My OperaHEYTOR HELLER 10K 17/07/10
Monday, July 19, 2010 11:10:10 AM
It's all in the name really. Naively,I thought that "Heller" might have been the name of another mound of granite to run around, not a bit of it. There is a great deal of HELL about this 10k.
This popular, well established moorland race starts below Haytor Rock and follows a hilly, circular route before returning once again to Haytor Rock with a fast downhill finale to the finish opposite the middle car park at Haytor.
The 10k course is challenging with several steep ascents and descents and is generally run across rugged, open moorland, apart from two sections through woodland, firstly below Hound Tor and secondly below Haytor which includes a stream crossing. The course is completely off-road and
the trail is strewn with boulders hidden under ferns, just there to catch the unwary and after crossing the stream, there's a short perpendicular climb with shoes full of water squelch, squelch.
Chichester Runner James Baker won again in a disgustingly quick time of 40 minutes and his girlfriend Catherine was just over the hour. It was nice to meet up with them. I managed 1 hour 12 minutes, and better half Julie made friends with the nice sweeper and decided she would run with him.
We are all running the Totnes 10k on August 1st which is hilly (James will probably win this one also) and then we are looking for a nice flat 10k to run.
I was pleased as punch to be mentioned on our General Manager Sue Williams Twitter page. Maybe an inter hotel race beckons, who knows..
