FRIDAY

The weekend started well with an advanced party of Jackie, Jane and Claire arriving at Sandringham on Friday afternoon to set up base camp. Obligatory carb loading was undertaken and Jane even managed a cheeky sauna! All was going swimmingly until the Norfolk wind blew in and promptly destroyed Ella’s tent! Despite the team’s best efforts, said tent could not be saved and an emergency trip to Tescos had to be made. 

Having picked up Ella, her shiny new tent, a flag, a trolley and many, many other items, we headed to join the rest of the Rascals for a pre-race parkrun. Because, apparently, running for 24 hours non-stop isn’t enough running! Luck was clearly not on Ella’s side, as a mile in, having tripped (quite stylishly, I might add) on a pesky root, Ella was down, dusty but importantly not out! Having apologised profusely to the buggy wielding man whose feet Ella had thrown herself at, we were able to complete parkrun without further incident. 

SATURDAY & SUNDAY

Whilst chowing down on some well earned breakfast, Jane, whiteboard in hand (which may or may not have been temporarily purloined from the NHS…) gathered and briefed the troops. Much to the horror of our camping neighbours – who definitely had whiteboard envy – running orders were picked, a wake-up system established and detailed instructions on the recording of time out and lap times were mapped. Like a well oiled machine, the Royston Rascals were ready to run! 

With Midday fast approaching, the team assembled to wave Jackie off the start line and we were underway! During daylight hours, a chap in a very dodgy wig at around the half way point serenaded you with Elvis songs and this soon became a highlight. Jane reckons she witnessed him mic-drop into a puddle whilst Ella reported him heckling her about ‘being lonesome tonight’, to which she replied, she had a brand new three man tent to herself if he fancied it! 

A rivalry with Team Prosecc-hoes, whose male counterparts, the Prosecc-bros were also running (no, I’m not making that up!) quickly formed and as night fell, the Royston Rascals found themselves in second place. It was around this time that we discovered I’d been rechristened as Helen Rhudes on the results list – how Rhude! 

It’s safe to say that running at night presents its own challenges and we all had our moments. Claire, having had an unfortunate incident with a cockchafer the night before, had significant concerns about whether a full blown ‘cockchafer to light/face’ incident might be about to ensue, whilst I seemingly lost the ability to recognise white rope and had to be untangled from the race cordon by fellow competitors. Jane, meanwhile, nearly came to blows with a tree whilst taking a corner, having been temporarily mesmerised by a team wearing, what can only be described as, luminous rainbow fairy outfits. And let us not forget the moment when, having realised I’d accidentally run off wearing my bobble hat, I attempted to throw it back to Jackie who I’d just taken over from, only to launch our team baton with it, which I then had to run back and unceremoniously retrieve. There was certainly never a dull lap!

It is also important to note that sleep deprivation did nothing to improve our mathematical skills. At one point, Claire, upon returning from a lap, diligently recorded on ‘the whiteboard of wonder’ that she’d run 5 miles in 15 minutes – cue much confusion and some ChatGPT maths support to resolve the issue!

Nighttime running safely navigated, we were onto the final daylight stretch and it was soon time to join with Claire as she entered the final straight of our last lap and celebrate the end of a fabulous, testing, chafe-inducing and, at times downright hilarious, 24 hours of running. Although we did manage to claw back a lap from the Prosecc-hoes, they proved just a bit too strong and second place out of 7 small female teams was destined to be ours. All that was left to do, having packed the van tetris-styley with 5 people and their worldly possessions, was to celebrate with an ice-cream (or 6), which Claire, in her post-run funk declared, was ‘the best ice-cream of her life’ before adding that she felt a bit drunk! It’s safe to say a top weekend was had by all and this is an event I would most definitely recommend!