jackl’s blog

Benfleet 15, it’s got a castle but princesses need not apply

This report is a Marshal’s eye view of the race and hence will be lacking a blow–by–blow account of the whole fifteen miles of off–road goodness! For all the pictures and even video footage go to the official Benfleet 15 page on the Benfleet Running Club website.

Being a Benfleet 15 virgin I cannot comment on the toughness of the course. The one thing I can provide is insight into the general mood of all the runners (having seen them all fly by me at the start and maybe a little slower ;-) in the final mile). Averaging this out I would say that the majority enjoyed the run a great deal. If you raced why not leave a comment?

400 pairs of legs on the wall

As usual the race places were taken and there was a lot of excited runners making use of the Castle View School’s facilities before approaching the start–line. I on the other hand I had little idea of what I was expected to do, except that I had to find John Butcher (my marshalling groups leader). After getting lucky and finding Clive (the organiser) I was pointed in the general direction of the man in question. I along with five or so other marshals walked from the flat start until the route reached the Canvey Island seawall, marking the way with some arrow signs. It was at this point that I realised that I needed to get my camera and steps from the car (about half a mile away).

10 minutes to the off

Dashing (as much as you can ‘dash’ in a pair of boots) I made it back to the start area in time to see everyone congregating ready for the off. Panic started to set in once I got to my car as I realised that I had to get back to my marshalling point well before the front runners set off or they’d catch me!

The participants ended up with unscheduled pre–race entertainment of a balding, floresent–bibbed man sprinting half a mile in walking boots with a small pair of steps in one hand. One of my fellow marshals said they thought I was carrying a stretcher (once I stopped I could have used one). I had just enough time to open up the steps and get my camera out before the front runner started to cross a little dry ford about 400 meters away. I snapped a few pictures and had a quick sit down. Phew.

It’s a lovely day

At this point I hadn’t really noticed the wind or the cold (though the runners might have ;-). But the race was still in baby Nikes. By the time it had progressed to nearly new size 9 Asics I was feeling the elements. Our group of marshals manned the first watering hole at about three miles in. It would have been stress–free as the water butts had been delivered previously and we had plenty of people to hand out the cups… wait… cups, we had no cups! Obviously I needn’t have worried as Chairman Clive delivered the cups with minutes to spare (precision organising). Having a seawall meant that a table for the cups was unnecessary, though a couple blew over when trying to fill them.

A dozen cold, wet hands later and most of the runners had gone by us. A couple of entrants had pulled up at this point, one had done a 40 mile Ultra the day before and probably thought the 15 would be a nice recovery run(!) The others calf had gone. Other than proving the point that Ultra runners are a whole new class of masochist it proves that the Benfleet 15 shouldn’t be taken lightly.

Canvey Island, situation: flat

There are some good points to Canvey being flat and below sea–level.

• One, you could cycle there all day and not get tired.
• Two, if you get on the seawall you can see the whole of the surrounding area without problems.

And so it was that we could see from the wall the line of colourful runners coming back from their visit to Leigh–on–Sea. John Butchers little band of marshals next port of call was the last mile of the route which circumnavigated Canvey Golf course. From where I was placed I could see the very active and the hardly active all in the same vista.

The last mile

By the time the survivors hit my marshalling point they were pretty spread out. This meant that my ‘small’ camera memory card wasn’t going to capture all the entrants passing me even if I put the quality down to ‘kids–drawing’ level. This meant I had to have a method to select the lucky ones. I decided that when I had just twenty shots left I’d only take the ladies. That way I’d get some pictures in different time bands.

The amount of runners that thanked me for just being there was amazing. It made it worth the numb toes and near–to–bursting bladder in the last hour of the race. It was a pleasure cheering on the sort of people that would contemplate completing a fifteen mile cross–country race. Granted I saw some exhausted faces in the final half mile but that was to be expected. One man told me, as he plodded by at around the 2 and a half hour mark, that he was really pleased that he was going to knock 10 minutes off his time for last year! It is this sort of spirit that makes a great race and I believe that the Benfleet 15 is one of those little known gems that connoisseurs will want to do again and again.

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