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A first hand account of the Magic Roundabout 2007, from inception to race day by
Cat Lawford.
Founder Hay Hotfooters.
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It was a few years ago, running on some of the best turf known underfoot to man that I suggested to the running club that we could hold a race there. It wasn’t laughed out of town so I figured we might even achieve it some day. This hallowed ground is found in an area called the Begwyns, some 6 miles from Hay on Wye, our home town.
Thus the idea was cradled in the arms of our relatively small running club (max members on a good month, with the wind blowing behind us; 25). When one speaks of tenacious runners, it can apply to any given situation, not just running – and boy have we needed that particular quality at times as we set about making this event crystallise.
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Martyn Hay Hotfooters |
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You see, it had to be done. The Begwyns is a local treasure. We have awesome scenery and mountains all around us here and The Begwyns see it all in it’s entirety in one huge circular vista. Add to this the mystical circle of trees at the very summit; the ‘Roundabout’, with the crescent shaped stone wall bench within its walls and you have a very special place up there in the wilderness. Not exactly easy to run, or plot a course around – it’s so open plane, but not ridiculously outrageous either, in either context.
Do you want to know the boring bits? How tough it is to get the permit,(how many letters it takes to ask permission from how many authorities?), walking round town begging for sponsorship… the paperwork piling up into it’s own mountain during the year it takes to organise it. The hunting down for bargains, negotiations and striking deals… the total lack of return phone calls, that have to be made again!!
Not fair to harp on I know……
Anyway, the germ of an idea evolved into reality by virtue of many monthly meetings, often fuelled by quaffing the good stuff at any given Hay local, and our main remits were that; it would be held on the first weekend of the Hay Literary Festival, and that we would try to make it a little bit different if we could – hence the samba band and organic fast food, with organic cider and beer to follow the race.! |
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Chris Hay Hotfooters |
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Designing the course was hilarious. Jo and I must’ve walked it, GPS on arm, 5 or 6 times before we agreed we’d got our 10k. We just couldn’t get the distance right: my dog would suddenly decide he was too hot and refuse to move another inch, or one of us would need to ‘go’… go with the GPS and the distance was then messed up! Once we were nearly there, the whole 10k on the brink of being walked and confirmed and I realised the GPS had ran out of batteries! Always something to wind us up. We got fitter walking that course over and over again than any bloody running we ever did!
Obviously we were mindful of the pitfalls. The Festival might lose us many busy locals as potential applicants, but it would draw in your intelligent runners! The Begwyns can have totally different weather to its environs, but it would be late May for goodness sakes. It is a narrow road up there – it only takes one tractor to block it all off, but we would write to all the locals, asking for cooperation.
And with a year to plan for every eventuality, how could anything go wrong?
So we planned in; Parking, Marshals, the Band, Food and drink, Ambulance, Sponsors, Photographer, Police, T shirts, Maps, Water stations, Advertising and Press releases, Loos, Marquees, Health and Safety reports, the purchasing of all racing paraphernalia and oh, so much more, increasing our meetings to weekly when necessary to get it done. |
Army Cadet Marshal Ian |
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Race day. D day. All our stalwart lieutenants are ready and raring. It looks cold outside in Hay. We have been warned all week the weather will not be kind, but it doesn’t actually look too bad down here Why do they always feel the need to exaggerate?
We drive up to join the early morning crew, feeling really buoyant. However as soon as the car bumper meets the Begwyns the weather feels altogether more sinister. The cloud cover is so low we can’t even see our hands, let alone ‘The Roundabout’, the start of the race. The gang are really struggling with the marquees in the appalling wind, and it is ripping at the seams as they attempt to pull it over the frame. To hold on to these metal poles is becoming very hard as our hands are freezing to them. It is getting hard to speak. Our faces are stuck solid. But the worst aspect is the total lack of visibility. |
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The Start |
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Health and safety will be up the wall with x number of runners going missing in these conditions. Who would have thought it? Inside I am thinking ‘at what point do we call it off?’ I am reconciling the logistics of letting (at that point), 75 known applicants from across the country, all at various stages of travel, know not to come, by my mobile phone…….. |
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At the same time I am aware that the whole of our team are putting their heart and soul into this event and we must all remain upbeat, especially me. Tricky… I offer to go into town and get gloves for us and sweets for the cadets!! In my (very warm) car, I reason to myself that the cloud cover may lift as the morning gets underway, and indeed, as I return I venture it is definitely possible to see a vague outline of the circle of trees defining the roundabout. I will not concede to the conditions, we will win through. Whether we get any runners to win through for, remains another matter. Why would they come to this? Somehow in the swirling mists I find Shaun, the ‘godfather’ of our club and chief Marshall. He hands me a walkie-talkie and I connect to Jim, in charge of the car park. In between crackles he advises me that quite a few cars are already parked and some runners are making their way up. By this stage we are barely ready but by the time they arrive we have the bones of a table set up. Not easy as we have no marquees ‘sides’ – the wind put paid to that. The entire structure would have blown away in the wind! Within half an hour it is getting quite frantic – lots of on the day applications – which just goes to show how totally insane runners must be. THEY ARE CHOOSING TO RUN ON THE DAY IN FULL KNOWLEDGE OF THE MOST APPALING WEATHER ONE COULD WITNESS!! How Jo and Tina managed to fill in the paperwork I’ll never know. Even now I have the application forms spattered with rain drops. |
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I am stunned. In face it turns out we had 93 runners and of those 40 or so applied there and then, meaning only 22, all told, stayed in a nice cosy bed. What does that tell us? Of all the ones I met, and I met most, they were the most incredibly friendly and encouraging people, obviously, cold, blue lipped, shivering friendly people but………..it’s that common denominator thing isn’t it?
The most humbling point here is that although many were freezing and focusing on keeping some semblance of warmth, they still had the time to reassure US that everything would be ok, often the first race is the hardest, and if we could pull it off in these conditions anything was possible in the future.
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| Number 78. Winner 39min and 16 seconds |
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The young, brave marshals are in place. So proud of them. The band is playing with a truly motivating beat. A small troupe of us walk up the long hill in the relentless rain to the roundabout, the last to do so. Many of the runners are huddled up against the circular wall. My heart sinks for them it really does, but they’ll be warmer in a minute! (we know the course!!)
We set them off rudely with a megaphone whistle, gave words of hope as they ran, timed them as they crossed the line, photographed them, encouraged this amazing group to the very end of our race and waved them on their way before they suffered hypothermia, having time only to award first man and woman with a trophy in the biting conditions. I allowed myself the first glimmer of hope that they enjoyed it and for the first time in a year, almost relaxed. Then began the big clear up before we warmed up down at the Baskerville Arms! (well what did you expect?!) |
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What a day. It was still hard to know if it had been a success. The runners had said some amazing things, nothing negative at all.were they simply trying to make us feel good, knowing we had had it all against us. |
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Not so. Go to the Runners World forum and it can make you weep! Such lovely comments, particularly on the reviews. These are written by the hard core who know what they are looking for, so for us to read: ‘as good a 10k as any in the country’…’with good weather this could be a classic’…’a tough, challenging course’… and 100% saying they would do it again, well, its making me well up now!
Can we make it better? Of course. A bigger, tougher marquees, with some kind of heating, the band starting earlier, Greg, (Catering) getting there earlier, a good beer tent, and more entertainment, some of our forms (admin) will be revised to make things easier behind the scenes, a separate kit area, and give us a good computer programme to sort out the time keeping quickly. And God knows what he needs to do next year…. |
| And the band played on.... |
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But the combination of such a great group of humans – the participants, cadets, and the club members, along with the beauty of the Begwyns is unbeatable. Now there’s a word a runner understands.
See you next year?!
Cat. |
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Wye Valley Runners |
1st Lady Wye Valley Runners
46min 48sec |
Number 69 |
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Emma Hay Hotfooters |
First 16+ Newport Harriers |
2nd Lady Chepstow Harriers |
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