No not that one…
Things have been quiet on here recently for a couple of reasons: firstly I was planning and then going on a 3 week road trip around the Scottish Isles, which has taken a while to digest and work out how to write it up; and secondly, I’ve been deep in the preparations for this years running events.
Yes, this post is a running one. Sorry.
I ran the Saltmarsh Half Marathon back in April, my first event of the year, but this was positioned mainly as a warm-up for the event I’m just back from, and the subject of today’s post: the Giant’s Head Half Marathon.
What is it, and who’s the Giant ?
No, it’s not my friend Jason, who I’ve previously referred to in those terms, but the Cerne Abbas Giant. You know, the one with the massive genitals. And in a juvenile schoolboy humour way, this was very much the motivation for doing this event – sometimes you just have to go with what your inner child is telling you to do.
Actually, there were other good reasons for doing the event, not least some fondness for the area from past holidays, and in particular from my walk of the Wessex Ridgeway in 2023.
The event itself, is actually a cluster of 4 races – a marathon and a 10k on the Saturday, followed by a kiddies race and the half marathon on the Sunday. It’s run by Big Feat Events and boils down to a mini festival of running. The event takes over the village of Sydling St Nicholas – there’s a camping field, beer tent, food stalls, cakes in the village hall, a barn dance, merch stalls and the race start/finish on the village green.
All of the races are on trails with considerable ascent. The 10km (in purple on the map) has over 200m of ascent:
And the eventual half marathon route (red on the map) has over 600m of ascent:
As soon as I learned of the event, I wanted to do it, and my wife didn’t take much if any persuading to join too, signing up for the 10k, whilst I took the half marathon. Being on separate days we could each support the other. It also meant a weekend away camping, which suited our needs perfectly.
Friday
With the camping field opening at 2pm on the Friday, we aimed to leave mid to late morning to make the most of it and get a good pitch. We failed. An incident on the M25 saw us take 2 hours to travel between junctions 5 and 6, and it was after 5pm before we arrived.
The tent went up pretty quickly, then we went for a look around the village and registered for our races, collecting the all-important t-shirts at the same time. Dinner back at the tent and a chill out before bed.
Saturday
Luckily, my wife’s race didn’t start until 10:30, the marathon getting going first at 09:00. So a pretty relaxed get ready, breakfast etc, then off to the start. A quick briefing, a walk around the corner to the start line outside the village hall, and then they were off.
The 10k (actually nearer 11km) has over 200m of ascent and is run on a mixture of chalk trails, grassy fields and a small amount of tarmac/concrete. As the person briefing the runners said, it’s not a PB course.
The layout of the course made it fairly impractical to intercept the runners on the run, so I settled for making sure I was at the finish to capture it all, whilst also monitoring my wife’s progress on Google maps. While I was waiting, I wandered around the village a bit, had coffee and cake and looked at the merch. Then it was time to take my position.
In she came.
After she’d recovered a bit, we headed off to get burgers and ice cream, then sat on the green for a while cheering in the marathon finishers. Back to the tent for dinner, then we briefly had a look at the barn dance before an early night.
Sunday
Saturday had been pleasantly warm and cloudy, even overcast at times, but Sunday promised to be a lot hotter and sunnier. We were up early enough to do breakfast, and take the tent down before it was time to head over to the green for my race. But first a bacon roll.
The same procedure as yesterday – a briefing on the green, a walk around to the corner to the start and then we were off.
I found myself starting a lot further forward than intended, and a lot further forward than my likely performance would merit, but there wasn’t much I could about it other than try not to be an obstacle.
We headed out along the lane before turning to head uphill on a concrete track. The first of what ClimbPro on my watch said were 7 climbs. Then it levelled out a bit before dropping into a dry valley for a lovely run on grass. This didn’t last as a couple of fields later there was a big climb up onto the main ridge.
On the top, though, it was much easier running, but already the heat was such that I found myself walking more than my race plan aimed for. It didn’t matter – today was a day for getting it done, rather than worrying about my time. (It never was about the time really – this event was all about enjoying doing it).
Last time I was on this ridge, it was a miserable end of day race against the sunset to find a place to camp, and later a miserable walk out to Cerne to bail out. Today was very much the opposite with the going easy underfoot.
The course turned to drop down into the valley. Across the main road and into the aid station in the car park for the viewpoint looking out to the Giant. A wet buff went on my neck and the rest of my cup of water went over my head. Then onwards.
The climb up through a sliver of woodland beside the Giant was hard going. No sooner had we reached the top, than we were headed straight back down again to Minterne Parva, then straight back up to the top again. This part of the course had been changed late, only getting the email on the Friday morning to tell me that the already long half marathon with 500m+ of climb was now over 14 miles with over 600m of ascent. I think this late change made it feel worse when I was actually on it.
Back down again to Minterne Magna, after a brief stop to re-wet my buff in the River Cerne. The last aid station was pretty much out of snacks, but at least had water.
The final big climb up onto Seldon Hill, was the one that almost broke me. All of the people around me were crawling up it, but I seemed to be better at going up than most, and overtook some people. It still felt awful though. In my head this one climb was equal to the extra they’d added, so I cursed this one too.
I reached the top of the ridge and knew now it was pretty much flat and downhill the rest of the way. I even picked up some speed, but couldn’t maintain it in the heat, although I was at least able to trot rather than walk. By now, I’d seen my original target time come and go, despite being on track for it all the way to Minterne Parva. It didn’t matter – I was going to finish.
I rolled into the last water stop, threw some over my head and neck, and pushed on. Since time was no longer important, I messaged my wife to tell her I was almost done. I turned for home, descended then found a small late uphill that wasn’t welcome. This done, it was a matter of flying down the last couple of lanes, turning into the village and powering over the finish line.
Several cold drinks, a Pimms and a large ice cream later we sat to watch the last few finishers. I then went off to grab a shower before we went back to the car to begin the journey home.
My wife wanted to get a look at the Giant, as her race didn’t go that far, so we drove over to the Cerne valley, got some pictures then drove up to Sherborne to spend the night. We’d decided driving straight back the same day was a bit much.
The next day, we had a bit of a walk around Sherborne, including an exploration of the Old castle, then headed for home.
Thoughts on the Event
I think we both really enjoyed it, but the journey down was hellish and it took a while to unwind after we’d arrived. Neither of us were brave enough to attempt the barn dancing – my wife’s leg was a bit sore form her run, and I wasn’t going to put any extra exercise into my legs the night before my race. Plus we were just chicken.
I actually really enjoyed my race, although obviously it would have been better still if it had been a bit cooler. My legs weren’t at all sore or tired in the days after, but I wasn’t about to put it to the test anyway. But then again, my performance wasn’t that impressive, finishing in 3:49:28, 201st place out of 233, and 24th out of 29 in my age category. But I’d rather finish an event like this and enjoy it, feeling I could even go further, than make a complete wreck of myself.
My wife’s result was much stronger – a time of 1:27:43 and a position of 217th out of 412, and 18th out of 59 in her age category. Pretty decent going considering the terrain.
What Next ?
My next event is Race to the Stones in a couple of weeks. I’m doing the second half 50k, and the plan is to run as much as I can. The course for that has only a little more total ascent than the Giant’s Head, and even that is gentler ups and downs, so I’m hoping for a respectable (for me) result.
What About some Hiking or Backpacking ?
If the weather works in my favour, I’m hoping to get out briefly for a short one after Race to the Stones and before my main holiday, so check back late July. In the meantime, I’m hoping to get a bit of fast packing in the next week or so as prep for the next event – but this is all dependent on getting the right weather window (ie not peak heatwave or lashing storms) in the few days that I’d need to fit it into. There probably won’t be any proper backpacking until the end of September. Sorry.
