Wells Harriers complete the Grizzly 2006
report by Bob Powell
If we had been represented by an equivalent of the RSPCA, someone would have been arrested! Conditions for The Grizzly, run at Seaton in Devon, were grim, and the word “cruel” comes immediately to mind. The weather wasn’t all that bad, but a Force 6 south-easterly and about 3°C make for an uncomfortable start – two years ago it was Force 8, 2°, and solid rain, so what are we complaining about? The Grizzly is a crazy event, about 2000 runners doing about 20 miles of shingle, mud, hills, and more mud. What made this year so hard was the type of mud – OK it wasn’t quite like the British Rail guy who blamed events on the “wrong sort of snow”, but even on the flat the mud was like pure grease. On the slopes it was zero friction. There was absolutely no part of the course that could be termed “easy running”, especially the last ¾ mile of the run on shingle. Just to cap it, and to show something of the local conditions, they had to shorten the course by about a mile because of a dangerous land slide.
But we soldiered on with a diminished team as Viv Furseland and Sue Cook were both absent, injured. Best of luck for the Paris Marathon preparations! First home was Matt Clinkard, a creditable 209th out of 1528 finishers in 2.54.34. Next were Aidan Phippard (338, 3.04.13) suffering from Builders Back, and Laurie McNamee (339, 3.04.29) pushing Aidan all the way. Bob Powell managed to finish with not one, but two twisted ankles (big aaahhh, please) (642, 3.24.45). Terry Kingham (831, 3.39.29) could have got a sheepdog prize at Cruft’s by herding home Caroline Fabre (830, 3.39.28) and Julia Wiles (906, 3.44.00). A little way astern was Arthur Vince (1170, 4.09.55).
I don’t know what it is about this event, but it seems to get more and more popular each year. The locals are out in force, cheering the runners on and handing out jelly babies and wine gums. It was almost alarming at mile 17 being offered a beer stop courtesy of the local pub in (where else?) the village of Beer.