Pattingham Bells Run, 11th October 2015

Pattingham village near Wolverhampton played a small but important part in recent Marston family history; about 60 years ago, a young couple went to the Pigot Arms in Pattingham for their first date. They were Terry Marston and Rita Brown and were it not for that first date going well and leading to marriage, my own life might have been very different. Some years later, just down the road from Pattingham, I worked in the kitchen of a restaurant on the Bridgnorth Road; in those days it was called the Thornescroft (today it is the Inn at Shipley) and it was there that I met my future husband, Terry and Rita's second son, Guy.

Having first heard about the Pattingham Bells Race when I lived in nearby Perton, but never having raced there, it was for me, an obvious choice for the Bournville Harriers' championship series of Teal Targets. Since inheriting this great idea from Laura Leslie, I've tried to choose a mixture of distances and locations and on seeing this race featured in a recent ABC Midlands running guide, I thought it would be a great option in a busy month of races.

The race HQ is at the village hall in Pattingham (just a stone's throw from the Pigot), and we were blessed with a mild and sunny autumn day; the perfect time of year to enjoy an off-road race in the South Staffordshire countryside. The race celebrated its 25th year in 2014 and many runners return year after year.

We began in a field, with little preamble or announcement, just the blast of a horn which propelled us all forward over the very springy ground for the first few hundred yards. I found myself laughing at the adrenaline of the starting dash and the strangeness of the terrain; before reminding myself that I would need to be careful not to twist my ankle or trip over a random branch. This wasn't a goal race, so not a time to take any risks. 

We were soon through the first field and running along a track and a series of uphill stretches, occasionally opening out to a stunning view of the surrounding fields. In places the course narrowed giving everyone a chance for a breather between the hillier sections allowing us to take in the lovely scenery. I probably started out a little bit too ambitiously as I was then passed by Steve Doswell and John Cheel (who'd clearly paced themselves more sensibly) on one particularly long climb where I decided (or my legs decided) to walk. 

I imagine that it could get very muddy on this course after a bit of rain; it was soft in places, sandy in others and rugged and stony too and so required a fair amount of concentration as the terrain was changing frequently. The wind picked up around the halfway point as I battled with yet another hill up to halfway and the water station.

The marshals offered plenty of encouragement, acknowledging the local clubs and those of us from a bit further afield. I had managed to keep up to within sight of John and Steve and recognised a few other faces too, but my legs were tiring as we ran through a muddy section and up yet another hill, at the top of which the marshal said "you're over the worst bit, a nice downhill now". I enjoyed the lovely descent, thanking myself for wearing trail shoes which gave me the confidence to speed up and take a few places. 

Ticking off mile number six, we were getting close to the finish but it felt like hard work through the last of the fields. I was smiling because we were nearly there when I overheard a marshal who clearly thought I was out of earshot say "that's an agonised grin"! She was about 50 percent right and I could feel myself slowing right down. The sound of the church bells gave us all a lift with a few hundred metres to go, and I found a bit of extra speed to catch a Black Pear Jogger (according to the results he was a Black Pear anyway, perhaps I was hallucinating as I thought he was a Malvern runner) at the sight of a finish sign. Unfortunately I mis-timed my run for home as a cheeky little hill was between me and the actual finish line and he caught me well before the line. I was pleased to see and hear a group of familiar BvHers nearby, but disappointed to lose a place so close to the finish, crossing the line with a regretful smile.

We were sent through a maze-like funnel, given our water, having our race numbers scanned and being handed our commemorative horse brass and we finally emerged to be given hot tea or coffee and a lovely slice of fruit cake. Gathering in the sunshine we all seemed to have enjoyed the course and the atmosphere. 

The prize presentation took place near to the finish line and, whilst we didn't come away with any silverware on this occasion, we were definitely among the most well-represented clubs. Most importantly we had a great day out. I was disappointed to realise later that as an off-road race we could not get the runbritain scores to accurately contribute to the Teal Targets championship; something I should have checked before the race, but it was nevertheless a great race and one that I would definitely recommend.

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