It’s the day after I ran (mostly walked) through Hell. I’m alive and nothing’s broken! Huzzah!
I packed everything the night before and tried to get an early night after much scrummy bolognaise. Sadly my crazy brain kept me up and I only got 4 hours sleep! If anyone has any tips on how to switch off before a big race I’d be glad to hear them.
We drove a couple of hours down south all geared up and ready to go.
From L-R Owen, James, me, Jacob
We had a bit of a wait before we set off as we decided to all race together in the second wave. It was very brisk!!! But the sun was shining and it was a glorious day.
The race itself was unlike anything I had ever done before in terms of hills and was so much harder than I imagined it would be. It seemed no sooner had you slogged up one hill 30 seconds later there was a another and it became mildly disheartening. I thoroughly enjoyed the scenery and running through all the trees and the views were spectacular. I loved the climbing bits and running through the water and even the Bog of Doom was sadistic fun! I got out of the neck high water and still had gloves on, I’ve never had such cold hands and my brother Owen had to try and pull the gloves offs which seemed to have shrunk in the water. At times it felt like I had no feet it was so cold.
BUT
Nothing could compare to the last 400 metres, hearing the drummers at the end and crossing that line, I just couldn’t stop grinning and the hot chocolate at the end tasted better than Ambrosia.
So I’m definitely up for my next challenge, I’ve booked in for the Sandy 10 so I keep my running up and I’m looking for a lovely trail run in the near future.
Learnings…
- You can never over train for hills
- how ever hard you think it will be it will probably be harder
- get more than 4 hours sleep
- it’s always totally worth it.
“Tough times never last, Tough people do”
It’s all mine!
Mirthful Melancholy 