Spooky fun for tunnel runners
VAMPIRE VICARS, evil nurses and the clown from IT were among the 150 runners taking part in a special charity run at the German Underground Hospital this week.
The event was heavily oversubscribed, with lots of people keen to take on the challenge.
Runners were tasked with covering 10 laps of the hospital and ammunition store, which was built during the Occupation under the fields of St Andrew’s. That gave a total distance of 6.4km.
About 90 of the runners then chose to make the hallways even more spooky and do two laps in the dark, with just their head torches for light.
Keen runner Stuart Moseley organised the event.
‘One of my friends was talking about racing in the UK in tunnels,’ he said.
‘I thought, well, we have our tunnels here.’
He said he just thought it was a bonkers, good fun idea and soon found that lots of other people agreed with him. There were prizes for the best costumes, with many of the runners dressing up as Halloween characters.
Among them was Rachel Guilbert, who was dressed up as Ripley from the Alien franchise.
‘My friend put me up to this,’ she said.
‘I thought all of it sounded like fun, except the running. I only heard about it four weeks ago, so I’ve been trying to train twice a week. This is really out of my comfort zone, but it is not often you get the opportunity to do something this odd.’
Daz Carre was one of the first people across the line, completing the laps in just over 32 minutes. He has been involved with Festung Guernsey, which manages the tunnels, for years and is also a keen runner.
‘So what a great opportunity to combine the two things I love,’ he said.
‘It’s got a really lively atmosphere tonight.’
Many of the runners had come expecting cold conditions, but the underground location stays at a steady temperature and was warmer than outside, leaving many of the runners struggling in the heat.
It is estimated that the run raised more than £2,000 for the Dyslexia Day Centre.
