This event was in Dorset, so another county ticked off the list. It was based around the Cerne Abbas giant, some ancient figure carved into a chalk hill. Famous for wielding a massive truncheon. Oh, and he's got another one in his hand…
This was a first running of this event and it was well organised and marshalled. Water/cake stops were reasonable frequent, with optional cider at the 20mile checkpoint. The weather was a fairly sunny 28°C, and going underfoot was good, mostly grass with a few farm tracks. The briefing started with an announcement about the 10 big hills. And they were very big. The total climb was 1100m. and unsurprisingly for a circular route, the total descent was 1100m. Not good for PF injury (I pulled out of a cheap, but distant, event the previous week. ). The event was slightly over-distance, coming up at 28miles on most gps's. However the scenery was fantastic. I ran most of the last 10miles with the Majors (Dave has done 500+ marathons and his wife Linda has done 300+) and although they were obviously having a tough day (he was under the weather from a tummy bug earlier in the week) we ran a satisfying sub-7hr.
I was 6:58:09. Not bad for hilly event, with injury.
I think this will be a regular event, and I recommend it. See http://www.whitestarrunning.co.uk/ for further info and pictures. Note: the naked farmer in the bath-tub at 2miles is not a joke, he really did sit there watching us all go past, and apparently he stood up and saluted the last runner.