Trailrun festival Box Hill

When I'm abroad for vacation or work, I always try to catch a local match. This time it wasn't a competition, but even a real festival in Box Hill near London.

A while back I was a member of the English Trail Running Magazine. From the magazine I gathered that trail running was quite popular in the UK. Not only are there extremely many races, but the magazine also has a large group of followers who participate in the run 1000 miles challenge and there are special trail running festivals. That sounds appealing: trails and festival in one. Once I did run my first trail in the UK – ’at night in the snow – in the Scottish Borders, but that was just organized like the trails back home. When IOP invited me to join a Library Advisory Board in London, I had to stay a few days longer to finally see for myself what such a festival really entailed. So June 8 I ended up at the Salomon Trail Running Festival on Box Hill.

Nature near London

Anyone who has ever been to London does not immediately think that this is an environment for trails. The busy traffic, little green, hardly any footpaths, at the most park runs. But the hustle and bustle quickly changes into serenity when you go to Box Hill, a big hill about thirty kilometers outside of London. Because getting out of the city can take quite some time, I chose to go to Brockham Green the day before. A village with a few houses, a church, a large green field as a central place and a mentality of us all.

Unbelievable such a thing so close to London, but I was glad I could prepare here in peace. Without a walk the night before, I probably never would have found the site either. Lacking street names and house numbers, route finding is a bit of a strange process: refer to a point on the map and figure out the rest yourself by driving around in your car…

Full programme

A couple of weeks before the festival I was presented with a full programme of activities: from yoga at 8.30 to an after party that ended at 20.30. Through the app Sched you could register for each part, but with the warning not to wait too long. Those who know me, know that I planned the program full. Starting with yoga, then a trail run clinic, a 5 km guided run, various lectures on food and ultra’s, a 20 km timed run and finally the after party.

I soon regretted that early start, though. With the full programme in London it had been hard work, and since I also had to walk a bit to the festival, it meant getting up too early. The fact that it was cold and raining from time to time also made me reluctant to go outside all day. Luckily the yoga itself was worth it. Even though I started it before the official registration, because I arrived a bit ehm too on time.

Market

The festival was organised by Salomon and had two other small sponsors: Suunto and detergent manufacturer Grangers (who seriously buys a big bottle of sports detergent when they still have to travel for almost a week, said the fool). Unfortunately, that limited the festival market quite a bit in terms of products. Most of the stalls were therefore set up for food or test materials. This made the market smaller than for example the King of Spain, but you could still try out new Speedcross shoes or a Suunto watch during the festival. And you could enter to win material; I myself won a washing blanket to cover long-lasting gear.

Smiling all the way down

More important than the market, I thought, was the content of the program. I did a clinic with Donnie Campbell, who explained how to climb and descend hills. I thought it would be useful to get to know the course a little better: I had no idea what kind of terrain it would be.

The hills turned out to be a lot steeper than expected, so some lessons were not a luxury. The slippery loamy ground also made some of the terrain difficult. Together we practiced things like dribbling slowly uphill and powerhiking (just big steps). Donnie was clearly not into camp walking uphill like this flat lander.

Important point of attention of Donnie was that you always had to look in the right direction. Looking down costs more energy because you will walk in the wrong direction, bent over. The most fun was actually the downhill, something that took real effort after Lanzarote, but becomes easier with Donnie's words. You should be smiling all the way down&#8217, he commanded. You should be smiling all the way down," he commanded, "so that you walk relaxed and don't waste energy. If you should fall, a relaxed body will often cause less damage.

No guided run

Since we had been doing quite a bit of exercise with Donnie as well, I decided to forgo the guided run to relieve my muscles. But that did mean that I had to wait a whole afternoon – hours or five – until my run. Other runners I talked to had switched from timed to guided run precisely because of the rain. That seemed less suitable to me, the guided run you run as a group at a fixed pace. With the blood sugars that can be difficult sometimes.

So I watched trail movies on the outside screen and attended lots of presentations in a tent. Nice and sheltered from wind and rain. At the presentation about equipment, the (Salomon sponsored) presenter praised my new Altra Superior 4 several times. During the rest of the festival, I also got questions about the shoes and my Raidlight race vest. Without Salomon apparel, I felt like an odd man out.

Also the story about diet seemed very interesting. It was realistic, but also a bit disappointing, that the nutritionist insisted that no two people are on the same diet. She also warned against the strong stories of for example the vegan run cult and told us that the biggest problem with ultra runners is that they don't eat enough.

Timed run

Before we could leave there was a big downpour. We put on our jackets and started warming up, but I was so happy when we finally got to go.

A timed run is not a competition. But for me it is the most important part of the festival. That's why we were not in a hurry: first we had to clock in with a bracelet (no bib) and then we walked the first part together over the motorway to the kissing gate – 1 person at a time – where we really entered the field. That gave us some time to take off our coats. The sun had started to shine.

The first kilometers were very diverse. Because there were a lot of fences, you could easily recover from the climbs. And I really had two good runners in front of me to set the pace: a clearly experienced guy who had brought his girlfriend along for the first time on a longer trail. Running style matched fine. Everything seemed to be going smoothly. Until I lost them because I go downhill a bit faster.

Doubts about the Libre

Also with the blood sugars it seemed to go well for the first 12-13 km. Until I went wrong with a bunch of runners and we added a kilometer to the route. I paid less attention to the time and was a bit late with eating. The blood sugar dropped too much and it didn't go up anymore. So I had to walk. For fifteen minutes. And keep eating. It didn't really want to go up and I felt weak. Kept checking continuously.

The strange thing is, that I have suffered from this more often lately. I also used to have low blood sugar while running, but I went faster. And I ate more regularly instead of relying on a sensor reading. Somehow I have the idea that the Libre makes me insecure in that respect and that without the pressure of the continuous measurement I dare more. I will try that in the future. Just like I want to try other sports nutrition (Ucan, Tailwind, Maurten) for more stability.

Anyway, my blood sugar stayed low the whole last part of the trail according to the Libre. At the end it went up a bit, but at the finish it was 6.0 mmol/l, still relatively low considering all the gels, nougat and powerbar droplets.

In the Netherlands

Could a festival like this also work in the Netherlands? That is a tricky question. Despite the fact that trails seem to be so popular in the UK, in reality there were maybe 200-300 runners present (less than at an average Dutch trail): the sport is less alive there, but the country is big enough for a magazine, it seems. I did find the yoga, clinics and stories very informative. Make it a half day and a race and it's a great concept.

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