It was the Dirt Half Marathon yesterday – the event I’ve been training for since returning from the Alps in August. I’d seen a running coach, trained hard, avoided illness and injury and arrived healthy and fit on the start line. What would the race hold for me? I had no idea how fast I was, how hard it was going to be on my body or what the course was really like. I woke up yesterday morning and thought ‘Yikes’!
Nervously awaiting the start.
We dragged ourselves out of bed at the ungodly hour of 8am – 8am on a Saturday just shouldn’t be allowed! My kit was ready, jelly beans packed, number pinned on and all I had to decide was whether to wear a cap, sunglasses or a buff. The cap won the battle as it was foggy but the sun had potential. I had a big bowl of home made muesli (recipe here) followed by a strong cup of coffee to get me buzzing. After the inevitable faffing we were off. The drive to Leighton Buzzard was short and there was no traffic so we arrived in plenty of time for the 10am start. Parking was a bit of a problem though and we ended up driving over some grass and parking in a school playground – no idea if we were supposed to park there but we just followed everyone else. There should really have been someone to help direct the parking as it was chaotic. I picked up my timing chip and sent text messages to my 2 twitter buddies I was due to meet up with.
. You can spends £100s on head torches but I only wanted a cheap one so I could see if I got on with running at night. It turned up in the tiniest box you ever saw last Tuesday morning. I popped the batteries and immediately blinded myself for about an hour! Please don’t switch on your brand new head torch whilst looking directly at it. I walked around the flat in it and found it to be really bright but how would it handle on the trails?
