Sunday 17 March 2013

Muddy Sock!

Oh, the horrors of a muddy sock!
The mud sucked my trainer off, and I planted my clean-socked foot down into the freezing squishy mud. The worst part was then putting my shoe back on, and the gritty, slidy feeling that followed.

But to go back to the beginning, it has been raining, sleeting and windy all day. I had a small angry donkey in my uterus kicking the sides with every step I took. He kept that up throughout the whole race.

Guinness boy picked me up at lunchtime, and we went down to the park to register, and much to my joy, it stopped raining for all of about 2 minutes. There was a white tent in the courtyard of the farming museum where they were taking money and forms, and also where the majority of runners were sheltering.



There were some kids 1k and 3k races first, which we didn't watch as we sat in the car as it was really pouring. Just before the start joined all the people and stood there for five minutes getting drenched.

Oh man, so much mud. A girl in front of me tried to go up a bank to clear a particularly deep looking puddle and lost her footing, sliding straight down the bank and head first into the evil puddle itself. We all slammed the brakes on, except some people trying to go around us, which didn't help her friends who were trying to help her up and onto the side.

It's 2 loops of a 5k, kind of in sections of woodland, arboretum and open park, and just like last year, the majority (even those who had signed up for the 10k) stopped at 5. It's hard going, especially the boggy bits that hide tree roots.
On my second loop I was flagging, my soggy sock was making me miserable, and then a marshall shouted to me that I was the fourth woman through on the 10k. Hurrah! That gave me the kick I needed to keep going. At one point where the course crosses itself I saw some 10k-ers behind me, they had a whole section of woodland to do and I was nearly at the end.

I knew I was over reaching hoping to break the hour, Guinness Boy has a 50 min 10k and he did it in 53 something.
Last year I was 1:08 something, it was a dryer course, and I was the last person in.
Today I was 1:03:48, and absolutely not last. Hurrah! Another medal on the board.

6 comments:

  1. Well done Lucy, you should post a picture of the medal when you get a chance :)

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    1. Thanks David! I'll photograph it next week when I have the HM one too, and a T-shirt, whoo! :)

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