The Forest Mile Challenge - Week 2

 Week 2 of the Forest Mile Challenge begins on Monday 22nd February and ends at 6pm on Sunday 28th February. 

The Challenge is based on actual routes and distances in the Forest of Dean.  Most of them start and finish at Mallards Pike Lake. This week the distance is 3.06km (1.9m) with 40m (130ft) of ascent, with no net overall descent.

You do not need to pre enter, just run and submit your time. Do not feel obligated to run every week of this five week challenge, dip in and out as your other commitments allow.

This is the Strava segment that this weeks challenge is based on.  The current record for this segment is an amazing 8 minutes 12 seconds, recorded by Ben Robinson.  I suspect he was attached to one of his very fast dogs!

Those lucky enough to live locally, should try to run the actual route.  The route starts just beyond Go Ape at Mallards Pike (FOD) where the sign showing all the running trails is. It heads out along the same route as the Mallards Pike parkrun and then at Spruce Ride it takes a short cut and rejoins the parkrun towards it's finish. The parking at Mallards Pike is metered, so I suggest parking at New Fancy or elsewhere and running in.  If you run the actual routes in the Forest and your Strava data does not match the segment data, no time or ascent penalties will be applied.

Those of you who are not local, need to choose your route in order to comply with the Covid restrictions applicable to where you live. Please see details of the Piercefield Park alternative route at the foot of this post. There is also another option at the new Greenway cycle path near the Dive Centre.

If you run your own route, time adjustments will be made to try and make your results comparable to those running the actual route at Mallards Pike.  

Only one result submission is allowed per person.

Road v fire trail

All of the Forest of Dean trail routes are on firm fire trails, if people choose to run on the road a 5% time penalty will be added.  The idea of this challenge is to encourage you to go off road.  If people run at the Industrial Estate this week, I reserve the right to introduce a very hefty time penalty from next week. 😈

Ascent

If your run has too much ascent, then you will get a time bonus of 1.74 seconds per 3.048m (10ft) extra.  The ascent bonus will be limited to 60m total ascent. If too little ascent there will be a time penalty of 1.74 seconds per 3.048m (10ft). These Forest trails are all loops, so the elevation for your run at start and finish should be equal (elevation at finish must not be lower than elevation at start by more than 5 metres). 

Distance

There will be a time penalty if you do not run sufficient distance. Strava adjustments will be ignored.

Time submissions

I have created a Google form in order that people can submit their times.  This works in exactly the same way as you have been doing it for the Gwent Leisure Centre League events.

Here is the link to the Google form -  Submission form. 

Once a few people have submitted their times, I will post a link to the results table.

I would also encourage you to post your time on the Facebook post in the same way you have done for previous Chepstow Harriers challenges.  This will therefore ensure that the social side of the challenges is maintained.

I hope you all enjoy this challenge and I look forward to seeing your results.

Piercefield Park alternative

Bill Savage has kindly set out a route in Piercefield Park.  It would be great if people local to this park use his route, as it will enable you to compare your times more directly with others who have run the same route.

Bill has said the following regarding his route

"I have positioned small 25mm x 25mm posts with Green tape to help with the distances All posts are on your LEFT as you run. You start just inside the entrance gate to the park there is a small bush about 5 mtrs on the left with the marker at the base.

You then run to the far end off the track there is a tree stump the marker is beside that then return to the start and back again to the tree stump then on the return about 100 mtrs on your left is the Finish marker for the 1.4 miles or 2.2 km.

The marker is on your left near the first bend on the track just before the grass track goes across your front towards the house.

The the Mallards Mallards route is just over 4 lengths of the track"