Travelled to Wiltshire on holiday with the family. As well as visiting those well known prehistoric sites of Stonehenge and Silbury Hill I managed to fit in the Downlander 10 on Sunday 28/06/2009. This was the first year of this 10 mile off-road event held on Marlborough Common and run over the Marlborough Downs. The weather was scorching and temperatures rose to the 80's. Fortunately, the organisers quickly doubled the water stations from 2 to 4 and then cheerfully added that the course was actually 10.2 miles long!
The route was undulating, rather than hilly, although the last mile to the finish was all uphill. From the 180 or so starters, 178 finished. The winner, Darren Jordan (Cheltenham Harriers) completed the course in 1:06:26. I hoped to complete the race in under 90 minutes, but the heat, extra distance and final hill were too much for me and I finished in 1:32:01, 64th place overall.
The route had fantastic scenery, great support from the many marshalls and I'd certainly recommend the race to anyone travelling to the area.
Alan MacDonald
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