On the same day wiser members of the WRC family were touring the sun-dappled streets of Valencia during the city’s winter marathon, a few hardy athletes made their way to Aldershot for the annual Grim Challenge. Not for us the orange trees, flat roads and golden December sunshine of eastern Spain. Instead we were promised the knee-high mud, giant ice puddles and heavy grey skies of an eastern Hampshire military base on a drizzly midwinter day.
Held on land usually used for tank driving lessons, the Grim is an eight-mile race on dirt tracks and through rutted, dense woodland. Waist-high water hazards, moguls, steep hill climbs and a cargo net are all thrown in to ensure everyone spends plenty of time questioning their life choices.
WRC runners threw themselves into this muddy mayhem with plenty of success, as Alex Lane and Kate Green took second and third places in the women’s race, sharing the same time of 59:47, while Magnus Gregory won the men’s event in 53:37, followed by Matt Kurton in third in 56:48. Matt, running the event for the 15th time and finally making it to the podium, also won the men’s V40 race, while Samantha Parkinson won the V50 race. And with the post-race prizes including a bottle of (alcohol-free) gin, the whole WRC team could at least head home to warm up with a celebratory G&T and pretend the Spanish coast wasn’t quite so far away after all.
