I took part in the Picnic Marathon with my ubiquitous companion Paul Stout, the event was dubbed “The Toughest Marathon in Britian”.

The event was well… tough, very well marshalled afforded some great views and was mostly enjoyable. The run itself was brutal to start with, starting with a run up Box Hill followed by many many steps going up and down but then settled down into more gentle slopes before another range of steps followed by a few more hills and the marathon runners had to do it twice!

Despite our (admittedly) lack of preparation and the fact that we are marathon novices, we both paced ourselves over both loops and finished the event in about 6hrs 30mins (race start was 2pm, so we finished at about 8.30pm). The quicker runners took about 4 hours which gives you some idea of the impact of the course itself.

All finishers received a hat, t-shirt and medal and there was some welcoming faces and sandwiches on offer for the finishers aswell.

All in all, it was great event to complete. Apparently it’s only run every two years so plenty of time to actually do some training next time!

Photos from the event are shown below.