Fitstuff G3 - 28 February 2026
The G3 race series is an trio of races including 10 & 15 km options that take place in January and February each year. Great events put on by the local Fitstuff shop & clinic.
I dropped Paul a message from the car at 6:40am as I was leaving the house. The car read his reply a moment later;
“Grand - I am awake, reluctantly so...
Which immediately made me laugh. This whole thing was HIS IDEA after all.
I picked him up just before 7:10am at the spot he suggested, near his house but more en-route.
“MORNING SuuuUuNSHiIiiNE” I said, as he got in the car.
“It’s a bit bloody chirpy in here mate, radio on, you all lively. I need to wake up.”
We got to Newlands Corner, parked up and registered with plenty of time to spare.
As we stayed warm in the car others were warming up, running up and down the car park. I told Paul; we should do that too, he wasn’t keen.
We’d decided this event was going to be a “full beans smash” - we may or may not spend time on the course together depending how things work out. An exciting and also dreadful prospect, spending the best part of an hour at high heart rate just holding on.
We walked to the start with 10 minutes to go, we wanted to be near the front to avoid getting stuck behind others on single track before the race spreads out.
No encouragement could get a warm up from Paul as others continued to pace around us but I put in the occasional chirp in and bounced about a bit, both to warm myself up and wind him up. Playing my enthusiastic role vs his tired grumpy role; which was amusing us.
There was a fella in a “onesie: blue and pink leotard” in the crowd at the start. We quite manage to understand why before we were OFF.
It was a quick pace off the blocks, as mentioned; from cold, no warm up, my breathe immediately struggling. Paul was 10/20 meters ahead from a minutes in, I decided I’d find my rhythm rather than try and keep on his heels since I was already panting.
We were probably 3/4 of a mile in and I was feeling a bit more comfortable and curious of the pace, I checked my watch and it was 6:20min/mile. This was definitely enough for now.
The course took a left up the first climb, single track, steep and muddy. I hiked up hands on knees rather than run and kept pace with those running in front. Watch beeped; for the first mile, 7:02min/mile. Good! I had hoped my average pace at the end would start with a 7...
Paul was in and out of sight now depending on the course line of sight. At the top of the climb it got harder; flattening out but thick mud, waterlogged, thick mud, On an awkward single track, remnants of brambles on each side. If you tried to take a less muddy edge you’d get caught or just slip down into the middle. Energy zapping.
We popped out the woods to the grassy hill the course went right and down then a sharp vee of a left turn. I could see Paul and his group at the front tracking back as I approached the corner. A little further on they disappeared through the hedgerows - he was maintaining a rapid pace I wasn’t gonna be matching.
The course went down through fields than along the sandy track towards St Maratha’s, round the back and up another steep climb up to the back of the church. Again it was hands on knees pushing up for me, my lungs were already doing all they could today. I would completely blow up if I tried to run up.
Once up it was back down towards Halfpenny Lane where the course split, straight on for the 15k and left for the 10km. I was grateful to be turning left.
Back up to the Church and down again to the sandy track we’d ran a moment ago. Watch beeped; mile 4, 9:45min/mile, still good, there was a lot of climbing in that one and the previous two were just over and under 8min/mile.
There were plenty of runners coming towards me now and I realised I was doing better than I had in previous years as I don’t remember running back against so many runners on their way out.
I was keeping a good pace, it was mostly a decent or flat now with no significant ups until the last mile and the bumps there were I kept running well. Legs and lungs were both desperate for it to stop though.
I hadn’t seen Paul since just after the first mile, he must be doing really well.
I got to a road and started climbing up, a bit confused at where I was. Then the road turned to more mud and gravel eventually realising I was on the final climb. There was a guy who had been breathing down my neck for some time and he passed me as I turned to a hike rather than run.
The road turned a corner and I saw how much longer the hill still was! I decided I couldn’t hike that far, I needed to speed up, not give up! As I started running the guy in front turned left into a hedge. Oh, maybe it’s not so long. At least it’s not the course. I kept running we were back to the grass hill below Newlands corner car park. Watch beeped; 10:10 min/mile. I didn’t know what this meant for my average pace but also didn’t care I just wanted to get to the finish and recover.
It was just the off camber hill, which I hate running on, back a bit and then into the woods and up a gravel path that takes us to the start and finish line, left to go.
The guy in front, who’d just passed me on the hill, lost his footing and kinda ran into a hedge, as I passed I checked he was alright and he said something about wrong shoes. There were no right shoes today, I had my mutants on which are great for mud but even these couldn’t cope today, the tread was clogged up to flatten any grip.
Well, I was up a place up now, whatever that meant. I used passing him to keep some motivation to keep on and kept running on the off camber, grassy hill, “worst bit of ‘trail’ in the Surrey hills™” (at this point in the race I doubt many people would argue with that).
I turned into the woods I heard panting behind me so gave a little extra effort. On the gavel track he passed me, I kept pace then realised I didn’t have the energy to race and switch motivation from passing him to just getting to the finish and being done.
As I came to the finish line Paul was waiting at the side, I smiled and laughed and shouted “YOU BEAST, you ANIMAL” at him! He had played it off like he didn’t expect to do well, the whole week and especially this morning then went off like a rocket and kept it going all the way 👏
Mate; “no, no there’s some contention...” he started trying to explain before I’d even crossed the line.
I crossed the line and Paul explained. He’d been running with the guy in the leotard the whole way he said and they missed a turn! They came all the way up the gravel climb to the car park and back to the finish the wrong way. It must have been the same spot where I looked up the hill and started running again since it was so long but then saw a runner ahead take the left. I could easily have missed it if I didn’t see the runner and had my head down.
He said they’d have been 2nd and 3rd place! 😮 and to start with we thought they’d add some time to the result to compensate.
We checked the live results and he wasn’t listed, disqualified 😔 at the same time I realised I was placed 7th (should really have been 9th if their result counted). I had no idea I was placing high at all, since there were plenty of runners ahead but of course some would have been in the 15k so I had no idea I in the top 10.
I was gutted for Paul but also amazed at his performance and kept telling him so.
Despite obviously being dissapointed he took it well. He said he thought maybe he’d get top 10 today but never expected podium so I think despite not being ranked in the results realising he was up there was also a win. He’s keen to go back next year.
We finished up with a full English and debrief at a cafe in Guildford. Good times.
