a corner and there waiting for us was a ford – about knee deep – no way round it – just through it – and of course the perfect place for husbands, children, friends and even Rusty the dog to see us and laugh at us……..no we didn’t fall IN.

The last two miles were along the flat town roads to the finish fields – which were by now half under water – but the atmosphere and encouragement from people who had braved the horrendous conditions just like us was marvellous – the sad thing was that on a good day the bar tent, food tent and childrens’ roundabouts, bouncy castle etc would have been so welcome but of course in the conditions we had – it just looked depressingly empty. A wonderful medal and Goody bag were given to us all and as we squelched our way –still laughing – to the cars – we repeated what we had said half way along the course – We enjoyed it – and we must do it again next year – It must become a Club Event – as it is to so many other clubs which were there – A wonderful experience ( please can it be dry though – we deserve it!!!!!!)

Jean Skitt