On Saturday 23rd August, Matthew Atter was the sole GRC entrant at the Rumble in the Jumble V, held in the town of Penistone. Hosted by Circuit Running Events, the Rumble in the Jumble is a 6-hour event where competitors can run from 5k all the way up to ultra marathon distance within the allocated time limit.
This was the inaugural event at Penistone and consisted of an out and back lap covering 7km along the old railway line. Matthew entered as a last training event for Equinox24 in September where he is competing solo for 24 hours.
The race started in an unusual fashion when the race director let runners just go when they were ready (even before the scheduled start time of 8:30am). Matthew settled into the race at a slightly faster pace than he was aiming for but decided to just roll with it and see what happened.
At the end of every 7km lap it was time for a quick drink and refuel with plenty of sweets on offer.
Matthew reached the marathon distance after 4 hours and 20 minutes and achieved his fastest ever 50km an hour later.
With tiring legs, Matthew carried on through to the end, covering 35 miles in just over 6 hours. Due to the nature of the event, there was no way to know which position he finished in, so he was surprised and delighted to find out he had covered the biggest distance and come in first place overall.
All runners were rewarded with a medal from the lucky dip of previous event bling.