Maverick X Series – Chilterns

The plan was simple really. Have a week’s rest after Lavaredo, take that nicely worked on fitness into ten days of training in Chamonix, then come home and have a bit of fun at Maverick Race’s event in the Chilterns. The medium route (22km) looked just right for a runnable blast around the English country side and I was fairly confident in my ability to get round it fast.

Confident, that was, until I got ill in Chamonix. I spent most of the trip in my bedroom, or taking short easy walks. Everyday I saw La Jonction but didn’t get to run up it, gazed along the valley towards Croix de Fer but the day I was feeling well enough to run never came. On the last day I managed a short trot along Petit Balcon Sud, a delight as ever but far less than I’d had planned.

Back home in the Peaks last week my training plan resumed but my body didn’t seem to get the memo. Zone one didn’t exist unless I walked bits, zone two wasn’t very much better and hills felt like a Sisyphean effort. I slept. A lot. And wondered if the post viral fatigue wasn’t worse than the thing itself.

So, naturally, I put on my fastest trail shoes and headed for the Chilterns to give it a go. After weeks of hot and dry conditions the British weather decided to make a return and it was thoroughly wet at the start line.

Maverick put on a great event and there’s a buzz around the start area with food trucks, brands, merch and their distinctive finisher’s arch. I’m always conscious that at trail races like this I want to start near the front in case it bottlenecks on single track, unfortunately though the worst happened: I stood a little back from the start line and then no one stood next to me or in front of me.

And so, not for the first time, I ended up at the front of the pack. I tried to consciously go out at target pace and run my own race, but there was a sense of wanting to be passed. I knew I wasn’t the fastest there and wanted to settle without the pressure of being out front. Luckily it didn’t take too long for a couple of people to overtake.

The course starts with a long, gradual, climb. It’s part of what made me think it would be a good route for me as I can normally run well on climbs but as soon as we hit a slightly steeper section I found that my lungs still didn’t want to play and people started to pass me. Then we’d hit a flat or down hill section and the grip from my S/Lab Sense would come into play and I’d catch up with people again.

About 5 or 6km in we were all following each other and missed a course marking. At about the same time that my watch buzzed to say we were off course, I saw the man in front turn round and head back. We made our was back up the path for 200m and found where we’d went wrong, but the front of the pack benefitted from some local knowledge and were able to cut across to rejoin the course instead.

I switched up my watch screen to start using the map instead. Another kilometre later and some more people were missing a turn, I shouted ahead but they persisted while myself and one other took the correct course. From that point on I would see no one else except the guy I was with for over 10km.

It felt great. He led for a while, then on a long flat section I passed him but only just and I led for a while. It felt like proper racing, our pace was so similar that for a long time we were always within a couple of strides of each other and there were no other runners in sight. It’s not even competitive, more like stretching and pulling each other to keep the tempo high.

The midsection of the route felt flat and fast but, when we did hit a hill, I found once again it was hard. I sent the next down hill and we were neck and neck again through the flat section but I knew that the most sustained hill of the day was coming up. I tried to pace it right but my lungs were giving me nothing and ended up slowing to a walk on a couple of sections, by the time I hit the crest he was well ahead of me and I could see, still a way behind, another runner.

The last section has one more sting in the tail, a short steep climb before you charge downhill and head towards the field and the finish arch again.

I usually pride myself on my sprint finish but, fresh from being ill, there was nothing in the tank on the day. I came through at a steady pace, was given a medal by an enthusiastic volunteer and immediately became aware of just how wet I was. It had rained steadily throughout almost two hours of running and I was soaked.

A great day was had and I’ll definitely be back for more fun at Mavericks in the future.