By Marsha and Michele.
What a fantastic event! Who would have thought running back and forth over the Humber Bridge for up to 6 hours could be so much fun? The HO HO HOTH is the last in a yearly series of of challenge events by HOTH run by a lovely chap named Karl Jackson. The rules of all the events are simple and don’t change: No 1 – NO EGOS, which is what makes the events so much fun. No 2 – the race director is always right, and if you don’t agree with his decisions you can appeal with forwarding £2500 to him and he will respond within 115 years!. No 3 – no littering, No 4 – no weeing unless in portaloos, No 5 – no earphones. You get the vibe! Our conditions were the most brutal I have ever run in and hell actually froze over with sub zero temps the entire time! The conditions only worsening throughout the event, and we spent more time ice skating trying not to fall over the bridge into the Humber estuary than running – but who cares, we were having a blast! Everyone comes in some kind of fancy dress and its actually billed as the most grueling and longest Santa run in the world – they were right! The only other rule is you have to complete one 4 mile loop of the bridge (it’s 2 miles each direction) every 3 hours to collect the world’s best technical tee and bling. So all I aimed for was doing 8 miles, which even I can walk in 6 hours. And that is another wonderful thing, there were people who just walked in their dry robes for 6 hours and not one step of running, and that doesn’t matter! Everyone is equal, every person for 6 hours said ‘well done’, even the oompa loompa who did an impressive 10 laps cheered everyone on! And that goes back to rule No 1 – no egos. We managed 4 laps and finished at 4pm as the weather conditions for driving home, meant we would have been stuck if we hadn’t left.
The next in the series is the Mad Hatter the end of March, followed by the Hell on the Humber in August and Helloween in October and HO HO in December. The timings range from 6 hours, 9 hours or 12 hours, depending on the event. You can even sign up for the Grand Slam and complete all 4 events (with a discounted entry) and receive even extra bling and kudos! But you better be quick as it is a small low key event and they only allow 100 or so entries! So, anyone else want to join me in March? https://www.hellonthehumber.com/