In 2017, I ran a 100-kilometer (62.5-mile) run from London to Brighton to raise money for Youth Career Initiative, a charity placing young adults freed from sexual and human trafficking in hotel internships.
In 2019, I signed up for a spot in a 2020 event that took that a step farther: a 100-mile run.
But of course, COVID-19 stepped in the way, postpoining the South Downs Way 100 from the original date of June 2020 and for a second time in November 2020.
That second time was a gut-wrencher — the event’s 450 runners were just days away from starting — but all things considered a November run with 17 or so hours of darkness would have been a tough nut.
Last weekend, we lined up on the outskirts of Winchester, and again I was running for YCI, although now it has been renamed the Youth Employment Programme, part of the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance. It continues its sterling work.
I stayed the night before the run at the Holiday Inn Winchester, a modern, wonderful hotel on the edge of this former capital of England.
The hotel, like so many in the United Kingdom, reopened on May 17, and the staff were still getting up to speed, with dinner orders somehow being confused and perhaps a completely new crew, but it was very prepared for 100 or so 3 a.m. wake-up calls and requirements for breakfast.
At the other end of the course — a recognized national-park footpath with 12,700 feet of climb, a handful of agitated cows and numerous gates and stiles — the Burlington Hotel on the Eastbourne seafront was waiting for me.
It is actually not too far from Brighton and is a "Grand" hotel in the English seaside tradition.
I had booked two nights, telling the hoteliers there I would not physically be there on the Saturday night, and they duly checked me in for a no-show so that I could arrive very early in the morning on Sunday and go straight to a room.
The Burlington, part of Bespoke Hotels, caters mostly to groups, and it was busy.
The staff shone here, with one breakfast server calling someone a “poppet,” which in some situations perhaps might not be appropriate, but here was charming.
It is a hotel that gives you a key, which I almost forgot to return, and with rooms — I purposely booked a sea view so that I could spiritually replenish — that have sash windows, the sill of which was perfect for resting my legs at an angle on a cushion to help blood flow return to where it was needed.
One thought I had at around 78 miles in was that the organization and staff/volunteers of the run’s owner, Centurion Running, could give lessons to any business group, including hotel firms.
Perfect.
Honestly, perfect.
From a staggered start to satisfy COVID-19 regulations, an electronic tracker attached to one’s running vest to the aid-station layouts of separated tables, individual portions of food in tiny, plastic bags and volunteers who understand exactly what it is tired runners require.
The attention to detail was superb.
Even at the finish, there were two people handing out finisher T-shirts, one to judge what size you are—“small!”—the other to hand the T-shirt over. That saved seconds, possibly unnecessary when after hours and hours of running, runners arrived 10 or 15 minutes apart from one another, but it was indicative of the event.
At every aid station, there was one person whose role it was to simply point in the direction needed to leave and carry on.
The devil had been expunged fully from the details.
The overriding sense is that this was a run organized by runners for runners, and that of course is exactly what it is.
I encourage hoteliers to send their teams to watch the next Centurion Running event.
In between those two hotels for me and my running friend Gower Tan — who has been employed for many years at IHG Hotels & Resorts — were those 100 hilly miles, one fall (me), 11 miles of severe shin splints (me again), 40-plus miles of painful ankle swelling (Gower), two prepared drop bags for shirt and shoe changes (the second one, Housedean Farm at mile 76, resembled a war zone of damaged legs and one runner who was hallucinating but being admirably looked after) and a memorable, life-changing sense of camaraderie, friendship, shared suffering, huge goals and the satisfaction of completion following 24 months of training and reconnaissance runs in stages across 75% of the course.
Tan and I finished in 24 hours, 41 minutes, some five hours and 20 minutes into the 30-hour cut off, and with temperatures during the day being between 25ºC (77ºF) and 28ºC (82ºC) and a drop-out rate (either runners felt the need to stop or they did not meet the cut-off time at one of the aid stations) of 33%. We felt very satisfied as we finally got to sit on spaced-apart chairs and eat the most delicious hot dog with onions imaginable.
My sponsorship page remains open for two more weeks, if you would like to kindly help the great work of Youth Employment Programme.
I would like to thank all those kind people who have already done so. I will write to them individually.
Feel free to contact me anytime at tbaker@hotelnewsnow.com. Find me on Twitter at @terencebakerhnn and on LinkedIn.
The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Hotel News Now or CoStar Group and its affiliated companies. Bloggers published on this site are given the freedom to express views that may be controversial, but our goal is to provoke thought and constructive discussion within our reader community. Please feel free to contact an editor with any questions or concern.
The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Hotel News Now or CoStar Group and its affiliated companies. Bloggers published on this site are given the freedom to express views that may be controversial, but our goal is to provoke thought and constructive discussion within our reader community. Please feel free to contact an editor with any questions or concern.