Yesterday, the 3rd Stage in this years Saints & Smugglers 100 Mile Challenge, (The Boscastle Scramble) took place along the North Coast of Cornwall. Luckily for us it coincided with the annual Norse God of weather convention, (Sponsored by Ginsters) and this year the host city was Delabole.

All the big names were there, there were some inspirational talks throughout the week, notably SOL  (Goddess of Sun) on how best to immolate runners, NJORD (God of Wind) on how to quickly remove unwanted gazebos, FREYA (God of Rain) on the best methods of penetrating ‘waterproof’ clothing, SKADI (God of Winter / Snow) on the benefits of frostbite and of course THOR (God of Thunder) on key social media marketing strategies for small businesses. This all culminated in a rather messy team building day on Saturday which inevitably got out of hand, resulting in a meteorological pandoras box for race day.

Deity ego fuelled weather issues aside, the course itself was a 25.5 mile coastal from route from Rock across to Boscastle, with 3 checkpoints along the way. The route follows the South West Coast Path and passes through some stunning locations including Tintagel combined with hideously hilly terrain as the lucky participants soon found out. They had 9 hours to complete the task with a mandatory kit list to carry, last year we lost a few along the way, this year everyone made it across the finish line. They navigated the wildlife, the steps, they had mist, rain, sun, wind, more wind and an out of the blue weather warning to contend with towards the end of the day, but alas….no thundersnow…fingers crossed for next year..

They started on the Dinghy park at Rock at 7.30am with mist covering the estuary and hardly a breeze, by 4.30pm all had made it to The Wellington Hotel as the heavens opened and the thunder began to rumble. Although this is a stand alone event it is also Stage 3 of the 4 stage Saints & Smugglers 100 Mile Challenge so there were Championship series points up for grabs too!

Well done to everyone who took part yesterday, its by far one of the toughest routes we put on, special mentions for:

Boscastle Scramble Results

Johnny Hesnan - 1st Male, 1st Open Male in a time of 4hrs 25mins! Smashing his previous course record by 42 minutes!

Charlotte Johnson - 1st Female, 1st Open Female in a time of 5hrs 23mins, a new course record by 3 minutes!

Ed Howell-Jones - 2nd Male.

Wendy Houvenaghel - 2nd Female,1st vet40f.

James Mutton - 3rd Male, 1st vet40m.

Anna Gocher of Bovey Valley Runners - 3rd Female.

Pez Hargreaves - 1st vet50m.

Claire Todd of St.Austell Running Club - 1st vet50f.

Paul Grayston - 1st vet60m.

Championship Standings after Stage 3 (Runners who have completed all 3 stages so far):

Male

1st - Johnny Hesnan - 29 Points

2nd - John Hatchell - 23 Points

3rd - Mike Saywell of Okehampton RC - 12 Points

4th - Paul Grayston - 9 Points

Joint 5th - Al Hill - 8 Points

Joint 5th - Stuart Lovick - 8 Points

6th - Antony Boardman of Bodmin Road Runners - 2 Points

Female

1st - Anna Gocher of Bovey Valley Trail Runners - 22 Points

2nd - Georgina Young  - 13 Points

3rd - Sarah Cowburn - 9 Points

4th - Kim Watkins of Storm Plymouth - 2 Points

5th - Cheney Drew - 1 Points

Well done everyone!

We would like to thank Rock Marine, Camel Sailing School & Padstow Harbour Commissioners for the registration & start point, The Wellington Hotel in Boscastle for the marvellous finish point with pizza & beer!, Geotracks, Omega Medical, Blue Kite Creative, Polzeath, Port Isaac & Boscastle Parish Councils, Polzeath & Boscastle Coast Guard Teams, Cornwall Trophies, MY Motors, Cassie for timing, Chris for the finish, Andy & Dave for driving, Jon & Laura for CP1, Neil for CP2, Richard & Dani for CP3, Steve & Maurice for sweeping, Eirin & Keely for Marshalling at Boscastle, Cat for help at reg & the finish, and of course you, constant runner, for joining us on the North Coast of Cornwall on a confused day in June:)

Full results here: https://www.resultsbase.net/event/5839/results

Stage 4 is the Saints Way Challenge on the Sat 3rd September (28.5 Miles from Padstow to Fowey) https://www.resultsbase.net/event/5839

Our next event is the Haldon Forest 10 Miler next week on Sunday 26th June: https://www.resultsbase.net/event/6237