![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dankew.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/20261101_110113-1024x577.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe event is an approximately four mile trail race, with around 100 metres of elevation and a course that's well known for being a little tricky underfoot. Not quite the easy mileage I'd originally planned!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There were 312 runners representing clubs from across West Sussex<\/strong>, and with league points and positions up for grabs, the atmosphere felt a little more competitive than your typical race. Usually, I'm largely competing against myself, trying to hit a target time or simply seeing what I can achieve on the day. This time, there was an added incentive to finish as high up the field as possible and bring some valuable points back for the club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Straight from the start, we were into the steep opening hill. It was a tough way to get going, but manageable, and once that was out of the way it was a case of settling into the race and finding a rhythm. Or, more accurately, finding a rhythm while trying not to disappear down one of the many rabbit holes!<\/p>\n\n\n\n The second climb was shorter and sharper, but really just a warm-up for the longer, slower uphill drag through the wooded section. The terrain made it difficult to get into any sort of consistent rhythm, so it was a case of picking the best line, watching my footing and keeping things moving. There was a brief pause along the way to allow some horse riders to pass, before the final push towards the top and the welcome prospect of a downhill run back towards the finish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once over the final climb, it was time to make the most of the descent and give it one last push. I crossed the line in 39 minutes<\/strong>, comfortably inside my target of 42 minutes. I was really pleased with that, particularly given the nature of the course and the tricky conditions underfoot. Four valuable points earned for Worthing Striders, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I also suspect the hill training I put in ahead of Beachy Head Half Marathon helped enormously. All those hill reps and the work on Cissbury Ring seem to have been worthwhile. The climbs were certainly demanding, but I felt better equipped to tackle them than I might have done a few months ago. Horsham Joggers put on a great event, and I'd definitely be happy to take on the Gunpowder Trot again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The start of the new training block hasn't quite gone to plan. Last week's foot niggle meant changing a few sessions around, and the planned 19km long run was replaced by Sunday's race. Not necessarily a bad trade-off, but I do need to get back into a more consistent routine this week. In particular, I need to start building those longer, easy-paced runs back into the schedule rather than relying on shorter, harder efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For now, though, I'm happy with Sunday's result. A different sort of challenge, a good performance on a tricky course and, most importantly, a few more points on the board for the club.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" North Downs Ridge 50k Training Block - Week 1\/17 Sunday was supposed to be a 19km long run, following the Runna training plan. But sometimes club commitments take priority, and this weekend there was a bit of a call to arms from Worthing Striders. The final West Sussex Fun Run League (WSFRL) event of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9993,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","_lightning_design_setting":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1603,1604,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-running","category-journal","category-blog"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dankew.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dankew.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dankew.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dankew.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dankew.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9992"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dankew.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9995,"href":"https:\/\/dankew.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9992\/revisions\/9995"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dankew.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dankew.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dankew.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dankew.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dankew.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-11-01-at-14.28.39-1024x768.jpeg\")
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