Lode Muddy Marvel 5.5m 20 Mar 2011 Andrew Mynott reports: The name of this race is the "Lode Muddy Marvel 5", which is not really a good description as it's 5.5 miles long, wasn't muddy and wasn't that marvellous. However, it was in Lode. It's quite a fun course - perfectly flat with a few obstacles, such as logs to hurdle, ditches to jump, banks to climb and so on. There were also horses to outrun and ramblers to avoid. I don't think the horses and the ramblers were planned, as the absence of many marshalls was the more likely cause for these extra obstacles. Luckily there was a lead bike for me to follow, otherwise I soon would have got lost. The start was pretty shambolic - no proper start line, and members of the crowd interspersed with the runners. On the good side, the cakes served after the race were nice and came in large slices. There were bottles of wines for the winners rather than trophies, which pleased my wife at least. All in all a fun run, rather than a serious race. Quite a pleasing time - a chap from Muddy Mucky Munkies gave me a run for my money in the middle section of the race, which pushed me on a bit.